The Personal Lifestyle Strategy is changing

A balanced range of investment options and in particular a robust investment Lifestyle Strategy is key to supporting members along their investment journey to retirement. Irish Life’s Personal Lifestyle Strategy (PLS) is our recommended default Lifestyle Strategy for pension savers.

A core strength of our PLS strategy is the regular review process. This review is undertaken to ensure the strategy continues to be the most appropriate Lifestyle Strategy available taking into account any legislative changes or new market trends.

As you may be aware Irish Life added a range of Multi Asset Funds to our general fund offerings in 2013. These introduced two new concepts, the Dynamic Share to Cash (DSC) model and inclusion of Low Volatility Equities to help control risk and volatility. Due to the success of these strategies we have now decided to extend the multi asset approach to EMPOWER PLS.  We believe that these changes to the EMPOWER PLS fund mix will facilitate long term investment growth while introducing improved volatility management, ensuring that the strategy remains a valuable default option for Trustees to offer their members.

Who do the changes apply to?

The changes will apply to members of Defined Contribution Schemes, Additional Voluntary Contribution Schemes, Personal Retirement Bonds and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts, where those members are invested via Irish Life’s core PLS option that uses the Consensus Plus Fund.

When do the changes come into effect?

We currently plan to implement the changes to EMPOWER PLS towards the end of 2016. Until then the existing PLS strategy remains in place.

Click here for a document that explains the changes to EMPOWER PLS for members of Defined Contribution pension plans.

Click here for a file that summarises EMPOWER PLS