Retirement Account

• Withdrawals could deplete the fund before death, your client could run out of money in their lifetime. 
• The value of your client’s investment could go down as well as up. They may not get back what they have paid in.
  
• Inflation will affect the value of the money your client gets back.
• If the total of charges and costs are higher than the investment growth, your client's plan will fall in value. Charges may also increase in future. 
• The amount of income your client takes could push them into a higher tax bracket.
• If your client is transferring their pension to us, there is no guarantee that the overall amount they receive will be as high as what they could have received from their previous provider, also any guaranteed rates that they had with their previous provider will not be transferred.

The Prudential Retirement Account is available to anyone who is a resident of the United Kingdom. It can be opened up on behalf of children under the age of 18.

Clients can make payments in to the Retirement Account until they are aged 75.

Money from another pension can be transferred in before and after the age of 75.

There is no maximum contribution or transfer amount, but for any requests to invest a total of £1 million or more, please contact your account manager. Contributions must be made in Sterling from a UK bank account.

Drawdown allows clients to take a tax-free lump sum and income payments directly from their pension fund, thereby allowing potential investment growth on the remaining fund.

Clients can normally start taking pensions benefits from drawdown from age 55.

Our Retirement Account offers two drawdown options:

Flexi-Access Drawdown

• A form of drawdown which allows you to take an unlimited amount of income or lump sums from a pension fund.

Capped Income Drawdown

• Restrictions apply to the amount of income that can be withdrawn.

• Capped Drawdown is no longer available for new arrangements and can only be taken if transferring from an existing Capped Drawdown arrangement.

• Our Capped Drawdown GAD Calculator can be used to find out the monthly gilt yield and impact of this on the amount of income that can be taken from income drawdown as well as seeing historic gilt yields in a chart and table format.

• Three yearly income reviews are required.

Benefits of Drawdown

• Currently up to 25% tax-free lump sum can be taken, and without starting to take a regular income.
• Client control over investment - may be able to take an increasing income if investment grows, but equally, this may be reduced if it falls in value.
• Investment continuity for clients moving from our Pension Savings Account into Pension Income Account.
• Pension pots or drawdown plans held with other providers can be transferred across quickly and efficiently.

Please remember that your client's fund could be depleted before their death and they may run out of money in their lifetime if they continue to take income from their investment. 

Taxation is dependent on your client's individual circumstances and can change in the future.

The Retirement Account offers a wide range of investment choices. Your client can hold any combination of investment options, including our established PruFund range of funds and hundreds of collective funds, within one pension.

Remember that the value of your client’s investment can go down as well as up. They may not get back what they have paid in.

PruFund range of funds

The PruFund range of funds aim to grow your client's money whilst smoothing the investment journey. For more information on the PruFund funds, see our PruFund Fund Guide (PDF).

For Expected Growth Rates (EGR) and historical performance, check our EGR hub.

PruFund Planet Fund Range

A choice of five risk-managed, multi-asset funds each with its own risk profile, actively managed by M&G's Treasury and Investment Office (T&IO). PruFund Planet enables advisers to design an investment strategy that suits the client’s appetite for risk and reward, whilst helping to ensure their money works to deliver positive environmental and societal outcomes.

More about PruFund Planet Fund Range

Prudential Risk Managed Active Range

A choice of five risk-managed multi-asset collective funds each with its own risk profile, investing at least 70% in active collective investments. M&G Investment Management Ltd, part of M&G plc, are the investment managers for the Risk Managed Active funds. They make the relevant adjustments to the portfolio based on M&G Treasury & Investment Office recommendations.

More about the Risk Managed Active Range

Prudential Risk Managed Passive Range

A choice of five risk-managed multi-asset collective funds each with its own risk profile, investing at least 70% in passive collective investments. M&G Investment Management Ltd, part of M&G plc, are the investment managers for the Risk Managed Passive funds. They make the relevant adjustments to the portfolio based on M&G Treasury & Investment Office recommendations.

More about the Risk Managed Passive Range

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Funds

We’ve increased the choice of funds available on Retirement Account by adding a range of ESG funds (including the PruFund Planet Fund Range detailed above) which invest in asset classes such as equities, fixed income, property and alternatives, from a range of M&G and external fund managers.

Within the range there are both sustainable and climate focused funds managed by M&G, meeting high ESG standards and investing in companies driven by sustainability.

More about the ESG Funds

Collective Funds

Your client can also access hundreds of collective investment funds from a variety of fund management groups, allowing them to choose funds with different managers or management approaches.

We provide a fund filtering tool, fund fact sheets and fund reporting documents to help you review and suggest the right investments for your client.

Other investment options

For even more choice, we also give access to other investment options, such as direct investment in UK stocks and shares, investment trusts and exchange traded funds through Stocktrade.

The PruFund Protected Funds are currently unavailable to new investments.

If your client invests in certain PruFunds from the PruFund range of funds, two different kinds of guarantee may be available, at an additional charge. 

• A capital guarantee that can secure all or part of certain PruFund investments at a set date in the future; this is the guarantee date.
• A minimum income guarantee that can secure a minimum income from all or part of certain PruFund investments in your Pension Income Account.

The PruFund Protected Funds are currently unavailable to new investments.

There is a charge for both types of guarantee, taken monthly. The price paid is set when your client takes out a guarantee and applies for the length of time the guarantee is in place. Although our guarantee charges may vary in the future for other investments, your client will continue to pay the charge fixed at the beginning of their guarantee.

If a new guarantee is taken out, a different charge may apply.

If your client turns off a guarantee, they can't have another guarantee of the same kind for 12 months unless:

• they are adding a guarantee to new payments to their plan, or
• they have switched off a guarantee in their Pension Savings Account so they can move money to their Pension Income Account where they want a guarantee to apply 

Guarantees will automatically come to an end on your client's death and can't be passed on to any beneficiaries. Beneficiaries will be able to take out guarantees of their own.

The Retirement Account offers flexible adviser charging options, which you can tailor to your business model and client requirements.

• The charge is deducted from the cash account or in line with the disinvestment profile provided if insufficient cash exists.

• Adviser charges can be taken proportionally across all of your client's funds or you can specify which funds you want charges to be taken from.

Initial Adviser Charge

• Deducted prior to investment for new business.

• The initial adviser charge is taken from the cash account (disinvestment of assets will be needed if insufficient cash exists).

• For single contributions and transfers, the charge can be expressed as a percentage of the contribution or a fixed monetary amount. The maximum adviser charge that can be facilitated is the lower of 5% of the initial investment or £20,000.

• For regular contributions, the charge can be specified as a single percentage of the contribution, payable for a number of premium payments as agreed with your client. The maximum adviser charge on regular contributions is equal or equivalent to 25% of the initial 12 monthly payments.

• For a percentage charge for initial advice on an unvested contribution the specified percentage is applied to the gross contribution, i.e the total of the contribution and the tax relief. The maximum amount is restricted to the value of contribution before tax relief is added.

Ad hoc Adviser Charge

• Selected as a specified monetary amount. The maximum ad hoc charge is 2% of the fund value in a 12 month period.

• The charge will be deducted from the cash account (disinvestment of assets will be needed if insufficient cash exists).

Ongoing Adviser Charges

• Applied monthly, quarterly or annually - a fixed monetary amount or a percentage of up to 1% of  the Account fund value.
• The charge will be deducted from the cash account (disinvestment of assets will be needed if insufficient cash exists).