Lifestyle funds bring element of restraint

pensions

While lifestyle investment strategies will not suit everyone they could suit members who lack access to advice

The Department for Work and Pensions recently announced that a lifestyle strategy will be the only allowable default fund under stakeholder pensions. But this may not be the most effective strategy for managing investments in the run-up to retirement. Lifestyle or lifecycle investment strategies have been used in UK pensions since the late 1980s, although they only really started to gain wide acceptance in the following decade. Although lifestyle designs vary, these strategies generally involve investing in equity based funds for growth and then systematically switching into bonds and cash...