Investments
"As Trustees we are responsible for helping all members achieve their retirement goals. We want members to have investment options designed to meet their goals in retirement, by providing low cost and flexible investment solutions for a variety of retirement outcomes.
Responsible investing is at the heart of the Trustees’ commitment to helping our members achieve these outcomes, and we work with Scottish Widows to ensure the schemes' investments reflect this approach. You can find out more about our Investment Aims and Objectives in our Statement of Investment Principles."
Gerald Wellesley, Trustee
Default investment strategies
Scottish Widows Lifetime Investment is designed to offer a low cost, flexible option while targeting various retirement outcomes.
Self-select funds & bespoke investment solutions
The Trustees have selected a range of robustly governed self-select funds for members. These cover the most widely used asset classes and regions on both an active and passive basis.
We also offer bespoke investment solutions for employers who prefer this.
Retirement investment solutions
We offer four Investment Pathways for investment at retirement, for members who have not received financial advice.
Responsible investment
Read about our approach to responsible investment and the steps we’re taking to help tackle climate change.
Default investment strategies
Scottish Widows Lifetime Investment is designed to offer a low-cost, flexible option while targeting a range of retirement outcomes. While the trustees’ default investment option is the Lifetime Investment Extra Growth Path targeting flexible access, employers may select a different default investment option for their section. Members can also choose the investment approach, risk level and retirement option that best suits them.
The default investment solution includes:
- 100% in growth assets in the early years for maximum growth potential.
- An allocation to private market investment to add further diversification and provide access to attractive longer-term growth opportunities.
- De-risking that starts from 12 years to selected retirement age. This is known as lifestyling.
- Enhanced environmental, social and governance integration for upside potential and downside protection.
Further information on Scottish Widows Lifetime Investment can be found in this guide (PDF, 1MB).
Self-select lifestyle options:
Members can self-select from alternative lifestyle solutions, based on their attitude to risk or desired outcome at retirement. Employers can also select from these solutions to use as a default investment option if deemed more appropriate for their employees' needs.
Self-select funds & bespoke investment solutions
The Core Funds provide members with access to a range of funds across the most widely used asset classes. This allows them to choose how to invest their pension based on their own attitude to risk, and also environmental, social or ethical views. These include:
- A range of active and passive managed options
- Sustainable funds in line with our commitment to responsible investment
- Shariah option
- Equity, bond, property, multi-asset and cash options.
Members can simultaneously self-select from this range while leaving a portion of their pension savings in one or more lifestyle strategy using Scottish Widows app or web services.
For employers seeking a bespoke approach, we can design an investment solution tailored to the specific needs of the scheme and its members.
Retirement investment solutions
| Pathway | Expected member need |
|---|---|
| Leave invested | Where the member has no plans to touch their money within the next five years |
| Buy annuity | Where the member plans to use their retirement savings to set up a fixed, guaranteed income for life within the next five years |
| Long-term income | Where the member plans to start taking their money as a long-term income within the next five years |
| Take money | Where the member plans to take all their money out as a lump sum within the next five years |
Members who don't want to select one of the Investment Pathways can choose from the core fund range or the Scottish Widows default drawdown strategy.
Responsible investment
Responsible investment is at the heart of the Scottish Widows Master Trust.
We aim to manage environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities in the Scottish Widows Master Trust investments to safeguard members' long-term savings and help shape a better world to retire into.
The Trustees have established an investment governance reporting framework, which includes receiving Responsible Investment & Stewardship (RI&S) reporting from Scottish Widows annually. We, along with our investment adviser, use the reporting to hold Scottish Widows and the underlying managers to account on all RI&S issues. The Trustees also have their own RI&S Policy in place which is reviewed annually.
Working in partnership with Scottish Widows, we have set climate change targets:
- A 2030 target of halving the carbon footprint of our default investments.
- A 2050 target of net zero in our default investments.
Read more about our Policy, and our commitment to achieve net zero in our investments below:
- Read our Responsible Investment and Stewardship Policy (PDF, 198KB)
- Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) (PDF, 5MB)