Your AMT pension plan offers you a choice of investments, from ready-made solutions designed to make investing simpler, to a range of investment funds that could form the building blocks for your own bespoke portfolio.
Your investment options
The funds available to you through your Aegon Master Trust (AMT) pension plan have been carefully chosen by the trustees with help from independent advisers, Isio. Your AMT pension plan offers you a choice of investments, from ready-made solutions designed to make investing simpler, to a range of investment funds that could form the building blocks for your own bespoke portfolio.
What you invest in can have a big effect on how well off you are in retirement so it’s important to take the time to think about your investment choice.
To make it easier for you to choose, the trustees have broken down your investment choice into three broad options:
1. Do it for me
Your scheme will have a default fund or strategy chosen by your employer or trustees. If you don’t want to choose an option for yourself, you'll automatically be invested in this.
2. Guide me
If you feel the default option isn’t right for you, your scheme offers a shortlist of other funds for you to choose from – the Aegon Master Trust Self Select range.
3. Leave it with me
If you have the time and experience to build your own portfolio, you can choose from the full range available to your scheme.
If you don't make an investment choice, your contributions - along with any your employer makes - will be invested in the default fund. This is chosen by your employer or the trustees. This may be one of our LifePath funds, or a Lifestyle fund designed specifically for your scheme.
In the early years, a typical default fund aims for growth and invests in riskier types of investment, like equities (company shares). Then, as you approach your selected retirement date, it gradually and automatically switches from these riskier investments into those generally considered less risky, like corporate or government bonds (also known as fixed interest securities) and cash. The investments it switches into will depend on the retirement outcome it's targeting.
Your employer will have chosen to target one of three outcomes:
- Stay invested and draw an income (known as income drawdown)
- Buy an annuity (for those who want a guaranteed income)
- Cash, which assumes you’ll cash in your savings
They will also have chosen a scheme retirement age. If you'd prefer a different outcome or feel you want to retire at a different age, you may want to select an alternative. See the 'Guide me' section below.
To find out more about your options at retirement, go to Your Retirement Planner.
You can find out more about the default fund for your scheme in your Investment Options or Member booklet. These can be viewed by signing-in to your account then selecting View and manage and clicking on Documents.
If you want to look beyond the default fund, the Aegon Master Trust offers a carefully chosen selection of investment funds called the AMT fund range. Most of the funds in the range take environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into account to meet the growing demand from customers to invest their savings responsibly.
If you’re a more confident investor or you have help from an adviser, you can choose your own funds from the full range available.
Log in to your account to browse the range of funds available to you. To choose funds and switch out of your current funds, select View and manage followed by the Switch funds button under your plan value or at the bottom of the page.
The range includes funds that hold different types of investments (such as equities, bonds or cash), and those which invest in different countries. This gives you the opportunity to build a well-diversified portfolio suited to your own circumstances. You can change the funds you’re invested in at any time.
Important
Before choosing and investing in any fund, be sure to read the fund factsheets. These give you details of where the funds invest and the risks associated with investing. Please remember, the value of all investments can fall as well as rise. The final value of your pension pot when you come to take benefits may be less than has been paid in.
Responsible investments
Your choice of funds now includes a growing number of responsible investments that consider environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors as part of their investment objectives. Offering a choice of funds that match customers’ values is a key priority for us.
In 2019, Aegon committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions for our default funds by 2050, and to halving emissions by 2030. To help achieve those targets, approximately 80% of the assets in our LifePath default fund now consider ESG factors during the growth stage of investment (as at December 2022).
Need help choosing?
If you feel you need help choosing, you may want to talk to a financial adviser, who can help design an investment strategy that is specific to your needs. If you don’t have one already, you can find one at MoneyHelper.
MoneyHelper gives free and impartial guidance to help make your money and pension choices clearer.