A Stakeholder Pension is a flexible, tax-efficient, savings plan that allows you to save for your retirement.

• Existing customer

What is a Stakeholder Pension?

'Norwich Union Stakeholder Pension' is the name of our Stakeholder Pension. A Stakeholder Pension is a flexible, tax-efficient, savings plan that allows you to save for your retirement.

You can start your plan with as little as £20. You can make one-off payments or regular monthly or yearly payments into your plan. You may be able to pay up to £3,600 each year even if you have no earnings. Tax relief is available on your payments making the plan a tax-efficient way to save. HM Revenue & Customs allows tax relief on your personal payments to all your pension plans up to £3,600 a year or 100% of your UK taxable earnings if greater. You won't normally pay tax or national insurance on payments made by your employer. This is based on our understanding of current tax laws. Please be aware that the tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. The value of a pension investment can go down as well as up and is not guaranteed.

What are the charges?

There is a maximum charge of 1% of the fund value each year. If you apply online the charge is just 0.9% of the fund value each year. These charges may reduce as your fund increases.

What are the benefits at retirement?

You can currently take your pension benefits at any time between the age of 50 (55 from 2010) and 75. You can usually take up to 25% of your fund as a tax-free lump sum.

Who can have a Stakeholder Pension?

Most people under 75 who want to save for a pension in a tax-efficient way. The plan may be suitable for people who are employed, self-employed or not employed.

How flexible is it?

With ’Norwich Union Stakeholder Pension’ you can stop, start or change your payments as often as you like with no penalty.

What funds are available?

You can choose to invest into one or more funds but unless you choose otherwise, we will invest all payments according to the Balanced Managed Lifestyle Strategy.

What is the Balanced Managed Lifestyle Strategy?

As you approach retirement we automatically move your investment to lower risk funds. Understand more about what we mean by risk here.

Up to 5 years before retirement

All payments will be made into the Balanced Managed Fund

Less than 5 years before retirement

Your fund will gradually be moved (switched) into the Retirement Protection Fund and Deposit Fund. At your chosen retirement date, 75% of your whole fund will be invested in the Retirement Protection Fund and 25% will be invested in the Deposit Fund. Future payments continue to be invested into the Balanced Managed Fund but are included in later switches into the Retirement Protection Fund and the Deposit Fund.

If you start your plan with a term of less than 5 years, from outset your fund will be invested 75% in the Retirement Protection Fund and 25% in the Deposit Fund.

When should you start to invest?

The sooner you start to invest, the longer your investments have to grow. If you put off saving for your retirement, even if it's only for a short time, you may not achieve the comfortable retirement you want.

Alternatively, If you would prefer to talk to one of our advisers about our Stakeholder Pension please call us on 0800 056 2326. Any advice you receive will only relate to our products.

WC03004 04/2008