How important are historic returns when choosing an investment portfolio?
Portfolios invested in shares will usually have good returns in some years and poor returns in other years. But over an extended period, their chance for achieving good returns is high. It is therefore not a good idea to look at short term historic returns when deciding which portfolio to choose. What often happens; is that members switch out of poor performing portfolios when markets fall, and they do not switch back in time to share in the good returns when these portfolios eventually recover.
It is important to note the short term fluctuations (gains and losses) in the all share index, but take a look at the over-all long term returns.
See the latest investment returns in the investment fact sheets below. Historic reports can be found lower down on the page. The fact sheets for the Pensioner Portfolio can be found here.