Investments are a way of making your money grow before you retire. There is a risk and reward balance to investing. Often the higher the risk, the higher the reward. Different types of investments include cash, property, government bonds and equities (the stock market). In a pension plan you invest your money so that it can increase in value during your working life to give you benefits in retirement. If you don’t invest it, it won’t grow.

Over time, inflation can chip away at the value of your money. For example, the cost of a pint of milk, a newspaper and a loaf of bread costs more now than it did 10 years ago. By investing, your money can not only try to keep pace with the cost of living, but it could grow faster and earn you extra money.

Pensions are invested over many years so if your investments grow then over the years the extra money will grow as well.

But don’t forget that investments can go down as well as up, as we have seen in recent weeks.

You may have seen recently in the news the falls in the global investment markets due, in part, to the potential spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). You may have also noticed changes in the value of your pension in the Plan due to movement in the underlying investments.

It is likely that the markets will remain unpredictable for the short to medium term. This unpredictability may well continue to be reflected in the value of your pension fund.

You should remember that your pension is an investment and will be subject to changes in the markets. How much this affects you will depend on your age, which funds your pension is invested in and what other pension savings you may have.

If you are not yet approaching retirement, then your pension is a long-term investment and the markets may have recovered before you need to use it. If you are nearer retirement, you may wish to consider the risk level of your investments, and if it is still appropriate for your retirement plans. You should take appropriate financial advice before making any decisions.

You can switch your funds or redirect future contributions online using the online portal at https://www.hartlinkonline.co.uk/emerson/hopl.chi/wui/tilepgui.html. You can do this at any time. If you don’t have access to an online portal, you can contact the team by email.

This will depend very much on the individual investments you have. Some funds will have fallen more than others and some funds may even have increased. The funds you have invested in and the spread of these investments will mean that you may see a smaller or a larger drop in your pension fund. Equities and other risky investments are likely to remain very unpredictable throughout the continued potential spread.

It is not possible to predict this. Over the shorter to medium term investments are likely to continue to be unpredictable. If you are some way from retirement this may help you in the longer term as your current investments will be buying units of shares that are priced lower than normal at the moment, so you get more for your money. They also have time to recover and grow before your retirement date. We recommend you should take appropriate financial advice before making any decisions.

Yes, this is available by emailing the Administration Team if you don’t have access to the online portal.

Your funds are invested however you decided. This could either be in self-selected funds (if you choose your own) or in a lifestyling fund (where your funds are automatically switched into safer funds as you age). Depending on your choice and your age this may be a variety of funds.

You can find out your exact funds and allocations by logging in here https://www.hartlinkonline.co.uk/emerson/hopl.chi/wui/tilepgui.html

Please email the Buck team. However please note it may take some time for a response while the teams focus on dealing with requests from members close to retirement, benefits payments and the investment of contributions. We kindly request that you do not call the Buck helpline for fund information at this time.

If you are approaching or thinking about retiring, you should follow the usual process. You will have been contacted by the admin team if you are nearing your intended retirement age so you can complete the forms they have provided.

If you are worried about your retirement in light of changed investments, you might want to take some financial advice on your options at this time. You can find a financial adviser at https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/finding-adviser

You may also wish to talk to people at PensionWise, a government service that provides guidance to members with Defined Contribution pension savings at https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en

This will be something you need to think about in light of your investments and current financial situation.

If you have invested in a lifestyle strategy or have been moving your investments to safer funds as you age, your fund may have been somewhat protected against sudden changes in the stock markets by being invested in cash or bonds which are less unpredictable. Therefore, the impact on your pension fund may have been lessened. Also, if you are planning on flexibly accessing your funds and therefore keeping money invested into retirement, the impact may not be as great if you have time for investments to recover. The key point is to carefully reconsider your plans in light of recent market changes. We recommend you should take appropriate financial advice before making any decisions.

If you are worried about your retirement in light of changed investments, you might want to take some financial advice on your options at this time. You can find a financial adviser at https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/finding-adviser or receive guidance from PensionWise at https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en

Yes, if you already have this in place you can continue as planned or you can request a lump sum or changes in line with the usual process.

Yes, we have taken steps to protect the staff working to administer your pension so they may be working from home, but we are still in operation. We have very detailed plans to continue to deal with the administration and paying benefits as well as protecting our staff during this time.

Yes. We have very robust two-factor authorisation protocols on all our computers and laptops and this is subject to regular audit and testing. We are also paperless so staff at home will have no physical data. It is all stored on secure electronic equipment.

Yes, we still currently have operational post teams so all certificates will be returned in the usual timescales.

Yes, we have taken steps to protect the staff working to administer your pension so some of them may be working from home, but we are still in operation and answering calls during the usual opening hours. We have very detailed plans to continue to deal with the administration and payment of pensions as well as protecting our staff during this time.

For information about your personal details you can log into https://www.hartlinkonline.co.uk/emerson/hopl.chi/wui/tilepgui.html or email or call the admin team.

The Pensions Advisory Service has produced a note about Coronavirus and pensions which is available at https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/

We are currently meeting all regulatory deadlines and we will continue to do so, unless the situation changes in terms of regulatory guidance. This will mean that contributions and investments will continue to be paid to the correct timescales.

If you wish to transfer your pension you can do so if plan rules allow and you can find a plan willing to accept your transfer. We encourage you to take advice before electing to transfer and to be aware that your fund value may be volatile at times of heightened market volatility.

Please be aware that scammers may be seeking a way to try and convince people to hand over their pension savings. For further information see the pensions scams section.

The admin team will deal with any cases as usual. We are currently working to our usual timescales; we will update here should this change.

We are sorry for your loss. As soon as you are ready, you should notify the admin team, this will allow us to get most of the information we need from you right away. This information includes:

• Full name of deceased
• Your name, relationship to the deceased and contact details
• Date of death
• Information about the next of kin/dependants or person dealing with their affairs

We will need you to send us the death certificate and potentially other certificates as well. After we have received the death certificate, we will need to identify the beneficiaries. We will advise you if we require any further documents to do this. Our aim is to process these claims as soon as possible, but some cases might be complex and could take longer.