Standard Life

Standard Life is a pensions and investments brand, not a bank. Its main business is helping people save for retirement and then turn those savings into income: personal pensions, workplace pensions arranged through employers, self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), stakeholder pensions and a master trust, plus the retirement income products that pay money out of them. Its Personal Pension offers two investment routes, one where you pick your own funds from a range of over 50 options and one where an expert manages the investments for you¹. The wider group's pension plans include the Active Money Personal Pension, the Active Money SIPP, a Group SIPP, a Stakeholder Pension and a Master Trust pension².

The brand is best known for pensions, but it sits within a wider group. Standard Life is part of Phoenix Group, and some of the data the brand publishes covers all the group's brands combined³. Phoenix Life is also part of the group, and some products sold under the Standard Life name, including the Active Money Personal Pension, are provided by Phoenix Life Limited trading as Standard Life⁴. For most everyday purposes this does not change what you do: you deal with Standard Life, under the Standard Life name, on the terms of the plan you hold.

If you have a pension with Standard Life, the things people most want to know are how the charges work, what happens when they want to take money out, how to move other pensions in, and how to keep track of the plan online. This page covers each of those, plus what protection applies and where to get help.

Pensions, investments and retirement income: what Standard Life offers

Standard Life's core product is the personal pension: a plan you open yourself, pay into yourself, and use to build a pot for retirement. The Standard Life Personal Pension offers two investment options to help you meet your retirement savings goals¹⁰, and if you choose the route where you pick your own investments you can choose from over 50 options, including risk-rated options, funds focused on particular regions, sectors and themes, and a Sharia compliant option¹.

Alongside the personal pension, the group's plan range includes the Active Money Personal Pension, the Active Money SIPP, a Group SIPP, a Stakeholder Pension and a Master Trust pension². A SIPP is a pension that gives you more control over the investments; a stakeholder pension is a simpler, capped-cost version aimed at people who want something straightforward. You can read more about how each type works in our guide to pensions.

The other half of the business is workplace pensions, where an employer sets up a scheme for its staff. Standard Life offers contract-based workplace pensions, where each member has their own plan with the provider. Employers get a dedicated online administration platform to set up the scheme and manage everything in one place, and Standard Life handles the reporting the scheme needs¹¹. If a member leaves the employer, their plan is converted to a personal pension: they can transfer it elsewhere or simply leave it where it is¹¹.

At the retirement end, the Personal Pension offers what Standard Life describes as the full range of options for taking your money, from tax-free lump sums to a guaranteed income for life, meaning an annuity⁵. Standard Life also runs an annuity service that searches the whole market rather than only its own products¹². Standard Life appears in our directory of pension and investment providers, and the wider subject is covered in our guide to investing.

Choosing investments: 'Let me do it' or 'Help me do it'

When you open a pension plan with Standard Life, the first big choice is how hands-on you want to be. You can choose to pick and manage your own investments, or have an expert manage them for you¹³. Standard Life frames these as two routes: choose your own funds, or let the provider do it for you.

If you pick your own, the fund range includes risk-rated options, regional and themed funds, and a Sharia compliant option¹. Standard Life's fund checker shows the prices, performance, charges and factsheets of funds across all its products, so you can research before committing¹³. The provider also offers a quick tool designed to give you a better idea of how comfortable you are with investment risk, which is a sensible starting point if you are new to investing¹³.

If you would rather someone else made the decisions, the managed route works the way most "do-it-for-me" services do: the service asks about your investment aims and assesses your attitude to risk through a questionnaire, then recommends a tailored portfolio of funds, gilts and bonds¹⁴. In its contract-based workplace schemes, Standard Life offers members a simple default lifestyle profile option, which shifts the investments as the member approaches retirement¹¹.

Neither route is right or wrong; they suit different people. Picking your own funds gives you control and the full range of over 50 options, but means the decisions, and the responsibility for them, are yours. The managed route takes the decisions off your hands but leaves you with whatever the default or recommended portfolio provides. More on the general trade-offs is in our guide to investing.

Responsible and sustainable investing at Standard Life

Standard Life publishes a fair amount about how it invests responsibly, and if this matters to you it is worth knowing what the words mean in its case. Its approach is based on the United Nations-supported Principles of Responsible Investment and the UK Stewardship Code¹⁵. All investment decisions are required to meet certain minimum ESG standards, and the provider states that environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities are expected to be considered on your behalf across all investment options, where appropriate¹⁶.

The responsible investment range comes in two shapes. There are managed solutions where investment experts pick and manage funds for you, and individual funds aimed at specific ethical, environmental or social goals¹⁵. Within the actively managed responsible funds, negative criteria avoid investment in companies involved in certain industries and practices, such as animal testing, climate change impacts and human rights issues, while positive criteria look for companies involved in activities that benefit society and the environment¹⁵. Passively managed responsible funds take a broader approach: they cover most of the market but exclude investments that do not meet specific socially responsible or religious principles¹⁵. Standard Life publishes lists of the funds that meet its responsible investment criteria, most recently as at August 2026¹⁵.

