Standard Life continues trend of lower with-profits returns

Group's most aggressive asset mix produces 6.7% gross return over 2007, in line with lower performance reported this bonus season

Standard Life's best with-profits performance was 6.7% over 2007, continuing the theme of lower returns for this bonus season. The group runs seven asset mixes to reflect differing guarantee levels. This return, from the UK Smoothed Managed Stakeholder Pension, came from one of the more aggressive allocations. This fund has 69% in equities, 22.8% in bonds and 8.2% in cash. As expected, the lowest return came from the most conservative asset mix for policies offering guaranteed annual unit price growth of up to 4%. By contrast, this portfolio has 63.5% in fixed interest, 20.4% in equ...