Family Suntrust

How does it work?

Family Suntrust offers a number of retirement solutions and investment options to groups of people who want to invest together – a family for example. It’s their very own personal tax-efficient pension scheme with a wide selection of investments managed as one portfolio.

Family Suntrust is a tax-efficient way to build up a retirement fund and gives your clients a range of options when they retire. It also gives them the chance to provide for the people closest to them when they die.

You must be appointed as the Financial Adviser before the scheme can be set up, and everyone in the scheme must use you, for advice in relation to the scheme.

Who is it for?

Family Suntrust could suit a group of individuals such as a family group or business partners. Your clients need to have at least £200,000 between them to invest together.

There must be a lead member who decides who is going to join the scheme at the start, but after that has no more obligations or rights than anyone else in the scheme. Your clients can pay regular annual or single contributions, or can transfer the value of another pension plan they have, any such payments are subject to a minimum of £1,000. Most new contributions get tax relief, but there are limits your clients need to be aware of .

Investment options

Family Suntrust is extremely flexible. Members of the scheme have a number of options as to how their money is invested and what each of them can do with it when it comes to taking the benefits.

Investing together in a ‘pooled fund’ can open up a wide range of investment possibilities. These include a number of onshore and offshore options as well as UK commercial property. Clients can also use one of the Discretionary Fund Managers available with the product if it suits them.

There are some restrictions on how the pooled fund operates. It is important to realise that any decision made in relation to it must have the unanimous written agreement of all the participants in the pooled fund. The value of the pooled fund can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed which means your clients could get back less than they invest.

Retirement benefits

When it comes to taking retirement benefits, Members of the scheme have a number of choices. These run from a relatively straightforward Lifetime Annuity to riskier but potentially more flexible options like Income Drawdown and Scheme Pension.

Servicing

The AXA Group is committed to excellent customer service. We aim to be easy to deal with and want you to know that you are in good hands.

All Family Suntrust Schemes are managed by our Self Investment Centre of Excellence, which is a dedicated team bringing together pensions administration and self-investment knowledge. If you or your clients have any questions, you will be able to speak to one of our friendly and experienced team.

Further infomation

For full information about how to set up Family Suntrust, why it might be suitable, who can join and how payments can be made, please speak to your AXA Winterthur Wealth Management Business Development Manager or call 0845 0742848.