Planning better | Credit Suisse Group (UK) Pension Fund

Plan a better retirement

Suggestions for steps you can take to improve your future retirement income.

Find out how much your retirement savings are worth

How to check the value of:

Your DC benefits

You can check the current value of your defined contribution or DC benefits (built up from contributions and investment returns) online, through Fidelity PlanViewer. Go to Do it online.

You can also use the Fidelity PlanViewer pension modeller to show estimates of your future pension based on:

your current level of retirement savings
the current rate of contributions to your retirement savings, and
your Selected Retirement Date (the age you plan to retire at)

You can change the level of contributions, your Selected Retirement Date, or the investment options, and see how this changes the amount the modeller shows. It’s designed to help you make decisions such as whether to change your contribution rate, change your investment choices or choose an earlier, or later, planned retirement age.

Of course, you won’t actually receive the amounts it shows; the modeller has to use assumptions about things like future investment returns, inflation and the future cost of buying pensions and these are all likely to be different in real life. But it should help to give you an idea of how your retirement savings are progressing.

Your DB benefits

You can check the amount of your defined benefit (or DB) pension when you stopped building up DB benefits (or left Credit Suisse, if this was earlier) online, through Fidelity’s My DB Pension website. Go to the 'Do it online' page. Or you may have a “leaver statement” issued at that time. This will show the yearly amount of pension you had built up based on your salary at this date and the length of time you had built up benefits.

Contact Fidelity for a more up-to-date statement, or if you cannot find your statement. Visit Help and contacts for their contact details.

We have introduced a secure online modeller that uses your personal information to show you illustrations of the retirement options available to you, inside and outside the Fund.

If you’re over minimum retirement age (55 for most people), when you receive a retirement estimate or transfer value, the details will be uploaded to this modeller and you’ll get access to explore your options in more detail online. You can request an up-to-date retirement estimate by contacting Fidelity.

Boost your savings

Are you:

Working for Credit Suisse and building up new benefits in the Fund?

Are you building up benefits in DC Plus? You can increase your contributions on Bubble.

Visit Bubble through:

“Pay and Benefits” in MyHR on the Credit Suisse intranet, or
from outside the Credit Suisse network at: credit-suisse.tbs.aon.com/logon (you’ll need your User ID and password).

Go to Choose Benefits – Pension. You can choose your contribution rate as a percentage of your pensionable pay.

Still working for Credit Suisse but no longer building up benefits in this Fund?

While you are working for Credit Suisse, but no longer building up new benefits in the Fund – you can no longer make contributions to the Fund. However, you may be in another pension arrangement that will accept new contributions.

Building up benefits in your current employer's pension scheme?

If you are no longer working for Credit Suisse – check whether you can increase your contributions or pay additional voluntary contributions, if you wish to do so.

Take care with tax

You may want to check how increasing the contributions to your retirement savings could affect your pension tax situation. Remember: tax treatment depends on your personal circumstances and these, and the tax rules, could change in the future. Visit the Pensions and tax page for more information.

DC benefits only: review your investment choices

As DC benefits are based on contributions, investment returns and investment charges, careful investment can help to boost your retirement savings. We would encourage you to review your investment options from time to time to ensure they are still appropriate for you.

Please look at the investment choices guide, which you can download from the Library, for more about investment and why it is important. The value of your benefits may increase or decrease, depending on investment performance, and is not guaranteed. You could get back less than the amount you paid in.

Take a look at . . .

The default investment option

Most people are likely to be in the “default” investment option, unless you have made another choice. This is the Drawdown Lifestyle strategy, a pre-set investment strategy that automatically switches your retirement savings from higher-risk “growth” investments to lower-risk “protection” investments at different stages of your working life.

The timing of these switches depends on your Selected Retirement Date, which is assumed to be your Normal Retirement Age unless you have told Fidelity a different Selected Retirement Date. Please contact Fidelity to check your Selected Retirement Date. Visit Help and contacts.

For more information about Drawdown Lifestyle

You can find more information about Drawdown Lifestyle, including its yearly management charge, on Fidelity PlanViewer. Visit Do it online for more information.

Drawdown Lifestyle is designed to be suitable if you plan to take drawdown when you retire but remember: drawdown is not available through the Fund. If you want to take drawdown, you would need to transfer your benefits out of the Fund. Please visit Options for your benefits and look at Retirement options outside the Fund for more information. for more information about drawdown.

