Std Life Lifestyling fund

quanto2009

Seen talk about life styling fund need to understand what this means to me at 61
Standard Life pension funds are  Multi Asset Univ Pn3 Opportunity Universal 20% Stock Exchange pension Fund3 Opportunity Universal 80% 

Looking to retire next couple of years probably draw down are the above what I should be looking at or to cautious for drawdown.
My IFA retired a couple of years ago 
Thanks for any input 

Marcon

quanto2009 said:

Seen talk about life styling fund need to understand what this means to me at 61
Standard Life pension funds are  Multi Asset Univ Pn3 Opportunity Universal 20% Stock Exchange pension Fund3 Opportunity Universal 80% 

Looking to retire next couple of years probably draw down are the above what I should be looking at or to cautious for drawdown.
My IFA retired a couple of years ago 
Thanks for any input 

How about a free appointment with PensionWise, who can help you get a better grasp of the basics, thus enabling you to take a more informed decision: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise?source=pw

engagedandopen

That's 80% in their managed global equity fund, Stock Exchange Pension fund (practically 100% equity), and 20% in their flexi-access fund with about 30%-40% equity (so far more cautious).

If you switch to more cautious funds when the global equity fund is down, you might lock in a loss, so it might be best either to take professional advice or to let it continue to power down to the more cautious funds over the remaining three years or so of the lifestyle profile (70% in stock exchange next year, then 50% the year after, then 20% the year after that).  I say cautious funds, because in a couple of years the 3OPP profile will start to introduce cash up to 25% through their Money Market fund.  See their document gpen41.

Marcon's suggestion is a good one: these are my personal thoughts, not advice.

SVaz

You need to make a plan for the years to State pension age and another beyond that.
With drawdown planned, you need enough in cash (and perhaps a money market fund)  to give you 3 years of income, so start building up cash reserves now.  

You don’t want to be in the position of having to sell funds if the market falls just at the point of retirement, the fund’s switch to cash in a ‘couple of years’ is no good to you if you plan on retiring then, it needs to be done, or at least started now.   Perhaps direct your current contributions into a MMF, will 2 years worth give you the amount you need?  

Albermarle

engagedandopen said:

That's 80% in their managed global equity fund, Stock Exchange Pension fund (practically 100% equity), and 20% in their flexi-access fund with about 30%-40% equity (so far more cautious).

If you switch to more cautious funds when the global equity fund is down, you might lock in a loss, so it might be best either to take professional advice or to let it continue to power down to the more cautious funds over the remaining three years or so of the lifestyle profile (70% in stock exchange next year, then 50% the year after, then 20% the year after that).  I say cautious funds, because in a couple of years the 3OPP profile will start to introduce cash up to 25% through their Money Market fund.  See their document gpen41.

Marcon's suggestion is a good one: these are my personal thoughts, not advice.

If we assume that Standard Life are using age 65 as the retirement age in their system and the OP is 61, then most lifestyle funds would not be running at around 90% equity, only 4 years out, so that is quite unusual.
Usually lifestyle funds are criticised for starting derisking too early, where this seems to be the opposite.
On the other hand of course going right down to 20% equities is not advisable if the OP wishes to drawdown.

OP - It is not recommended to go too cautious with drawdown funds, especially if you intend to drawdown over a long period. Something more medium risk with 40% to 60% equities would be more typical.

engagedandopen

I think it would be about 40% equity: 25% cash, 20% equity from Stock Exchange, and 55% from Multi Asset Universal at Retirement (of which 40% is equity).

I have 2OPP but I might do as Albermarle outlined in terms of manually de-risking to their Multi Asset 20-60% fund instead of following the profile.  That's if I keep the pension: 1.00% looks increasingly uncompetitive.

Confusingly, they also do a corporate version of the "Stock Exchange" pension fund, which has bonds and sits in the 40-85% sector rather than the flexible sector - OP, you might like to check the factsheet to see how much equity your version has.

quanto2009

Marcon said:

quanto2009 said:

Seen talk about life styling fund need to understand what this means to me at 61
Standard Life pension funds are  Multi Asset Univ Pn3 Opportunity Universal 20% Stock Exchange pension Fund3 Opportunity Universal 80% 

Looking to retire next couple of years probably draw down are the above what I should be looking at or to cautious for drawdown.
My IFA retired a couple of years ago 
Thanks for any input 

How about a free appointment with PensionWise, who can help you get a better grasp of the basics, thus enabling you to take a more informed decision: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise?source=pw

Thank you that could be a good shout