Risk & Reward

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Whether you’ve been automatically enrolled into the Scheme, or you joined by choice, it’s important to review your investment options regularly.

Why do I need to review my investment options?

Our members join us at all stages of life. You might have recently started working, or you might be starting to make detailed plans for your retirement.

It’s possible that you’ll want slightly different things from your pension at each stage, and that your approach to risk, return and the way you’d like your money to be invested may change.

Every member’s savings are initially invested in one of our target date funds (TDF), which invest your money differently as you get older. This way, your money is more likely to grow in the early years – when you have time for it to go up and down in value - and hold its value as you get closer to taking your pension. This simple, flexible approach makes TDFs a suitable option for many members, but we have a range of alternative investment options that you might want to consider if your approach to risk and return changes at any point.

If you decide that you’d like your savings to grow faster, for example, we have funds that expose your money to slightly higher levels of risk for a potentially higher return. Or, there are ways to invest your pension savings in only ethical funds. You can review your options and tell us if you’d like us to make a change within your Retirement Savings Account.

Investment Risk

Your TPT savings are invested in funds and they all carry a risk. There are different risks and they’re broken down by different categories. The fund factsheets have been created to help you understand a bit more about the different options. Each one will highlight a number of different risks linked to the fund.

Some of the common ones you’ll find in our fund factsheets are:

Inflation Risk

Market Risk

Interest Rate Risk

Credit Rate Risk

Allocation Risk

Foreign Risk

Exchange Rate or Currency Risk

Property Risk

Reinsurance Risk

Derivatives Risk

Emerging Market Risk

Liquidity Risks

Counterparty Risk

Money Market Risk

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a fund factsheet?
Fund factsheets are detailed documents that provide technical information about the investment funds. Some people find them quite complicated and to help we have provided a summary of what it normally includes:
- A description of what the fund is and how it works,
- How it invests your TPT savings pot,
- Where it invests your TPT savings pot,
- How well it’s performed over a period of time and also a comparison of its performance to a benchmark, and
- The risks connected to a fund.
To help you understand the different investment options available to you, we have created a cover sheet for each fund factsheet which will provide you with an simple overview of the detail provided as part of each fund factsheet.
Do I pay any investment charges?
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 different types of charges, which are included in the value of your retirement savings. Some of the charges are:
1. An annual management charge (AMC), applied to the value of your account, which covers the costs of running the Scheme. We aim to maintain this annual rate but there is a possibility it could change if the costs of running the Scheme change. Included as part of the AMC is the fund management charge (FMC). This covers the cost of investing your retirement savings. The level of fund management charge depends on which fund(s) you invest in and can vary from time to time. The AMC is confirmed on the fund factsheet.
2. The fund’s expenses, which include the costs of the different investments in which it invests. Such as legal costs, audit fees, trading commissions and trust fees. The fund’s expenses are confirmed on the factsheet.
3. 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. These charges are not shown on the factsheet.
For more information and details of the charges, read the guide to fund factsheets that can be downloaded from here.

For personal requests relating to charges deducted from your savings please contact us.
What should I consider when making investment choices?
To help you consider your options you could ask yourself the following questions:
1. Do I feel uncomfortable making investment decisions?
2. Am I happy to have investments chosen and managed for me?
3. Do I find investments confusing and hard to understand?
4. Am I uncomfortable managing my own investment risk?
5. Would I prefer someone else to take responsibility for moving my investments as I approach retirement?
6. Do I want to keep my money invested when I retire and drawdown from my account as I need it rather than buying a guaranteed income (annuity) when I retire?
Your answers to these questions will guide you as to whether the Target Date Fund or choosing your own investments will suit you most. If your answers are mainly ‘Yes’ then you are likely to feel happier with the Target Date Fund.
How does TPT manage my money?

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.