On stewardship, meaning how it uses its influence as an investor, Standard Life prioritises four themes in its conversations with company leaders: climate change, human rights, nature and international standards, the last covering incidents linked to misalignment with the United Nations Global Compact principles³. It works through asset management partners, an in-house stewardship team and joint action with other investors³. It requires the asset managers it uses to sign up to the Principles for Responsible Investment and, where relevant, their country's stewardship code³. Two limits are worth knowing: Standard Life only votes across a small number of execution-only funds and directs specific votes within selected sustainability-focused funds, and it does not have direct control over how external funds are run, though it encourages those managers to sign up to the PRI³.

In its workplace business, Standard Life offers some investment choices that incorporate more extensive ESG requirements, and the regional equities and corporate bonds used within its Sustainable Multi Asset default workplace solution have secured the Sustainability Improver label¹⁶.

How Standard Life's charges work

Standard Life does not publish a single charge figure that applies to every plan, because what you pay depends on the plan you hold, the route you have chosen and the funds you are invested in. Its current figures are on its own charges pages, which is where to look for the numbers that apply to you. What can be described here is how the charging structure works.

Fund charges are calculated and applied daily¹⁷. Standard Life says that, to make it easier to compare charges between providers, it does not include fund transaction costs in its charges, and that it does not make any money from fund transaction costs, as these are not a charge it takes². Transaction costs are the costs of buying and selling investments inside a fund, and they vary with how actively the fund trades.

Several things Standard Life does not charge for are consistent across its personal pension: there is no charge to switch investments, no charge to take money out, no charge to transfer a pension in, and it never charges exit fees when you leave⁵. Its support pages add that there are no charges for switching funds, no charges for withdrawing money and no hidden administration fees¹⁸. On the annuity side, the position is different: for its Guaranteed Lifetime Income plan, Standard Life's charges are incorporated into the income the plan pays, and it makes no ongoing fund management or administration charges for that plan¹⁹.

Two caveats matter. First, charges are not guaranteed and can change in the future¹⁷. Second, "no charge from Standard Life" is not the same as "no cost": your old provider may charge an exit fee when you transfer away from it⁵, and the funds themselves carry their own underlying costs. For its workplace Investment Pathways proposition, Standard Life's own governance assessment states that it offers customers value for money²⁰, though that is the provider's assessment of its own product rather than an independent one.

Taking money from your pension: lump sums, drawdown and annuities

When you reach retirement, the options for a defined contribution pension such as a Standard Life personal pension are broadly the same wherever your pot is held. You can normally take up to 25% of your pension tax free⁶, and beyond that the main routes are: taking the whole pot as a lump sum, taking a number of lump sums over time, drawing a flexible income (known as drawdown or adjustable income), or buying an annuity²¹. You can also mix these, for example taking some tax-free cash and an annuity with part of the pot and leaving the rest invested.

With adjustable income, your money stays invested in your pension pot and you take money out when you need it; how long the pot lasts depends on how much you take out and how the investments perform²². With an annuity, you exchange part or all of the pot for a guaranteed income. Standard Life's annuity service searches the whole market, not just its own products, and its phone lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, opening at 10am on Wednesdays¹². Annuities are irreversible: once you have bought a guaranteed income, you cannot change your mind or make any changes⁶.

Tax is the thing that catches most people out. Anything above the tax-free element is taxed as income, and when you first take money out, emergency tax rates are often used to calculate the deductions, which can mean too much tax is taken to begin with²³. If that happens, you can reclaim the overpaid amount: if your withdrawal was a one-off and you do not plan to take more in the same tax year, you can use form P55, and you can check and claim a refund online on GOV.UK, on the HMRC app, or by asking HMRC to send you a cheque²⁴. HMRC may also simply reduce the tax collected from your future wages²⁵.

Before making irreversible decisions, it is worth using free, impartial help. Pension Wise, the government's pension guidance service, covers the adjustable income option and the other choices in detail²², and our guide to pensions explains the general rules.

Transferring a pension to Standard Life

Many people arrive at Standard Life with several old pensions from past jobs and want to bring them together. If you have had many jobs and workplace pensions over the years, it is possible to transfer them all together into one pension plan with Standard Life¹⁰. Standard Life says its experts handle thousands of pension transfers every year⁵.

The process is straightforward from your side. All you need is the provider's name, the plan number and a rough estimate of the value⁵. Existing customers can log in to their account and select "combine your pension" from the online dashboard, or request a transfer during a new application; customers without online access can set up an account online or by phone²⁶. Transfers can also be started in the Standard Life mobile app on iOS and Android²⁶. The whole thing could take a few weeks from start to finish⁵.

On cost, Standard Life does not charge for transfers in and never charges exit fees, though other providers might charge an exit fee when you leave them⁵. If you have a workplace pension with Standard Life, any discounts you have on your charges apply to pensions transferred in as well²⁷. Once the transfer completes, Standard Life will let you know, and you can go online and take the money you want from your pension⁴.

Transferring is not right for everybody, as Standard Life itself notes²⁷. Some older pensions carry guaranteed benefits or protected rates that would be lost on transfer, so check what you would give up before moving anything. Our guide to pensions covers the general pros and cons.

