Employment News

BT Retirement Plan: Changes in Investment Options

2 October 2007

The Trustees of the BT Retirement Plan (BTRP) have announced changes to the investment options available to BTRP members.

The Trustees have decided to make the changes to the investment options as a result of two recent events.

The Trustees were advised that Barclays Global Investors (BGI) was no longer a suitable investment manager based on estimates of their future investment performance.
The Plan's other investment manager, Hermes, announced that it would no longer be offering passively managed funds.

As a result of these developments the Trustees reviewed all the investments offered through the BTRP and have introduced new investment options. The main changes are:

Legal & General Investment Management (L&G) will replace Hermes as the manager for passive (tracker) funds,
a passively managed UK Equity Fund from L&G will be put in place of the existing Hermes and BGI UK Equity Funds,
two new bond funds from L&G will be offered.
the investment defaults for the Lifestyle Option have been modified.

Funds invested by BTRP members will move automatically to the closest match available in the new funds unless individuals indicate that they would prefer another option. If members of the BTRP want to make their own choices about their investment arrangements then they must fill in an investment form and return to Accenture HR Services by 16 November 2007. BTRP members will have been sent the investment form in a pack sent to home addresses.