Standard Life, the £85bn (€142.5bn) mutual insurer, is to open up links with external fund managers to supplement its own range of pooled pension funds.

The multi-manager approach includes using Baillie Gifford's managed fund expertise, Deutsche Asset Management handling balanced, Chase Fleming Asset Management on global equities, JP Morgan with its Lifetime Moderate fund, Phillips & Drew's Life Managed fund and Newton's Exempt Global Balanced fund.