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Comprehensively straightforward retirement expertise

Our comprehensive – yet straightforward – range of solutions can help you meet all the evolving needs of clients planning for and their journey through retirement while our technical content and insights can support you when navigating the more intricate aspects of retirement planning.

A low-cost, flexible pension

Our pension is designed to offer value, choice and a range of options at retirement. It provides a flexible solution for clients no matter what life stage they may be at.

Wrappers to meet all client needs

Our ISA and Investment Account provide full access to our fund range, tools and functionality. For those seeking wider tax planning opportunities, we also offer International and Offshore Bonds.

A growth option with added peace of mind

The Smoothed Return Pension Fund incorporates an overlay that dampens day-to-day market volatility – so clients can participate in a growth strategy without the worry of short-term ups and downs.

A guaranteed lifetime income within drawdown

The Standard Life Guaranteed Income plan provides access to a regular, guaranteed income for life while offering flexibility alongside other money held in a client’s drawdown account.

We ask Laura Whetstone, Director at Lathe & Co Wealth Advisers, about the challenges financial planners and their clients have when approaching retirement, including cashflow reporting and the impact of the pensions and IHT policy changes. Paul Squirrell also asks John Hale how platforms are rising to these challenges and how they can support the changing income needs of clients through retirement.

00:00 - Insight into the current retirement income landscape
00:58 - The 2015 pension revolution
02:57 - When does retirement planning typically begin?
04:06 - What are the main challenges as a client approaches retirement?
04:58 - How important is cashflow forecasting?
06:40 - What impact will the policy changes on pensions and IHT have?
08:00 - How are platforms dealing with these Challenges?
09:20 - When do the client starts to draw their benefits?
10:44 - How does this fit with an adviser's Centralised Retirement Proposition?
12:13 - What is the most important role a provider must perform?
13:00 - Closing remarks

To help you navigate the more involved aspects of financial planning, our website contains an array of materials focused on the technical side of pensions and tax. These include insightful videos and factsheets that help to keep you on top of ever-changing regulation and rules – such as the replacement of the lifetime allowance regime.

Retirement is very different to what it once was. Many people now give up work in stages while today’s retirees are typically living much longer. They also have more freedom as to how they draw upon their retirement savings. Advisers need to take all these factors into account, managing and adapting clients’ plans as circumstances change.

Our range of retirement reports analyse these issues to show how practitioners can help clients achieve a better retirement:

  1. How much does a comfortable retirement cost?
  2. Countdown to retirement
  3. The foundations of retirement planning – ten pitfalls to avoid
  4. Investment risk and retirement
  5. Sustainable withdrawal rates for drawdown clients
  6. The impact of inflation on retirement planning
  7. Reinventing retirement
  8. Help your clients survive retirement
  9. The path through retirement 

Model Portfolio and DFM services

Our service allows you to use models from over 120 Discretionary Fund Managers for our Pension, ISAs and Investment Accounts. You can also create bespoke portfolios of up to 50 funds and ETIs.

Extensive investment choice

Our range allows you to meet the needs of the vast majority of your clients – both pre- and post-retirement. We offer over 7,250 assets, ranging from funds, equities, ETFs and Investment Trusts.

Recommending our retirement solutions

In a world of choice, it’s important you feel confident about the products and services you recommend to clients. To aid the research process, we detail why we think our platform is a great option.