Breadcrumb:

What is it?

Choice. Flexibility. Control.
The benefits of our Flexible Pension Plan (FPP) are clear.

Designed for the more sophisticated investor, our FPP has all the benefits of a conventional pension plan, with the added flexibility of a self-invested option. So your clients can adapt their investments whenever they like.

Investment choice

  • Insured
    More than 130 funds to choose from, with a variety of risk profiles.
    Read more
  • Self Invested
    Give your clients greater control over their investments.
    Read more

Product summary

A handy guide to all the details you'll ever need.

Flexible Pension Plan

Type Personal pension plan
Description A personal pension combining the traditional insured elements of a personal pension with a self-invested option.
Eligibility Minimum age 18
Maximum age 74

Back to top

Contributions

  Insured funds Self-invested
Minimum contributions    
Monthly £100 No regular contributions can be made to this part.
Yearly £1,200
Initial single £2,500 £2,500
Initial transfer £2,500 £2,500
Additional single/transfer £499 £499
Automatic escalation? Yes. Either by a fixed rate between 1% and 15% or in line with National Average Earnings, subject to a minimum of 5% and a maximum of 15% a year. No
Contracting out of the State Second Pension? Yes No
Waiver of contribution? Yes. Up to a maximum of £80,000 No
Payment method Direct Debit
  • monthly/yearly
Cheque
  • yearly
  • single/transfer
 The planholder will
instruct us about the levels to be paid to the insured funds and to the self-invested part
of the plan.

Back to top

Investment choice

Insured funds Over 130 risk rated funds* from 19 investment partners
Self-invested
  • Fund Supermarket — 1,400 funds from more than 65 fund managers
  • Discretionary fund managers
  • Direct equities
  • Property
  • Other 'alternative' investments
Maximum number of funds 20
Switching 20 switches free of charge each plan year
Transferring between insured funds and the self-invested part of the plan? Yes, but where the transfer is from the insured part into the self-invested part, we'll treat it as an early transfer and it may be subject to charges, depending on the charging structure chosen. A minimum value of £1,000 must stay under the insured part.
* The risk ratings for each of our funds is based on its risk relative to other funds in our full fund range. It's not its risk compared against industry benchmarks.

Back to top

Charges

  EC Financial
adviser
charge (FAC)		 Additional AMC
Allocation rate 100%
Annual management charge (AMC) 1%
Yearly charge for contracting out of S2P 1%
Commission charges
Regular contributions Up to 0.55% of fund each month for five years (or until normal retirement date (NRD)) Up to 50% Up to 0.5%
Single contributions Up to 0.12% of fund each month for five years (or until NRD) Up to 8.5% Up to 0.5%
Cash-in charges Outstanding establishment charge Only applies to single contributions and if commission is funded via a combination of FAC and additional AMC or additional AMC only. Formula: (IC – FAC) reducing by 0.5% each year for five years.
Fund bonus 4% at year 10, 0.5% year 11 onwards n/a n/a
Fund value rebate (FVR) n/a
Fund value FVR
<£20,000 0.00%
£20,000-£249,999 0.50%
£250,000+ 0.60%
Self-invested charges For details of the self-invested charging structure, please see the SIPP option charges sheet.
We may vary these charges at our discretion.

Back to top

Commission rates

  EC FAC Additional AMC
Initial-only 75% Lautro mid-point, up to 115% Lautro Up to 50% of yearly contributions Up to 10% of yearly contributions
Initial and renewal 60% Lautro plus 2.5% renewal mid-point, up to 100% Lautro plus 2.5% renewal Up to 45% of yearly contributions plus 2.5% renewal Up to 5% of yearly contributions plus 2.5% renewal
Level commission 6% mid-point, up to 9% n/a n/a
IFRC Up to 0.6% a year Up to 0.5% a year Up to 0.5% a year
EFRC Up to 0.5% a year Up to 0.5% a year Up to 0.5% a year
Single commission for contracting out of S2P 4% n/a 4% (1% AMC)
Single commission for
single contributions
(SCs)/transfer values
(TVs)		 6% mid-point, up to 8% (or 8.5% if SC/TV is £50,000 or
more)		 Up to 8.5% Up to 7%
Maximum commission £30,000 £30,000 £10,000
Commission clawback
Regular contributions Standard Lautro terms Commission paid minus amount collected by FAC 100% in first 13 months
Single contributions See cash-in charges n/a See cash-in charges

Back to top

Receiving benefits

Selected retirement age At any time between the ages of 50 and 75 (rising to age 55, from 6 April 2010).
Retirement benefits The planholder can either:
  • buy a pension from a pension company, or
  • transfer their fund to a more flexible retirement plan and take income withdrawals, within limits set down by the Government, from their fund

Before 75, they can also normally take tax-free cash. At 75, they wouldn't be able to take any of their fund as tax-free cash.
Death benefits

If the planholder dies before taking benefits, we'll pay the value of the fund as a cash lump sum. If the plan is arranged under trust, we'll pay the lump sum to the trustees. If it isn't arranged under trust, we'll decide who to pay the lump sum to.

The lump sum death benefits will be tested against the planholder's available lifetime allowance, and a tax charge of 55% will be payable on any excess. The death benefits can be paid as a pension to the planholder's husband, wife, civil partner or dependants. If paid as a pension, it wouldn't be tested against the lifetime allowance and there wouldn't be any tax charge (although the income would be taxable as income under PAYE).

If the planholder dies before taking their contracted-out benefits, the fund built up from contracted-out contributions must normally be used to provide a pension for their husband, wife or civil partner. If they're not married and don't have a civil partner, it can be paid as a lump sum to their dependants.

Back to top