About us Our investment approach

Our investment plans are designed with the aim of growing your pension savings over most of your working life. Then, 10 years before your planned retirement age, your savings start to move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk.

A three-phased approach Responsible investing

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We aim to invest the plans responsibly and sustainably to help reduce financial risks from things like climate change, which could have a negative effect on the economy and investments in the long term.

Where possible, we focus our investment strategy on three Rs: risk, return and real-world impact.  

This means we aim to:  

  • manage the risk of investments falling in value (particularly close to retirement) 
  • get a good level of growth (return) over the long term, and 
  • have a positive effect on the environment and our society (real-world impact). 

Our members can be confident their money is being managed by professionals who have their long-term savings needs in mind. 

As a master trust, our investment approach is decided on and managed by an independent board of Trustee directors who share responsibility for ensuring now:pensions always runs in the best interests of its members. 

A three-phase approach to investing

We take a whole-life approach to investing your pension savings. All the investment plans we offer use a three-phase pension journey.

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Growth phase

During this phase we invest your pension savings with the aim of helping them to grow over most of your working life.
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De-risking phase

This phase starts 10 years before your planned retirement age. We gradually move your pension savings into investments that are designed to prepare them for retirement, including reducing investment risk.
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Destination phase

This is when you start to take your money out of now:pensions.

Our investment options

When you join now:pensions, your pension savings – the money you and your workplace pay in to your now:pensions account – are automatically invested in our lump sum plan. This plan is designed for people who want to take their pension savings as one or more cash ‘lump sums’ when they retire.  

We offer five other investment plans and one investment fund you can choose from to match your needs and preferences.  

The plans are designed with the aim of growing your pension savings over most of your working life. Then, 10 years before your planned retirement age, your savings start to move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk. A part moves every three months until your planned retirement age. This is your State Pension age unless you’ve changed it in now:u. 

  • The lump sum plan, the annuity plan and the drawdown plan target a particular way of using pension savings at your planned retirement age.  
  • The higher risk plan and the lower growth plan are designed for different attitudes to investment risk. 
  • The shariah plan and the shariah equity fund are invested in line with the requirements of shariah law and the principles of Islam. 

To find out more, go to the members’ investment options page.

Expert advice

We take responsibility for investing our members’ pension savings with help from our professional advisers. We work with an investment manager who manages how and where we invest our members’ money, and an independent investment adviser to review and challenge our decisions. 

This means members and their workplaces can have peace of mind from knowing experts are looking after their money and aiming to work in their best interests.

Reviewing our investments

We review the investment strategy regularly to make sure it always meets our members’ needs. You can find more details about the investment strategy in our Statement of Investment Principles.

Find out more

You can read more about our approach to responsible investing in the following documents.

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures report 2024

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Stewardship

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Responsible and sustainable investing

Frequently asked questions

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You have a now:pensions account that you and your workplace put money into. Your money is invested in one of our investment options.  

In the investment plans, the money is invested with the aim of helping it to grow then preparing it for retirement, including reducing investment risk.   

We also offer a shariah equity fund. Unlike the investment plans, the shariah equity fund doesn’t move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk, as you near your planned retirement age. 

The way your now:pensions account is invested depends on the following things.   

  • Your planned retirement age. This is your State Pension age unless you’ve told us something different or changed it in now:u. It can affect how your savings are invested as you get closer to taking your money. Log in to now:u to check your planned retirement age. 

The investment plans invest in different funds. The funds can invest in different assets such as equities (shares in companies), bonds (loans to companies or governments, with a promise to repay the loan plus interest at a later date), and other assets like cash and commodities (gold and industrial metals, for example). Learn more about our funds.    

The value of your now:pensions account when you reach your planned retirement age will depend on a number of things. 

  • How much you and your workplace pay in over the years. 
  • How your investments perform. 
  • The age you start to take your money out of now:pensions. 
  • Any costs for selling your investments when you start to take your money out of now:pensions.  

When you join now:pensions, your savings are invested in our lump sum plan. You stay in the lump sum plan if you don’t choose anything else. So if you’re sure you’ve never chosen another investment option, you’ll be in the lump sum plan.  

To check which plan you’re in, log in to now:u and go to Investment. You’ll see the plan you’re currently invested in.  

Log in to now:u and go to Investments.

Your investment plan shows the plan your pension savings are currently invested in.

Below this you can see:

  • Investment change – how the value of your pension savings has changed since you joined now:pensions
  • Current value of your pension savings – this is updated regularly and the value will go up and down in line with the value of the plan you’re invested in
  • Money in and out – how much money has been paid in, and any money that’s been paid out, of your pension savings.

Choose See details to look at:

  • the charges you pay us to manage your pension savings
  • your current planned retirement age
  • a breakdown of the investments in your plan.

See about our investment funds for more information.

It’s impossible to say. Investment values can’t be guaranteed. But you can check regularly how your investments are doing by logging in to now:u and going to Investment. 

The value of your investments can go down as well as up. Past performance doesn’t mean future performance will be the same. 

now:pensions can’t give you investment advice. If you’re not sure if a plan or fund is right for you, it’s a good idea to talk to a financial adviser who’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more here.

now:pensions is a UK master trust, managed by an independent Trustee. The Trustee believes that incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, as well as real-world sustainability impact, into the investment approach helps mitigate risks, enhance returns and is in its members’ best long-term interests.