Nest has seen its assets under management grow to £104m in the 12 months to the end of March from £3.8m, with the majority of members invested in the default funds.
Nest’s annual report, published today (10 July) revealed it has grown rapidly from 347 employers and 80,406 members a year ago to 4,692 employers and over 1m members at the end of March.
At the end of June 2014, Nest had about 1.3m members and over £160m assets under management and was working with more than 7,900 employers.
According to the annual report, Nest has an opt-out rate of around 8 per cent.
The vast majority of its members are invested in Nest’s Retirement Date funds.
This year Nest further developed its access to specific asset classes through the addition of a direct UK commercial property fund and listed global real estate fund.
As a result Nest now has 10 building block funds it can use to construct the Nest retirement funds, compared with five when it started in 2011.
Following the radical pension changes announced in this year’s Budget, Nest is set to conduct its own consultation later in the year regarding how these changes will affect the scheme.
Changes to the ways in which members want to access their pension savings and what they are allowed to do with them are likely to influence how Nest manages risks and invests their money.
It will also affect what help and guidance Nest provides to members about the choices they need to make.
For the Nest Retirement Date funds, its ‘foundation’ and ‘growth’ phases are likely to remain unchanged, however it will be reviewing the approach it tales in the ‘consolidation’ phase to ensure how it manages members’ money in that phase best matches a member’s planned method of taking retirement benefits.