Welcome to the 2023 pension scheme newsletter

We’ve finished making changes to the Paribas London Pension Scheme - BPSS, which should enhance how its three lifestyle strategies work including the plan’s default option Drawdown Lifestyle. We’ve done this by increasing the proportion invested in growth assets, like equities. This aims for higher growth in your retirement savings over the long term. However, it does also increase the chances of your pension fund value fluctuating and going down in value (especially over the short term). This means it’s important to check whether the changes work for you.  

If you are invested in one of the lifestyle strategies, make sure you’ve given us your target retirement age too, as the changes to where you are invested are based on the age you’ve given us - or age 65 if you haven’t chosen one. 

We’ve also removed two funds from our self-select range: the Fidelity BNP Diversified Fund and Fidelity BNP Active Global Equity Fund.  

You can find out more about the changes in our investment guide, or watch our video guides, which explain how each of the lifestyle strategies is affected. 

To check or change your investments, log in to PlanViewer, which you can access via Spectrum.

The day-to-day cost of living rose throughout 2022 and has continued into 2023. Several significant events have impacted inflation in the UK resulting in increasing costs on day-to-day spending. At the same time, we have seen large changes in the stock market, which you might have seen as movement in your pension value.

Inflation, as we have seen recently, has the impact of reducing the buying power of the money you have saved in your pension. The Trustee aims try to help you combat the losses due to inflation by investing in funds that aim for higher growth. These funds aim to grow your account and retain its purchasing power. The default lifestyle strategy, which is the Drawdown Lifestyle, aims for higher growth when it is a long way from your retirement, investing in investments such as company shares. These types of funds are generally more volatile and might fluctuate in value, but this is a normal part of long-term investing.

For those closer to retirement, firming up your personal retirement plan becomes more important. That means having an idea about when you might retire and making sure your investments are geared towards that date. It’s also a good time to think about your approach to investment risk. As you get closer to retirement, investment choices like the Drawdown Lifestyle switch to investing in income-focused funds that aim to be less affected by changes in the market, though this is not guaranteed and market volatility can affect everyone’s pension. Fidelity has some useful information about market uncertainty here.

If you want to do something, log into PlanViewer and check your retirement age to make sure it reflects your current retirement goals and plans. The retirement age is set automatically when you start saving into your retirement savings plan, but you can choose a date that is right for you. The right retirement age is important as if you are invested in the Drawdown Lifestyle or either of the other two lifestyle strategies available your investments will automatically move from being invested in growth seeking funds to income focused funds as your approach retirement.

If you are concerned about the impact of the rising cost of living and your pension you can find information and help here.

Remember, if you are unsure of the suitability of an investment or course of action, you should speak to an authorised financial adviser.

Changes to how we send information to you.

We are starting to send you more communications by email instead of post. A new area in PlanViewer will securely hold any documents we send to you digitally in an online document vault. Your vault will have a searchable history of the correspondence we send you about your retirement savings account, including correspondence we’ve sent you in the past. The change from postal to digital communications is a great way to keep your account even more secure. To help combat ever more sophisticated methods of fraud, we won’t have to send your important documents with personal data in the post.

The increasing cost of living is playing on people’s minds, so if you’re feeling nervous about your money in the current climate, you’re not alone.

There are three factors that decide how much you will have at retirement from your pension: what you and your employer put in, how your investments perform and how far you are from retirement.

Keep going with your contributions

Keep contributing to your pension if you can. Remember, in addition to what you contribute into your pension, you also benefit from your employer paying into your pension. Every time you contribute, your employer does too, which helps you save more in the long run.

You also receive tax relief on your contributions. Your retirement savings get boosted by money that would otherwise go to HMRC. Any money you make from investing your pension is then reinvested along with any additional contributions. All these things mean saving regularly, even if it’s small amounts, gives you the best chance of growing your pension. 

You can view and manage your account 24 hours a day with Fidelity’s secure online pension service, Planviewer.

This makes it easy for you to:

Are your beneficiary details up to date?

If you die the Trustee has discretion to pass your retirement savings on. You can let the Trustee know who you would like this to go to by nominating your beneficiaries and keeping them up to date.

If you haven’t updated your beneficiaries recently, this could be a good time to login to Spectrum and give us the details of the people that you want to receive your savings in the event of your death. You can complete the form online in minutes. It’s important to complete this form as it means we can pay out your benefits much faster. This can be especially important at a time that can be financially, as well as emotionally, very difficult for your loved ones.

Fidelity Workplace Service Centre

If you have a question about your account, just get in touch with the Workplace Investing Service Centre at pensions.service@fil.com or call 0800 3 68 68 68. They can help with:

• Your personal account balances
• Providing you with factsheets and further details about your Plan’s investment options
• Transfer enquiries
• Switching your investments

Please bear in mind that while the Workplace Investing Service Centre staff are always happy to help, they can’t give you financial advice. If you need financial advice you may want to speak to an authorised financial adviser.

Important information - The value of investments can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. You cannot normally access your pension savings until age 55. This is due to rise to 57 in 2028.