Clerical Medical s Individual Stakeholder Plan is a personal pension a tax-efficient investment designed to help you save for your retirement.

Transcription

1 1of6 FutureProof INDIVIDUAL STAKEHOLDER PLAN Product information Clerical Medical s Individual Stakeholder Plan is a personal pension a tax-efficient investment designed to help you save for your retirement. Clerical Medical s Individual Stakeholder Plan aims to give you consistently good long-term returns and personal control over your pension benefits. It could ultimately help you realise the retirement lifestyle you want. Clerical Medical strongly recommends you seek professional advice from a financial adviser before you make any decisions about your pension. The value of investments can go down as well as up and is not guaranteed. Product features Benefits for you A range of investment funds to choose Gives you the opportunity to create a fund from. portfolio that suits your individual circumstances and attitude to risk. Competitive charges which comply with Low costs which provide value for money. the Stakeholder Pension regulations: Annual management charge only. No difference between the buying and selling price of units. No plan fees or set-up charges. Currently no charge for switching between investment funds. You can pay contributions regularly and/or You can change the plan to suit you, as make one-off contributions or transfer your circumstances change. The plan payments from previous pension schemes offers real control over the amount you you may have belonged to at any time. want to pay. You can increase, decrease, miss or stop regular contributions at any time without charge. Contributions will need to be maintained in order to help meet the required fund for the income you want in retirement.

2 2of6 Product features Benefits for you No charges for taking early retirement or You can retire earlier than you originally transferring to another provider. planned or transfer your fund to another Please remember that if you retire early provider without a charge being applied. your income in retirement will be lower than planned. Return of fund on death. If you should die before you take your benefits, your beneficiaries will receive the full value of your fund. Choice of benefits. Subject to Inland Revenue requirements, you can take your benefits when and in the format most suited to your circumstances at that time in most cases you will be able to take part of your fund as a tax-free cash lump sum. The remainder will need to be used to buy a pension at that time. Options Benefits for you Automatic increase option available for You protect your contributions against regular contributions. Contributions can inflation by arranging for them to increase be set to increase each year by a fixed by a set rate each year. percentage or in line with the National Average Earnings Index or Retail Prices Index. Contracting-out facility. You can use your plan to contract-out of the State Second Pension. You will need to investigate if this is the best option for you. Should you become ineligible to pay into You have peace of mind knowing that you the Individual Stakeholder Plan you can are able to continue providing for your transfer to any other type of approved retirement whatever your circumstances. pension arrangement without charge.

3 3of6 Technical details and charges The following charges comply with the Government s Stakeholder Pension legislation. Clerical Medical s Individual Stakeholder Plan is approved by the Inland Revenue and registered by the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority. Minimum initial contribution amounts (net of tax) Monthly/Annual/Single/Transfer: 20 Additional contribution amounts The minimum additional contribution if you want to increase your regular contribution is 1. The minimum additional contribution if you want to pay an additional single contribution or transfer is 20. Minimum term There is no minimum term. Allocation rates 100% of your contributions will be invested in your plan. Annual management charge We take a daily charge equivalent to 1% of the value of the fund each year for managing your investment. It is reflected in the unit prices of our unit-linked funds. Large fund bonus At the end of each plan month your plan will be valued. When the value exceeds the levels shown in the table below, additional units will be added to your plan. The amount of additional units is calculated as one twelfth of the annual calculation rates shown below times the total value of your plan. Total fund value Annual calculation rate Less than 10, % 10,000 19, % 20,000 49, % 50, % The amount of additional units added may vary each month depending on the size of your fund at the time. If, during the plan month, the total value of your plan decreases due to market conditions, the rate of large fund bonus is guaranteed not to be less than that applied the previous month. If the fund value decreases because some funds were transferred out to another pension plan or were used to buy a pension or benefits, the annual calculation rate used will be based on the fund value at the end of the plan month and may reduce. Other charges If your circumstances change, your regular contributions can be reduced, missed or stopped without charge. You can also take your benefits earlier than you originally planned or transfer your fund to another provider without charge.

