IN a week in which the inadequate level of pension coverage was once again highlighted, Standard Life has launched its first specially tailored pension plan for the Irish market. Standard Life's Personal Pension Plan is an attempt to win a greater slice in an increasingly competitive Irish pensions market and like many of the new generation plans it has reduced some charges, allows for flexibility of payments without penalty, provides disability cover and offers better life cover rates for non-smokers.

The new policy also allows wider investment choices as well as a guaranteed return on with-profit funds. (Another major pension provider, Irish Life has also been heavily promoting its guaranteed pension fund product in recent weeks.)

Innovative pension schemes, like that of Standard Life, need to be assessed in light of a number of factors, including the impact of costs (i.e. commission as well as annual management charges), flexibility of payment, the range of investment choice and the ability of the company to produce good, steady returns.

Family Money's annual pension survey has shown Standard Life's with-profit funds to be among the top performing companies over the past five years of the survey, though bonus values have been falling in recent years.

Demand for new pension plans is accelerating, especially in light of changing career structures for many workers, especially among younger people and women who are increasingly likely to take career and family breaks, change jobs more often and move between the public, private and self-employed sectors over the course of their working lives.