The Oracle My Pension Plan. Giving you the power to choose

Transcription

1 The Oracle My Pension Plan A Flexible Retirement Plan from Standard Life Giving you the power to choose

2 Contents 03 Welcome 04 Benefits to you 06 Why should you join? 08 The state won t keep you warm 10 Your questions answered 12 Making contributions 13 Salary sacrifice 14 Your investment choices 15 Self Investment 17 What happens next? 2

3 Welcome Saving for your retirement is one of the most important investments you can make. The Oracle My Pension Plan (The Plan), which is a Group Flexible Retirement Plan from Standard Life, gives you an innovative approach to planning for your financial future. It s good to know that you can choose from a wide set of investment options and use market-leading retirement planning tools. A range of online and telephone services mean that you can access information that will help you to plan ahead, regardless of whether you re in the office, working from home or out on a client s site. When you re part of The Plan you can: Benefit from contributions from Oracle of up to 6% Choose from a range of investment options and even get into self-investment if you want to Use our pension calculator to check if you are saving enough to fund the retirement you want Manage your Plan online and take advantage of educational tools and other support Benefit from a range of options at retirement 3

4 Benefits to you How will I know how my Plan is doing? When you join up, we ll automatically register you for our online service. We ll send you a unique user id and password so that you can easily see how your Plan is doing and make changes at any time. We ll also send you a yearly statement. What are the benefits of the Plan? Oracle has developed this Plan for you in conjunction with Standard Life. At Standard Life, we believe that a good pension is the cornerstone of a competitive benefits package. So here s why we think your pension is better than ever before: 4

5 flexibility You can be as involved in your pension planning as you want to be. contribution matching Whatever you decide to put in, Oracle will match it (to a maximum of 6%). Investment options A wide choice, including no-hassle lifestyle options. Plain English Guidance and Advice on The Plan from Oracle s advisers, Secondsight. Online access Track your Plan online. Extra tools Useful retirement planning tools. Service and support High-quality service from Standard Life. Self Investment You can convert your plan to a Group Self Invested Personal Pension (GSIPP) at any time, subject to terms and conditions. 5

6 Why should you join? Planning for your retirement is one of the most important investments you can make. Without it, all you d have to fall back on when you come to retire is the State Pension and any other savings you may have. As you ll see on page 8, you might find this isn t enough. Why join? As a member of The Plan, you make contributions to your plan through salary sacrifice. This means you can increase how much is paid into your pension while your net take home pay stays exactly the same. You save on paying National Insurance Contributions (NICs) too. Best of all, for every contribution you make, Oracle will make a contribution into your pension. Find out more on page 13. People are living longer and healthier lives so you might need more money if you think you ll live to a ripe old age. But the government won t provide us all with a high pension. So we need to do more to prepare for our own futures. Find out more about State benefits on page 8. What are the tax benefits? Salary exchange allows you to give up an amount of your gross (before tax) salary. Oracle then pays that amount straight into your pension plan on your behalf. As you re exchanging a portion of your gross salary, you won t pay Income Tax or NICs on that amount. You are also protected from the temptation to spend your investments because, once you ve put money into a pension, you can only get your hands on it when you come to take your retirement benefits. There are limits to how much you can pay into a pension while still receiving tax relief; these are set by the government. Annual Allowance HM Revenue & Customs has an Annual Allowance for the total payments that you, your employer and any third party can make to all your pension plans, excluding transfer payments ( 40,000 for tax year 2016/2017). 6

7 You may have to pay a tax charge on any payments that exceed this limit. If the total payments to all your plans are less than the limit in one tax year, you may be able to carry forward the unused allowance for up to three tax years. Lifetime Allowance HM Revenue & Customs has a Lifetime Allowance on the total funds in pension plans that can be used to provide benefits for you. If you don t pay your contributions by salary sacrifice there s also an annual pension savings limit of 100% of your earnings, or 3,600 for people that earn less than this amount. In this case, if you contribute 2,880 to your pension during the tax year, the government will contribute basic-rate tax relief to make your total contribution up to 3,600. When it comes to taking their pension benefits, people often use their pension savings to buy an annuity. An annuity is a product that pays you a guaranteed taxable income for life. Within The Plan there are other retirement options available that may suit some individuals. You can find out more about this in the key features document for the Plan which is available on Standard Life s scheme specific website, There are also tax benefits when you come to retire. You can normally take 25% of your entire savings pot as a tax-free lump sum. There are circumstances where you may have a personal Annual Allowance and/or Lifetime Allowance that is different. Please speak to your financial adviser for more details. The information in this booklet is based on Standard Life s understanding of law and HM Revenue & Custom s practice at April Laws and tax rules may change in the future. Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment. For more details, please refer to Information about tax relieve, limits and your pension (GEN658), or speak to your financial adviser. 7

