The amount of money you and your employer pay into the Scheme is not the only way your savings pot can grow in value. Where your savings are invested, and how these investments perform, will have a big impact on how much you’re building up over time.
This is a ready-made option designed to meet the needs of a wide range of people in the Scheme. It does most of the work for you by choosing where your savings are placed and moving your savings into more cautious investment funds as you get older and closer to the date that you’ve told us you want to retire at. Click here to learn more about this option, or find out more in your member guide.
This is the Scheme’s default investment strategy which means that when you first join the Scheme, this is where your savings will be invested unless you make an alternative decision.
Although it’s been created to meet the needs of a wide range of people, the Target Date Fund may not be the right investment choice for all members.
This is where you get to decide where your savings are invested and how much you want to invest in different types of investment funds.
It’s an important decision as the amount available to you when you want to access your savings will depend partly on how well your investments have performed over the years.
The Fund(s) you choose to invest in will depend on many things including how many years you have to go until you want to take your savings, how you feel about the ups and downs of investment performance, and what you want to do with your savings when you decide to take them.
This option allows you to invest your savings in the Scheme across a range of different investment funds of your own choosing. It does mean however that you’ll need to manage your investments yourself, in the run up to when you want to access them.
Before making any investment selection, please read about the differences between risk and reward.
It’s a good habit to get into even if you aren’t making any changes, just to ensure that you know what’s happening with your money. It’s good practice to review the returns on your investments and your fund’s objectives, so you can make changes if you want to.
You can login at any time to review and make changes to your investment options.
Investments are all about trying to make the most of your savings and balancing the risk of investments going down with the potential reward of the investments doing well. Different investment types have different levels of potential risk and reward. Usually, funds with more potential for growth carry more risk.
Remember: your stage of life may also affect your attitude towards taking risks.
Please note all of the funds available can go down as well as up and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Before making any investment selections, please read about the differences between risk and reward.
You may want to consider getting financial advice. Find out more here.
Successful investment requires a careful balance of risk and return. We want to make your membership worthwhile and keep your money working hard for you. To do this, we offer every member a number of investment options and have clear beliefs on how we manage risk, provide good value and, secure positive long-term outcomes.
Find out more here.
Charges are automatically included when we calculate how much your savings are worth. So you won’t see them as a separate cost when you look at the current value of your retirement savings. There are two types of charge, which are included in the value of your retirement savings:
For more information and details of the charges, please read the Risk & Reward page.
Transaction charges may also be payable, for example broker commission, stamp duty or the cost of buying and selling investments. These charges vary depending on a variety of factors including the amount of money being switched on any one day.
Further details of the charges deducted from your savings are available from us on request.