Your pension in your pocket
Our app makes it easy to keep an eye on your pension and plan for the future.
Compare our personal pensions
See whether our Ready-Made Pension or Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is right for your retirement goals
What’s the difference?
Rather leave decisions about how to invest your pension savings to the experts? A Ready-Made Pension could help you meet your retirement goals, without the hassle.
Savvy trader, or keen to learn about investing and ready to do your own research? A Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) could give you control over your pension savings and help you get the retirement you want.
Both of our pensions:
- let you save money tax-efficiently to help meet your longer-term retirement goals
- are not a substitute for a workplace pension, but can be taken out in addition as part of your retirement plan
- can be paid into flexibly, as regular monthly contributions or lump sums and by transferring in old pensions
- have flexible options for taking your money when you’re over 55 (rising to 57 in April 2028) and ready to start accessing your pension savings.
At a glance
|
Features |
Ready-Made Pension |
SIPP |
|---|---|---|
|
Features Who’s it suitable for? |
Ready-Made Pension People who want to leave investment decisions to the experts |
SIPP People who are comfortable making decisions about their investments themselves |
|
Features Investing |
Ready-Made Pension Our experts invest your pension in a retirement portfolio based on the year you want to start taking your money. Our experts then slowly start to de-risk your investments the closer you get to this age |
SIPP You pick and trade your own investments and can change them at any time. |
|
Features Minimum payment |
Ready-Made Pension One of the following:
|
SIPP Pay in as little or as much as you want, starting from £1, including transfers. If you're a director of a limited company, you can also pay company contributions. |
|
Features Charges |
Ready-Made Pension Account admin charge:
Investment and transaction charges:
|
SIPP Account admin charge:
Investment and transaction charges:
Depending on your investments, there may be further charges. |
|
Features Taking money from your pension |
Ready-Made Pension Free |
SIPP Free |
|
Features Transferring eligible pensions in |
Ready-Made Pension Free |
SIPP Free |
|
Features Transferring out |
Ready-Made Pension Some or all of the value of your Ready-Made Pension can be transferred to another pension as a cash sum. |
SIPP Some or all of the value of your SIPP can be transferred to another pension as a cash sum. Or, if the receiving pension can accept them, you can transfer some or all of the investments held by your SIPP (know as in-specie transfers). |
|
Features Managing your pension |
Ready-Made Pension You’ll view, manage and top-up your pension in the app. |
SIPP You’ll view, manage and top-up your pension and place trades in the app. |
|
Features Taking your money |
Ready-Made Pension
|
SIPP
|
|
Features Get started |
Ready-Made Pension |
SIPP |
Ready to get started?
Investing your money
How your money is invested is a key difference between a Ready-Made Pension and a SIPP.
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How it works:
- you tell us when you’d like to start taking your money
- our experts invest your pension in a retirement portfolio based on the year you want to start taking your money
- you won’t have the hassle of choosing or changing funds.
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How it works:
- once you've set up your SIPP and started to pay in, you can choose to invest in a range of options in your SIPP, including UK and international shares, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), funds, bonds, gilts and investment trusts
- you can also set up a Regular Investment Plan, which is free to do, and ideal for those who want to invest smaller amounts on a regular basis
- if you’re not sure how to get started, you can invest in our Start-Up Fund, an investment solution designed for a typical investor
- you can change your investments at any time.
Charges
Our Ready-Made Pension and SIPP have different costs and charges, because of the differences in how your money is invested.
There’s no additional charge to take money from a Ready-Made Pension or a SIPP, or transfer in and out of your pension.
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Account admin charge:
- 0.3% a year, minimum £5 a month
Investment and transaction charges:
- ongoing investment fund charges of 0.1%
- fund transaction costs of up to 0.12%
For a detailed breakdown of all fees and charges, see the key features document (PDF, 165KB).
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Account admin charge:
- 0.25% of the value of your investments, maximum £16.50 a month
Investment and transaction charges:
- online UK trades - £5 per trade
- no charge for international trades (1.5% exchange rate applies)
- Regular Investment Plan - free
Depending on your investments, there may be further charges.
For a detailed breakdown of all fees and charges, see the key features document (PDF, 194KB).
Always make sure there’s enough uninvested cash in your SIPP to cover any charges or payments.
