Review your Additional Voluntary Contributions

If you have Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) or Bonus Sacrifice savings, they will either be invested in the Scheme’s range of investment options or with another external provider. If you have AVCs or Bonus sacrifice savings with an external provider, you should receive statements of your benefits from that provider.


If you have AVCs or Bonus Sacrifice savings invested in the Scheme, we call these savings your Defined Contribution (DC) pension pot. The value of your DC pension pot will depend on many things, including how well your chosen investments perform over time, so it’s important to understand the different options available.


You can decide how to invest your DC pension pot. You can choose from the Scheme’s Targeted Investment Strategies or Freechoice range of funds.  The Trustee, supported by professional investment advisers regularly reviews the options made available to you.

Your investment choice is important


It could depend on many things including; how confident you feel about making your own investment decisions, your attitude to risk, your age, your other savings and what you want to do with your DC pension pot when you retire.

The following questions will help you decide if your investment choice is right for you:

  • How “hands-on” do you want to be in managing your investments?
  • How do you plan to use your DC pension pot?
  • When do you plan to take your DC pension pot?

The Scheme has a number of closed investment options; Cash Lifecycle, Flexicycle and Lifecycle 2. These are not available to any member as a new investment choice. If you are currently using one of these closed investment options you can continue to invest your DC pension pot in that option. Please refer to the DC Legacy Investment Guide for more information.

Do you want your investments to be managed for you - the 'hands-off' approach



If you’re happy to decide the type of retirement income you want and don’t have the experience or time to regularly review your choice of investment funds, you may prefer a “hands-off” investment approach. The Scheme’s “hands-off” investment options are called Targeted Investment Strategies. They each follow a pre-set investment strategy designed by the Scheme’s Trustee with the help of professional investment advisers. The tailored mix of four funds used for each strategy changes automatically over time.


Watch these two short videos to find out more about the Targeted Investment Strategies work.



This video tells you the basics about how the Targeted Investment Strategies work

This video tells you about the June 2024 changes to the Targeted Investment Strategies

There are three strategies for you to choose from depending on the type of retirement income that you want to take.

Alternatively, you can choose the “hands-on” option and create and manage your own investment strategy using the Freechoice range funds.

Regularly check that you're in the right investment to match your future plans

To check where your DC pension pot is invested or to change your investment choice, you can log-in to My Pension using the link below. When you’re in My pension, choose the “My Pension” dropdown and then click on “Change My Investments”. You can make up to 12 changes to your DC investments per year free of charge. The value of your DC pension pot is not guaranteed and will rise and fall in line with the price of the investment funds used for your investment choice.

View and manage your investments

If you're not doing this on the HSBC network you can click here. You’ll need your username and password to log in. Don’t know yours?

Choosing your Target Retirement Age

Your TRA is important because changes to the investment mix used by the Targeted Investment Strategies are based on the period to your TRA. If your DC pension pot is invested in one of the three Targeted Investment Strategies, you can change your TRA on My Pension. Click the “Login to My Pension” link below. Once on the homepage, select the ‘My Investments’ tab and look for the Target Retirement Age tile on the right hand side.

Find out more about your investment options

You can find out more information about each funds investment objectives, benchmarks, risk ratings and how the funds are performing from the DC fund factsheets (see below).

DC Fund factsheets

The latest quarterly DC Fund factsheets and the latest monthly flash report are now available in the Information Centre.

Additional Investment FAQs

More things to consider

Choose your beneficiaries 

Take care of your loved ones when you’re gone.

Advice and guidance  

If you need some more help to decide the investment option that is right for you, it's worth thinking about getting some advice from a regulated financial adviser. Using an adviser can be expensive, so make sure you’ve read all of the information available to you first. MoneyHelper offers free support on a wide range of financial matters, online and over the phone. Go to the pensions and retirement section at MoneyHelper.org.uk. You can also use this service to find a retirement financial adviser.