How your money is invested

NEST is a new pension scheme that’s been carefully designed for our members right from the start.

We’ve talked to a lot of people about how they’d like to see their money invested. We built the scheme and decided how best to invest your money based on what we found out.

Managing your money

Our research into what people want from a pension and the way investments behave over time has helped us to identify what’s important for a pension scheme. We’ve used this to create a long-term saving approach that we think will meet your needs.

When you join NEST, your money is invested in a fund that we believe is suitable for most people of your age. This is called a NEST Retirement Date Fund. There’ll be one for every year you can choose to take your money out. For example, if you plan to take your money out in 2058 we'll invest your retirement pot in the NEST 2058 Retirement Fund.

These funds focus on the issues we think are most important.

• Protecting your savings from the rising cost of living - It’s important to make sure that your money grows enough to stay ahead of the rising cost of living. A good example of how this works is the price of a pint of milk. This was about 17p in 1980 and is about 65p today. We aim to make your investment grow faster than prices rise, protecting the value of your contributions while adding value over the long term.

• Avoiding sudden falls in value - We manage your money extremely carefully at every stage of your time with NEST to keep the journey as smooth as possible. The value of your pot will sometimes go down as well as up, but we aim to protect your money from sudden shocks that can have a big effect on how much it is worth.

• Making sure you get more or less what you expect - Over the time you save with us, we'll manage your retirement pot to minimise the effect of the unpredictable ups and downs of financial markets and the world economy. We look after your pot in a way that makes it more likely you’ll get to your expected retirement destination without being blown off course.

• Taking appropriate risk to grow your fund - Different types of investment carry different levels of risk. NEST Retirement Date Funds spread your money across many different types of investment, such as shares, government or corporate bonds, and property. We regularly adjust where your money is invested based on your planned NEST retirement date and what's happening in the economy. We aim to take the right amount of risk at the right time.

• Providing clear information about your account - We aim to be as clear as we can about how your investments are doing, the effect of charges and what we've been doing with your money. This will help you understand what your likely final retirement pot might be and make changes to how your retirement pot is managed.

Other funds

NEST Retirement Date Funds are designed to suit most of our members. However, we offer other funds for members who have certain preferences about how we invest their money.

You can learn more about NEST’s additional fund choices in NEST’s other funds.