How do I know if my policy is performing well?

This is a big question and one that needs careful consideration. Why? Because reviewing a fund's performance involves more than looking at the value of your policy and by how much its gained (or lost). For example, a fund may give you excellent growth, but what about the charges? How much of the positive performance is reduced by the effects of the charges.

 As your policy is designed with the long term in mind, it may help to focus on the long-term performance, although you'll see we've included a range of periods to help you assess your fund's performance over the medium and short term too.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. How has the fund performed over the long, medium and short term? There are charts to look at as well as figures, and fund factsheets to view under 'Fund Prices'.
   
   
2. How does the fund performance compare to our competitors? Check the sector average A sector average is the average performance of a collection of investment funds that best represents the sector as a whole. It means you can see how your fund is performing compared to its peer funds in the market. shown in the charts.
   
   
3. How does the fund manager manage poor performance? Learn more about our management tools There are measures in place to monitor our investment performance which include a minimum performance level, usually shown as a percentage. This means that any fund falling below this amount is classified as being ‘off’ track. For more details, see our guide ‘Your Policy Review explained’ and to find the minimum performance level for your fund, please call us.

Consider the effect of charges

A fund may offer excellent growth but you need to ask, how much does this cost? Make sure you take into account the charges and other 'administrative' costs involved to give you this 'excellent' performance.  To find out more about your policy's charges, you may find details on your latest Annual Statement. If not, get in touch.

We're currently making improvements to our Annual Statements to show details of all your policy charges and more.

See our investment checklist for a full list of items to consider when reviewing your policy's investment fund.

To find out more about your particular policy fund, fund prices and factsheets, click here.