FAQs for members
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.
- The costs and charges that come out of your account over the years.
- 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.
A workplace pension is designed to be a long-term investment that aims to grow over most of your working life. We invest in different types of assets such as shares in companies, bonds, and equities. The value of these investments can go down as well as up because of what’s happening in the financial markets, especially in the short term.
As you get closer to your planned retirement age, we gradually move part of your pension savings into investments that will help to prepare them for retirement, including reducing investment risk.
But investment values can’t be guaranteed and we can’t make up shortfalls.
The shariah equity fund is also designed to be a long-term investment but, unlike the investment plans, it doesn’t move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk, as you near your planned retirement age.
To understand why investment values can go up and down, read our member guide.
No. You can only choose one of the investment plans, or the shariah equity fund.
You can change your investments as many times as you like. But you may not want to change them too often for the following reasons.
- You save for a pension over your whole working life. So pension investments are generally designed to work over the long term. Changing your investments too often could mean your investments don’t work in the way they’re designed to. There may be transaction costs when you change investments. So the more changes you make, the more those costs could take out of your pension savings. Visit Should you change your investment choice to find out more.
If you’re not sure which plan to choose, it’s a good idea to talk to an independent financial adviser who’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The government-backed MoneyHelper website has a list of regulated financial advisers.
When you become a member of now:pensions, your pension savings are automatically invested in our lump sum plan. If you’re happy with this, you don’t need to do anything else. Find out more about the lump sum plan.
We offer six investment plans and one investment fund you can choose from to match your needs and preferences.
Three of the plans – the lump sum plan, the annuity plan and the drawdown plan – target a particular way of using your pension savings at your planned retirement age.
Two other plans – the higher risk plan and the lower growth plan – are designed for different attitudes to investment risk.
One plan and the standalone investment fund – 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 investment options page to read more about these options.
For more details about the underlying investments, please see the fund factsheets on About our investment funds.
Please read this information carefully before you choose your investments. 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).
The government-backed MoneyHelper website has a list of regulated financial advisers.
It’s normal for investment values to go up and down in the short term. But a workplace pension is designed to be a long-term investment. We invest your pension savings with the aim of helping them grow over the long term and then preparing them for retirement, including reducing investment risk.
We explain this in our guide.
To see a list of the payments that have been invested in your now:pensions account, log in to now:u and choose Transactions. Then choose Investments.
You’ll see your investment history as a table with the following headings.
- Date – when the money was invested.
- Type – whether the payment is from you or your workplace.
- Amount – how much was invested.
You can expand each row to see the fund, number of units and the unit price for each investment.
It automatically shows all the investments from the last three months. Use Choose dates to see earlier investment transactions.
You can also filter by type of payment – from you, your workplace, or a pension transfer.
Log in to now:u and go to Investment. You’ll see the plan you’re currently invested in. Below the box describing the plan there’s a button called Look at investment performance. Choose this to see how your investments are doing.
It’s important to remember your pension savings are a long-term investment that aims to grow over your working life. Because we invest in assets such as shares in companies, which tend to change in value a lot, the value can go down as well as up, especially in the short term. Don’t worry – this is normal.
How do the investment plans work? We offer six investment plans and one investment fund.
The investment plans follow this three-phase pension journey.
- Growth phase
During this phase we invest your pension savings with the aim of helping them to grow over most of your working life.
- De-risking phase
This phase starts 10 years before your planned retirement age. We gradually move your pension savings into investments designed to prepare them for retirement, including reducing investment risk.
- Destination phase
This is when you start to take your money out of now:pensions.
This three-phase pension journey only works if we’ve got the right planned retirement age for you. Log in to now:u and go to Investments to check your planned retirement age.
The three-phase journey doesn’t apply to the shariah equity fund. This fund only invests in shariah-compliant equities and doesn’t move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk, as you near your planned retirement age.
Learn more by visiting How we invest your savings.
When you change your investment choice, all your pension savings – your existing savings and new money you and your workplace pay – go into your new investment plan.
