Change funds

When taking a flexible retirement income, it can be tricky to decide how best to invest your remaining pension to achieve your goals.

If you have taken Retirement Account through a financial adviser, you should discuss your investment options with them first before proceeding.

If you have taken your Retirement Account out directly you can switch funds, but you may still want to talk to a financial adviser. They will normally charge for providing this service. Find a financial adviser.

What to think about if you want to make your own fund decisions

Remember, as with most investments, there are no guarantees. Everyone is different and your circumstances may well change over time, so there are no hard and fast rules.

When considering changing your investment funds you may need to think about the following:

What would happen if your pension savings dropped dramatically in value?
If you’re relying on a certain monthly income to pay your bills, can your pension savings still provide that income in the long term?
Do you have other investments or savings to live on?
Would you be able to maintain your current lifestyle if your pension savings ran out in five or ten years?
How long do you want to hold the investment for?
Are you happy to take a long-term view and not worry about short-term dips in the value of your savings, or are you uncomfortable when values go up and down a lot?
Are you comfortable with taking some risk to potentially increase growth, or would you rather minimise the risk as much as you can?

Supporting you with investment pathways

To support you we’ve created Investment Pathways to help simplify your decision.

These are specially designed pathway solutions to suit how you intend to take your pensions savings.

They ensure you have access to a broad range of investment solutions to help you meet your retirement income needs over the next five years.

The decision about which one to choose is based on the different ways you can take your pension. You may be in one of these pathways already.

For more information read Investment Options for Retirement Income Guide (PDF, 660KB).

Investment pathways

Investment pathways you can choose from.

Select a pension portfolio fund

If you don’t wish to select an Investment Pathway, then you can choose from one or more of our selected Pension Portfolio Funds.

Some of our Pension Portfolio Funds are also used in our Investment Pathways. The funds we have selected have a lower level of risk than some of the other funds in our range.

Graph: potential for growth mapped against level of risk

Pension portfolio 5 fund

Pension Portfolio Five is a lower risk fund investing in ‘Money Market’ assets also known as ‘cash’ and ‘near-cash’ investments. This is designed for customers who might want to take payments over the next two years. It is not designed to keep pace with inflation. Nor is it ideal for investing over a long period of time, or if you want to take a regular sustainable income over a number of years.

All the four other funds invest in a mix of and , but in different proportions. As a general rule, the greater the proportion invested in shares, the higher the potential risk and reward. With greater growth potential, comes greater risk.

Pension Portfolio C fund

With only 29% in shares and 70% in bonds, it has a higher risk than your Pension Portfolio 5 fund, but the lowest risk and reward potential of the other four options.

Pension Portfolio 4 fund

This has 39% in shares. It’s slightly more cautious than Pension Portfolios A or B, but slightly more risky than Pension Portfolio C.

Pension Portfolio B fund

This has a half and half mix of shares and bonds. It has less risk and reward potential than Pension Portfolio A, but more so than Pension Portfolio 4.

Pension Portfolio A fund

With 60% in shares, this has the highest risk and reward potential of your fund choices.

Other options

As well as the funds we have designed for flexible income customers, you may also choose from other funds from the Scottish Widows pension fund range.

You can find out about these funds by reading Scottish Widows Pension Funds Investor’s guide (PDF, 863KB).

What you can do

Change your investment choices

Call 0345 716 6733 and we can make the switch for you. We’re open Monday to Friday 9am–5pm. Please have your Retirement Account number to hand if you call us.

If you've taken a Retirement Account out through a financial adviser, you should speak to them if you looking to review your investment options.

If you want professional help with funds

A financial adviser can help you identify your investment aims, objectives and attitude to risk, and help you choose funds that are right for you. Advisers will normally charge for advice. Find a financial adviser.