Overview 
Grow & manage your pension
Saving
Planning
Investing
Access your pension
Choosing income options Drawdown Taking lump sums Staying invested in retirement Taking tax-free cash
Access your Pension
Your retirement income
Your retirement income
Choosing income options Drawdown Taking lump sums Staying invested in retirement Taking tax-free cash
How your workplace pension is invested
One in three people expect their workplace pension to be the most important source of retirement income*. The way your pension is invested can have an impact on your retirement savings, so it’s important that you understand how it works and what you can do to stay informed about how your pension is tracking against your retirement income goals.
How your pension works
Auto enrolment
You join your pension scheme automatically and your money is invested in a default investment strategy. Once you have joined, you can review your contribution levels, investment options and target retirement age, to ensure they meet your retirement goals.
Learn more about auto enrolmentMaking contributions
Your employer will usually make regular payments into your pot on your behalf. And, you may also make regular contributions from your salary. These will be deducted from your pay before you receive your pay each month, and paid across to Fidelity on your behalf.
Learn more about contributionsDeciding which funds your money goes into
When we receive your pension contributions, we invest them in managed funds. These funds hold money from hundreds of pension scheme members like you. These funds invest your money in assets such as company shares, government bonds and cash deposits. There are two ways of deciding which funds your money goes into:
The ‘default’ investment strategy
The default investment for your plan is there to give you the peace of mind that someone else is helping to look after your investments for you. The funds are carefully selected by experts and monitored to help you to build up the savings you need for a happy retirement.
Learn more about this strategyThe ‘self-select’strategy
You can choose the funds yourself, from the range available through your pension plan. This is often called ‘self-select’ and it allows you to tailor an investment strategy to your particular long-term goals.
Learn the basics of investing
Working towards retirement
Investing in the default means that during the early years of your working life, we invest your money in a way that has the potential for long-term growth.
When you’re closer to retirement, we aim to protect the value of your savings by gradually moving your money into more cautious investments. With this type of strategy, all the changes to your investments happen automatically – you don’t need to do anything. Default funds and strategies are intended to meet the needs of a wide range of pension investors – people of different ages, backgrounds and income levels. There’s no guarantee that your plan’s default investment will be suitable for your particular retirement goals.
If your plan has this type of investment as its default, the strategy may also be available as a self-select option.
You can find out more about the fund or funds you're invested in by logging into your online account, PlanViewer. Each fund has its own 'factsheet' that will provide you with a range of information - including fund objectives, risks, costs and past performance.
Where are your pension savings invested?
Curious about where your money goes when it leaves your payslip? We’ve partnered with fintech company Tumelo to bring you Fidelity Illuminate - an opinion tool which enables you to see the companies your pension savings are invested in, and give you a voice on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that matter to you.
Find out more
Reviewing your pension
Whether you self-select your own funds or stay with your plan’s default investment, it’s a good idea to review your pension savings on a regular basis, to make sure they’re still on track for your retirement goals. Two important things to check are:
How much you are saving
Get a rough idea of how much you may need to save for retirement.
Your retirement age
Learn how your retirement age can impact your pension, and how to review it in PlanViewer.
Want to know more about investing?
Find out about the different types of investments and how you can use them in your pension plan.
How financially fit are you?
Making a few small changes today could help your long-term financial wellbeing.
Sustainable investing
See how Fidelity are highlighting environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
*The Fidelity Global Sentiment Survey, 2022. The data collection, research and analysis was completed in partnership with Opinium, a strategic insight agency. Data collection took place between August 2022 and September 2022 and includes a sample of 1000 UK adults.