Gold-plated retirement plans: now you can include bullion in your Sipp

Standard Life has joined forces with GoldMoney – one of the largest providers and holders of physical bullion for retail – to enable customers with a self-invested pension plan (Sipp) to invest directly in the metal.

Standard Life's pension customers will be given online access to the GoldMoney website, where they will be able to buy and sell a total of 2,000 grams of gold a day. The prices at which investors will be able to buy and sell gold are based on the trading prices from the London Bullion Market Association. Any bullion purchased is held in a secure vault in London.

Following soaring prices over the past decade, more and more investors have tried to get exposure to gold – particularly as it is often seen as a hedge against inflation. Over the past 10 years its price has risen from $300 an ounce to more than $1,300 an ounce.

Rather than simply invest in an insurance company run pension fund, Sipp investors are free to chose where their pension funds are invested.

In many cases their money will be split between various investment funds and direct shareholdings. But some Sipps offer a wider range of assets, including commercial property, commodities, hedge funds and currencies. Many Sipps allow investors to hold gold via an equity fund. But most do not have the capacity to enable people to hold gold directly, via bullion.