Investment Control

What is it?

Investment Control is our onshore bond that offers clients with as little as £5,000 to invest:

• a money-back guarantee when they choose the protected investment option
• access to over 90 funds*
• various ways to pay

*Clients that choose our protected investment option will have access to a different range of funds as detailed in the protected investment section.

You can download a full summary of the product details here.

You also have the choice to submit online, and earn an extra 0.25% commission (at no cost to your client).

Our protected investment option

This option is our money-back guarantee and is ideal for your more cautious clients. They’ll have complete peace of mind knowing that even in volatile markets we guarantee to give them back their original investment, less any withdrawals:

• on the death of last person covered, from day one
• on cash-in, from year five

The only circumstance in which the guarantee wouldn't apply is if Scottish Equitable plc fails. In this unlikely event, the benefits from their bond may be affected.

Then on the tenth anniversary of each investment, and every five years after that, if the fund value is greater than the amount invested less any withdrawals, we’ll set this as the new higher guaranteed amount. If your client selects this option, they’ll have access to the following funds:

Cash
70/30 Core Portfolio
70/30 Multi-manager Portfolio

Core portfolio

Our Core portfolio may be suitable for clients who prefer a simple investment approach. This portfolio is a mix of our UK Fixed Interest fund, managed by AEGON Asset Management, and the UK Index Tracker fund, managed by BlackRock.

Multi-manager portfolio

This is a mix of a portfolio of equity funds from our full life fund range and our UK Fixed Interest fund. The equity element of the fund is chosen on our behalf by Morningstar Associates Europe Ltd, the investment consulting arm of Morningstar.

As well as these portfolios, we also offer our Cash fund.

The graph below will help you to visualise the benefits of this guarantee. Although please note that the fund performance shown isn’t an indication of what we think will happen in the future. It’s purely an example to show how the money-back guarantee could work.

For more information on these funds, take a look at our fund factsheets

Protected investment option fee

There are specific charges for our protected investment option. These depend on the investment choice and are in addition to the annual management charge.

The table below shows these charges.

Fund	Yearly fee
Cash	0.25%
70/30 Core and Multi-manager portfolios	1.5%

Compensation

Your client's bond comes under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 for compensation arrangements. For more information, please go to www.fscs.org.uk.