Investments statement FAQs

Information to help you understand your recent statement

Below you will find two sets of FAQs relating to investment Plan statements. One for unitised (unit-linked) investments, one for conventional investments.

If your Plan is unitised, your statement will clearly make reference to fund units which you hold. If it doesn’t, your Plan is conventional.

FAQs for unitised life/investments

The OAS is an optional service provided by Wesleyan Financial Services. It will provide you with the opportunity to receive a financial review at least once a year. You will also be kept informed about relevant changes to taxation and regulations.

Product and Fund Management charges
These generally relate to costs and charges arising from the management of the investment fund in which your money is invested and the servicing of the Plan. For example, initial charges paid on every payment into the Plan, switch charges and recurring charges such as fund management, Plan fees, product administration, dealing costs.

Other recurring charges include transaction and fund costs, which represent the expenses of dealing in the underlying investments of the funds. They are not directly charged to your Plan and are spread across all investors in the fund. They include costs such as:

  • The difference between the price of a fund asset immediately before an order is placed in the market and the price that the trade is actually executed at
  • Commissions paid to brokers
  • Taxes such as Stamp Duty

Advice charges
If you have received any financial advice, payment for this will be made as part of the product. For advised sales, there is an ‘Initial Advice Charge’ for each new investment. Wesleyan Financial Services collects any fee directly from the payments you make.

If you have opted in to the ‘Ongoing Advice Service’, recurring ‘Ongoing Advice Charges’ are collected from your fund value.

Risk cover charges
These recurring charges are in respect of the cover that is being provided. They are only relevant for products that have an element of protection such as: life insurance, critical illness cover or sickness protection cover (including waiver).

For a full breakdown of all the charges detailed, please contact our Customer Engagement Team on 0800 294 8857.

As a mutual, Wesleyan doesn't have shareholders so we can work to benefit those who invest in our business – our customers and members. That is why we say, "we are all about you".
Our in-house Investments Team, which includes our highly experienced Fund and Property Managers, Analysts and Socially Responsible Investment Team. Together, they manage approximately £7bn of assets, with the main aim of achieving strong long-term performance across our fund range, to maximise the financial returns for our members and customers.

If you’re investing in the With Profits Fund, you should be aware of what a Market Value Reduction (MVR) is.

In certain scenarios, such as periods of stock market volatility, we might need to apply an MVR. An MVR is an adjustment that can be applied to the value of your investment if you chose to cash-in or withdraw from the fund at certain times, reducing how much you get back.

We will only apply an MVR if we believe it fairly reflected the value of your investment and that it was necessary to protect our with-profit fund and those policyholders who remain invested.

Where a Plan is owned by trustees of a trust, we are required to send the annual statement to the trustee(s).
Some of our Plans offer the option to increase the benefits or extend the term if there have been changes to the property loan that the Plan was taken out to cover. If you think this may be applicable to you, please contact us for more information. Before taking any action, we recommend you take regulated financial advice.
We would have given you these documents when you first took out your Plan with us. If you would like a copy, please contact us using the phone number on your statement or by email at statements@wesleyan.co.uk.

All our funds are rated in one of five categories: Risk Averse, Low Risk/Reward, Moderate Risk/Reward, Moderate-High Risk/Reward and Higher Risk/Reward. The risk rating of each fund is given on their factsheet. Detailed fund factsheets are  available here.

Low Risk/Reward - This means the fund is intended for investors who are looking for better returns than cash-based investments that aim to beat inflation and accept investing a portion of their money in some higher risk assets to achieve this. This means when investments are cashed in they may be worth less than the amount invested.

Moderate Risk/Reward - This means the fund is intended for investors who are looking for higher returns than cash or fixed interest based investments and accept investing in higher risk assets to achieve this but in a way that limits exposure to frequent market rises and falls. When investments are cashed in, there is a risk that they may be worth less than originally invested. Money is mostly held in shares and property, with a lower proportion in fixed interest and cash based investments.

Moderate-High Risk/Reward - This means the fund is intended for investors looking for moderate to high returns and who accept investing mostly in higher risk assets to achieve this. This means when investments are cashed in they may be worth less than the amount invested. It is likely that the value of the investment will move up and down.

Not all funds are available for all Plans. Please refer to the Plan Document for further details.

Your Wesleyan Financial Services statement includes charges applied relating to all advice, not just on Wesleyan Assurance Society products. Also, the period your Plan statement covers is different, so we would not expect the amounts to match.
Read more about our  recent bonus rates.
You can learn more about our With Profits Funds  here.
We take steps to try to prevent this from happening. The most common reason is that the other joint policy holder has additional Plans that take slightly longer to prepare. We like to send all your statements together so if you have additional Plans, it may take us longer to issue your statements.
For regulated financial advice or for queries relating to your Plan, including whether your current level of cover is still right for you, please speak to your Specialist Financial Adviser from Wesleyan Financial Services directly, or call us on 0800 294 8857 and we’ll arrange an appointment for you.
In light of the turbulent economic conditions experienced in recent years, you may find our monthly Investment Market updates beneficial on how these factors impact fund performance.

FAQs for conventional life/investments

The Sum assured is the amount of money the Plan guaranteed at outset to pay on death of the life/lives assured or at maturity assuming any due premiums are paid.
As a mutual, Wesleyan doesn't have shareholders so we can work to benefit those who invest in our business – our customers and members. That is why we say, "we are all about you".
Our in-house Investments Team, which includes our highly experienced Fund and Property Managers, Analysts and Socially Responsible Investment Team. Together, they manage approximately £7bn of assets, with the main aim of achieving strong long-term performance across our fund range, to maximise the financial returns for our members and customers.
Where a Plan is owned by trustees of a trust, we are required to send the annual statement to the trustee(s).
Some of our Plans offer the option to increase the benefits or extend the term if there have been changes to the property loan that the Plan was taken out to cover. If you think this may be applicable to you, please contact us for more information. Before taking any action, we recommend you take regulated financial advice.
We would have given you these documents when you first took out your Plan with us. If you would like a copy, please contact us using the phone number on your statement or by email at statements@wesleyan.co.uk.
The costs of managing your Plan are not taken directly from your Plan value. For non-unitised Plans we calculate the expenses of managing the With Profit Fund and spread this across all Plans. It is therefore not possible for us to calculate the exact charges applicable to your Plan.
You can learn more about our With Profits Funds  here.
We take steps to try to prevent this from happening. The most common reason is that the other joint policy holder has additional Plans that take slightly longer to prepare. We like to send all your statements together so if you have additional Plans, it may take us longer to issue your statements.
For regulated financial advice or for queries relating to your Plan, including whether your current level of cover is still right for you, please speak to your Specialist Financial Adviser from Wesleyan Financial Services directly, or call us on 0800 294 8857 and we’ll arrange an appointment for you.
In light of the turbulent economic conditions experienced in recent years, you may find our monthly Investment Market updates beneficial on how these factors impact fund performance.