Fund factsheets may not be the sexiest area of workplace pensions, however for members who want to deeply engage with their pension they are an essential part of the process. In our latest insight we look at what fund factsheet formats are offered by workplace pension providers, what is included and how they are managed.
Ask any fund management support team what they spend a lot of time doing and the likelihood is that engaging with and/or producing fund factsheets is a frequent task.
The majority of fund factsheets are updated quarterly. However, Hargreaves Lansdown, Legal & General, Legal & General Master Trust, Royal London and True Potential update theirs on a monthly basis.
Our data shows that the majority of workplace pension providers use either third party fund factsheets or a combination of third party and own-generated fund factsheets.
Fidelity, Fidelity Master Trust, Standard Life and Standard Life DC Master Trust are the only providers to exclusively generate all their own fund fact sheets.
Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, Hargreaves Lansdown, Royal London and True Potential use a combination of third party and self-generated fund factsheets.
The remaining 50% of workplace pension providers exclusively use third party generated fund factsheets.
The most commonly used third party supplier is FE FundInfo which is used by almost two thirds of workplace pension providers. The next most commonly used is Morningstar whose factsheets are used by five workplace pension providers.
Standard & Poors, Fundworks/Key Data, MoneyMate and FT Interactive fund factsheets are not used by any providers.
All workplace pension providers are able to aggregate fund information into a single fund factsheet for ease of use by their members.
When is comes to the content of their factsheets, some information is more commonly included than others. All fund fact sheets offered by workplace pension providers include a portfolio breakdown, top 10 holdings, fund charges (by either annual management charges or total expense ratio) and past performance.
Other than those of Standard Life and Standard Life DC Master Trust, all fund fact sheets also include a breakdown by sector and fund reference numbers.
Fund investment style information is also widely included with only factsheets from Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, Standard Life and Standard Life DC Master Trust not including this.
Less frequently included is volatility information. This is only offered by 65% of providers with Aviva Designer, Aviva My Money, Aviva My Money Master trust, Legal & General, Legal & General Master Trust, Mercer Master Trust Aviva and Mercer Master Trust Scottish Widows not including it.
The least frequently included information is the minimum investment amount per fund. This is only included on factsheets from Hargreaves Lansdown, Scottish Widows, Scottish Widows GSIPP, Scottish Widows Master Trust and True Potential.
Co-branding of fund factsheets is an area not overly well supported by workplace pension providers. Our data shows that half of providers can offer the facility to co-brand fund fact sheets with an intermediary, and 55% will co-brand with the employer.
Overall, our data shows the fund factsheets offered by workplace pension providers are fairly comprehensive and all are updated regularly. The providers who offer the widest range of information within their factsheets are Scottish Widows, Hargreaves Lansdown and True Potential. Hargreaves Lansdown and True Potential also update these monthly.