8 The state won t keep you warm People are living longer and healthier lives so you ll need more money if you think you ll live to a ripe old age. But the government does not have the resources to provide a luxurious State pension. Think of the Basic State Pension as providing a basic standard of living. What the State pension actually pays you Right now the flat-rate state pension for a single person is a week. However, the amount you will actually receive is dependent on your national insurance record. Some people could get more, many could get less. The state pension currently rises each year in line with an indexation basis set by the government.. But the State retirement age is going up too. That means many of us will not receive our hard-earned State pension benefits until later. When you will be eligible for the State pension To be eligible for the State pension, men currently have to be 65 and women between 61 and 62. By 2020 both men and women will have to be 66 before they receive the State pension. And by 2028 everyone will have to be 67 before they get it. It s possible that pension ages may go even higher in the future. 8

9 That means many of us will not receive our State pension benefits until later. Please visit the State pension section on the website if you need further information about your State pension entitlement. You can also find out your own State retirement age with the State pension calculator at Indexation The state pension currently rises each year in line with an indexation basis set by the government. Law and tax rules may change in the future. The information here is based on on our understanding in April Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment. Laws and tax rules may change in the future. The information here is based on our understanding in April Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment. 9

10 Your questions answered About the Plan Oracle has developed The Plan for you in conjunction with us, Standard Life. It is a Group Flexible Retirement Plan from Standard Life. Can I join? All permanent employees of the company in the UK are eligible to join. You re normally eligible to join if you re between 16 and 75 and resident in the UK. What if I m assigned overseas by Oracle? You can continue to contribute to the Plan as long as you are still a relevant UK individual for tax purposes. There is more information about this in the key features document on The Plan website, Can I move other pensions into this one? Yes. You can transfer the cash value of the retirement benefits you have built up under a previous occupational pension scheme, Stakeholder pension plan, personal pension plan or pension policy into The Plan. This is known as a transfer value. Transfers can be complex and may not be suitable for everyone. For example, you may be giving up previous rights that you will not get with the new plan. Additionally, there is no guarantee that what you will get with the new plan will be higher. If you are unsure if it is suitable for you to transfer your pension, you may wish to seek advice from a financial adviser. There may be a cost for this. How flexible is it? In short, very. Subject to minimum contribution levels, you can make single or regular contributions, change the amount of your regular contributions, stop contributing or take a contribution break, or make transfer payments. The minimum transfer payment is 1,000. Because you are making your contributions through salary sacrifice with Oracle you will normally only be able to change your contribution levels once a year. 10

11 Can I switch between funds? Yes, you can easily switch between funds at any time. Please see the Other Important Information section in the Oracle Flexible Retirement Plan Investment Choices Handbook for more information. When can I retire? You can start taking some or all of your pension at any time between ages 55 and 75, including while you re still working. You must normally start taking it by age 75. What happens if I die before I retire? Standard Life will normally pay out the full value of your Plan when you die. After you have joined The Plan you can give instructions to Standard Life about who to pay the value to using our online service. Your dependants won t normally have to pay tax on any lump sum they receive if you die before retirement. However, if any part of the lump sum exceeds your Lifetime Allowance, that part will be subject to tax. For more information, please see document Information about tax relief, limits and your pension (GEN658). What if I leave Oracle? If you decide to leave Oracle before 6 April 2016 then you will retain your Plan but the effective total annual fund charge (TAFC) you pay on your funds will be 0.20% higher. This effective TAFC will normally still be lower than the standard charges for these funds due to the rebate Oracle has negotiated. If you leave Oracle on or after 6 April 2016, the effective TAFC will not increase. To find out more about effective TAFCs please see the Oracle Flexible Retirement Plan Investment Choices Handbook. Alternatively, speak to us, Secondsight, or another financial adviser for more information. There may be a cost for speaking to a financial adviser. 11

12 Making contributions Oracle is keen for you to save for your retirement. So, under The Plan, you will be able to achieve standard contributions of up to 12% of your basic salary, including your contributions and Oracle s. You can find out more about how salary sacrifice can benefit your Plan in the next section. You can contribute more than 6% but Oracle s contributions are capped at a maximum of 6%. But if you use salary sacrifice for these additional contributions they will be supplemented by a proportion of Oracle s National Insurance Savings. Table of contributions standard contributions (as a percentage of basic salary) Employee Contribution Company Contribution 2% 2 % 3% 3 % 4% 4 % 5% 5% 6% 6% 7% or more 6% 12

13 Salary sacrifice On the face of it, salary sacrifice sounds like a bad thing. It s not. It s a clever way of boosting your pension contributions, without seeing any less coming into your bank account each month. How does it work? Salary sacrifice involves restructuring the way you make pension payments and allows you and Oracle to save on NICs. You exchange a percentage of your salary for pension payments. Plus, you will also reduce the amount of your earnings that are subject to income tax. What s the catch? There could be a catch - salary sacrifice isn t right for some people. It could affect your state benefits, other company benefits or the amount you can borrow. This tends to affect people on lower salaries the most. Other Oracle benefits such as Life Assurance will not be affected by salary sacrifice as they are based on your Headline Salary, which is your gross salary before salary sacrifice. Your Headline Salary will appear on your payslip and Oracle will use this amount for any reference enquiries related to borrowing. You will join The Plan on a salary sacrifice basis. Salary sacrifice means a change to your terms of employment with Oracle that can normally only be altered once a year. If you re not sure whether salary sacrifice is right for you, you should speak to your employer, or you could ask an adviser for guidance. There may be a cost for this. 13

