How to evaluate Vanguard Retirement pensions?

[Kalettes]

i am building a small pension in the target retirement 2040 funds. It’s not rated in FE TRUSTNET which is where I am starting to investigate funds…

What do other Vanguard pension investors do?

When you say 'rated' in FE Trustnet, is there any specific info you're looking for?

Look at the underlying funds that are used. It may be a LifeStrategy fund which Trustnet has some info about.

Hamustro I look at the crown rating plus risk score … plus 3-12m returns. These Vanguard funds aren’t in Trustnet though, so whilst they seem east to pick in the first place - they’re more tricky to review…

Nannynick - thank you for the tip

The returns you can check on the Hargreaves Lansdown site (even if you don't use them). Their website is pretty useful in general for fund info, I find. It also provides a breakdown of the funds that the 2040 fund invests in, so you could see if they have FE crown and risk ratings themselves to try and get an idea of the overall rating of the 2040 fund.

The Vanguard website itself has risk ratings for their funds (including the 2040 fund) so that should give you some idea, though their definition of riskiness will presumably be different to FE's definition of riskiness.

There is limited info on Trustnet (Vanguard Target Retirement 2040 A Acc GBP Fund factsheet | Trustnet) but it does tell you how the fund has performed compared to others in the sector.

Looking through all this you could get an idea of the riskiness of the fund, what it's invested in, and how it has compared to others in its sector.

Thank you @hamustro

is there a reason you're looking at 3-12m returns? Pensions are usually longer term.

I just review the funds annually.