Your fund choices

Please note: Following the acquisition of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) by BlackRock, the names of all the BGI funds on Standard Life’s investment platform have been updated to reflect the BlackRock brand.

Once you have decided how much you would like to invest in your pension plan, the next consideration is in which funds the money should be invested. The options available to you are detailed below:

If at any time you are unsure of what to do, in the first instance, contact Standard Life on 0800 066 5432. If you require advice on the investment options, we recommend you seek financial advice.

There may be a cost associated with this and you should note that neither BT nor Standard Life will be able to provide any advice to you. If you do not have your own financial adviser, you can find one in your area by visiting unbiased.co.uk

Please note: The link to unbiased.co.uk is outside Standard Life's website and will open in a new window. Standard Life is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Important fund information for BTRP members

The funds listed below are only available to former members of the BTRP. Please note that Legal & General reserve the right to delay switches out of all Legal & General Funds for a period of up to 12 months.

This is outside of Standard Life’s control.

L&G UK Equity Index Fund
L&G Cash Pension Fund
L&G Global Equity Fixed Weights 50:50 Index Pension Fund
L&G Over 15 Year Index Linked Gilts Index Pension Fund
L&G Pre Retirement Pension Fund
SL Schroder Life QEP Global Active Value Pension Fund

Option 1: The Default option

There are three Lifestyle profiles available for members who do not wish to make active investment decisions. If you click on any of the Lifestyle profile links, this will show how the payments are invested. Further details are available in the BT Retirement Saving Scheme guide.

Lifestyle profile for former BTRP members

Lifestyle profile for former SLFPP members

Lifestyle profile for new BT employees

Lifestyle profiles are designed for customers saving for retirement. The funds used will depend on the profile chosen. The funds you are invested in at any point will also depend on the length of time until your selected retirement date.

When you have a longer time to your selected retirement date (typically more than 10 years), the profiles will aim to provide growth by investing in funds that offer growth potential over the longer term. However, you should be aware that the value of your funds can go down as well as up and investment growth is not guaranteed. As you get closer to retirement, the emphasis moves away from growth to preparing your pension fund for your pension benefits at your selected retirement date. This will happen through automatic switching of your funds.

Please note that these profiles may not be suitable for everyone (e.g. it may not be suitable for customers who aren’t considering annuity purchase, or those who intend to buy a pension that increases each year at a rate linked with inflation, or those who do not intend to retire at their selected retirement age).

If you are a BTRP or SLFPP member and currently invest in a Lifestyle profile in your scheme, you will automatically be invested in the relevant Lifestyle profile in the BTRSS. However, you can switch to the Lifestyle profile for new BT employees.

For all other employees, your payments will automatically be invested in the Lifestyle profile for new BT employees.

Remember you can only invest in one Lifestyle profile at any one time.

Option 2: Pick your own option – core fund range

The core fund range

Listed below is a suggested range of core funds which have been selected by BT with advice from its professional advisers. You can find further details on these funds in the BT Retirement Saving Scheme guide.

Money Market Instruments (including cash)
The Standard Life Pension Managed Cash One Fund

Index Linked Gilts
The Standard Life Pension Index-Linked One Fund

Long Dated Gilts
The Standard Life Pension Protection One Fund

Corporate Bond
The Standard Life Pension Corporate Bond One Fund

Property
The Standard Life Pension Property One Fund

Managed
The Standard Life Pension Managed One Fund

UK Equity Tracker
The BlackRock Aquila HP UK Equity Pension Fund

UK Equity
The Standard Life Pension UK Equity One fund

Overseas Equity Tracker
The BlackRock Aquila HP World (Ex-UK) Equity Pension Fund

Overseas Equity
The Standard Life Pension Overseas One Fund

Option 3: Pick your own option – the full fund range

For those who are more comfortable with making their own investment choices, you will have access to more than 150 insured funds to choose from. These include specialist funds such as Ethical and Shariah compliant funds.

The BT Share Pension Fund will also be available to members alongside the core fund range and full range of funds. Please select the weblink or see page 19 of the BT Retirement Saving Scheme guide for more information on the BT Share Fund. Details of the full fund range are provided in the Your Investment Choices booklet. Please also read the Correction to the Your Investment Choices flyer. If you want help in choosing from the full range for funds, you can also use our interactive Fund Selection Tool.

You can switch your payments in and out of the various choices within the core and full range of funds to change the mix of your investments.

Option 4: Self Investment

Once you have joined the BTRSS, you also have the option to invest in a Group Self Invested Personal Pension (GSIPP), which allows members to consider an additional self-investment functionality as part of the BTRSS. Please see the information on the Group Self Invested Personal Pension page for details.

Whatever decisions you decide to make, we recommend you seek financial advice to discuss your available options. There may be a cost associated with this and you should note that neither BT nor Standard Life will be able to provide any advice to you. If you do not have your own financial adviser, you can find one in your area by visiting unbiased.co.uk