Stakeholder Pension

A Stakeholder Pension is a simple way to invest for the future:

• It’s a tax-efficient way for your client to save for retirement
• Payments can be as little as £20, paid at any time. Clients can stop, start or change their payments as often as they like
• Charges from 0.55% per year which reduce if the fund value reaches £50,000 or greater. Some funds will have additional charges - visit our Investment Centre for details - but the total charge can never be more than 1% per year
• Choice of funds you can match to your client’s attitude to risk, including money market, bonds, shares and property. And clients can switch funds at any time
• Suits people who are employed, self-employed or unemployed. And clients can pay into a plan on behalf of their children or grandchildren
• Offers access to flexi-access drawdown and other pension freedoms

The value of a Stakeholder Pension can go down as well as up and could be lower than has been invested.

Please note tax rules may change in the future and the value of tax relief depends on individual circumstances.

Age limits

No minimum age, maximum age 74. Parents can set up a Stakeholder for children under 18 and either the parent or a third party such as a grandparent can pay into it. Benefits must start to be taken before age 75.

Term

Minimum term – 1 month.

Payments

• Minimum payment £20 at any time
• Automatic increases in regular payments - at the rate of the Average Earnings Index, with a minimum of 3% per year and a maximum of 15%
  

Charges

• Annual fund charge - 0.55% per year, taken monthly by cancellation of units from the plan
• Large fund discount - up to 0.1%. This reduces the annual fund charge as shown in the Charging Structure table
• Additional yearly charge - may apply to certain funds and the amount will vary by fund, but the overall total yearly charge cannot exceed 1%

The Stakeholder Pension could suit a range of clients. For example:

• Clients who want to start a pension plan with small payments
• Clients who want to pay an annual fund charge of 0.55% or less of their fund's value each year, and don't want the overall stakeholder maximum product charge to exceed 1%
• Clients who want the flexibility to stop, start or change their payments as often as they like with no penalties
• Clients who qualify for tax relief on their pension payments 
• Clients under 75 who are permanent UK residents
• Clients looking for access to pension freedoms

Other considerations

You may also want to take these points into consideration:

• Existing pension scheme arrangements
• Required range of fund choices
• State benefits
• Attitude to risk

Helping you carry out your daily business

We’ve got plenty of online support for you as you run your day-to-day business.

You can perform key tasks online including:

• Getting policy and valuation information
• Viewing client documents
• Creating a client report
• Running a portfolio analysis
• Researching available funds
• Carrying out a fund switch

Log in to use these services

We also offer a range of additional support material and tools including:

• Fund centre performance tool
• Document library for all our product literature