Investments
On joining the Fund your contributions will be automatically invested in the Variable Income Lifecycle Strategy (the default investment strategy selected by the Trustee of the Fund) unless you choose one of the other Lifecycle strategies or the Self Select Strategy.
The “Do it for me” approach known as the Lifecycle Strategy aims to provide you with a good long term rate of investment return over the majority of your working life, whilst moving your savings into less volatile funds as you near retirement.
There are three Lifecycle options to choose from depending on how you intend to take your benefits in retirement.
- Variable Income Lifecycle Strategy
- Secured Income Lifecycle Strategy
- Cash Lifecycle Strategy
Dependent upon your retirement option, the changes to your investments in the final 8 years before your Selected Retirement Age will be split differently between the four investment funds above.
This option is designed for members whose target is transferring their Retirement Account to an income drawdown product at their Selected Retirement Age. It assumes that 25% of the value of the Retirement Account will be taken as a tax-free cash lump sum.
This option is designed for those members who wish to purchase an annuity at their Selected Retirement Age and assumes that 25% of the value of the Retirement Account will be taken as a tax-free cash lump sum at their Selected Retirement Age.
This option is designed for those members who wish to target taking all their Retirement Account in the form of cash at their Selected Retirement Age.
The “I’ll do it myself” approach known as the Self Select Strategy gives you more control over how your contributions are invested.
The Self Select Strategy enables you to choose to invest in one or more of the nine investment funds on offer.
You can choose to invest in one or more of the nine funds and select the percentage of your contributions you wish to invest in each fund.
The objective of the fund is to achieve long term growth by investing in different types of assets at any time, including, but not exclusively, equities, fixed and index-linked bonds, commodities and cash.
The objective of the fund is long term growth by investing in global equity markets and emerging markets and it aims to track the benchmark index. Roughly 90% invested in equities in developed markets, 10% in emerging market equities.
The fund invests mainly in UK gilts, UK bonds and other fixed income securities and aims to produce a return in excess of a benchmark designed to reflect long-term changes in immediate annuity prices.
The fund aims to produce a return in excess of its benchmark principally from a portfolio of sterling-denoted cash, deposits and money-market instruments.
