Most Standard Life pension with-profits funds add regular bonuses, may pay a final bonus and normally guarantee a minimum at your chosen retirement date.
How a Standard Life pension with profits fund treats your plan depends on which fund holds it, since bonus rates, guaranteed growth and the cost of leaving early differ. Pension Wise gives free guidance on retirement options, and through the short form here an FCA-authorised adviser can call to go through your plan statement with you.
Which Standard Life pension with-profits fund is yours?
Standard Life's pension with-profits guide covers eight funds: Pension With Profits, Pension With Profits One, Pension 2 With Profits 2 and Pension Millennium With Profits, the 2006 versions of the last three, and Pension Inflation Plus. All sit in the Heritage With-Profits Fund; Pension With Profits and Pension Inflation are closed to further investment. Your plan statement names the fund; the wider range is in Standard Life pension funds.
The owner is Phoenix Life Limited, trading as Standard Life. The technical rules below come from the Principles and Practices of Financial Management for the Heritage With-Profits Fund (PPFM, January 2026), covering policies transferred or reinsured into that fund on 27 October 2023 and business written in it since. Standard Life says "Most with-profit plans are covered by this PPFM"; a Stakeholder Pension Plan taken out on or after 10 July 2006 has a separate PPFM (UK Smoothed Managed With-Profits Fund), not covered here. Where a PPFM conflicts with your policy terms, the policy terms prevail.
The Stakeholder With Profits and Stakeholder With Profits 2006 funds pay no regular or final bonuses and carry no investment performance guarantee. Other firms' with-profits funds: Aviva's with-profits funds, Prudential and Phoenix.
How regular bonuses, final bonuses and smoothing work
Regular bonuses lift the unit price gradually; the PPFM says the price change depends on the guaranteed minimum growth rate and the regular bonus rate "and is not directly linked to the investment performance of the assets backing that class of policy". Bonus growth rates are usually declared once a year.
A final bonus may be added at payout, depending on how the assets have performed; it can go up or down and may be zero, and Standard Life normally declares final bonus rates twice a year. For unitised pensions the rates are currently a percentage of the accrued growth in unit value. In funds still taking new payments, transfers and switches, current practice holds the rate at zero for between 15 and 27 months, depending on when in the bonus year units arrive.
Smoothing evens out short-term market movements; Phoenix aims for it to be neutral for policyholders as a whole over time, but an individual payout "may be impacted positively or negatively".
There is no explicit annual management charge: charges are allowed for in the with-profits value, and the cost of guarantees may be deducted (see Standard Life pension charges and pension charges). In its 30 July 2026 declaration Standard Life said it was currently using some of the inherited estate to raise payouts at claim by around 9% for eligible plans. Only plans continually invested in with-profits since before 10 July 2006 can be entitled, and the rate may change or, in some circumstances, enhancements may stop altogether.
Standard Life with-profits bonus rates for 2026
Leaflet WP3, issued after the bonus announcement on 29 January 2026, gives these pension rates from 1 February 2026 until further notice (regular bonus rates do not apply to Pension Inflation Plus or the Stakeholder funds):
| Fund | Guaranteed growth | Bonus growth | Total growth a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pension With Profits | 4.0% | 0.0% | 4.0% |
| Pension With Profits One, Pension 2 With Profits 2, Pension Millennium With Profits (and their 2006 funds) | 0.0% | 3.0% | 3.0% |
Traditional conventional Personal Pension and Executive Pension plans had a reversionary bonus for the year to 15/11/25 of 0.25% on sum assured and 0.25% on attaching bonuses. In July 2026 Standard Life left regular rates unchanged and said it currently expects them to apply "at least until February 2027".
Purely as an illustration, Standard Life showed a pension started on 1 Aug 2006 with £200 a month (£48,000 in all), retiring at 65: a plan value of £76,073 on 01/08/2025 and a payout of £90,356 on 01/08/2026. It also estimated a gross return of 5.1% for the six months to 31/03/2026 on unitised pensions with a 0% minimum unit price growth rate (the One, Pension 2 and Millennium funds and their 2006 versions), before charges, expenses or smoothing.
