If you’ve been leaving your workplace pension ticking along in the background, you’re not alone.

According to Pensions Age, 79% of UK adults surveyed don’t know how much they have saved for retirement, while 52% don’t think they will have enough to retire.

Without regularly engaging with your pension, you could risk falling short of your retirement goals. As a result, you might need to keep working for longer or scale back your retirement plans. In some cases, you could even risk running out of money later in life.

By proactively managing your pension, you can achieve the retirement you’re dreaming of and ensure your pension ends up in the right hands when you pass away.

Here are the top three things you can do with your pension now to help keep your retirement on track.

1. Track your pot’s growth and boost contributions

Rather than assuming your contributions will be sufficient to fund your ideal retirement, it’s important to monitor your pot’s growth over time. That way, you can track your progress towards your goals and identify early on whether you need to make any adjustments.

Often, it’s not only your own contributions helping to build your pot; your employer may pay into your scheme, too. Additionally, the amount of tax relief you can receive is capped under Jersey / Guernsey rules and may taper for higher earners. So, it’s important to understand exactly how much tax relief you’re entitled to.

With a clear view of how your pot is growing, you might consider increasing your contributions, where possible. Thanks to compound investment returns, the sooner you pay in, the more time your pot has to grow.

Read more: ‘Compound interest: How “the eighth wonder of the world” could boost your wealth’

It helps to start by estimating how much your ideal retirement could cost. You can then assess your current savings and growth rate to determine whether or not you’re on track to achieve your target by your desired retirement age.

Of course, increasing your contributions may be easier said than done. If you don’t have much disposable income left at the end of the month, you may need to tweak your budget and make small sacrifices to prioritise your pension savings. Remember, even a small monthly increase can make a significant difference over time.

2. Check whether your pension is invested in the right place

Your pension is much more than a savings account. The money you contribute is invested with the aim of growing your retirement fund over time and helping you achieve your long-term financial goals.

You are not restricted to the investment fund selected when your pension was established. You can usually review and change your investments at any time to ensure they remain suitable for your objectives and attitude to risk.

By regularly reviewing the investment of your pension fund and contributions, you can help ensure:

• The risk profile aligns with your personal appetite for risk – Some people are comfortable taking on more risk in the hope of accelerating their fund’s growth, while others prefer a more conservative approach. If you are many years from retirement, you have more time to ride out market fluctuations and potentially benefit from the long-term growth opportunities offered by equities.
• Your investments meet your own preferences – For example, you may wish to avoid investing in certain sectors.
• The returns are meeting your growth targets – Crucially, you want to feel confident your investments are achieving the desired level of growth.

The scheme offers access to more than 65 investment funds, giving you the flexibility to invest in a way that suits you. Options range from low-cost index-tracking funds that provide exposure to some of the world's leading companies, through to professionally managed portfolios that allow you to take a more hands-off approach. Whether you enjoy being involved in investment decisions or prefer to leave it to the experts, the choice is yours.

Keeping track of your pension has never been easier. The ZIO app allows you to view your investments, monitor performance and stay connected to your retirement savings wherever you are.

3. Keep your beneficiaries up to date

You work hard to build your pot. While you likely hope to enjoy the fruits of your labour yourself, you also want to be sure any funds remaining in your pension when you pass away will end up in the right hands.

The beneficiary of your pension is chosen with an expression of wish form, rather than your will. You might not have set one up at all, or you may have chosen your beneficiary some time ago and haven’t reviewed it since.

In 2022, Pensions Age reported that just 38% of pension savers had kept their expression of wish up to date.

Your first choice for beneficiary can change over time. For example, your relationship status may have changed, or you may have new children or grandchildren to consider. As such, it’s especially important to keep your expression of wish form up to date if you have held your pension for a long time or have experienced significant relationship changes.

Remember to check the beneficiary for all your pension schemes, not just the one held through your current employer. Throughout your career, you may accrue multiple workplace pension pots from different employers. Without keeping the expression of wish form up to date for each scheme, your savings could end up going to someone other than your first-choice beneficiary.

You can track and manage your pension fund by using the ZIO app.

Get in touch

For further information about retirement planning, you can email enquiries@rfsl.co.uk to learn more. Alternatively, call 01534 502000 in Jersey or 01481 747940 in Guernsey to discuss how we could support you.

Please note

This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at individuals only.

All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.

A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 50. The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The tax implications of pension withdrawals will be based on your individual circumstances. Thresholds, percentage rates, and tax legislation may change.

Rossborough Financial Services Limited is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 and licensed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.