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In detail
What is a Flexible Options Bond?
It’s a flexible product (as its name suggests), which is designed to allow you to benefit from the potential returns of medium to long-term investment, while enabling you to change how your money is invested at any time, if you want to.
The Bond is generally made up of 20 identical whole of life policies, although we may issue up to 99 on request. As well as being designed as an investment, it also gives you life cover of 101% of the Bond’s value, at the date of death.
Who can have one?
In order to invest in our Flexible Options Bond you must have at least £5,000 to invest, you must be aged 84 or less if there is only one life assured, or, in joint life cases, the younger life must be aged 89 or less. We can only accept business from UK residents or other specified territories, please contact us for details.
How flexible is the Bond?
The Flexible Options Bond offers you a number of investment choices from one single bond. You can change where your money is invested, tailoring the Bond, and changing the balance of funds it’s invested in, to suit your changing needs. We offer an extensive choice of internally and externally managed funds, all specifically selected to meet a wide range of investment needs.
We may change the selection of funds we make available, and restrictions may apply to the amounts which can be invested in certain funds.
If you invest in a unit-linked fund, the value of your Bond can fall as well as rise depending on investment performance (and currency exchange rates where a fund invests overseas). This type of investment does not offer any guarantees.
If you invest in a with-profits fund, the value of your bond can fall as well as rise. For example, we can apply Market Value Reductions. You can find more details in the relevant With-Profits guide(s).
The Flexible Options Bond is designed to be a medium to long term investment and if you decide to cash-in all or part of your bond within five years of making a payment into it, we’ll make a charge. Other charges will apply. You may get back less than you invested.
You can switch between the funds you chose initially, make additional top-up payments and/or supplement your income by taking withdrawals from your Bond.
How much can I invest?
You can invest £5,000 or more.
Product Features
Please see our Product Brochure for details of our Flexible Options Bond product features, including:
- full details of its clear charging structure
- ways to make changes to your Bond (e.g. taking withdrawals, topping up)
- information on tax, trusts and Inheritance Tax planning
Have we answered all your questions?
If you have more questions about our Flexible Options Bond, please contact us.
