Welcome to our 2025 newsletter

Updating the Plan’s default Investment option

The Governance Group is responsible for deciding the design of the Plan’s default investment option, called the Drawdown Lifestyle profile, including the mix of investments used and the timing of the automatic switching processes. Over 96% of members have invested their Plan savings in the default option and the Governance Group takes this responsibility very seriously. It has recently completed a full review of the Drawdown Lifestyle profile, with support from its investment advisers. As a result of the review, we will be making some important changes to the blends of investments used in the Drawdown Lifestyle profile. You do not need to do anything and if you’re more than 15 years from retirement, nothing is immediately changing for you.

As a reminder, the Drawdown Lifestyle profile is designed for members who plan to take 25% of their Plan savings as a tax-free cash sum and use the balance to provide a flexible income (e.g. income drawdown), spreading the amount and timing of withdrawals.

You can choose from a range of other lifestyle profiles or self-select funds. If you want to find out more about your investment options, go to the investment guide on the Plan microsite (at www.standardlifepensions.com/lcp).

Market volatility

Over the last few years we have seen a lot of turbulence in investment markets resulting from events such as the Covid crisis, the Russia/Ukraine war, political events in the UK and the recent US global tariff policy. We understand that some members may be concerned about the impact on their Plan savings.

One of our key roles as your Plan Governance Group is to monitor the performance and suitability of the Plan’s range of Lifestyle Profiles and the Selected investment funds. We know you may have concerns about the recent significant market volatility and that some of you may have seen negative returns from your investments. It’s important to remember that your Plan savings are being invested for the long term. We expect to see short term market volatility because this is a feature of all investment markets. If we make changes to investment strategies these are always considered over the long term and are not made in reaction to short term market movements.

That being said, we recommend that you make sure that your chosen investments match your plans for taking your benefits, especially if you are getting closer to retirement.

Changes to the Governance Group

We are making some changes to the make-up of our Governance Group. Alex Clark left LCP and we wish him all the best for the future. We are pleased to announce that Laura Karam, from the DC team has joined the Governance Group and will take on the role of Governance Group Secretary from Tom Fisher. We would like to thank Tom for all his work over recent years as our Governance Group Secretary, but he will continue to make a valuable contribution as he remains a member of the Governance Group.