Products December 1, 2011

Standard Life Canada Offers SRI Choices

December 1, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada has made changes to its group and retail offering in order to continue sharpening its strategic focus on the long-term savings and investment market.
Reported by

Employers can now add socially responsible investment (SRI) funds to investment options for any Standard Life group savings and retirement plan. Retail customers now have access to new simplified Ideal Term Funds. Effective January 1, 2012, Standard Life will stop selling its individual life insurance and critical illness products, but will continue to service its in-force block of life insurance business.  

The company will continue to include life insurance coverage in its group benefits offering. It will no longer sell individual universal life insurance, term insurance, whole life insurance and critical illness insurance.  

Standard Life is now offering four individual Meritas SRI Funds for group savings and retirement plans. Employers and their advisers can include these investment options immediately as part of a customized plan or, starting at the end of 2011, through the new Monitored Avenue Portfolio Program – Socially Responsible Investment options (MAPP-SRI options). The company said it chose funds for the MAPP-SRI options to provide long-term returns that aim to meet the needs of socially responsible investors and proper diversification amongst asset classes.   

As a result of the combination of Standard Life’s MAPP and SRI funds, group plan members can choose socially responsible investments tailored to their own unique risk profile and time to retirement. Their portfolios will subject to an automatic lifecycle and portfolio rebalancing and to Standard Life’s Quality & Choice Investment Program’s governance process.

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