Scottish Widows pension fees by product: 0.30% a year on the Ready-Made Pension, 0.25% on the SIPP, and a service charge by account size elsewhere.
Which figures apply depends on the product. Scottish Widows' compare page sets out two personal pensions, the Ready-Made Pension and the SIPP; the Retirement Account has its own guide for advised customers; workplace schemes include a Group Personal Pension and the Master Trust; and older personal and stakeholder plans have charge sheets of their own. Each figure below is dated by print code or by the day the page was read. Want your Scottish Widows statements looked at beside your other pensions? Our form on this page is free, and the person who phones back is an FCA-authorised adviser.
This page covers UK-wide pensions, not Scotland's separate public-sector schemes or Scottish divorce rules (see pensions on divorce).
Ready-Made Pension and SIPP charges side by side
The key features name Embark Investments Services Limited as the Ready-Made Pension's provider. The fund-charge figures for the Ready-Made Pension come from the compare page, read 19 October 2026.
| Charge | Ready-Made Pension (RMP KFD 0004 (0226 IH)) | SIPP (WOMSIPP KFD 0007 (0726 IH)) |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | "An annual Account fee of 0.30%, taken monthly, based on the overall value of your Account (this is subject to a minimum of £5 a month)." | "An annual SIPP administration charge of 0.25%", "capped at £16.50 a month (£198 a year)". |
| Fund charges | "ongoing investment fund charges of 0.1%" and "fund transaction costs of up to 0.19%". | "Typically, ongoing charges could be between 0.25% to 1.5%, and transaction costs around 0.5%," depending on the fund. |
| Dealing | – | Normally "Online UK Shares - £5 per trade (discounts could apply)"; international shares and funds nil, though a 1.5% foreign exchange rate still applies. |
| Drawdown and transfers | "There's no additional charge for accessing your retirement benefits, or for transferring in or out." | "There are no additional charges for accessing your benefits in flexi-access Drawdown, transferring in or away." |
On the Ready-Made Pension the account fee "is applicable as long as your Account remains active, even if you stop contributing into it", and the investment charges "won't appear in your statement" because they come through in investment performance. The key features also say your Charges Information Document (CID) sets the fee out in two parts: an annual minimum charge of £60 (£5 per month) and a "0.30% charge, applied to the value above £20,000". The compare page gives "0.3% a year, minimum £5 a month". Your own CID shows the figures for your account. On the SIPP the charge "excludes any uninvested cash held", and the key features ask you to keep enough uninvested cash to cover charges.
Any fund can lose value as well as gain it, and a pension may be worth less than was put into it. How the SIPP structure works in general is in the SIPP guide, and the funds on offer are in Scottish Widows pension funds.
The Retirement Account: a service charge by size of account
The guide for advised customers (print code 45816 09/25) says three types of charge apply to a Retirement Account: a service charge, investment charges and adviser charges. "As the total value of your Account increases, the rate of Service Charge can decrease." The table in the guide, which it says shows "the current rates that apply for new Retirement Account applications", reads:
| Total value of the Retirement Account | Service charge a year |
|---|---|
| £0k to under £30k | 0.90% |
| £30k to under £50k | 0.40% |
| £50k to under £250k | 0.30% |
| £250k to under £500k | 0.25% |
| £500k to under £1m | 0.20% |
| £1m and over | 0.10% |
The guide does not set out whether a band's rate applies to the whole account or only to the value within that band, so the charge in pounds on a given account is a question for Scottish Widows or your adviser.
The investment charge depends on the funds. In the fund sheet (45422 07/26, correct on 31 March 2026) the Total Annual Fund Charge is, for example, 0.100% for Pension Portfolio 1, 0.400% for Premier Pension Portfolio 1, 1.000% for SW Artemis UK Select and 1.089% for Scottish Widows Property. That charge is made of an annual management charge and "Other Expenses", and the sheet says it leaves out the transaction costs of buying and selling inside the fund.
Adviser charges are whatever you agreed with your adviser. On drawdown: "There's no additional charge for income drawdown", and the guide says no charge for transferring your pensions or changing your investment choice. How drawdown works is in the drawdown guide; what Pension Wise guidance covers is in the Pension Wise guide.
