From 23 January 2015 the Capital Protection Fund is:

• closed to new Single Premium investments and Transfer Values
• no longer available as an option to switch existing ILCB pension investments into

These changes apply to all ILCB Defined Contribution, Additional Voluntary Contribution, Personal Retirement Bond and Defined Benefit products.

Existing Investments & Regular Contributions
Existing funds invested in the Capital Protection Fund are not impacted by this change. The fund will continue to remain open to future regular premium investments from existing and new clients of Corporate Business.

If transferring to a Personal Retirement Bond with Corporate Business, ILCB clients will be able to maintain any existing holdings in the Capital Protection Fund at the time of the transfer.

Investment Strategies (‘Lifestyling’)
The change does not impact investment strategies where clients’ pension fund assets are moved into the Capital Protection Fund on an automated phased basis as they approach their retirement dates. Where the Capital Protection Fund is part of an investment strategy, these switches will continue to take place in the future.

Why has this change been made?
This fund is a ‘smoothed’ fund that gives investors some protection against the volatility of the underlying investment markets. The smoothed nature of the fund means that it operates most effectively when there are a series of regular flows and where clients remain invested over a medium to long term time horizon. In the recent past there has been a material increase in the level of requests received by Irish Life to switch pension funds into the Capital Protection Fund. This increased switching activity could potentially undermine the efficient operation of the fund and therefore Irish Life has chosen to close the fund to such flows.

Further information on the Capital Protection Fund and details on the changes and how they impact the ILCB product range are available at the link below:

Changes to the Capital Protection Fund