Is our Stakeholder Pension right for you?
Stakeholder pensions were introduced in 2001 to encourage more people to save for retirement.
We now offer two easy-to-use personal pensions - our Stakeholder Pension and our Active Money Personal Pension (AMPP).
The AMPP may offer better value for money depending on the investments you choose, so it's worth considering both.
Compare our pensions
| Stakeholder | AMPP Pension | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual charge* | 0.75 - 1.00% | 0.50 - 0.70% |
| No. of investment options | 50+ Fund guide |
300+ Fund guide |
| Start, stop and change payments |
||
| Tax relief | ||
| Flexible withdrawals** | ||
| Apply online | ||
*This is the Total Annual Fund Charge for the default investment option, minus discounts. Charges can change and will vary depending on how you invest. Charges for our stakeholder pension are capped at 1.0%. Figures correct as at 14 August 2023.
**You can normally access the money in your pension when you're 55 (or 57 from 6 April 2028).
How our Standard Life Stakeholder Pension works
This type of pension plan could be right for you if you’re looking for a straightforward pension with low minimum payments and low charges.
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Paying into your Stakeholder Pension
You can start a Stakeholder Pension Plan with us from just £16. You can start, stop or change payments to your pension plan online at any time. This gives you the freedom to pay as much as you want when you want.
Money saved into your pension plan will also be topped up by HMRC thanks to tax relief. So if you pay £16, HMRC will top this up to £20. If you’re a higher or additional rate taxpayer, you can contact HMRC for the extra tax relief.
Investment options
With our Stakeholder Pension Plan you can pick from a carefully selected range of investment options.
- Option 1: you can choose from three strategic lifestyle profiles, which are investment options specifically designed to make it easy for you to save for retirement. Once you’re in a lifestyle profile, you don’t need to do anything, although we do recommend that you regularly review your investments to make sure they’re on track to meet your goals.
- Option 2: you can choose from over 50 funds to invest in. You can invest in up to 12 funds at any one time, but if you decide to pick a lifestyle profile, you can only combine this with a with-profits fund.
If you don’t want to choose a fund, that’s fine too. We will automatically invest your money into a lifestyle profile.
For more information on Stakeholder Strategic Lifestyle Profiles, please read our helpful guide (111KB).
You can learn more about the different funds, their cost and performance, and take a look at their factsheets by using our fund checker.
Charges
The amount you pay for your Stakeholder Pension Plan is based on the investments you choose. Each fund has an annual management charge (AMC) which covers the cost of running the fund.
With a Stakeholder Pension Plan, charges are low and you only need to pay a maximum charge of 1% of the value of the funds you’re invested in each year. This means it could cost you less than you might think to save for the future.
If the amount of money in your pension plan is over £25,000, you will receive a discount to the fund charges. This is done by adding extra units to your fund(s) each month.
Here’s the discount you could get:
| How much you have in your pension | Yearly discount rate |
|---|---|
| Under £25,000 | None |
| £25,000 - £49,999 | 0.1% |
| £50,000 + |
0.2% |
Manage your Stakeholder Pension online
With the online dashboard and mobile app, you can manage your pension plan anytime, anywhere. This means you can manage your payments and more whenever you like.
Important information
You can find out more information on the Stakeholder Pension Plan by reading the documents below. They can also help you understand your investment options.
Stakeholder Pension Plan key features (205KB)
How to choose the right investment options for your pension plan (2.5MB)