Standard Life cuts pension charges to appeal to advisers
Standard Life has reduced its personal pension charges for its AMPP and SIPP products to boost their appeal to financial advisers' clients.
Most AMPP and SIPP personal pension clients are expected to see a 0.5% reduction in charges.
The discounts apply immediately for both new and existing customers holding insured funds in AMPP and SIPP plans, and with pots of between £25,000 and £500,000.
Clients with pots between £25,000 and £500,000 will see the effective charge reduce to 0.49% from the current 0.69%.
The percentage charge for clients with pots of under £25,000 will remain at 0.69%.
A typical SIPP client invested in the Standard Life Sustainable Focus 3 pension fund, with a plan value of £100,000 will see their effective charge reduce by £200 per annum.
Value Tier |
Current Effective Charge % |
New Effective Charge % |
£0 to £25k |
0.69% |
0.69% |
£25k to £250k |
0.69% |
0.49% |
£250k to £500k |
0.59% |
0.49% |
£500k + |
0.49% |
0.49% |
The pension and investments provider is also in the process of updating its digital portal, to improve user experience for financial advisers. The updated portal will launch this summer.
The updated portal will gradually switch away from current portal Adviserzone which will be discontinued by early next year.
The new adviser portal standardlife.co.uk/adviser will be supported by a new technology platform which will allow the provider to make upgrades and enhancements more easily in the future.
It will include a filtering system for literature, a new fund filter design, and improved user journeys into key online services.
Chris Hudson, managing director of retail intermediary at Standard Life, said the pricing changes and new portal are the start of a process to demonstrate the provider’s commitment to the adviser channel.
He said: “Improving our pension pricing and modernising our online presence is part of our renewed commitment to the adviser marketplace. We are looking to make improvements in all aspects of our offering and show our long-term commitment to advisers by improving their ability to do business with us. This is the start of that process and part of our strategy to invest in the support we provide to advisers to meet the needs of their clients.”
Mr Hudson joined the provider from LV=, where he was the adviser head, last month.
Standard Life is part of savings and retirement provider Phoenix Group. The brand was sold to the provider by Standard Life Aberdeen in February 2021 as part of a branding review of all of its businesses.
Phoenix claims to be the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, with £300bn of assets under administration and around 13m customers.