Investment Pathways
Maggie Craig - Independent Member
Standard Life’s Investment Pathway proposition continues to offer good value for customers. There will be a focus in the coming year on identifying whether there could be further improvements to communications.
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Value for money indicator
Why we gave this score
Overall, Standard Life’s Investment pathways proposition offers you value for money.
When assessing value for money we look at Customer service, Investment performance, Communication and engagement and Environmental, social and governance (ESG). All four areas scored ‘Green’.
We also look at costs and charges which provide good value for money (rated Green) for most of you, but could be improved for some customers.
- Standard Life offers you a comprehensive digital, App and telephone service
- Feedback shows customers continue to be very satisfied with the service and find it easy to do what they want to do
- Standard Life showed commitment to producing high quality communications in 2024
- They use customer testing to ensure they are speaking in a way customers understand
- Communications are clear, personalised and well presented, with good use of imagery and graphics
- The firm has started a new project to better understand Investment Pathways customer behaviour and improve customer communications
- Funds in Pathway Options 1, 3 and 4 all delivered good, positive performance for customers during 2024
- Pathway Option 2 is designed to track the price of buying an annuity and, broadly speaking achieved that objective
- The Pathway proposition is within the FCA pricing threshold of 0.75%, with the actual charge you pay based on your fund size
- For larger fund sizes (i.e. over £25k), Standard Life’s charges compare well in the market, and you will be receiving good value for money
- For smaller pot sizes, there may be lower charging alternatives available in the market
*Please note this applies to those who are in an Active Money Personal Pension
Some additional information
Challenges
In order to improve the value for money that customers receive, we set specific challenges to address areas that could be improved. Below is an update on the challenges we set Standard Life for 2024:
- Fully met: Consistent support provided for Investment Pathway customers to ensure they continue to make the right decision as they approach their five year anniversary.
- Fully met: Undertook analysis on the asset allocation that underpins Pathway 2, “I plan to use my money to set up an annuity within the next five years.”