Fund information

Investment choice

Once you decide to use the self-invested element, there’s a whole range of investments available.

Our Fund Supermarket — outstanding choice at a competitive price

We offer a wide choice of collective investments (a way of investing money with other people) from market-leading fund managers at specially negotiated prices through our Fund Supermarket. As a large, established company, we’ve used our buying power to secure some of the best rates in the marketplace.

Right now we have over 1,200 funds from over 50 fund managers available on our Fund Supermarket. But it doesn’t stop there — we have a dedicated team negotiating with fund managers to continually refresh and expand the choices available.

Discretionary fund managers — creating tailored investment solutions

Choosing the right investments and managing them is of vital importance but it can be time consuming – which is where our discretionary fund manager (DFM) service comes in. You can appoint a DFM to work with you and your financial adviser — they can help run your SIPP portfolio with the investment expertise you need, with minimal hassle for you.

There’s a charge for appointing a DFM, which your financial adviser can tell you more about. Once you decide to appoint a DFM, they’ll:

• work with you to understand your circumstances and investment needs
• make investment decisions on your behalf, taking into account changes in your lifestyle and financial requirements
• look after your self-invested portfolio

Property solutions

We offer a wide range of property investment options, giving you the flexibility to invest in property both here and abroad.

Investing in property, along with other asset classes, can help you build a balanced portfolio. As an asset class, property can:

• help lower the overall risk profile of your portfolio
• produce higher yields than both gilts and shares (equities)
• protect against equity market slumps
• provide a lower risk alternative to equities

Property funds

We offer a wide range of pooled property funds that give you the opportunity to invest both directly and indirectly in property.

Investing in property funds can give you diversity in your portfolio and allow you to invest in assets that could otherwise be financially out of reach. We also offer a comprehensive range of property funds through our Fund Supermarket. Investing in property, along with other asset classes, can help you build a balanced portfolio. However, property investments, like any other asset class, can go down in value as well as up.

Buying a commercial property

If you’re self-employed or a small business owner, buying a commercial property through your pension can be the most tax-efficient way of making the purchase. It offers many attractive advantages:

• Contributions attract tax relief.
• Your pension fund can be used to help fund the purchase.
• The property can be rented back to the business for a commercial rate.
• The rent is paid back into the pension fund tax-free.
• Rent is classed as a tax-deductible business expense for tax purposes.
• There’s no capital gains tax due if you sell the property.

Commercial property investment can be complicated so it's vital the process is handled with expertise and understanding. If you have any questions about buying a commercial property you should speak to your financial adviser.

Other allowable investments — offering an even wider investment choice

As well as the investment options available through our Fund Supermarket, DFMs and property solutions, we offer a huge selection of other allowable investments. This gives you the flexibility to invest where you want to.

Every investment carries its own level of risk. Depending on your attitude to risk and your investment objectives, some types of investments may not be right for you. You should speak to your financial adviser about this.  Please remember that we don't guarantee benefits and the value of investments may go down as well as up.

Protected rights

Since 1 October 2008, changing pension legislation means individuals can self-invest their protected rights pension funds. We’ve embraced this change and, in line with legislation, will allow existing protected rights funds to be self-invested through our Flexible Pension Plan (FPP). So if you have protected rights money invested with us or another provider, you can now choose to self-invest that money through your FPP, and our Retirement Control (RC) plan.

How to apply

Find out how to apply for our products and where you can find out more about the choices available to you.

How to apply

Plan today, enjoy tomorrow

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