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Standard Life and Fidelity International have partnered to launch the Standard Life Smoothed Return Pension Fund (the "Fund") – a fund which has been developed to help address the ever-growing need for greater investment choice among those approaching or at retirement.
- The Fund will be available exclusively through the Fidelity Adviser Solutions platform.
- The “smoothing” process is designed to cushion short-term ups and downs of investment markets.
The Fund is being brought to market by Standard Life*, who will provide the fund structure, smoothing, valuation, and supporting capital, and will set and oversee the strategic asset allocation. The underlying assets will be managed by Fidelity’s asset management business and it will be available exclusively through their adviser platform. This will begin with a pilot to a select group of financial advisers from March 2024, ahead of a full market launch later this year.
The Fund is aimed at advised investors who are approaching or already in retirement and want to invest for growth in a way that smooths the volatility of returns. The “smoothing” process is designed to cushion short-term ups and downs of investment markets. The Fund is priced using a mechanism that smooths its underlying returns and this smoothing mechanism helps reduce daily volatility.
The launch of this Fund forms the first part of a wider strategic partnership between Standard Life and Fidelity International that will help financial advisers and planners achieve the best retirement outcomes for their clients.
*Phoenix Life Limited, trading as Standard Life.
Claire Altman, Managing Director for Individual Retirement at Standard Life:
The retirement market is crying out for innovation and there is a huge opportunity for providers to develop products that help people manage their pension savings and use their retirement income in the best way. The Standard Life Smoothed Return Pension Fund has been born out of this need - providing greater choice with a flexible retirement planning option available on platform that delivers a little more certainty on peoples' journey to and through retirement.
One of the biggest issues we currently face as an industry is ensuring good outcomes for people at retirement, which is at the very heart of the need for innovation. There is a lack of choice, especially for people looking for solutions to help manage daily stock market volatility when it comes to their retirement savings – a risk many planning for or already in retirement may feel unable to take.
We are excited to be partnering with Fidelity International. By combining the pensions and long-term savings expertise of Standard Life, with the asset management, distribution and platform expertise of Fidelity, we hope to play a significant role in overcoming the challenges that currently exist within the retirement income space, by broadening access to these types of solutions, in a way that supports advisers’ processes and ways of working.
"Interested to learn more about smoothing?
If you would like to learn more about our Smoothed Return Pension Fund or the concept of smoothing as we get closer to our full market launch, please complete the form in the link below to register your contact details.
Request form on the Standard Life Smoothed Return Pension Fund