• New version now integrates directly with customers’ pension details, removing the need for manual data entry
  • Enhanced functionality allows customers to set a personalised income target and model how flexible drawdown could bridge the gap before State Pension Age
  • While 89% of people want a guaranteed income in retirement, 79% also value the freedom to access their pension savings when they choose

Standard Life has launched an enhanced version of its Mixed Income Builder, a digital planning tool designed to help savers understand how to create an income in retirement that balances long term security with financial flexibility.

Available through the Standard Life customer dashboard and mobile app, Mixed Income Builder automatically uses customers’ pension values and contribution details to create a personalised retirement income plan. By removing the need for manual data entry, it provides tailored modelling based on a customer's individual circumstances.

In addition to using the Pensions UK Retirement Living Standards as a guide, the tool allows customers to set a personalised essential income target, supported by an integrated budgeting tool. This helps customers understand how much guaranteed income they may need to cover essential living costs in retirement, such as housing, utilities and food.

Customers can also explore retiring at different ages, including before their State Pension age, and model how drawdown could be used to bridge the gap before State Pension income begins. Illustrations show the level of regular income their savings might support and how long this could be expected to last.

Through Mixed Income Builder, customers can see how different sources of retirement income could work together, including the State Pension, defined benefit (DB) pensions, annuities and drawdown. The results are presented in a clear, easy to understand format, with the option to download a personalised summary.

The launch comes as Standard Life’s Retirement Voice report 1 shows that 89% of people want a guaranteed income in retirement. At the same time, 79% want the flexibility to access their pension savings as their needs change over time, underlining continued demand for solutions that offer both security and choice.

Planning a retirement income can feel daunting because people often want two things at once – the reassurance of a secure, guaranteed income and the freedom to stay flexible. Mixed Income Builder is designed to make those decisions easier, helping people understand what they may need to cover their essentials for life, and how a blend of guaranteed and flexible income could support the retirement they want.

By launching Mixed Income Builder directly within our customer dashboard and mobile app, we’re making retirement planning more seamless and personal. Automatically pulling through pension details means customers can focus on exploring their options with greater confidence.

- Esther Hawley, Head of Retirement Proposition at Standard Life

Mixed Income Builder helps customers understand:

  • Whether they are on track to reach the minimum income needed to cover essential costs in retirement
  • How they might convert some of their pension savings into a guaranteed income for life
  • How they could increase their income beyond minimum levels
  • How much pension savings they may retain to access flexibly, whenever they choose

The Mixed Income Builder tool is available for Standard Life Workplace and Individual Pension customers aged between 50 and 75 through its customer dashboard and mobile app. A separate, accessible-to-all version with core planning features is also available on www.standardlife.co.uk.

 

Media enquiries

  • Louise Bryans

    Public Relations Manager, Workplace & Adviser

Notes to editors

1. Retirement Voice 2025 | Standard Life
Research conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Standard Life in June 2025. In total 6000 participants took part in the online survey. Participants were aged 18-80 and were a mix of working, unemployed and retired people. Quotas and weights were used to ensure the respondents were representative of the UK general population on age, gender and region.

 

About Standard Life

Standard Life is a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement saving and income.

We are proud to manage around c£317bn in assets on behalf of our 12 million customers, and we champion the belief that everyone's journey to and through retirement can be better.  

With our focus entirely on retirement savings and income we want to be the business that people trust to guide their retirement journey, helping our customers achieve better outcomes and greater financial security in later life. 

As a FTSE 100-listed group we are using our size, expertise and influence to shape the world our customers will retire into, and are committed to helping three million more customers by 2035, take action towards a better retirement.  

Standard Life is a responsible investor with a clear commitment to supporting a more sustainable future. The Group has achieved its net zero goal across its emissions for 2025 and is working towards net zero investment portfolios by 2050 or sooner.

Standard Life is recognised as a leading employer, with long-standing accreditation as a Living Wage Employer, Living Pension Employer and Carer Positive Exemplary Employer and in 2025 became one of Britain’s Most Admired Companies in 2025.