"The figures shown refer to the past. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance." — Standard Life, With-profits bonus declaration, 30 July 2026
Standard Life holds the final bonus figure for your own plan; send the call-back form and, once an FCA-authorised adviser phones, ask how to request it.
What the Standard Life with-profits guarantee covers
The guaranteed growth rate is the minimum rate the unit price grows at; in Standard Life's words, "a 0% guaranteed growth rate means the unit price is guaranteed not to fall."
The payout guarantee is separate. WP3 says "A guaranteed minimum payout normally applies at the retirement date selected at the start of the plan, if it is used to take pension benefits, and on death." Some older pension plans may have a deduction for outstanding charges.
The PPFM also mentions maturing policies with guaranteed annuity terms. Your policy documents show whether yours has them; leave your details and an FCA-authorised adviser will explain any such terms on a free call. See guaranteed annuity rates.
Market value reduction or Unit Price Adjustment: when the price can be cut
Customer guides call a cut in unit value on leaving a market value reduction (MVR); the Heritage PPFM's term is Unit Price Adjustment. The July 2026 declaration adds that "there will be no MVR if a guarantee applies", generally on death or maturity or when pension benefits are taken on the retirement date chosen at the start, and that "Currently many plans don’t have an MVR."
The PPFM's summary of when a Unit Price Adjustment may apply to unitised pension units covers units:
- allocated from a fund switch or transfer value, or, depending on the policy, from a single premium or from any premium paid in the five years before a vesting date;
- cancelled on a vesting date if, after any cash lump sum, the proceeds are not immediately used to buy one or more annuities;
- cancelled on a vesting date more than five years before the originally selected one (Pension With Profits, Pension Millennium With Profits, Pension Millennium With Profits 2006 and Pension Inflation Plus funds) or, for other with-profits units, on any date other than the originally selected one;
- cancelled on a vesting date having been allocated in the previous five years by a transfer value, a switch or, for some policies, a single premium;
- cancelled to transfer the proceeds to another policy or pension scheme, or to discharge a court order.
An adjustment "will only be applied" when the fair payout plus any inherited estate enhancement is below the unit value. The list is a summary; contract terms decide. No amount is guaranteed on transfer, so a transfer value can be below the unit value.
Leaving before your selected retirement date: what to weigh
This page cannot say whether to stay or move; these points bear on it:
- whether the guarantee applies on the date and in the form you plan to take benefits (the guide says drawdown may need a transfer to a plan allowing flexible income);
- whether an MVR or Unit Price Adjustment would apply if you left sooner, and how much, which only Standard Life can calculate;
- whether you qualify for the inherited estate enhancement;
- your other pensions, tax and State Pension.
Standard Life's guide warns: "If you are thinking about leaving your with-profits investment, you may be giving up valuable guarantees." The same guide reminds readers that with-profits values can go down as well as up and may be worth less than was paid in. Request a call-back and an FCA-authorised adviser can set the guarantee, any reduction and your retirement income side by side. Background: transferring a pension, annuities, drawdown.
Pension Millennium, One and other Standard Life fund questions
Is the Pension Millennium With Profits fund any good?
From 1 February 2026 it has 0% guaranteed growth and 3.0% bonus growth, and is in the group behind the 5.1% estimated gross return above. Its fit turns on the selected retirement date and guarantee more than on rates.
What is the Standard Life pension with-profits asset allocation?
Standard Life says the assets are mainly equities, property, bonds and money market instruments, in a mix that "will reflect the with-profits guarantee under your plan".
Where is the Pension Millennium With Profits factsheet or fund code?
The pension guide points to investment guides GPEN4 and GPEN4R, and says you can call 0800 634 7474 for a copy.
If the answer hangs on your own guarantee, retirement date or other pensions, the enquiry form sets up a free talk about your Standard Life plan, led by an FCA-authorised adviser.
Sources, accessed 21 October 2026: Standard Life, Heritage With-Profits Fund PPFM, January 2026; Standard Life, With-Profits Pension Plans leaflet (WP3); Standard Life, With-profits bonus declaration, 30 July 2026; Standard Life, Guide to your with-profits investments for pension plans; Standard Life, With-profits information. Rates and terms can change.