Common questions

No. Many of the charges and other terms don't match the regulations for stakeholder pensions.

Yes. Our Flexible Pension Plan lets you access self-invested assets.

We deduct charges from your plan for managing and looking after your investments.

The charges you pay will depend on which Flexible Pension Plan option (Flexible Pensions Plan or Flexible Pension Plan Additional Annual Management Charge (AMC)) you choose and the funds you invest in.

Together with your financial adviser, you can choose the most appropriate way to pay for the financial advice you receive.

We may vary these charges at our discretion.

Yes, you can change the funds you’re invested in at any time. You can make up to 20 switches in a year free of charge. If you make more than 20 switches in a year, there may be additional costs. These costs will depend on the investments you choose and the size of investment.

The value of an investment and any income from it can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed.  You may get back less than the amount originally invested.

If you invest in one of our with-profits funds and then withdraw the money at any time we may have to reduce the value of your fund by what we call a ‘smoothing reduction’.

What you’ll get back at your chosen retirement age depends on how your investment grows, how it is taxed and the interest rate at that time.

Yes. You can transfer it to another registered pension scheme, either with AEGON or another company, at any time before you start taking a pension.

Please ensure you take professional financial advice before considering a transfer as there are additional risks with transferring.

This information is based on our understanding of current legislation, taxation law and practice, which may change. The value of tax relief depends on the individual circumstances of the investor.

Contributions within tax-relievable limits get income tax relief at the basic rate, even if you aren’t a taxpayer. Currently, this means that for every £100 invested into your fund, you only have to pay £80. The other £20 comes from the government.

If you die before you retire, we’ll pay the value of your fund as a cash lump sum. If you’ve arranged your plan under trust, we’ll pay the lump sum to the trustees. If you haven’t arranged it under trust, we’ll decide who to pay the lump sum to. We take into account your circumstances when you die and anyone you’ve previously stated you want the money to go to.

The lump sum death benefits will be tested against the lifetime allowance.  This is the limit that applies to the total value of pensions savings a person can have under all registered pension schemes that will benefit from tax relief. The current lifetime allowance limit is £1.5 million (although this may be more if you have an enhanced lifetime allowance). A tax charge of 55% will be payable on any amount above the lifetime allowance unless there was enhanced protection.

You can opt to have your death benefits paid as a pension to your husband, wife, civil partner or dependant(s). If paid as a pension, it wouldn’t be tested against the lifetime allowance and there wouldn’t be any tax charge (although the pension would be taxable as income under PAYE).

We’re one of the UK’s leading pension providers, and we’ve been helping people manage their finances since 1831. But don’t just take our word for it — we’re delighted with the recent awards we’ve won.