The default option is designed as a choice for most people, but it may not be right for everyone. You should consider carefully whether it is right for you and change it if necessary.

Changing your investment choices

You can change your investment choices at any time on Fidelity PlanViewer. Visit Do it online for more information.

I prefer to have my investments managed for me

You may consider staying in the default investment option, Drawdown Lifestyle, or choosing one of the other Lifestyle strategies.

Like Drawdown Lifestyle these are pre-set investment strategies that automatically switch your retirement savings from higher-risk “growth” investments to lower-risk “protection” investments at different stages of your working life. The timing of these switches depends on your Selected Retirement Date, which is assumed to be your Normal Retirement Age unless you have told Fidelity a different Selected Retirement Date.

Please contact Fidelity to check your Selected Retirement Date. Visit Help and contacts for their contact details.

Annuity Drawdown is designed for buying a pension annuity with your retirement savings.
Cash Drawdown is designed for taking your retirement savings as one or more cash sums.

You can find more information about these Lifestyle strategies, including their yearly management charges, on Fidelity PlanViewer. Visit Do it online.

Retirement options outside the Fund

Please visit Options for your benefits and look at Retirement options outside the Fund for more information about the retirement options these Lifestyle strategies are designed for. You can change your investment choices at any time on Fidelity PlanViewer. Visit Do it online.

I am interested in managing my own investments

If you would prefer to make your own choice of investments, a wide range of individual investment funds is available.

The investment choices guide, which you can download from the Library, has lots of useful information to help you choose investments, along with a complete list of the investment funds that are available. On the Fidelity PlanViewer website you can also look at the details of each investment fund, including its yearly management charge and a history of its performance.

Investment performance

Remember: Past investment performance is not a reliable guide to future investment performance.

Consider bringing your pensions together

If you have pension benefits in different places, you may want to think about bringing them together, as this could help you manage them more easily.

Transferring into the Fund

If you have benefits in a previous employer’s pension scheme or a personal pension, you may be able to transfer these into the Fund and add them to your DC Plus retirement savings.

As a general rule, you can only do this if:

you are currently building up benefits in DC Plus
you have been doing so for at least two years, and
the value of benefits you want to transfer in is above a certain amount.

The benefits you transfer in will become DC benefits in the Fund, even if they are DB benefits.

If you wish to explore transferring in benefits you can view more information on the 'Moving your pension' page of the Fidelity website. Alternatively, you can log directly into your Fidelity PlanViewer account and go to ‘Manage My Plan’ - ‘Move a Pension’ where you may start the journey online.

Have you transferred benefits into the Fund?

If you have transferred benefits into the Fund in the past and want to find out what they are worth now, you can view this on Fidelity’s PlanViewer under ‘Plan Information’. You can also contact Fidelity. Visit Help and contacts for their contact details.

Transferring out of the Fund

You may be able to transfer your Fund benefits out to another pension arrangement.

For example, you could transfer your Fund benefits into:

your current employer’s pension, as long as it can accept transfers in,
a previous employer’s pension scheme, as long as it can accept transfers in, or
a personal pension, such as a SIPP (“self-invested personal pension”).

Finding financial advice

You may want to take independent financial advice before bringing your pensions together. In particular, if you want to transfer out DB benefits with a transfer value of £30,000 or more, you are legally required to take and pay for financial advice from an adviser qualified as a “pension transfer specialist”. Visit Getting financial advice for details of organisations that can help you with finding financial advice.

If you wish to consider a transfer out, please contact Fidelity. Visit Help and contacts for their contact details.

Pension scams

Don't get suckered in

Watch this 3-minute tongue-in-cheek video on how to avoid typical pension scam tactics.

If you are transferring your benefits out you will need to beware of pension scams. Scammers’ tactics constantly evolve and they may pose as legitimate-seeming financial advisers or investment experts. Scams may take the form of a “free review” of your pension followed by an offer to transfer your benefits out, sometimes with a promise of “guaranteed” investment returns.

If you receive an unsolicited offer to do with your pension, you should check it out thoroughly before doing anything. We would recommend taking the following steps.

Reject any unexpected offers.
Always check who you are dealing with.
Don't allow yourself to be rushed or pressured into doing anything.
Get impartial information or advice.
If you suspect a scam, report it.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) keeps a warning list of known scams on its “Scamsmart” website: www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart, along with a leaflet you can download and other useful information about how to spot and avoid scams.