Changing your funds
As your attitude to risk may change over time, you may want to change your investment choices from time to time.
It is important that you regularly review your investment choices to ensure that they are still right for you.
DC Core
In DC Core, you can change how your DC Core account is invested throughout the year if you want to. You have various options:
- to invest in the Lifetime Pathway fund – in this case, all of your DC Core account (i.e. your past and future contributions) must be directed to the Lifetime Pathway fund;
- to invest all of your DC Core account (i.e. past and future contributions) to any combination of the self-select funds;
- to change the way your account is split across the range of self-select funds you have chosen.
If you change your investment choices, all of your DC Core account and any future contributions will be invested in line with your new investment instructions.
If you ask to change your investment choices, we will sell the units you hold in your current funds and use the money this makes to buy units in the new funds you have chosen.
We process these requests every three months, so your change will take effect from the next February, May, August, or November.
To change your investment choices, complete an Active Member Investment Choices Form and return it to Nestlé Pensions. You can also complete this form online by logging into your Online Account.
DC Start
As a member of DC Start, your account is automatically invested in the Lifetime Pathway fund. You don’t have to make any investment decisions.
If you’d like to choose your own investments you’ll need to switch to DC Core. You’ll need to contribute a minimum of 5% of your pensionable earnings in DC Core, but this does mean that you’ll also receive higher contributions from Nestlé.
To move to DC Core, complete a DC Core Option Form and return it to Nestlé Pensions.
The costs of buying and selling units
You won't be charged for switching funds, but if you decide to change funds there are costs that need to be paid when selling units in your old funds and buying units in your new funds. These costs are included in the daily unit price. Our investment provider will try to keep these costs as low as possible, but if a lot of money is moved in or out of a fund on a particular day, this may not always be possible.
The fund manager may take steps to make sure that existing investors are protected by 'swinging' the unit price, meaning that the sale and purchase costs on that particular day could both be as much as up to 1% of the value of the money being disinvested and reinvested.
Generally, our investment provider will be able to sell and buy units on the same day, so that you are constantly invested in the financial markets. However, sometimes this won’t be possible, in which case our investment provider will sell units one day, and purchase new units a few days later. If this happens, your money will be ‘out of the market’ between the sale and the purchase date. As a result, you could either make a gain or a loss if the markets move significantly while you are out of the market.
If you want advice about your investment choices, you should contact an independent financial adviser. MoneyHelper has a list of advisers who are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can find this list in the pensions and retirement section of the MoneyHelper website.