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Pathway 1

‘This is the Investment Pathway if you have no plans to touch your money in the next 5 years’

The fund selected for Pathway 1 is the Prudential PruFund Risk Managed 3 fund.

Why we’ve selected this fund

If you choose Pathway 1 it means you have no plans to touch your money in the next 5 years. Based on these circumstances, we’ve selected a fund that aims to maximise the medium to long-term returns (5 to 10 years or more) with a medium level of risk.

PruFund Risk Managed 3 aims to provide you with steady growth over the medium to long-term while offering some protection from the short-term ups and downs of investing. It won’t protect you from the full impact of any extreme or sustained market changes, but it does aim to limit the impact of these. 

The value of your investment can go down as well as up so you might not get back the amount you put in.

Risk and reward

In order to understand the relationship between risk and reward it’s helpful to first understand the different types of investment (known as ‘asset classes’).

The four main investment types are:

Shares (also known as ‘equities’) give investors a portion of ownership of a company.

Commercial property includes ownership of retail, office, and industrial property.

Bonds (also known as ‘fixed-interest’ investments) are loans companies or governments take when they need to raise money.

Cash refers to currency, deposit accounts (bank savings accounts), and other cash equivalents.

Each of the four asset classes offers a different level of risk and potential reward so the split of these assets determines the risk level of the fund and therefore the potential for reward.

To help you understand a fund’s level of risk and reward we give each fund a risk rating. Prudential’s risk ratings are between 1 and 6 (with 1 being a lower risk and 6 being a higher risk).

  • The lower risk and potential reward funds are likely to be less volatile, so will be invested in areas which are less likely to fluctuate in value.
  • The higher risk and potential reward funds are likely to be more volatile, so will be invested in areas that are more likely to fluctuate in value.

On a scale of 1-6, Pathway 1 has a risk rating of 3.
Other companies may use different descriptions and ratings.
For further information about risk and reward please see the Pension Choices Plan Fund Guide.

PruFund

PruFund Risk Managed 3 invests in a wide range of assets by investing in our With-Profits fund. This means that your money is spread across different asset classes. Spreading your investment means poor performance in one asset type can be offset with good performance in another as you don't have all your eggs in one basket. This is known as multi-asset investing.

Here are the asset allocations for PruFund Risk Managed 3 as at 31 December 2024. Note that these are reviewed regularly and may vary from time to time but will always be consistent with the fund objective.

How PruFund works

PruFund is what we refer to as a ‘smoothed’ fund. This means that it helps protect your money from some of the short-term ups and downs of the markets and gives you a smoother return. We call this smoothing. PruFund is invested in our With-Profits Fund, one of the largest of its kind in the UK. There may be times when we need to suspend smoothing; this is to protect the With-Profits fund and therefore all With-Profits policyholders. We would only expect to do this in highly unusual circumstances.

Prudential’s PruFunds aim to grow your money over the medium to long term (at least five to ten years) with a view to providing you with a smoother investment journey. That’s thanks to our smoothing mechanism and multi-asset approach; achieved through being part of Prudential's With-Profits Fund. This aims to spread the risk to your investment, which can help provide more stable returns.

When you invest in PruFund your money is pooled together with other investors. This pool of money is then used to buy a large range of different types of asset classes, which helps to offset poor performance in one asset type with good performance in another. Pooling money also brings about other benefits like having access to a wide range of global funds that individual investors may not otherwise be able to access. And because there are many investors the costs are spread out too. Like most investments, the value of the underlying funds change daily, up or down. PruFund’s smoothing mechanism aims to reduce the impact of these movements over the short term, using Expected Growth Rates and where required, Unit Price Adjustments, to deliver a smoothed investment journey. 

A key benefit of PruFund is that it’s actively managed by teams of investment experts. Our experts continually assess the data and performance to make ongoing decisions about where to invest (and where not to) and they look out for new opportunities. To achieve the right mix of assets at any given time, they also have a regular process of monitoring and adjusting the mix for any market or fund changes.

For the range of PruFund funds, what you receive will depend on the value of the underlying investments, our charges, the smoothing process, if there is a guarantee and when you take your money out. There may be times when we need to suspend smoothing; we expect this to be in highly unusual circumstances and is designed to protect the With-Profits Fund and those invested in it.

Watch PruFund explained

We recommend watching this 4 minute video to help you understand some of the key aspects of PruFund in more detail.

Please refer to 'Your With-Profits Plan – a guide to how we manage the fund (PruFund range of funds)' for more information.

PruFund Risk Managed 3

If you select Pathway 1 it means you have no plans to touch your money in the next 5 years and your money will be invested in PruFund Risk Managed 3.

The objective of this fund

All funds have an objective set out by the fund manager.

This fund aims to achieve long-term total return (the combination of income and growth of capital). The fund is actively managed and aims to limit the fluctuations ('volatility') your investment experiences, after allowing for smoothing, to 12% per annum over the medium to long-term. There is no guarantee that the fund will achieve its objective of managing the volatility to the target level.

What this means

Prudential PruFund Risk Managed 3 fund aims to maximise your medium to long-term returns (5 to 10 years or more) with a medium level of risk. It also offers you some protection from the short-term ups and downs of the market by aiming to deliver smoothed returns.

As we have seen from the fund objective the volatility limit for this fund is 12%. This means the aim is to try and ensure the fund doesn’t fluctuate by any more than 12%. If that does happen - there is no guarantee it will always be within the limits - the fund manager will take action to bring it back within the guidelines.

The value of an investment can go down as well as up and the value in the future may be less than the amount invested. For the range of PruFund funds, what you receive will depend on the value of the underlying investments, our charges, the smoothing process, if there is a guarantee and when you take your money out.

What fund charges and further costs are there for Pathway 1?

We take an Annual Management Charge (AMC) for looking after your investment. Any further costs shown are expenses which are borne by the fund. Together they add up to the yearly total (%). These are shown in the table below.

The fund is actively managed by expert Fund Managers who make the day to day investment decisions on behalf of investors. This active management of the fund aims to achieve greater returns for investors than funds using less active management, and this can come with a higher cost.

We take the AMC for the PruFund funds by the monthly cancellation of units from each investment.

All money you have invested in your Pension Choices Plan will benefit from an AMC discount of 0.30% regardless of how much your fund is worth. Please refer to the Key Features Document for more information.

Please see the table below for details of fund charges and further costs for Pathway 1; note that further costs are indicative and are correct as at 20 January 2025.

Pathway 1

Fund name

Annual Management Charge

Further costs

Fund size discount

Maximum yearly total

I have no plans to touch my money in the next 5 years

PruFund Risk Managed 3

1.41%

0.26%

0.30%

1.37%

Fund charges and further costs may vary in future and they may be higher than they are now.

For further details of charges please refer to the Pension Choices Plan Fund Guide.

What to do next

If you want to use Investment Pathways or have any questions, please call our customer service team on 0808 234 2372. They can’t tell you which option to choose, or give you financial advice, but they are here to help you. We might record your call for training and quality purposes. To find out more about how we use your personal data please visit pru.co.uk/mydata

Back to Investment Pathways

Find out about the funds selected to match each pathway objective

Pathway 2

I plan to use my money to set up a guaranteed income for life (also known as 'an annuity') within the next 5 years.
 

Find out more

Pathway 3

I plan to start taking my money as a long-term income within the next 5 years (also choose this option if you plan to take out some money, as and when you need it, within the next 5 years).

Find out more

Pathway 4

I plan to take out all my money within the next 5 years.

 

Find out more

 

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