Scottish Widows are owned by Lloyds TSB and have substantial strength. Their administration systems are well proven to be able to cope with the flexibility needed for Stakeholder Pensions.

• They offer a wide range of investment funds for you to choose from
• We use your pension payments to buy units in the investment funds you choose
• If you do not know which fund to choose their default fund is the Consensus Fund. The Consensus Fund is invested in a range of index tracking funds. These funds invest in a range of UK and overseas shares, fixed interest, index-linked stocks and cash deposits. The Consensus Fund aims to achieve long term, consistent outperformance, against other funds in the sector. Further details of this fund can be found in their investment funds booklet.
• You can switch in and out of various funds to change the mix of investments, though there may be restrictions on this
• Each fund is made up of ‘units’, which are like shares of the fund
• The price of one unit in a fund depends on the value of the investments and the number of units in it
• They work out the value of your plan based on the total number of units you have in each fund
• If the unit prices rise or fall, so will your plan value

• They charge for managing and investing your plan, and take the charges regularly out of the value of your plan
• There is an annual charge of 1% each year of the funds you accumulate. If your fund is valued at £500 throughout the year, this means they deduct £5 that year. If your fund is valued at £7500 throughout the year, they will deduct £75 that year. This reflects the maximum charge that currently applies to your plan. Please ask for an illustration that shows the actual charges and how they affect the value of your plan.

Reasons for choosing Scottish Widows

They are a leading pension company, who have a well respected name in the insurance industry  for providing innovative eproducts, with above average  fund performance.

The fund range offered by Scottish Widows now includes a series of external fund links with some leading investment houses such as Merril Lynch and Schroders

They were established in 1815, and merging with Lloyds TSB in March 2000 made them one of the top three insurance companies in the UK,with funds under management of £90 billion. Investment Analyst ,Standard and Poors have given them an “AAPi(very strong)” rating.