Investments

Most people invest because it gives their money the chance to grow. Nowadays you can invest in lots of different things, such as equities, bonds and property. How your investment might go down or up over time depends on four main factors.

Learn about these in our investing for basics guide.

There are different types of investments you can choose - but each one behaves differently. Our where to invest guide gives you an overview of your options to help you decide what's best for you. If you're thinking about investing, it's useful to know about asset classes. These are types of investments which have their own risks and benefits and work in different ways. That’s why it’s helpful to know the differences between them.

There are four main groups of asset classes: equities, bonds, property and money market instruments (including cash). There are also specialist and other types of investments, including commodities - which are things like metals, minerals and agricultural products.

We call some investments or ‘assets’ private because they aren’t bought and sold on public markets like the London Stock Exchange. They can come in different forms and with different benefits and risks separate to public markets, like those mentioned above. Our private assets guide explains the growth potential and risk for this type of investment.

All investments carry some kind of risk – but it’s risk with the aim of growing the value of your money. So it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just important that you’re aware of, and comfortable with, the types of risks that come with investing.

When you mention investment risk, most people will probably say it’s the risk of not getting back all the money you’ve invested – sometimes called ‘capital risk’. This is an important risk, but it isn’t the only one. There are other factors which may have an impact on how investments will perform, and fall under the umbrella of ‘investment risk’. For example, ups and downs in financial markets, interest rate and inflation changes, legislation, politics, wars and conflicts, even weather events can all have an effect on investment performance. Our investment risk guide can help you find out how much risk you’re comfortable taking with your investments.

At Standard Life, responsible investing is first and foremost about helping you to achieve your retirement goals. Our priority is always to aim to give you a good financial outcome in the long term. At the same time, we’ll look at other factors we know you might want and expect us to look out for on your behalf.

We believe responsible investing can lead to better financial outcomes for our customers and may help to support wider change. Find out more about our approach in our responsible investing guide.

Want to invest more sustainably but confused by jargon? We help you understand the key terms in our jargon buster, and show you where you can find out more.

We have a choice of responsible investment solutions to meet your needs.

You can opt for a solution where investment experts pick and manage funds for you, aiming to manage the financial risks and opportunities of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. There's also a choice of individual funds if you want to target specific ethical, environmental, and social goals together with aiming for growth over the long term. Discover more in our responsible investing guide.

There are different ways to invest responsibly. Find out more about the responsible investment approach in our Sustainable Multi Asset, Future Advantage and Investment Pathway ranges.

Stewardship is an important part of responsible investing. It helps us manage risks in your investments and is a way to help drive positive change.

When it comes to the money invested in your pension, it’s about talking to the companies we invest in (on your behalf) to manage risk, deliver value for you, as well as driving positive change. This is achieved using engagement and voting and in partnership with investment managers.

Read more about our approach to stewardship.

It's a good idea to keep track of how your pension investments are performing, but remember that market ups and downs are a normal part of investing.

When stock markets and other investment markets are fluctuating it’s natural to worry about how this may impact your pension and other investments. But reacting in the short term could worsen any losses. It’s important to step back and consider what you can control.

Find out more in our article on market fluctuations and your pension investments.

Our short video and in-depth Q&A explain some of the main things to think about when markets are moving and how this could affect the value of your pension investments.

If you're particularly concerned, it might be the right time to speak to a financial adviser to help you review your investments. You can find out more about choosing a financial adviser on MoneyHelper.  Remember, there's never really any guarantees and the value of investments can go down as well as up and may be worth less than was paid in.

There may not be a cash option for your Standard Life pension but you can sell your investments into your pension's cash account.

If you're thinking about doing this because you've seen a drop in your pension value and you're looking for a lower‐risk opinion, then there's some important things you should know. First, cash accounts are not designed to hold the bulk of your retirement savings - charges and the impact of inflation could eat into your savings. Second, it's normal to see investment performance rise and fall. If you can, give the markets time to recover before taking any money out. You'd likely be selling your pension investments at their lower value with no option to benefit from any rises when the market recovers.

Yes. If you feel confident choosing and reviewing investments on an ongoing basis, you can choose from our full fund range through our ‘Let me do it’ investing route. We do recommend that you regularly review your investments to make sure they remain on track to meet your goals.

If you plan to pick your own investments from the full fund range, just make sure you have the time to really commit. You'll need to regularly review how your investments are doing, research options and, if necessary, move your money around.

Or you can choose one of our ready-made investment options through the 'Help me do it' investing route. We have options to suit all levels of knowledge and experience. You can choose to be as involved or uninvolved as you like with managing your investments.

It may be a good idea to start by assessing your attitude to risk. Most funds have a rating to indicate how much risk they're taking; we use volatility. with this, the higher the volatility rating, the more likely an investment will fluctuate in price. Our attitude to risk tool can help you assess the level of risk you're comfortable taking.

Yes. We'll ask you how you plan to take your retirement savings and how long you want it to last. You'll have the option to invest in one of our Investment Pathway options. These pathways are ready‐made investment options designed to meet your retirement needs based on how you'd like to take your money in retirement. If the you're interested in choosing from our full fund range, there's lots of information and tools to help in our investment hub.