Older personal and stakeholder plans: Series 1 and Series 2
Scottish Widows' personal pensions charges sheet (16981 05/26, correct on 31 March 2026) groups funds by series. Series 1: "Pension products which have a standard Annual Management Charge of 0.875% for most of our funds"; Series 2 is for products with "a standard Annual Management Charge of 1% for most of our funds". In the Series 2 table, Global Equity Series 2 shows a Total Annual Fund Charge of 1.000% and Property Series 2 shows 1.689%. The sheet also says "There is an equivalent charge for with-profits units which we currently expect to be at a yearly rate of about 1.000%". Stakeholder pension charges are not on this sheet.
For a Stakeholder Pension Plan, the adviser page (read 19 October 2026) says "The AMC is the only charge and currently set at a maximum of 1%", with the exact charge on the policy illustration. The April 2024 key features (53423 04/24) print no rate; they say your illustration shows the current charges and that three months' notice is given of any increase.
To find which table applies to you, the charges sheet says your annual benefit statement "will detail the funds and series you are invested in". The pension transfers page says charges can often be found in your policy documents, and that it cannot check them for you as they are personal, though its Pension Helpdesk will talk through its charges. Worth asking: which series, whether a plan or policy charge sits on top, and whether leaving would cost anything. For exit charges and what a move could cost, see pension transfer fees; the steps are in how to transfer a pension.
Through an employer: Group Personal Pension and Master Trust
The workplace savings page for advisers lists contract solutions such as a Group Personal Pension and trust solutions such as the Scottish Widows Master Trust, described as "specifically aimed at medium to large sized employers with 500+ members". For the Group Personal Pension it says: "We have a simple annual management charge, taken regularly out of employees plan, with no set-up cost or additional fees." No rate is printed on that page, so the percentage that applies to you is the one in your own scheme documents.
For the Master Trust, the member page says the trustees "need to report charges and transaction costs for each default investment option and each alternative fund option which members are able to select", which they do in the published chair's statement. Put the scheme's name in our form on this page so that the FCA-authorised adviser who calls can weigh its charge against your other pensions.
A 0.75% charge cap covers default funds used for automatic enrolment. Trust-based schemes take it from regulation 6 of SI 2015/879; for workplace personal pensions the FCA sets it in COBS 19.6.6R. The Scottish Widows pages read do not say which rule reaches a particular scheme, and your employer can confirm the kind of scheme you are in. The cap's detail sits in pension charges and fees, providers are compared in workplace pension providers, and the enrolment rules in auto-enrolment explained.
Our working: three charges in pounds
This is our arithmetic on the published rates above, not a Scottish Widows figure. It leaves out fund charges, transaction costs, dealing and adviser charges, and the rates can change.
| Product and pot | Working | Result a year |
|---|---|---|
| SIPP, £40,000 invested | 0.25% x £40,000 | £100 |
| SIPP, cap reached | £16.50 x 12 = £198; £198 / 0.25% | £198 from £79,200 invested |
| Ready-Made Pension, £100,000 | 0.30% x £100,000; or, as the CID sets it out, £60 + 0.30% x £80,000 | £300 account fee either way |
For how other providers set out their charges, see Legal & General pension fees and Aviva pension charges.
Scottish Widows pension fees: questions people ask
Does Scottish Widows charge to transfer a pension out?
The Ready-Made Pension and SIPP key features say they do not charge for transferring out, and the Retirement Account guide says the same of transferring to another provider. The receiving provider, and any older plan, may have its own terms.
Where can I see the fund charges on my pension?
On a Retirement Account the Total Annual Fund Charge appears in the illustration as "Investment Management Charge each year". On the Ready-Made Pension, exact costs are in the Charges Information Document.
Your next step
Charges are one part of whether a pension fits, beside guarantees, fund choice and tax. List each pension you hold, Scottish Widows included, on the form on this page. A call-back from an FCA-authorised adviser follows, and asking carries no fee.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: Scottish Widows, Ready-Made Pension key features (RMP KFD 0004 (0226 IH)); SIPP key features (WOMSIPP KFD 0007 (0726 IH)); Retirement Account guide (45816 09/25); Retirement Account fund charges (45422 07/26); personal pensions charges (16981 05/26); Stakeholder Pension Plan key features (53423 04/24); compare-pensions, workplace savings, Master Trust member and pension transfers web pages; SI 2015/879 regulation 6; FCA Handbook COBS 19.6. Scottish Widows' figures can change.