Family Flexible Plan

Work together to benefit your family

Thinking about tax-free savings and investments for your family? Family Flexible Plan may be the right thing. You get more out of family savings and investments by pooling your investments in Family Flexible Plan.

Tax-free family investments

Family Flexible Plan is for families in the UK. Members of your family aged up to 64 can invest. You're allowed to put up to £25 per family member every month tax-free in family investments with a friendly society such as Scottish Friendly. This is over and above other tax-free allowances such as ISAs.

With Family Flexible Plan you don’t pay tax on the growth of your family investment (although like ISAs and pensions, tax is automatically deducted from UK share dividends). And there’s no tax to pay when you cash in your family plan after 10 years. Please note that tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and the levels and basis of taxation may change in the future.

When you start your Family Flexible Plan your plan is set up for 15 years. You should aim to invest for at least 10 of these years to give your investment plan long-term growth potential plus a tax-free lump sum. But you can of course choose to exit your investment plan earlier, just as you see fit.

If you need your money earlier than planned, no problem. You have the flexibility to take your money out whenever you need to. However, you may have to pay tax on profits if you cash in your investment plan before 10 years. For details, please see the Key Features for adult investments and Key Features for the children.

Start a regular family savings and investment habit

Family Flexible Plan may also do the trick if you want to start a regular family savings and investment habit. The plan is set up for a family, but each family member receives an individual policy that is their property, so everyone benefits.

It doesn’t matter what you need family savings and investments for in the future. For your home, a holiday or something unexpected. You decide when the time is ripe, but you know in advance that each family member will have a cash lump sum to look forward to when they need it.

Meanwhile, you put away a small amount into your family investment every month. That’s the regular bit. How much depends on you. The minimum is £15 and the tax-free limit is £25 per month per family member. This limit is set by the Government to benefit everyone. As long as you, and your family members, haven’t used up your tax exempt savings allowance either with us, or another friendly society you can invest tax-free in Family Flexible Plan.

You’ve got lots of options for family investments

You can take out a family investment plan for up to five people. Family Flexible Plan is actually a collection of individual tax-free investment plans. You’re allowed to invest one plan per family member. When you set up your family plan you can split your total monthly payment across as many family members as you like. Plus you have the added flexibility of deciding who will pay into each plan.

Take for example a family of four, consisting of Mum, Dad and their two children. Dad can make an investment for his plan and one of the children. Mum can make an investment for her plan and one of the children. Alternatively, Mum or Dad could pay for the entire family investment.

In any case, putting money aside into your family investments could quickly become a habit. When you set up paying into your Family Flexible Plan by Direct Debit, you choose the day the money leaves your account. Make it payday and you may hardly notice the payment.

About growth and risks

Your Family Flexible Plan money is invested in the Scottish Friendly UK Tracker Fund. The fund closely tracks the performance of shares in the stock market, investing in UK household names such as Tesco, BSkyB and BT.

We regularly review our funds and what they’re tracking. So hopefully, as the value of the funds rise, your family investment can grow. Plus, annual dividends are reinvested in the fund to bolster long-term growth. Of course, as you know, share prices go down as well as up and you’re not guaranteed to get back your original investment.

With us, you only pay a small cost for the life cover that’s automatically included for each participating family member as a condition of the tax benefits. The level of cover and the cost of any deduction depends on the age of the individual family member and their monthly payments. You should consider if this is appropriate for your financial needs.

Get your Family Flexible Plan

Submitting your application for Family Flexible Plan with Scottish Friendly is safe and easy.

Make sure you have read and understood the Key Features for adult and Key Features for child investments then simply apply online for your family investment.

If you apply, we suggest printing or saving a copy of this page, other relevant pages and the Key Features.