14 Making your money work for you Remember As with any investment the value of your investments can go up or down and may be worth less than what was paid in. Nothing in this handbook should be taken as financial advice. What is right for you will depend entirely on your own personal circumstances. If you are not sure what to do we recommend you seek financial advice. There may be a cost for this. You have a range of investment options to suit you Your investment choices are very important because the money you put away is not enough in itself to ensure the retirement you want. Your investments need to have a chance to grow too, to make all your effort worthwhile. So the investment choices you make are key. Also, different situations call for different choices. Think of it like picking a new suit from a room full of hundreds. You narrow the choice down by factors that matter to you: the size, colour, the cut, buttons, cuffs and so on. And so it is with choosing investments for your pension. Making investment decisions First you need to decide how much financial risk you re comfortable with. You then have to balance this risk with the opportunity to grow your money. You also need to decide how involved you want to be in your investment decisions. If you want to, you can choose a no-hassle lifestyle option, where the investment decisions are made for you by the investment experts at Standard Life. By thinking about these things and understanding what you want to achieve, you might find it easier to choose where to invest your money. Don t panic! Help is at hand. The Plan website, and the Investment Choices handbook aim to help you choose which funds to invest in. If you re still not sure, you should ask a financial adviser for some help. There may be a cost for this. 14

15 Self Investment Once you have joined the Oracle Flexible Retirement Plan, you can choose to convert to a Group Self Invested Personal Pension (GSIPP). This option is normally best suited to experienced investors. This gives you more flexibility to choose how you want to save for retirement. The GSIPP does have higher charges but you are only charged for the options you choose. Flexible contribution options If you decide to make monthly contributions to your GSIPP, you must contribute at least 300 a month or 3,000 a year. The minimum single contribution or transfer is 10,000. If your GSIPP grows to more than 50,000, the minimum regular contribution falls to 100 a month or 1,000 a year. More investment options You can choose from a wider range of funds, mutual funds and OEICs. You can even pick your own shares or bonds, as long as they are in line with our rules and HM Revenue & Customs regulations. You can change your investment decisions at any time and you can choose how your dependants will benefit in the event of your death. For more information on your investment options, please see the Oracle Investment Choices booklet (gpen4or) entitled Find the right fund for you. You can find out more about how the GSIPP works on The Plan website, However, we strongly recommend that you take financial advice before you consider converting to a GSIPP. If you wish to consider a GSIPP you can contact Secondsight or another financial adviser who can advice on what to do next. 15

16 Remember As with all investments through a GSIPP, the value can go up or down and may be worth less than what was paid in. There are risks and commitments to consider before investing in any pension. Please note that additional terms and conditions and charges may apply to a GSIPP. If you are planning to take an income from your GSIPP you will need to have enough money in your fund to do this and you will need to have regular reviews to ensure that your fund can sustain the level of income you are taking. Charges may apply. You can take a tax-free lump sum depending on how much money you have in your fund and this is normally restricted to 25% of your fund. It s important to remember that laws and tax rules may change in the future. The information here is based on our understanding in April Your personal circumstances also have an impact on tax treatment. You have the flexibility to start, stop, reduce or increase your income levels within certain limits. As with all investments, the value of the fund you have invested in can go down as well as up, which could affect how much income you can take in the future. You will need to have regular reviews to ensure that your fund can sustain the level of income you are taking and charges may apply. 16

17 What happens next? First, log onto the The Plan website, read the information and use the tools. Decide how much you want to contribute. Choose your investment options. See the Oracle Flexible Retirement Plan Investment Choices Handbook for more details of the funds available. If you re not sure what to do, a financial adviser can help you with these last two points. There may be a cost for this. Complete the simple enrolment form on the Flexible Benefits Portal (you will know this as Select). Wait for your Plan documents to arrive, including your login details to track your pension online. Done. Congratulations and welcome to your Plan. Remember, Standard Life will automatically register you for online services so that you can see how your Plan is doing at any time you ll also receive a yearly statement. If you re not sure about anything call Secondsight on or Standard Life. Calls may be monitored and/or recorded to protect both you and us and to help with our training. Call charges will vary. 17

18 Find out more If you need more help or information and can t find the answers in this document or on The Plan website, here s what to do. It might be a good idea to seek financial advice before deciding to join the pension plan. An adviser can help you decide how much to contribute or where to invest your contributions. If you don t have your own adviser, you can find one in your area by visiting There may be a cost for this it depends on the adviser. For general information about your Plan, you can contact Standard Life on (call charges will vary). We can t give you advice, but we ll do our best to help you. 18

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20 If you d like to know more about The Plan, call us on the number below or visit the Oracle Flexible Retirement Benefits website. Calls may be monitored and/or recorded to protect both you and us and to help with our training. Call charges will vary or Standard Life Assurance Limited is registered in Scotland (SC286833) at Standard Life House, 30 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2DH. Standard Life Assurance Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. GFRP1OR Standard Life