Making your own investment choices

You can choose where your pension savings are invested. However, before you make any changes, there are a number of things you ought to consider.

How much do you understand about investing?

It’s important to understand what investments are and how they work.

Take a look at our Investigating the Basics of Pension Investing.

How do you feel about investment risk?

You need to understand how you feel about risk and be aware of the amount of risk you’re prepared to take, before making any investment decisions.

See Balancing risk and reward to find out more.

How much income do you think you’ll need in retirement?

It might seem a long way off, but working out how much you’ll need (or want) in retirement will be an important factor in helping you decide how much to pay in and where to invest it.

Legal & General’s ‘How much will you need?’ tool can help you work out what income you might need in retirement.

When are you planning to take your money?

The amount of time until your selected retirement age could influence the amount of risk you’re prepared to take. For instance, the further away it is, the more risk you might be prepared to accept. Similarly, you may want to take less risk, the closer you are to retirement.

Can you afford for your pension savings to go down in value?

Are you prepared - or able - to accept a fall in the value of your pension savings in return for the possibility of greater returns? Or would you prefer more predictable - if less spectacular - returns?

How often will you review your investment choices?

It’s important to regularly review your pension savings to ensure they remain on track, particularly if your plans or circumstances change, or if markets experience a downturn. You can change your investment choices in Manage Your Account.

Please note Legal & General or the Trustee cannot provide financial advice. If you want help to make your own investment choices, you should speak to a financial adviser. You can find one in your local area at unbiased.co.uk. Financial advisers usually charge a fee for their services, but it will be personal to you and your circumstances. We offer you a way of paying your adviser directly from your pension pot, called a facilitated adviser charge. The Facilitated adviser charge guide explains how this works.