Charges made clear
We've designed the Aegon Retirement Choices (ARC) charging structure so it's clear – your clients can see exactly what they're paying for.
Our tiered and capped platform administration charge encourages consolidation and rewards those with more savings.
There are three main types of charges:
- ARC charges
- Investment charges
- Adviser charges
ARC charges
These are the administration charges taken to cover the cost of investing through ARC.
We take an annual charge monthly from your clients’ account. As you can see from the table below, the percentage charge for each band reduces as your clients’ ARC account value grows. So, the higher the value of assets they have on ARC, the lower their rate of annual charge could be.
We might vary these charges at our discretion.
Your clients should be comfortable with the investment choices they make as they may lose features, protections, guarantees or other benefits when they transfer.
| Total holdings on ARC | Annual charge percentage |
|---|---|
| First £29,999.99 | 0.60% |
| Next £20,000 (£30,000 to £49,999.99) | 0.55% |
| Next £50,000 (£50,000 to £99,999.99) | 0.50% |
| Next £150,000 (£100,000 to £249,999.99) | 0.45% |
| £250,000 and over | 0.00% |
We won't apply the annual charge on cash held in a product's cash facility.
We'll charge £75 a year if your client takes income from the drawdown part of their self-invested personal pension (SIPP). We'll set up this charge when their first drawdown pension payment is made, and will apply each year after that to cover ongoing administration.
While investing through the gross general investment account (GIA) means no tax is deducted from your client's fund, some external product providers will apply a charge for investing in their product wrappers.
Investment charges
These charges cover the cost of managing investments and checking they’re performing as expected. They’ll vary depending on the assets chosen. The fund charge is sometimes called the ongoing charges figure (OCF) or total expense ratio (TER). This charge applies to the following:
- Insured funds
- Collectives
- Investment trusts
- Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
The charge will vary depending on which asset your client chooses to invest in. You can find out which funds are available, and their associated charges from our Research Centre.
A £15 fee will apply to any sale or purchase of equities and investment trusts. We'll take it from the cash facility.
Adviser charges
These are the charges for the advice you give and are agreed between you and your client. These charges can be:
- Initial
- Ongoing
- Ad hoc
You can take these charges either as a percentage or monetary amount using a client’s product cash facility. We’ll show any charges agreed between you and your client on their personal illustration.
You can find out more in our Charges guide.
Other dealing related charges
Stamp duty is payable on any purchase of investment trusts and equities made through our stockbroker service Winterflood.
The amount of stamp duty your client will pay is worked out at a flat rate of 0.5% (rounded up or down to the nearest penny) based on the purchase amount.
For example if shares are bought for £1,000 your client will pay £5 stamp duty.
This is a charge automatically imposed on investors, and is collected by our stockbroker Winterflood, when equities or investment trusts are bought or sold with an aggregate value of more than £10,000. The charge is £1.50, and the money raised goes to the PTM.
Investment entry and exit charges may also apply. Please refer to either your Key Information Document, Key Investor Information Document or fund factsheet for details.
If you and your client decide to use a discretionary fund manager (DFM) to help manage your clients’ investments, we’ll pay the agreed level of charge to this manager on your client’s behalf. The fees charged by DFMs vary. We’ll take the charge from the cash facility.