Account dealing

You can get a Personal Quote for your client using the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan quote and apply portal, which is available through Client Management. The portal contains questions about your client's personal situation, which includes health and lifestyle status. This will enable us to provide a personalised quote quickly within the portal journey.

If you have already received your client’s quote and the client would like to make an amendment – for example, to receive a higher income or add a death benefit, you can simply amend the quote options and request a new quote. If your client wants to amend the health and lifestyle information, you will have to update the medical records first.

Quotes will usually be returned within seconds of submission of your client’s details. We expect this to be the journey experienced by advisers in the significant majority of cases. In some cases, manual underwriting may be required. The quote portal will inform you if this is the case and how to proceed. Standard Life will aim to respond to a manual underwriting request within five working days. You’ll be notified once this manual underwriting process is complete, and your client’s quote is available.

Every effort is made to make sure you receive a guaranteed quote. However, if it isn't possible to do this for your client, Standard Life will highlight this to you when they return the quote. You'll be provided with an indicative (non-guaranteed) quote and informed how to request manual underwriting so you can get a guaranteed quote.

The plan is available on a single life basis only and the income is paid on the 15th of every month, or the working day before if the 15th isn’t a working day.

The income will remain fixed for the whole of your client's life. However, additional tranches can be purchased later if your client wishes to increase the total amount of guaranteed income generated (subject to product eligibility).

The plan also provides an option to include a death benefit in the form of 100% Value Protection. If selected at outset, Standard Life will pay a lump sum to the Fidelity Pension Trustee in the event of your client’s death, with the lump sum paid into your client’s Product Cash Account. This will be equivalent to 100% of the amount used to purchase the plan, less the total amount of income received from the plan.

Once the income received by your client is the same or more than the purchase price, no Value Protection will be payable.

Guaranteed quotes will be valid for a period of 14 calendar days from the point the quote is generated.

Yes, if your client agrees to run a whole of market check Standard Life will run a comparison against conventional annuities available in the market. While conventional annuities do not offer the same flexibility and tax advantaged features, they can be used as a basis for comparison from an income perspective.

Once you have completed the questions in the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan portal and your client has the funds held in cash within their Product Cash Account within their Fidelity Drawdown Account, you’ll be able to apply on their behalf. There may be times when the ‘apply’ option isn’t available. This could be because of a lack of available funds, or if the quote guarantee period has expired. The reason will be made clear to you in the portal as appropriate.

No, the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan can be purchased entirely online. To do this, you’ll need to apply and affirm on behalf of your client.

You won’t be able to submit a quote for application outside of the guarantee period. Instead, you’ll need to produce a new quote using the portal which, if guaranteed, will be valid for a further 14 days. Your client’s details used in the earlier quote are stored and therefore, once checked, they can be resubmitted to obtain a new quote. You’ll then be able to use this latest quote to submit an application.

Quotes are guaranteed for up to 14 days from the date the quote was originally generated. This means if you apply to purchase a plan within the 14-day period, your client will be guaranteed to receive at least the level of monthly income quoted. If rates improve due to market changes during this time, they could receive a better rate than the quoted amount. We’ll confirm whether this is the case as part of the application process. All guaranteed quotes clearly show the quote expiry date.

Yes, your client doesn’t need to hold any funds on our platform in order to obtain a quote. However, your client will need to have cleared funds within their Product Cash Account within a Fidelity Drawdown Account before you can submit an application on their behalf for the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan. Please be aware that quotes are only guaranteed for up to 14 days from the date they are generated. This means that if it takes longer than 14 days to set up the Fidelity Drawdown Account and have cash available within it, then a new quote will need to be produced.

Yes, you can get a quote without providing health and lifestyle details. However, this means that your client may not receive the best rate possible and may miss out on income for the rest of their life.

This means that the quote is not guaranteed, and you won’t be able to apply for the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan on this basis. This may be due to the medical or health and lifestyle information provided. If this is the case, you'll be provided with an indication of the income your client may receive and provide you with more details on how to get a guaranteed quote.

Standard Life pay income to the Fidelity Pension Trustee who will pay it into your client’s Product Cash Account within their Fidelity Drawdown Account without any deduction of tax. Your client will only be liable to income tax on the income if they withdraw it from the Product Cash Account into their chosen bank account. This provides valuable tax planning opportunities for you and your client.

Standard Life pay all income from the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan to the Fidelity Pension Trustee on the 15th of each month, or the working day before if the 15th isn’t a working day. Following this, the money will be allocated into your client's Product Cash Account.

For the first income payment, the Fidelity Pension Trustee will receive the first income on the 15th of the same month (or the working day before if the 15th isn’t a working day) if the application is submitted on or before 3pm on the 8th of the month. For applications submitted after this, the Fidelity Pension Trustee will receive the first income payment on the 15th of the following month (or the working day before if the 15th isn’t a working day).

Each Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan set up for your client will pay a fixed monthly income for the duration of their life and this income can’t be increased once set up. However, additional tranches of Guaranteed Lifetime Income can be purchased as needed to increase the total amount of guaranteed income payable (subject to product eligibility). These additional tranches will be underwritten using client information obtained at the time of any new purchase.

You'll be able to view the following information:

• Plan start date
• The plan status (i.e. active or closed)
• Amount used to purchase the plan
• Whether the client has selected the death benefit or not
• Monthly income amount
• Monthly income payment date
• The number of monthly income payments received to date
• The total amount of monthly income received to date
• The notional value of the Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan