HL Ready-Made Pension Plan explained

The HL Ready-Made Pension Plan is a ready-made investment you hold inside a Hargreaves Lansdown self-invested personal pension (SIPP). It is not a separate pension of its own: you open an HL SIPP and choose the plan during the application¹. Hargreaves Lansdown describes it as an investment exclusive to the HL SIPP and Junior SIPP².

The idea is a hands-off one. While you are more than eight years from your chosen retirement age, the plan invests in the HL Multi-Index Moderately Adventurous fund to grow your pot. When you are within eight years of that date, it begins to reduce the risk of your investments, and by the end of that stage your money is fully invested in the HL Multi-Index Cautious fund³. You cannot change the investments inside the plan, but you can hold it alongside other funds and shares in the same SIPP³.

Hargreaves Lansdown states that the plan offers an easy way to invest but is not personal advice¹. It is one of several ready-made options in the market, and the firm's own site carries today's charges and figures.

What the HL Ready-Made Pension Plan is

The plan is a managed investment option rather than a pension product in its own right. Hargreaves Lansdown describes it as designed for people who want a straightforward investment choice that automatically adjusts risk exposure in line with retirement age, aiming to grow the pension early and give greater protection from market falls as retirement approaches⁵. The underlying funds are managed by Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers Ltd¹.

It sits in a crowded field. Standard personal pensions usually offer a range of ready-made investment funds so you can decide where your money goes⁶, and other providers run similar products, including AJ Bell's ready-made pension, which is a personal pension with three managed funds⁷. The difference with the HL plan is that it is not a pension you buy on its own: it is an investment choice inside a SIPP, and the SIPP is the pension wrapper.

That matters for who it tends to suit. Hargreaves Lansdown says the HL SIPP is designed for people who are happy to make their own investment decisions⁷, and describes its ready-made investments as great for beginners or anyone looking for an easy, hands-off way to invest⁸. The plan itself is aimed at investors who are comfortable with medium-high investment risk for growth and want lower investment risk closer to retirement¹. If you want someone to assess your circumstances and recommend a course of action, this is not that: it is a self-directed choice.

How the plan invests: a growth stage, then a gradual move to lower risk

The plan runs in two phases. In the first, while you are more than eight years from your chosen retirement age, Hargreaves Lansdown focuses on growing your pension pot and invests in the HL Multi-Index Moderately Adventurous fund³. In the second, once you are within eight years of that date, the firm begins to reduce the risk of your investments, and by the end of that stage you are fully invested in the HL Multi-Index Cautious fund³.

This pattern is known as lifestyling, and it is common across the industry. The official guidance for Northern Ireland describes how some pension schemes gradually move your money into lower-risk investments as you get nearer retirement age⁹. Aegon describes the growth stage of its own target fund in similar terms: a mix of assets aimed at growing your pot over time, regularly checked and adjusted⁵. Scottish Widows runs a comparable approach, gradually moving some of your pension into its Managed Growth Fund 2, a lower-risk fund, in the ten years before the target retirement range¹⁰.

The reason for the shift is sequence risk: a sharp fall in markets shortly before you start taking money can do more damage than the same fall earlier, because there is less time to recover. Moving into lower-risk holdings reduces that exposure, but it also reduces the potential for growth, and it does not remove the risk of loss altogether. Hargreaves Lansdown states plainly that all investments fall as well as rise in value, and you could get back less than you invest¹¹.

Fixed investments inside the plan, or mixing it with other funds

The plan is deliberately inflexible on the inside and flexible on the outside. Hargreaves Lansdown states that the plan comes ready-made, so it is not possible to change the investments within it³. What you can do is decide how much of your SIPP goes into it: you can invest 100% of your money in the plan for a simple, hands-off approach, or mix and match it with other funds and shares¹. You can also invest more money and sell some or all of the plan as and when you like³.

That combination gives you three broad ways to hold it:

• All in. The whole SIPP sits in the plan, and the provider manages the risk shift for you.
• Part of a wider portfolio. The plan runs alongside funds or shares you pick yourself, so you control the overall balance.
• Alongside advice. Hargreaves Lansdown says that with the HL SIPP you can pick your own investments, select a ready-made portfolio, or pay a financial adviser to choose investments for you¹².

The trade-off is straightforward. Holding the plan on its own is simple, but you take whatever asset mix the two funds give you. Mixing it with other holdings gives you more control, but you then have to manage the overall risk yourself, and the plan's automatic de-risking will not account for anything you hold outside it. Hargreaves Lansdown also runs all-in-one portfolio funds and a Wealth Shortlist of selected funds, and it states that it does not have any money market funds on that shortlist, though a number are available on the platform¹³.

How the charges work

Personal pension charges are usually taken as a percentage of your pension fund¹⁴, and the HL plan follows that pattern. The firm's own worked example shows the charge applied to a £1,000 investment, assuming no growth³. Which? reported the same structure in June 2026, describing an account charge plus a fund management charge¹⁵.

Two things are worth knowing about how that is collected. First, Hargreaves Lansdown states that if you invest, it benefits from the fund management charge as well as the HL account charge¹, so both parts of the cost go to the same firm. Second, the plan itself carries no dealing costs: there is nothing to pay up front and no charge to buy or sell³.

