L&G pension funds

Andriy

Evening All

Long time reader of this excellent site.

I'd kindly welcome a little advice regarding fund choices for my work L&G pension.

Currently it is invested in the default option which is:

L&G Multi-Asset Lifestyle (LG8Q)

I must admit I'm pretty confused by the wording of this lifestyle profile - in some parts of the product literature/documents it reads as that it switches funds every 10 years, whereas in other parts of the literature it reads as the fund starts to switch 10 years before target retirement age. I'll probably consult with L&G to clarify this for me.

Anyway, currently it is invested in this fund:

L&G PMC Multi-Asset G17 (B5DQ)

Now, I'm a complete beginner to all of this and have been doing quite a bit of reading on here and the general advice seems to be towards a multi-asset fund such as HSBC Global Strategy / VLS / L&G Multi Index etc...

When looking at the fact sheet for the above fund I'm currently in, it states that the asset breakdown is as follows:

Equities - 37.7%
Alternatives - 28.8%
Developed corporate bonds - 19.1%
Developed government bonds - 14.5%

From my reading on here, my interpretation is that only 37.7% being held in equities is very risk averse, especially given that this money will be invested a long time (currently aged 33).

My immediate thought was that I could switch to one of the L&G Multi Index funds, but these are not available in my options. There are 56 funds available, and when I filter by multi-asset there are only five other funds than the one I am in, these are:

Legal & General PMC Aberdeen Life Multi-Asset Fund G17 (B3AQ)
Legal & General PMC Consensus Fund G17 (B9DQ)
Legal & General PMC Distribution Fund G17 (B2CQ)
Legal & General PMC JPM Life Balanced Fund G17 (B4DQ)
Legal & General PMC Managed Fund G17 (B7BQ)

I'm trying to work out if any of these are closer to L&G Multi Index 5/6 or HSBC Global Strategy Balanced/Dynamic?

Or is my approach to this completely wrong and should the default option be fine for the average person's needs?

Appreciate any advice.

redmalc

Andriy the level of risk you are prepared to be comfort with depends on your age,myself I had numerous racy funds but last year 8 went back to lifestyle as I am now 63

Andriy

Thanks Malc, that makes sense. As I’m close to 34 (and started contributing properly very late) I do think my level of risk needs to be higher which is why I’m questioning the default fund, and its relatively low proportion of equities.

Be good to hear about any comments on the other funds available, just a shame there are so few choices.

londoninvestor

Andriy wrote: »

Thanks Malc, that makes sense. As I’m close to 34 (and started contributing properly very late) I do think my level of risk needs to be higher which is why I’m questioning the default fund, and its relatively low proportion of equities.

Be good to hear about any comments on the other funds available, just a shame there are so few choices.

Is there a global equity fund that you could put say 80% of your contributions in, with the remainder going to a bond fund? That wouldn't be too far off VLS80; it might or might not have a similar UK bias according to what your "global" fund looks like.

I suspect that the L&G fund choice isn't the same in all schemes, but I had a work pension where the majority of the funds were managed by L&G. There was a solid range of low-cost equity trackers, but it was a bit lacking in low-cost bond funds.