Scottish Widows pension funds run from multi-asset Pension Portfolios to a with-profits fund; which of them you can hold depends on your plan type.

There is no single menu that every Scottish Widows customer chooses from. Personal, stakeholder, drawdown and workplace plans each open a different part of the range, and workplace members start in a default chosen for the scheme unless they pick otherwise. Every one of these funds can fall in value, not just rise, so the pot could end up smaller than the sum paid into it. To have your fund mix weighed against pensions you hold elsewhere, list those pensions in the form below; whoever rings back will be an FCA-authorised adviser, and the conversation costs nothing.

What follows applies across the UK; Scotland's public-sector pension schemes are run separately and are not covered. For charges, see Scottish Widows pension fees.

What is in the Scottish Widows pension fund range?

The Retirement Account fund sheet (45422 07/26, fund information correct on 31 March 2026) describes a range of “130+ funds managed by 20+ leading fund management firms.” The Investor's Guide (16540 11/25) sorts them into five sections: Scottish Widows funds managed by abrdn, by Schroder Investment Management and by BlackRock, SW funds run by other managers, and a fund-of-funds section holding the seven Solution funds, ranging from Cautious to Adventurous. The guide warns that some funds “may not be available for new investment and funds could be closed to investment at any time.” Each fund's ABI sector helps comparison but, the guide notes, is not a risk rating.

Your product decides the list. A Personal Pension or Group Personal Pension can use funds from all five sections except Unitised With Profits, unless that fund was open to the policy when it started, in which case the Key Features document says so. A Stakeholder Pension can hold up to ten funds at once but cannot use the fund-of-funds section. Plan types are explained in what a Scottish Widows pension is.

Pension Portfolio, Premier Pension Portfolio and Retirement Portfolio funds

The guide calls the Pension Portfolio funds multi-asset funds and rates them from Pension Portfolio Five, at the lower-risk end and invested mainly in cash and near-cash, up to Pension Portfolio One, which invests “almost exclusively in equities”. Portfolios One to Five are the building blocks of the Pension Investment Approaches and Governed Investment Strategies lifestyle options. Pension Portfolios A, B and C are listed as well.

The Premier Pension Portfolio funds follow the same Five-to-One risk order. Beyond ordinary shares and bonds, the guide says, the Premier versions “include specialised investment strategies, more asset classes and a degree of active management.”

The Scottish Widows Retirement Portfolio funds (10–40, 30–60, 50–80 and 70–100) are “mainly to provide options for people who have chosen to remain invested in retirement and use drawdown”. Which drawdown arrangement you have matters: the guide opens every section to Income Drawdown apart from Unitised With-Profits, but customers taking the Flexible Access Drawdown option cannot use the Retirement Portfolio funds, Pension Portfolio 1, 2 or 3, or any Premier Pension Portfolio. See how drawdown works.

Which Scottish Widows pension fund is the default?

That depends on how you joined. In a press release dated 27 March 2025, Scottish Widows announced that its long-running workplace default, Pension Investment Approaches (PIA), was evolving into Scottish Widows Lifetime Investment, saying: “Lifetime Investment - the new default - will be available immediately for new employers and for all customers on a self-select basis.” It added that existing PIA customers “will also transition to the new default.” Your annual statement shows what your own plan holds now.

The release describes two paths: the Growth Path, with 100% of savings in growth assets at first, and the Balanced Growth Path, with 85%. Both start moving into lower-risk assets 12 years before the selected retirement age, compared with 15 years under PIA. This gradual shift is lifestyling, and Scottish Widows' own FAQ notes that it “could restrict the potential for growth as you get nearer to retirement.”

In the Master Trust, the trustees' default is “the Lifetime Investment Extra Growth Path targeting flexible access”, though an employer can choose a different default for its section. Members may instead choose another lifestyle option or self-select funds, which have no automatic de-risking. For personal pensions, including employer-arranged ones, the FAQ describes PIA and Governed Investment Strategies (GIS) lifestyling options, plus Premier versions that cost more and “aim to offer the potential for better returns for similar levels of risk. However, there is no guarantee of this.” More on workplace schemes is in auto-enrolment explained and workplace pension providers.

