AVC Investment options

This fund aims to capture the returns of the UK equity market. It tracks the FTSE All-Share Index and invests primarily in UK equities.

This fund is likely to be of specific interest to members with mid to long-term investment horizons.  The performance is not guaranteed and fund values can go down as well as up.

There is an Annual Management Charge (AMC) of 0.6% a year, deducted on a monthly basis from your accumulated fund.

This fund provides access to the UK and overseas equity markets via index funds and aims to capture global equity market returns. It is invested broadly 50% in UK equities and 50% in overseas equities. The 50% overseas is divided approximately as follows: 17.5% in Europe (ex-UK), 17.5% in North America, 8.75% in Japan and 6.25% in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan). The Trustee may vary the asset allocation from time to time.

This fund is likely to be of specific interest to members with mid to long-term investment horizons.  The performance is not guaranteed and fund values can go down as well as up.

There is an Annual Management Charge (AMC) of 0.65% a year, deducted on a monthly basis from your accumulated fund. 

One of the principles of with-profits is that bonuses are smoothed. This means that when investment returns are high, some of that return is held back to enable bonuses to be maintained at a higher level when investment returns are negative or low. However, there is a limit as to how long the smoothing policy can be maintained if the value of investments falls significantly over a sustained period of time.

This unitised with-profits fund invests in a wide spread of UK and overseas shares, property holdings and fixed interest stocks. Bonuses are paid, usually in February, according to current investment conditions. When benefits are paid a terminal bonus in respect of returns and profits not already taken into account may be paid. It should be remembered that the terminal bonus is not guaranteed and the amount may fluctuate and even be reduced to zero

Charges are not taken directly from the fund but are taken account of before any bonuses are paid.

The primary aim of the fund is to maintain capital and provide returns before charges in line with short term money market rates by investing in deposits and short term money market instruments.

The fund price is not guaranteed by Standard Life and there could be circumstances where the fund price may fall. A fall might happen if, for example, there is a default by one of the banks where some of the money is held or where there is an adverse market movement in the value of some of the money market instruments held. A fall may also happen if fund income falls so low as to be less than the charges applied to the fund.

An Annual Management Charge (AMC) is applied to money invested in this fund. This charge is built into the unit price for the fund and is deducted daily. However, the Trustee has negotiated special terms for its employees which means Standard Life will rebate 0.75% of the AMC by adding units to your funds each month, reducing the effect of the AMC overall. The table below illustrates how the effective AMC is calculated: