It's generally accepted that when it comes to investing (pension or otherwise), the 2 biggest determinates of your outcome will be 1. your savings rate (what % of your salary you save/invest) and 2. your asset allocation (what % of your investments go into stocks vs bonds).
Irish Life use the following funds in their default Lifestyle strategy (PLS)
Irish Life Lifestyle strategy Funds and their Asset Allocations
| Fund | Risk | Stocks | Bonds | Property | Cash | Alternative |
| Empower Cash | 1 | 100% | ||||
| Pension Stability Fund | 2 | 13% | 64% | 20% | 3% | |
| Empower Stability | 2 | 23% | 54% | 6% | 10% | 8% |
| Empower Flexible ARF | 3 | 42% | 37% | 7% | 5% | 9% |
| Empower Growth | 4 | 63% | 22% | 7% | 1% | 8% |
| EMPOWER Pension for Life Fund » | 4 | 100% |
They start you 100% in the Empower growth Fund then gradually shift you in the Empower Stability Fund.
Depending on your retirement arrangements, at retirement they shift you into a mix of the Cash fund & Flexible ARF Fund or the Cash and Pension for Life Fund
Based on The Asset allocation for Irish Life Personal Lifestyle Strategy (the default investment strategy for pensions with Irish Life) is as follows
Assuming here that the Benefit Target Fund is made up of 25% in Cash and 75% in the Empower Flexible ARF the Asset Allocations look like this:
| YEARS TO RETIREMENT | EMPOWER GROWTH FUND | EMPOWER STABILITY FUND | BENEFIT TARGET FUND | Empower Cash | Empower Flexible ARF | Stocks | Bonds | Property | Cash | Alternative |
| 11+ | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 63% | 22% | 7% | 1% | 8% |
6 | 50% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 43% | 38% | 7% | 5% | 8% |
5 | 40% | 40% | 20% | 5% | 15% | 41% | 36% | 6% | 10% | 8% |
4 | 30% | 30% | 40% | 10% | 30% | 38% | 34% | 6% | 15% | 7% |
3 | 20% | 20% | 60% | 15% | 45% | 36% | 32% | 6% | 19% | 7% |
2 | 10% | 10% | 80% | 20% | 60% | 34% | 30% | 6% | 24% | 7% |
1 | 0% | 0% | 100% | 25% | 75% | 32% | 28% | 5% | 29% | 6% |
0 | 0% | 0% | 100% | 25% | 75% | 32% | 28% | 5% | 29% | 6% |
Even 20-30 years from retirement the default Personal Lifestyle Strategy only has 63% allocated to Stocks.
1 year from retirement it has only 32% allocated to stocks.