Which investment option is right for you depends on a number of things, including:
- when you want to retire
- how much investment risk you’re willing to take
- your personal beliefs
- the amount of savings you have built up
- how you plan to take your pension savings
- what other savings, investments and income you have, and how your pension savings fit in with these.
now:pensions can’t decide for you or give you investment advice.
If you don’t want to choose another option, you’ll stay in the lump sum plan.
The Pension Wise service is there to help you with pension planning. You can chat to a Pension Wise specialist by calling 0800 011 3797 or using the webchat.
Pension Wise will give you guidance, but can’t give advice that’s tailored to you or tell you what you should choose. To get personalised advice you need to talk to a financial adviser who’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The government-backed MoneyHelper service has a guide to finding a regulated financial adviser and a directory of FCA-regulated financial advisers who can give advice on pensions.
Remember, the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Past performance doesn’t mean future performance will be the same.
No. If you have more than one now:pensions account – for example, because you left your workplace and then came back, or you joined another workplace that uses now:pensions – now:u joins them together to make one account. So you’ll only be able to choose one of the investment plans, or the shariah equity fund.
Once you’ve asked to change your investment option in now:u, it takes up to seven working days for the change to go through. You’ll see the change in now:u once it’s done.
While a change is going through, you won’t be able to make any other investment changes.
If you want to change your investment option again, you’ll need to log in to now:u.
Yes. If you want to change your investments back to what they were, you can log in to now:u and make another choice.
But you’ll need to wait seven working days before you can do this. This is because investment changes can take up to seven working days to go through. You won’t be able to make a new choice while your previous choice is going through.
We don’t charge you a fee to change your investments. But there could be transaction costs for buying and selling investments.
We use ‘plan’ in the names of some of our investment options, such as the lump sum plan. These plans aim to help your pension savings grow over most of your working life, then aim to better protect their value as you get closer to taking your money out of now:pensions.
Log in to now:u and go to Investment. You’ll see the plan you’re currently invested in. Choose Change your plan.
On the Choose your plan page, you’ll see all the investment plans that are available. Choose See details to see the description, charges and a breakdown of the investments in each plan.
Once you’ve decided which plan you want, use the Choose this plan button to select it and then choose Continue.
You can change your planned retirement age at the same time, if you want to.
Be sure to check your choice before confirming. We’ll email you to confirm the changes.
We take a whole-life approach to investing your pension savings. All the investment plans we offer use this three-phase pension journey.
- Growth phase
During this phase we invest your pension savings with the aim of helping them to grow over most of your working life.
- De-risking phase
This phase starts 10 years before your planned retirement age. We gradually move your pension savings into investments designed to prepare them for retirement, including reducing investment risk.
- Destination phase
This is when you start to take your money out of now:pensions.
This three-phase journey doesn’t apply to the shariah equity fund. This fund only invests in shariah-compliant equities and doesn’t move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk, as you near your planned retirement age.
Your workplace passes the money to us, usually by Direct Debit.
Your money is invested in the plan or fund you’ve chosen. The lump sum plan is what you automatically go into when you’re enrolled in now:pensions, unless you choose a different one.
We keep your money safe by holding it in a trust that’s managed separately from now:pensions and your workplace. We employ a custodian, a specialist company responsible for safeguarding and protecting your money.
Find out more here.
We invest your pension savings to help them grow over the long term. We invest them responsibly and sustainably to help reduce financial risks from things like climate change, which could have a negative impact on the economy and investments in the long term.
If you’re in one of our investment plans, we prepare your pension savings 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.
Learn more here.
Not while they’re building up. When you start to take your money out of now:pensions, you can usually have up to a quarter (25%) of it as tax-free cash, up to a maximum of £268,275. The rest is taxed like any other income. But you don’t pay National Insurance contributions on it.
You can see an estimate of your future pension savings in the now:u retirement planner, or on your annual benefit statement. To learn more about the assumptions we use to determine your future pension estimates, read our How we work out the future value of your pension savings guide.