There is a question I get asked a lot, and it is almost never phrased this way: "I have money just sitting there, what do I do with it?" The honest answer starts with another question: do you need to know for certain how much you will have, or are you willing to accept that it could be more and it could be less? If it is the first, there is a product built for exactly that.
What a single contribution actually means
Single-contribution savings work the opposite way round to what most people imagine when they think about saving. There is no monthly payment and no commitment to keep contributing: you put in an amount once, when you take it out, and that is it. From then on there is nothing to remember.
It is a single-contribution product, as a guide from €10,000 upwards. It is designed precisely for money you have already gathered and will not need in the short term: a compensation payment, a sale, an inheritance, years of current account. If what you want is the opposite — paying in a little at a time — then the one that fits is Flexible Guaranteed Savings, not this one.
You can see the full terms and ask for your figure on the Guaranteed Super Plan page
- ✓One single contribution no recurring payments to remember.
- ✓As a guide from €10,000 I'll confirm the current minimum.
- ✓For money already gathered that you will not need in the short term.
Guaranteed from day one: what that means
This is the difference that genuinely matters, and it is worth saying plainly: the capital and the interest are guaranteed until maturity, and they are given to you when you sign. It is not a projection, nor an "expected" return, nor a record of previous years. It is the figure you will reach if you keep the policy to the end.
And once it is in force, the technical interest rate is guaranteed for the whole agreed term, whatever the market does. It cannot drop halfway through because things turn ugly outside. That is the reason this product exists: for people who would rather know than wait.
In one sentence: with single-contribution savings you do not walk away with an estimate, you walk away with a figure — and that figure does not change while the policy is in force.
- ✓Capital and interest guaranteed until maturity.
- ✓Given to you when you sign not at the end.
- ✓The interest cannot drop during the agreed term.
This is not the stock market, and why that matters
Guaranteed savings and a market investment are alike in that both aim to grow your money, and different in everything else. In a market product the value rises and falls, and what you end up with depends on when you get out. In guaranteed savings there is no risk of losing money to market movements, because the return does not depend on them.
That does not make one good and the other bad: they are different tools for different people, and even for different parts of the same person's money. If what you are after is market exposure, the product in the range that does that is Fondvida, not the Super Plan. And if what you want is to sleep soundly with a known figure, the Super Plan.
If you are still not sure which savings option suits you, they are all explained and compared on the savings insurance page
- ✓No market risk the return does not depend on the stock market.
- ✓It is not an investment it is guaranteed savings.
- ✓For market exposure the option that does that is Fondvida.
If you need the money sooner, or if something happens
This is the part worth reading before you sign, not after. You can request a full or partial surrender at any time: the money is not locked away. What does happen is that an early surrender may affect the guaranteed return agreed at the outset, because that guarantee was calculated to run to maturity. I explain the exact terms before you decide anything.
And if you were to die during the contract, your beneficiaries receive the accumulated value of the policy plus an additional capital sum, as a guide 4% of the surrender value, according to the terms in force. You can name one or several beneficiaries, split the capital in whatever percentages you prefer, and change it whenever you need to.
One more thing worth having in mind from the start: what you earn is taxed, and it is taxed differently depending on when you cash it in. I explain it in detail here
- ✓Full or partial surrender at any time.
- ✓An early surrender may affect the agreed return.
- ✓Beneficiaries one or several, with the percentages you choose.
What this product does not do
For the sake of honesty, and because it avoids misunderstandings: a Super Plan does not accept later contributions. It is single-contribution, and that means once. If further down the line you want to carry on saving regularly, this one is not extended: you take out Flexible Guaranteed Savings alongside it. They are separate products and perfectly compatible, just as they are with Children's Savings or with Fondvida.
To take it out you will mainly need your ID and evidence of the origin of the funds you are contributing, under anti-money-laundering rules. It can be taken out from the age of legal majority. And when maturity arrives the decision is yours: you take the capital, or we look at taking out a new one on whatever terms apply then.
The financial terms — charges and fees — are set out in the pre-contractual documentation, and we go through it line by line together before you sign. No surprises: it is the only way a savings product does what you expect it to do.
- ✓No extra contributions for that, Flexible alongside it.
- ✓ID and origin of funds under anti-money-laundering rules.
- ✓At maturity you decide take the capital or take out a new one.