An executive pension plan (EPP) is a company pension arranged for a director or senior employee; older plans can carry valuable extras worth checking.
If an old policy in your papers is called an executive pension plan, it is a retirement arrangement your employer, or your own company, set up for you, and it may have been closed to new payments for years. Plans bought before April 2006 can hold features that newer pensions lack, and those are easy to lose in a transfer. Pension Wise offers free, impartial guidance from a government service on your choices, and a trust deed and a transfer value are the two documents an FCA-authorised adviser would ask to see; to arrange a free conversation about them, complete the form on this page.
What is an executive pension plan?
It is a pension contract set up by an employer, usually for key employees, to build a fund for one person's retirement. Countrywide Assured, which now looks after one such plan, describes it as a contract where the trustees have established an occupational pension scheme to provide benefits under the plan's rules, set up by an employer "usually for key employees". Its plan was sold between 1 January 1980 and 30 June 1988, so the one you hold may be decades old.
The money usually came from the employer, and sometimes from the employee as well. In the plan Countrywide describes, regular premiums bought units in funds chosen from a range, and the policy value rested on the value of those units after charges. Unit-linked policies carry investment risk: Countrywide warns that unit prices "can go down as well as up" and that you may not get back what was originally invested.
Is an executive pension plan an occupational scheme?
Yes, in the sense that it is built on a trust and run by trustees, usually the employer. Countrywide says its plan is established by a Declaration of Trust and governed by standard rules, and that the trustees are responsible for the plan's day-to-day administration alongside the scheme administrator.
Some documents use the term more narrowly. Zurich's guide for trustees, which gives Zurich's interpretation of the law as at 31 January 2026, defines an "executive pension scheme" as one where a company is the only employer and the sole trustee, and whose members are current or former directors of the company, including at least one third of the current directors. A personal pension is a different contract: it is taken out by the individual, and you can read how it works in what a personal pension is. For how employers' schemes fit together, see workplace pension rules and what trustees do.
Tax-free cash and early retirement age in older plans
Two protections from before 6 April 2006 can still attach to an old plan: a tax-free lump sum bigger than the usual quarter, and a right to start the pension before 55. Neither is automatic in every plan, so each is worth checking.
Take the cash first. HMRC's Pensions Tax Manual says a pension commencement lump sum normally cannot exceed 25% of the total rights coming into payment, yet some pensions built up under the old regime promised more. The name for the exception is scheme-specific lump sum protection. It belongs to one particular scheme, needs no claim to HMRC, and does not oblige the scheme to pay the maximum. Among its conditions, the person was a member on 5 April 2006 and their uncrystallised lump sum rights then made up more than 25% of their total rights in that scheme. The usual ceiling on tax-free cash today is the lump sum allowance, which GOV.UK gives as £268,275; HMRC's manual sets out how a protected sum is tested against the allowances, and the scheme administrator can say how that works for your plan.
Now the age. The earliest age at which someone had a right, before April 2006, to start their pension is their protected pension age, and it can survive today. It belongs to one registered pension scheme, so the same person could hold one age under one plan and another under a second. For an occupational scheme, HMRC points to a right on 5 April 2006 to take benefits before age 55. Even then, in HMRC's words, having it "does not mean the scheme has to pay benefits from the member’s protected pension age". Without protection, HMRC's rule is age 55 at the earliest, becoming 57 from 6 April 2028. The full conditions are in protected pension age, and the age 57 change covers the rise.
Ask the scheme administrator whether your old plan carries either protection; an FCA-authorised adviser can also check the plan papers with you, if you leave your number.
What happens to an executive pension plan today
A closed plan keeps working under the pension tax rules and its own terms, but it may no longer accept money. Countrywide's plan is an example: it says no further contributions can be made, premiums have ceased, and the policy stays paid up. It cannot be cashed in, though from 55 (57 from 6 April 2028) the pension benefits can be taken as a lump sum, as an annuity, or through drawdown arranged with another product or provider. Other providers' plans will differ, so check your own terms.
Death benefits depend on the plan's trust. In the Countrywide example the lump sum normally goes to the trustees, who have discretion over who receives it and consider any nominations you have made; if there is no trustee because the company has stopped trading, the personal representatives step in. Where a company no longer exists, finding a lost pension covers tracing the provider. For the general rules on what happens to a pension at death, see pension death benefits.
