Glidepath change communication

We’re changing how some of your Investment Builder savings are invested

From 17 November 2025, we’ll move your Investment Builder (defined contribution) savings to an updated Lifestyle Option. This activity will be completed by 21 November 2025 and will happen automatically.

Because you’ve chosen the Do It For Me option, we manage your savings for you. That means we’ll move your investments from your current Lifestyle Option to the updated one on this date.

What is a Lifestyle Option?

By choosing Do It For Me, you decide how your savings are invested: either through the Default Lifestyle Option or the Ethical Lifestyle Option, depending on your objectives and beliefs. Both gradually move your savings through different funds over time. These funds start with more focus on growth, then move gradually into lower-risk funds as you get closer to retirement, to help provide stability. This process, called lifestyling, starts 10 years before your Target Retirement Age (TRA).

Why we’re making this change now

When the Investment Builder launched in 2016, the way we gradually moved savings into more cautious funds before retirement assumed that most members would take their savings as cash at their TRA, based on member behaviour at the time.

In 2021, we introduced a new lifestyle strategy for both the Default Lifestyle Option and the Ethical Lifestyle Option that better reflected how members were using their savings at the point of retirement. This updated Lifestyle Option:

Keeps your savings in generally higher-risk funds for longer, giving more potential for growth
Moves your savings more gradually into generally lower-risk funds
Better reflects how most members are actually using their savings

At the time, members who were within a year of their TRA were not moved, to avoid introducing unnecessary volatility so close to when they might access their savings. As you did not take your Investment Builder savings at TRA, your savings will now be moved into the updated Default or Ethical Lifestyle Option, depending on the choice you previously made. If you have not made a choice, you’ll follow the Default Lifestyle Option.

The following charts show the differences between the original and updated Lifestyle Options for both the Default Lifestyle Option and Ethical Lifestyle Option.

This chart illustrates how your funds in the original Default or Ethical Lifestyle Option will move over time to more cautious funds before you reach your TRA:

Original Default Lifestyle Option/Ethical Option chart

Years to Target Retirement Age: 10+

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 100%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 0%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 9

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 80%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 20%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 8

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 60%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 40%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 7

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 40%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 60%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 6

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 20%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 80%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 5

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 100%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 4

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 80%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 10%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 10%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 3

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 60%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 20%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 20%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 2

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 40%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 30%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 30%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 1

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 20%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 40%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 40%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 0

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 0%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 50%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 50%

Total: 100%

This chart illustrates how your funds in the updated Default or Ethical Lifestyle Option will move over time to more cautious funds before you reach your TRA:

Updated Default Lifestyle Option/Ethical Option chart

Years to Target Retirement Age: 10+

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 100%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 0%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 9

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 90%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 10%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 8

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 80%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 20%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 7

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 70%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 30%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 6

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 60%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 40%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 5

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 50%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 50%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 0%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 0%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 4

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 40%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 45%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 10%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 5%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 3

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 30%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 40%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 20%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 10%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 2

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 20%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 35%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 30%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 15%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 1

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 10%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 30%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 40%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 20%

Total: 100%

Years to Target Retirement Age: 0

Growth Fund (High – Medium risk): 0%

Moderate Growth Fund (Medium – High risk): 25%

Cautious Growth Fund (Medium – Low risk): 50%

Liquidity Fund (Low risk): 25%

Total: 100%

Why 17 November 2025?

We’re making this change from 17 November 2025, to give you time to review your options and make any changes if you wish.

To allow for the move, the investment switch functionality in My USS will not be available between 17 and 20 November 2025. If you wish to make changes to your fund proportions, please do so before or after this period.

Want your investments to stay in the original Lifestyle Option?

If you’d prefer to stay with the fund proportions that make up your current Lifestyle Option, you can switch to the Let Me Do It option and self-select funds yourself in My USS before 17 November 2025. These proportions are shown in the original Default Lifestyle Option/Ethical Lifestyle Option chart above.

You will then be responsible for managing how your investments are split across different funds, and no further movements will automatically take place. If you decide to switch to the Let Me Do It option, it puts you in control of all your investment decisions, so it's up to you to keep track of how the funds are performing and make necessary adjustments to ensure you can have the retirement you want.

To find out more about your investment options and to make sure your savings are invested in the best way for you, visit choosing your investments.

Your next steps

Do nothing – we’ll move you to the updated Default or Ethical Lifestyle Option automatically from 17 November 2025.

Prefer your current fund proportions? Log in to My USS and choose Let Me Do It before this date and manually select the funds you want to choose, before 17 November 2025.

If you want to change your TRA to better reflect your retirement plans, log in to My USS. Changing your TRA will affect when we move your investments into lower-risk funds if you stay in the Do It For Me option.

Learn more

You can visit our guidance and financial advice section for support, including USS-specific webinars that cover a range of subjects, including saving in the Investment Builder, taking your savings from the Investment Builder and approaching retirement.

You can also explore our how we invest section for more detail, including our Guide to investing in the Investment Builder and Quarterly Investment Report.

Need help?

If you’d like to get in touch, you can log in to My USS to make an enquiry or contact our Member Service Team via our online form or call them on 0333 300 1043.

Glidepath change communication

We’re changing how some of your Investment Builder savings are invested

What is a Lifestyle Option?

Why we’re making this change now

Original Default Lifestyle Option/Ethical Lifestyle Option chart (Text version of the above graphic)

Updated Default Lifestyle Option/Ethical Lifestyle Option chart (Text version of the above graphic)

Why 17 November 2025?

Want your investments to stay in the original Lifestyle Option?

Your next steps

Learn more

Need help?