Charges elsewhere in the market are built differently, which is why headline percentages are hard to compare. Those are fund-level costs only and sit alongside whatever the provider charges for the account, so the two figures are not measuring the same thing. The provider's own site carries today's figures for the HL plan, and the rate you pay can change: Hargreaves Lansdown publishes a fee changes page setting out when and how its charges are updated².

Opening the plan through an HL SIPP

There is only one route in. Hargreaves Lansdown states that to invest in the Ready-Made Pension Plan you open a SIPP and choose the plan during your application¹, and that during the application you will be asked how to invest the money in your SIPP³. The plan is not available as a standalone pension.

Contributions follow the SIPP's rules. Hargreaves Lansdown says you can make monthly contributions from as little as £25 and as many one-off payments as you like, with a £100 minimum⁴, and it repeats the £100 figure for lump sums on its SIPP pages⁷. Tax relief on what you pay in is a separate question from the plan itself, and how it is given depends on the scheme and your circumstances.

The application process is a self-directed one, which means the checks that a financial adviser would normally make are yours to make. Before you commit, it is worth being clear about three things: that you are comfortable with medium-high investment risk during the growth stage¹, that you will not be able to change the investments inside the plan once you are in³, and that the plan is not personal advice¹. If you want guidance rather than advice, Pension Wise is a free service backed by the government and provided by MoneyHelper, with appointments to discuss your pension options¹⁶. MoneyHelper itself provides free and impartial debt advice, money guidance and pension guidance to members of the public¹⁷.

Transferring an existing pension in or moving it out

A pension transfer is where you move the money in your existing pension to a different scheme or provider, often so you can get a better deal¹⁸. Transfers into the HL plan work through the SIPP: during the application you are asked whether you want to transfer your pension as cash or keep it invested⁵, and Hargreaves Lansdown says investments can be moved without selling if your current provider allows it⁵.

The Financial Conduct Authority sets out the usual steps: check your current scheme allows transfers out, make sure you will not lose any benefits, decide which scheme to transfer into, check whether you need to pay for financial advice, ask your current provider for a transfer value, and ask the new scheme to start the transfer¹⁸. Hargreaves Lansdown adds its own checklist: ask whether you will pay any fees to transfer away, check you are not forfeiting valuable benefits or guarantees, and find out whether your pension will move as cash or as stock¹². It warns specifically about guarantees that can be lost, including guaranteed annuity rates, a lower protected pension age and matching employer contributions⁵.

On timing, the FCA says a transfer often takes between two and six weeks, but your provider has up to six months to action your request¹⁸. Hargreaves Lansdown gives two to six weeks where a pension is transferred as cash, and six to eight weeks where it is transferred with the investments kept in place¹⁹.

Taking money out and the minimum pension age

You cannot normally touch the money before a set age. Hargreaves Lansdown states that you will usually need to be at least 55, rising to 57 from 2028, before you can access the money in your pension³. The same age applies across private pensions generally: Which? reported in June 2026 that under current rules you can usually start taking money from your private pension from 55²⁰, and Independent Age notes that anyone offering to release money before 55 may be a sign of a scam²¹.

The plan's design is tied to your chosen retirement age, because that date sets when the eight-year de-risking window begins³. If you join when you are less than eight years from that date, Hargreaves Lansdown says it will split your money proportionally between the two funds rather than run the full growth stage³. The provider's own site sets out how the plan is managed and what can be adjusted, so that is the place to check your own date.

When you do reach the access age, the plan is not a barrier to how you take money. Hargreaves Lansdown says you can sell some or all of the plan as and when you like³, and the SIPP gives you the usual range of options, from taking a tax-free lump sum to drawing an income or buying an annuity. Which? notes that you can take a tax-free lump sum from your pension from the age of 55²². The tax treatment of anything you withdraw depends on your circumstances, and the rules on how much you can take, and when, are set out in more detail elsewhere.

How your pension is protected, and spotting scams

Protection for a pension like this works at two levels, and it is worth knowing which applies to you. Defined contribution pension savings are ringfenced, which means that if the pension company went bust, your pension would be safe²³. That is different from the Pension Protection Fund, which protects members of defined benefit pension schemes²⁴, the kind that pay a guaranteed income based on salary and length of service rather than a pot you build up.

There is also protection around the platform itself. Which? states that if you invested using Hargreaves Lansdown and it went bust, you would be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, but that if you invested in Hargreaves Lansdown as a shareholder and it went bust, you would not be covered²⁵. The distinction is between being a customer and being an owner.

On scams, the regulator's expectations are explicit. Governing bodies of pension schemes are expected to provide clear information on how to spot a scam in all relevant communications to members, including within standard communication materials such as the retirement wake-up pack and in annual benefit statements, and scams warning messages may also be placed on the scheme's website²⁶. The Pensions Regulator's Pledge to Combat Pension Scams begins with a single instruction: know the warning signs²⁷. The regulator has also been running an AI-enabled process to tackle pension scam websites, which has assessed over 2,000 sites and enabled the removal of 29 high-risk sites²⁸.

If something goes wrong with the plan or the service around it, there are two routes. Complain to Hargreaves Lansdown first. If the firm does not resolve it to your satisfaction, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at complaints about transfers from personal pension arrangements, and its service is free to consumers³⁰. For impartial guidance on your options, MoneyHelper can be contacted on 0800 011 3797³¹.