Investment decisions leading up to retirement

If you’re less than 12 months away from your target retirement age, you’ll probably already know how you intend to take your money and, hopefully, your retirement savings will be invested accordingly.

However, if you haven’t given this much thought, you need to ask yourself two important questions:

Is my target retirement age still right for me?

If you think you may not be able - or want - to take your money at your target retirement age, you have the option to delay taking it.

See planning your retirement for more information.

Do my current investments reflect the way I intend to take my money?

Assuming you still intend to take your money at your target retirement age, you can choose to take it as:

a regular guaranteed pension income (annuity)
a series of payments (drawdown)
as a single lump sum or as partial lump sums
a combination of all of these options

If you haven’t already done so, it’s important to ensure your pension is invested in a way that matches how you plan to take your money. We have a range of funds and lifestyle profiles that can help you to do this.

For more information about the things you’ll need to think about please go to Investing as you approach retirement.

There are also some additional considerations to be taken into account if you’re thinking of doing the following:

Investing in a lifestyle profile

A lifestyle profile is an investment strategy that automatically moves your money into less risky funds gradually over a period of time, with the aim of protecting your retirement savings as you get closer to retirement. For that reason this type of investment normally works best for those who invest in a lifestyle profile at least three years before their target retirement age.