The Scottish Widows with-profits pension fund

The guide's with-profits fund is Pension Unitised With Profit. It invests in a balanced mix of UK and overseas shares, fixed interest and index-linked stocks, property and, where appropriate, cash, but its unit value is not directly linked to them: it “depends on the bonuses and (in some circumstances) Market Value Reductions that Scottish Widows decides.” Smoothing holds back gains from good years to help pay bonuses in poor ones, and each policy has guaranteed minimum benefits at specified times.

What you get back is guaranteed only in certain circumstances; cashing in units at other times can bring a Market Value Reduction, so you could get back less than you invested, and “future bonus rates are not guaranteed.” A reduction could also apply on a transfer out, the pensions FAQ says. You may be holding this fund if your annual benefit statement mentions the “Unitised With-Profits bonus rate”, or if your policy number begins with Z followed by 03; Scottish Widows will post the matching with-profits guide if you phone. Whether leaving would cost a guarantee or trigger a reduction turns on your own policy, a point an FCA-authorised adviser can unpick with you, free, once you leave your number. See how to transfer a pension, and compare Standard Life's with-profits fund, Aviva's, Prudential's and Phoenix's, each run on its own terms.

How to check which funds your Scottish Widows pension holds

Your annual statement names the funds you are invested in and, on the personal pensions covered by Scottish Widows' charges sheet, the series your units belong to. Fund charges are set out series by series, as the fees page explains.

Fund prices are updated every working day, and the online fund centre carries factsheets with past performance for most funds. In Scottish Widows' words: “It is very important not to look at performance in isolation as it doesn’t indicate what could happen in the future.”

What to weigh before changing funds

Scottish Widows lists what shapes the risk someone is willing to take: how long they will invest, age and health, income, goals, where the money came from and its share of their total assets. Also weigh:

  • leaving a lifestyle option for self-select funds ends the automatic de-risking;
  • how the pot will be used, whether annuity, drawdown or cash, as set out in the options at retirement;
  • with-profits guarantees and any market value reduction;
  • the series and fund charges (see pension charges);
  • how much of the same kind of risk sits in pensions held elsewhere.

None of this points to a particular fund. Pension Wise offers free guidance on the options at retirement; see what Pension Wise is.

Scottish Widows pension funds: questions people ask

How do I change the funds my Scottish Widows pension is invested in?

The pensions FAQ asks you to phone, and says “it’s currently free to move, or switch between funds.” It also recommends financial advice before any change. In a workplace scheme, the choice may be limited to the funds your employer has made available.

Does Scottish Widows offer a halal or Sharia-compliant pension fund?

Which funds you can pick depends on your plan and, in a workplace scheme, on your employer's choices. Note your plan type on the enquiry form. On the free call that follows, an FCA-authorised adviser can confirm which funds that plan opens to you. Other routes are compared in halal pension providers.

Is a Pension Portfolio fund the same as the default?

Not necessarily. Pension Portfolios One to Five are building blocks inside lifestyle options, while a workplace default is chosen at scheme level and can differ between employers.

Is Scottish Widows a good pension provider?

See Is Scottish Widows pension good?; other firms' ranges are in Standard Life's funds and The People's Pension funds.

Talking your fund choice through

Fund choice, lifestyling and with-profits guarantees all connect with the rest of your retirement plans. Through the enquiry form here, your Scottish Widows plan can be discussed at length with an FCA-authorised adviser on a free call; you can still go to Scottish Widows or Pension Wise directly.

Sources, read 21 October 2026: Scottish Widows' Pension Funds Investor's Guide (16540 11/25), fund charge sheets 45422 07/26 and 16981 05/26, the Lifetime Investment press release (27 March 2025), and its pensions FAQ, fund centre, with-profits, Master Trust and employer web pages. Funds and defaults can change.