Std Life "Group Discount"

artic99

Hi All,

I've recently started at a new company and in the Standard Life retirement plan document it mentions a "group discount" on active and passive managed funds, plus a small list of some others.

I can't really find much reference to this, what it applies to or if it is standard with group pensions or not. I have another Standard Life pension plan from a previous company but there's no mention of this its documentation .

Anyone able to give me some pointers on what this is and what it applies to?

Thanks,

A

JoeCrystal

Not entirely sure but it is possible that the new company agreed terms with Standard Life to give discount on funds' charges unlike the old company. I did some googling and there is a mention of it in a PDF (Link)

Group_Flexible_Retirement_PLan wrote:

5.31 If the insurer agrees special terms with yout adviser or special terms for your group (an 'adviser discount' or 'group discount'), the insurer may allocate extra units to the ones held for you in funds under the Standard Life Investment Policy. When we create an account and issue a confirmation to you, we will include details of the 'adviser discount' or 'group discount', if any, that applies to you"

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Joe

jamesd

It's common for Standard Life to agree some discount on the full fund charges with group pension plans. The amount will depend on the size of the group involved and other negotiations. In addition to the discount there may be an IFA commission charge.

For example, you might get a plan with 0.75% discount and 0.25% commission for a net reduction of 0.5% in the 1.5% fund administration charge that is common. Of that 1.5% normally 0.5% would be taken as commission by the selling IFA and another 0.25-0.3% by the platform provider, Standard Life in this case. The discounts here are those that a quite large company might get.

You may receive a PDF file called gpen4<something>.pdf that contains a list of funds with the discount, IFA commission and net charge.

A discount (rebate) will probably show up as extra units in funds showing up in your account each month as the rebate is applied and used to buy a few more units or parts of units.

Knowing where to have your pension money invested depends in part on the place that lets you invest with the lowest charges so you should investigate the charges for each SL plan and look to move your money to the one with the lowest charges.

It's also worth investigating whether you can get a better deal elsewhere for the same investments, or whatever investments you want to use.

dunstonh

Standard Life have default terms and then individual companies can negotiate terms which can see these reduced. I have seen anything from 0.3% to 1% (on internal funds).

You tend to find the big discounts are given by the companies that pay the adviser/administration firm directly for their services meaning the pension holder doesnt. Whereas the 1% charged versions see the company paying nothing towards the adviser/administration but the pension holders paying it.

artic99

Thanks for that, it is a .75% discount with a .25% charge, sounds like a decent extra benefit for the funds it applies to then.

In the document provided they list 10 SL Vanguard funds and then actively and passively managed with no fund codes. Wondering if it is only these 10 funds that have the discount or as suggested it applies to internally managed funds too but it doesn't state that clearly. Need to get in touch to get that list of funds then, have a surprising lack of documents compared to the previous pension.

The advisors for my company are keen to look at other pensions and advise whether it is worthwhile pulling them in or not.

Is it okay to deal with the company advisors or would I be better getting some overall advice from one myself? Just don't want to do anything daft.

Thanks!

artic99

Found the gpen document on the company pension information website, answers most of the what charges apply where questions, thanks!

jamesd

Now you can check the charges for the other SL pension with SL and see if those are higher or lower. Your new plan will probably accept transfers in and it's unlikely that the old one has lower charges.

artic99

jamesd wrote: »

Now you can check the charges for the other L pension with SL and see if those are higher or lower. Your new plan will probably accept transfers in and it's unlikely that the old one has lower charges.

Lower across the board and have been on the phone about a transfer in. Glad I picked up on it the document and asked the experts here, very happy :j

jamesd

Excellent! I like a happy middle and maybe ending.