Paying into your pension
You can pay into your Ready-Made Pension or your SIPP up to the age of 75 with:
- regular monthly payments
- one-off payments.
You can also transfer into your pension from eligible existing pensions. There’s no age limit on this.
We accept payment by:
- Direct Debit
- debit card.
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For Ready-Made Pensions and SIPPs, we can’t accept payments from a third party (such as your spouse, parent or grandparent) or from an employer.
With a SIPP, we can accept employer contributions if they are from a limited company where you are the business owner or one of the directors.
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For Ready-Made Pensions, the minimum amount you must pay in is
- a monthly payment of £120
- a lump sum of £4,000
- transfers with a combined value of £10,000 or more.
With a SIPP, you can pay in as little or as much as you want, starting from £1, including transfers.
Transferring pensions and investments
You can transfer pensions into a Ready-Made Pension and a SIPP, but there are a few things to know before you do.
We can accept a transfer in if:
- it’s from a UK-based registered pension scheme
- it doesn’t have any safeguarded benefits that include guarantees, such as final salary pensions.
We don’t charge for transfers, but your existing pension provider may do.
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You are free to transfer your SIPP or Ready-Made Pension to another UK registered pension scheme, or Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS), at any time.
If you have a Ready-Made Pension, we’ll sell your investments into cash before transferring to the other provider.
If you have a SIPP, we can transfer investments or cash, if your new pension provider can accept them. If they can’t, or if you want to transfer as cash only, you’ll have to sell all the investments in your SIPP before you start the transfer process.
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You can transfer investments into your SIPP without having to sell them first.
When you transfer investments:
- you won’t be able to trade until the transfer is done
- if we don’t offer an investment that you currently hold, we’ll contact you to discuss options and alternatives
- if we hold a different fund class than the one you plan to transfer, we’ll first convert your fund into a class that we can transfer, which could be cheaper or more expensive
- once transferred, we’ll make sure your investment is in the cheapest fund class we have.
Tax relief on pension contributions
This works in the same way for Ready-Made Pensions and SIPPs.
Every time you make personal contributions into your pension, you could get tax relief from the government.
You won’t receive tax relief on any transfers into your pension.
If you have a SIPP, and you’re paying into it as a limited company director or business owner, there’s no tax relief on these contributions as these have not been taxed.
Managing your pension
If you have a Ready-Made Pension or a SIPP, you’ll manage it in our award-winning app
Here you can:
- see the value of your pension
- see how much you’re on track for at retirement
- top up or change your payments
- update your retirement age
- transfer in to your pension
- find key documents about your pension
- add or change your beneficiaries
- get important messages about your pension.
If you have a SIPP, you can also:
- see the total value of all your investments
- trade your investments
- see any charges you’ve paid
- see your statements and key documents about your investments.
What every pension customer should do and know
For any kind of personal pension, there’s a few things that are good to do and know.
- Keep an eye on your account, and make sure it’s still meeting your needs and goals, especially if your circumstances change.
- You’ll not be able to take money out of your pension until you’re 55 and over (rising to 57 in April 2028).
- Tell us as soon as you can if there’s a medical reason why you might need to retire earlier, or if you’ve been told by a medical professional you have less than 12 months to live.
- There’s no maximum age to access your pension, so you can leave it untouched and invested as long as you want.
- It’s up to you to make sure you’re not losing any features or benefits from pensions you transfer in to your Ready-Made Pension or SIPP.
- Make sure we have up-to-date contact details for you, especially if you’re moving abroad.
- You must tell us within 30 days if you’re no longer entitled to tax relief on your contributions. Find out more about tax relief.
- It’s up to you to make sure you understand the risk of investing.
The Scottish Widows Self-Invested Personal Pension and Ready-Made Pension are provided by Embark Investment Services Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales (company number 09955930) with its registered office at 33 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HZ. Embark Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register number 737356).
Dealing and stockbroking administration services for the Scottish Widows SIPP are provided by Halifax Share Dealing Limited (HSDL), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Embark Group Limited and part of Lloyds Banking Group. HSDL is a company incorporated in England and Wales (company number 3195646) with its registered office at: Trinity Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 2RG. HSDL is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register number 183332). HSDL is a member of the London Stock Exchange and an HM Revenue & Customs Approved ISA Manager.
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