Getting the most from your annual pension statement

Your annual statement only shows the workplace pension we look after for you, so it’s important to remember that when you retire you might also have other sources of income. You’re likely to receive a State Pension, for example, and may have other private or workplace pensions as well.

You can check how much your State Pension may be and when you can claim it at gov.uk/check-state-pension

When we work out how much income your pension could give you, we have to assume you’ll retire at a certain age. This may be the default retirement age for your scheme, or it could be an age you have given us yourself.

If you have passed your scheme’s default retirement age, or if you passed the age you told us yourself, we will use the age 75 when we calculate your possible future income. However if you are 75 or older, we will add 5 years to your current age.

You can change your retirement age at any time. Just log in to PlanViewer, go to ‘My Profile’ and select ‘Personal Information’. You’ll then be able to edit your ‘Date Selected for Retirement’.

As soon as we are notified of your death, we will move your pension savings into your plan’s cash fund to minimise any fluctuation in value caused by stock market changes.

The administrator or trustees of your plan will decide who should inherit the money from your pension if you die. They will take account of anyone you have nominated to receive your pension on your Expression of Wish. They will also consider your personal circumstances, such as whether you have any financial dependants.

To help your trustees or Fidelity to make this decision, you should keep them updated on who you would like to benefit from your pension savings. It’s quick and easy to nominate who’d you like to receive your pension savings. Just log in to PlanViewer, go to ‘Manage my plan’ and select ‘Update beneficiaries’.

Once the decision has been made about who can benefit from your pension, we will write to the beneficiaries to let them know their options. These will depend on a range of factors, including the type of pension you had and how old you were when you died.

If you have pensions with other companies, it is worth checking whether they have different options for beneficiaries.

Your employer may also offer other death benefits, such as life assurance, but these are not arranged by Fidelity.

All charges are deducted within the funds and are reflected in the daily prices of the funds, so you will not see a separate deduction for charges on your transaction history on Planviewer.

Each fund has an annual management charge (AMC) which cover the costs of managing your account and your investments. There are also a number of fees that funds have to pay for services such as auditing. The AMC and these other charges are collectively called the total expense ratio (TER).

You can find the AMC and TER for each fund in its factsheet, which you can see when you log into PlanViewer – go to ‘Plan information’ and select ‘Fund prices and factsheets’.

If your scheme is covered by relevant regulations, you can also find out more about the costs and charges that apply to your pension scheme on our costs and charges page. You can also see here the transaction costs of your funds, these costs are not included in the AMC or TER. The direct web address for your scheme is shown in the ‘Costs and charges’ section of your annual statement.