Royal London Work Place Pension

Archerychick

Morning all,
Now that I have a solid handle on where I'm going to place my income over the next few years at least to maximise pension contributions and tax free allowances I'm moving my attention to my pension itself. 

Up until this year I wasn't contributing significant amounts to it c£1,500 per year, but since April I've increased this now that I don't need the funds for house improvements that I've been doing over the past 10 years. This tax year I have so far paid £14k into it, with that being bumped up to £17.2k with the employer contributions. I expect it will be in the region of £25k by the end of the tax year. My current plan is valued at £53k.

Looking at the last 5 years this is the fund performance - 

22/23 - Minus 4.1%
21/22 - Plus 13.6%
20/21 - Plus 26.6%
19/20 - Minus 16.4%
18/19 - Plus 4.9%

I had previously thought that these would be managed for me based on my age and declared retirement age, but I know if this is the case. I am 43 so I believe that I should really be invested 100% in equities because I am not expecting to way to draw down from my pension for some time yet. 

Digging into the wealth of information I found in the RL portal, my pension is invested in what they call "'Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown)" (https://www.royallondon.com/Eservice/Includes/StrategyFactsheet/StrategyFactsheet.asp?sPath=) which reading the text seems to support this, and the fund adjusts the closer I get to retirement but I actually want to see how the plan is invested but I don't understand the information.

My retirement age is set as 65 for the pension purposes, which means I am 22 years from retirement, so the plan will be invested as the image attached.




Does this mean that 74% of my pension is invested in equities only? I would assume that Property is not a bad place for this to be invested either, but is that better placed into the equity fund?

That may have been a long-winded way to get to the question - sorry!

OR is this really not very good and I should be looking for someone to manage the investment properly for me and seek an IFA?

Thanks

Albermarle

 I am 43 so I believe that I should really be invested 100% in equities because I am not expecting to way to draw down from my pension for some time yet. 

Based on historical statistics a 100% equity fund should bring the most growth over a long period ( 15 years+)

However they can be very volatile and not everybody has the stomach to hold tight when markets are crashing. Therefore a 75% equity fund ( or less) is more suitable for the majority during the growth phase.

Some reduction in this % would be normal approaching retirement ( although opinions vary) but some of these lifestyle funds tend to overdo this ( again opinions vary ). You may wish to consider not being in a lifestyle type arrangement and pick your own funds.

OR is this really not very good and I should be looking for someone to manage the investment properly for me and seek an IFA?

That is up to you but I think normally they are not so interested in managing active workplace pensions

Qyburn

Does this mean that 74% of my pension is invested in equities only?

Yes. If it's the same generation of pension as mine, you can see the current investments online. The fund data sheets explain how the balance changes at various times towards your selected retirement age. 

Archerychick

thank you both, feeling a little more knowledgable with every post 😊