FOR ADVISERS ONLY
Important information about our investment offering
We’ve recently written to you regarding a review that we’ve carried out across our investment options and we’ve decided to close some of our investment options.
As part of this review we’ve also looked at the investment framework that’s set up on the scheme and identified some actions that may be required. Not all of your clients will receive both pieces of information, some may only be impacted by one, and we’ll let you know this in the information we send.
On this page you’ll find some Q&As which will help with any immediate questions you have, along with copies of letters and Q&As that we’re sending employers and customers.
Adviser materials
We carried out a review of our legacy investment strategies along with our Independent Governance Committee. As a result we have decided to close these legacy strategies and move customers into our more modern Governed Range solutions. Customers will benefit from these changes as the Governed Range comes with better engagement, more investment flexibility and stronger governance and oversight.
As we are closing the strategies the changes are not optional. The new investment strategies have been selected where possible on a like-for-like basis in terms of risk level and target retirement goal. If you would like to choose an alternative strategy to move your clients into then you can do that by letting us know ahead of the strategy closures.
All of the new strategies are part of our flagship Governed Range and have been selected where possible on a like-for-like basis in terms of risk level and target retirement goal. Where no appropriate like-for-like mapping exists we are mapping customers to our default lifestyle strategy, the Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown). The technical details of these mappings have been reviewed and approved by Royal London’s internal governance framework as well as reviewed by our Independent Governance Committee.
One of the key principles of the DWP guidelines on default investment options is that roles and responsibilities for ongoing suitability and design of the investment default must be clearly defined. Our investment range framework helps to establish where those responsibilities lie between the scheme and Royal London. We’ve split our default investment options into four ranges – Default, Selected, Designed and Supported.
Our range of default options are shown below and have been categorised depending on who is taking responsibility for suitability and design.
| Range | Responsibility for default suitability | Responsibility for default design | Default options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal London Default | Royal London | Royal London | Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown) |
| Royal London Selected | Royal London | Royal London | Balanced Tracker Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown) |
| Royal London Designed | Employer / Adviser | Royal London | All of our Lifestyle options which can include bespoke branding, bespoke lifestyle route and choice of at retirement targets1 |
| Royal London Supported | Employer / Adviser | Employer / Adviser | All of the options available under Royal London Designed, plus build your own custom lifestyle including your asset allocation, fund selection and lifestyle switch points1 |
1 Default investment strategies may only use our internal funds and BlackRock passive funds to ensure that fund charges will not cause the scheme to breach the 0.75% pa charge cap.
As part of this exercise we have identified some schemes where both the current and new default investment option is not appropriate for the investment range set up on the scheme. At the same time as closing the strategies and moving members we will update the scheme’s investment range to appropriately match the new default investment option
Employer materials
We carried out a review of our legacy investment strategies along with our Independent Governance Committee. As a result we have decided to close these legacy strategies and move customers into our more modern Governed Range solutions. Members will benefit from these changes as the Governed Range comes with better engagement, more investment flexibility and stronger governance and oversight.
As we are closing the strategies the changes are not optional. The new investment strategies have been selected where possible on a like-for-like basis in terms of risk level and target retirement goal. If you would like to choose an alternative strategy to move your clients into then you can do that by letting us know ahead of the strategy closures.
All of the new strategies are part of our flagship Governed Range and have been selected where possible on a like-for-like basis in terms of risk level and target retirement goal. Where no appropriate like-for-like mapping exists we are mapping customers to our default lifestyle strategy, the Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown). The technical details of these mappings have been reviewed and approved by Royal London’s internal governance framework as well as reviewed by our Independent Governance Committee.
One of the key principles of the DWP guidelines on default investment options is that roles and responsibilities for ongoing suitability and design must be clearly defined. Our investment range framework helps to establish where those responsibilities lie between the scheme and Royal London. We’ve split our default investment options into four ranges – Default, Selected, Designed and Supported.
Our range of default options are shown below and have been categorised depending on who is taking responsibility for suitability and design.
| Range | Responsibility for default suitability | Responsibility for default design | Default options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal London Default | Royal London | Royal London | Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown) |
| Royal London Selected | Royal London | Royal London | Balanced Tracker Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown) |
| Royal London Designed | Employer / Adviser | Royal London | All of our Lifestyle options which can include bespoke branding, bespoke lifestyle route and choice of at retirement targets1 |
| Royal London Supported | Employer / Adviser | Employer / Adviser | All of the options available under Royal London Designed, plus build your own custom lifestyle including your asset allocation, fund selection and lifestyle switch points1 |
1 Default investment strategies may only use our internal funds and BlackRock passive funds to ensure that fund charges will not cause the scheme to breach the 0.75% pa charge cap.
As part of this exercise we have identified some schemes where both the current and new default investment option is not appropriate for the investment range set up on the scheme. At the same time as closing the strategies and moving members we will update the scheme’s investment range to appropriately match the new default investment option.
Customer materials
We carried out a review of our legacy investment strategies along with our Independent Governance Committee. As a result we have decided to close these legacy strategies and move customers into our more modern Governed Range solutions. Members will benefit from these changes as the Governed Range comes with better engagement, more investment flexibility and stronger governance and oversight.
As we are closing the strategies the changes are not optional. The new investment strategies have been selected where possible on a like-for-like basis in terms of risk level and target retirement goal. If you would like to choose an alternative strategy then you can do that by letting us know ahead of the strategy closures.
All of the new strategies are part of our flagship Governed Range and have been selected where possible on a like-for-like basis in terms of risk level and target retirement goal. Where no appropriate like-for-like mapping exists we are mapping customers to our default lifestyle strategy, the Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown). The technical details of these mappings have been reviewed and approved by Royal London’s internal governance framework as well as reviewed by our Independent Governance Committee.