4 4of6 Eligibility Many people are able to pay at least 3,600 (gross) per year into a stakeholder pension scheme without any reference to earnings. You are eligible to pay this amount into a stakeholder pension if: you are under the age of 75 you are a UK resident, a crown servant or the spouse of a crown servant and any of the following apply to you: you are an employee (who works either full-time, part-time or on a casual basis) without access to a company pension scheme you are an employee (who works either full-time, part-time or on a casual basis) who is a member of your company pension scheme, and you are not, and have not been, a controlling director of any company at any time in the current tax year or in any of the five tax years preceding it (excluding tax years prior to ). On 5 April of any one of the five tax years preceding the current tax year (excluding tax years prior to ) you held an office or employment (self-employment does not count for this purpose) and in that tax year the annual equivalent of your P60 earnings did not exceed 30,000 you are a controlling director and not a member of that company s pension scheme you are self-employed you are retired you are not working. If you want to pay more than 3,600 (gross) per year into your Individual Stakeholder Plan, you are able to do so as long as: we have evidence of your earnings at some point within the last five years and that evidence supports your proposed contribution level you are not a member of a company scheme. Investment funds A range of unit-linked funds is available for you to invest in. When you are considering making an investment it is important to note that, as well as the prospect of making a gain, all forms of investment involve a degree of risk, some more than others. Clerical Medical s funds each have a different degree of risk and potential for gain. As a general rule, lower risk can mean potentially lower gains with potentially lower losses and higher risk can mean potentially larger gains with potentially larger losses: Possible gain Low risk Possible loss High risk Your contributions can be invested in different assets in differing proportions. Each particular fund could invest in one or more of the following: UK Shares Foreign Shares Gilts & Overseas bonds Property Cash deposits When you are selecting your funds for your Individual Stakeholder Plan you should think about: Your attitude towards investment risk The amount of time before you wish to take benefits. The funds available to you through this plan are shown overleaf. Anybody is able to pay in to the Individual Stakeholder Plan on behalf of somebody else.

5 5of6 Fund details A range of unit-linked funds are available for investment. Unit-linked funds Balanced Managed Fund Cautious Managed Fund Adventurous Managed Fund Non-Equity Managed Fund International Fund UK Equity Fund Equity High Income Fund UK Smaller Companies Fund European Fund Japan Fund North American Fund Pacific Fund Ethical Fund Cash Fund Gilt & Fixed Interest Fund Index-Linked Fund Property Fund Halifax Fund Retirement Protection Fund UK Equity Tracker Fund You will find more information about these funds in our Investment funds portfolio leaflet (reference X695). You can change your choice of investments at any time by switching all or some of your units into a different fund or funds. There is currently no charge for doing this. Further information Full written details of Clerical Medical s Individual Stakeholder Plan are available on request from your financial adviser, or direct from our head office in Clevedon. Please write to, Castlewood, Tickenham Road, Clevedon BS21 6BD. Details of the exact charges that will apply to your plan will be shown in your personal illustration. The charges may be more or less than shown above. We reserve the right to change the amount of any charge, but in the case of the annual management charge we aim to give three months notice of any such change. The withdrawal of any investment may, in exceptional circumstances, be deferred for up to one month. If you choose to invest in a fund that invests partly in property, where property valuation is a matter of judgement by a valuer, we may postpone encashment for up to six months. This is because those assets can be less easy to sell than stocks and shares. Every care has been taken to make sure that the information given in this leaflet is correct and in accordance with our understanding of current legislation and Inland Revenue practice. The law and Inland Revenue practice are subject to change, which cannot be foreseen. With-profits is not an available fund choice for the FutureProof Individual Stakeholder Plan.

6 6of6 Part of the HBOS Group. Registered Office 33 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HZ. Registered in England and Wales, Registered No Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. A member of ABI. E440/0904 (Compliance no )