Before you move an executive pension plan: guarantees, charges and cash
Start with what you would lose. MoneyHelper's advice on defined contribution pensions is to look for special features or guarantees and any exit fees; its examples include guaranteed annuity rates, which can turn a pension into a higher guaranteed income, and a protected minimum age below 55. Aviva notes that most guaranteed annuity rates come with strict conditions, so you might lose the rate if you transfer. Countrywide's summary says transfers are allowed but that a penalty may apply. Guaranteed annuity rates are explained separately, and whether one is worth keeping turns on the figures in your policy.
Then the tax-free cash. Countrywide warns that a plan holding benefits built up before 6 April 2006 may carry a tax-free cash entitlement above 25%, and that you may lose it on transfer unless certain conditions are met. It says it will calculate the entitlement at 6 April 2006 and revalue it before processing a request.
Receiving firms can have rules of their own. Fidelity says that if a pension has safeguarded benefits or guarantees you must speak to an adviser before transferring, because the value of such benefits is normally lost once you transfer and cannot usually be reinstated. Ask your provider which transfer forms apply to an executive plan before you start. Where the plan includes promised benefits, the legal advice check is explained in the transfer advice requirement, and how to transfer a pension lists the steps. A guaranteed annuity rate is one such promised benefit: the FCA's transfer rules treat it as a safeguarded benefit, with special provisions where it is the only one, and under regulation 5 of SI 2015/742 the trustees' check is not needed where the transfer value of safeguarded benefits is £30,000 or less.
Be wary of anyone who contacts you about moving an old plan. The FCA says: "You should be very wary of any scheme offering to help you release cash from your pension before you’re 55. It’s almost certainly a scam." See pension scams for the warning signs.
Block transfers and single-member plans
A transfer can strip a protected pension age or a bigger tax-free sum unless it is a block transfer. Protection normally stays with the original scheme. HMRC's manual says the protected age is lost on moving to a new scheme unless the move is a block transfer or the destination is itself protected; protected pension age on transfer goes through that rule. In short, a block transfer moves everything held for the member and at least one other member in one go; the block transfer guide sets out the full conditions, including a limit on prior membership of the receiving scheme.
That is the catch for an individual plan. HMRC says an occupational pension scheme that only has one member, for example an individual arrangement, "cannot normally make a block transfer", and that the only time a single member scheme can do so is when it is being wound up. Lump sum protection follows the same logic: it is lost on a transfer that is not a block transfer, and a partial move out of the plan cannot qualify, so the part moved loses protection, while the rights left behind keep it, though HMRC says the partial transfer reduces the protected lump sum in the original plan. Whether your plan has one member or several, and whether a wind-up could apply, depends on its trust documents.
Trust papers and transfer values are easier to read with an FCA-authorised adviser alongside; requesting a callback via the form costs nothing.
Old executive plan: five things readers ask
Can I still pay into my executive pension plan?
That depends on the plan. Countrywide's plan no longer accepts contributions, transfers in or new plans of that type. Your provider can say whether yours is open.
How do I find an old Prudential, Phoenix, Zurich or Scottish Widows plan?
Start with the policy number on any letter or statement and contact the company named. Providers can handle executive plans on their own forms: Zurich's fund-switch form, for one, says it is not suitable for executive pension accounts. If the company has been taken over, tracing a lost pension helps.
Is an executive pension plan the same as a SSAS?
No. A small self-administered scheme is a separate type of arrangement, covered in SIPP versus SSAS.
Can an executive pension plan be moved into a SIPP?
Some providers accept it. Fidelity lists executive pension plans among the pension types it accepts, subject to its checks on safeguarded benefits. What the move would do to your plan's guarantees and protections is covered above, and how a SIPP works is a separate guide.
Do I pay tax when I take money from it?
Normally no more than 25% of the rights coming into payment can be taken tax-free, unless the plan carries the lump sum protection described above. The tax-free lump sum guide and the retirement options guide explain the rest. Few people hold an old executive plan on its own, and having it weighed against your other savings by an FCA-authorised adviser costs nothing: send the enquiry form to arrange the call.