Managing your plan online, in the app and by phone

Standard Life offers what it describes as a comprehensive digital, app and telephone service²⁰. Most day-to-day tasks can be done online or in the app: checking your pot's value, switching funds, updating your details, starting a transfer, and taking money out at retirement. Its fund checker shows prices, performance, charges and factsheets for funds across all its products¹³.

If you have a workplace pension, the same tools apply after you leave the employer, because the plan belongs to you and everything in it belongs to you²⁷. Standard Life suggests keeping your details current: update them online or in the app, add a personal email address, and check your nominated beneficiaries and your expected retirement age²⁷. This matters more than people think: an out-of-date address or a beneficiary form from twenty years ago can cause real problems later.

The pension experts on the phone cannot give financial advice, but they can give support and answer questions to help you make the most of your plan¹⁸. If you want someone to manage the plan for you, there are two routes: a financial adviser, or a Power of Attorney, which allows a named person to make changes to your plan if you cannot²⁸.

Scams that use the Standard Life name

Pension scams are common, and established brand names are often used to make a fake approach sound legitimate. Standard Life publishes clear rules about what it will never do, and they are worth memorising: it will never make a request via email or approach potential investors via telephone, and it will never ask you to pay funds into an account in the name of a third party. When investing with Standard Life, you will always be asked to pay into an account in the name of Standard Life or one of its subsidiaries²⁹.

The warning signs of a pension scam include offers to free up your pension pot before the age of 55²⁹. If you have given bank details or sent money to a scammer, contact your bank immediately, and let the police know via the Report Fraud website²⁹.

Scams around pensions and household finances take many forms, from fake investment offers in land, wine or carbon credits to texts about cost of living payments. Our guide to scams and fraud covers the common types and what to do if you have been caught.

When a Standard Life planholder dies

If someone with a Standard Life pension dies, the pension does not simply vanish, and it does not automatically go to whoever handles the estate. A Standard Life pension, and everything in it, belongs to the person who held it²⁷, and what happens next depends on the type of plan and the choices they made, including any beneficiaries they nominated. That is why Standard Life asks customers to keep beneficiary details up to date²⁷.

Most deaths in the UK can be reported through the Tell Us Once service, which lets you report a death to government departments in one go³⁰. The pension is separate: Standard Life is contacted directly about the plan, with the plan details to hand. Standard Life's support team can explain what the plan provides for beneficiaries and what documents are needed. If the plan details cannot be found at all, the tracing steps in the next section apply here too.

Service, complaints and how your money is protected

Standard Life runs quarterly Treating Customers Fairly assessments, an ongoing programme of risk assessments, and internal and external audit checks on its workplace schemes¹¹. It also publishes support beyond the purely financial: its colleagues are trained to confidentially listen and help customers who are regaining control of their finances after financial abuse, and it has been charity partner to the Samaritans²⁸.

If you need to complain, the process starts with Standard Life itself: every financial firm is required to have a complaints process, and the firm gets the chance to put things right first. If you are unhappy with the final response, or eight weeks have passed, the complaint can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free. The ombudsman publishes complaint data by firm: in its figures for the third quarter of 2025/26, complaints about Standard Investments were upheld 53% of the time³¹, meaning the ombudsman sided with the firm in the remaining cases. An uphold rate tells you how often the ombudsman agreed with the complainant among the cases that reached it, not how good or bad a firm's overall service is.

On protection, the firm behind the brand is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and appears on the Bank of England's list of insurers incorporated in the UK authorised to carry out contracts of insurance⁷. Its company number is SC286833 and its status is active⁹. You can check the entry yourself on the FCA Register. Because it is an insurance company rather than a bank, the protections that apply to money held with it are those for insurers and pension providers, not the deposit protection that covers bank accounts; our guide to consumer protection explains the framework. Standard Life's own pension experts cannot give financial advice, but they can give support and answer questions¹⁸, and free impartial guidance on pension decisions is available from Pension Wise²².

Tracing an old Standard Life pension

Lost pensions are common, especially after a career of short jobs and auto-enrolment schemes. If you cannot remember where a pension is, contact HMRC if you cannot remember the name of your personal or workplace pension schemes; once you have the names, use the Pension Tracing Service³². The Pension Tracing Service is free and can find the contact details of a pension provider even if you do not have them³³. Standard Life is among the providers, alongside firms such as AJ Bell and Aviva, that offer free pension tracing services of their own to help you track down old pensions³⁴.

Small lost pots are worth finding. Rules introduced for small dormant pots are designed to stop them from being eaten by charges³⁵, but small pots can still cost you money over time³⁴, so it is worth tracing them and deciding what to do with them, whether that is transferring them into your main plan or leaving them where they are.

If the trail leads to Standard Life, the next steps are simple: set up online access or call, and once you can see the plan, update your details, add a personal email address, and check your beneficiaries and retirement age²⁷. If you have several old pensions, the transfer process described earlier can bring them together into one Standard Life plan¹⁰.