Penfold is a mobile-only pension provider that’s aiming to make it easier to save up for your retirement. It has a range of pensions aimed at different types of people, including directors, self-employed savers and businesses. You can also open a private pension with Penfold. See what we thought about Penfold, how it works, how much it costs and some of its benefits.
Penfold is a digital pension platform, aiming to make the process of setting up a pension simple and easy. Serving as a digital alternative to traditional pension programs, Penfold allows users to set, manage and keep track of their pensions without any real hassle. The service is made for a range of different savers, including self-employed people, freelancers, sole traders, company directors, companies and those that simply wish to save into a private pension. It offers flexibility and ease of use for its customers.
Setting up a Penfold pension is easy and takes only a few minutes to set up online. Registration takes very little time, and all you need is the following documentation:
It’s really simple to sign up for Penfold, here’s how:
Penfold private pensions are for people that might already have a workplace pension but want to save into an additional pension. You could opt to combine all of your old workplace pensions into the same pension pot, or transfer an existing pension in. You’re also able to start fresh with regular or one-off contributions.
You’re able to get a 25% top up from the government on your pension contributions in the form of tax relief. This means that for every £100 you put in, the government will add an additional £25.
If you’re a director or own a limited company then contributing towards your pension is a little more complex. With this pension, you’re able to pay into your pension through your limited company.
Employer contributions are “allowable expenses” when it comes to filling out a tax return.
When you’re setting up your pension with Penfold, on the final page there’s a toggle to change it so you can pay through business contributions.
There are 4.8 million self-employed people in the UK, which is close to 15% of the workforce. But only 14% of them are saving regularly into a pension. For many, the prospect of setting up a pension while self-employed can seem complicated.
Penfold aims to provide easy to set up digital pensions catered specifically to self-employed people.
Penfold also offers workplace pensions. If you have an entire team in your company, you can auto-enrol them onto. Each employee can log into their account to see (or change) what they’re invested in and watch the money grow over time.
Penfold customers are charged a single annual fee to maintain their account. For “Lifetime”, “Standard” and “Sustainable” portfolios, you’ll pay 0.75% for your savings up to £100,000 and 0.4% on any amount over this.
For the “Sharia” option, you’ll pay 0.88% for your savings up to £100,000 and 0.53% on any amount over £100,000.
Besides this annual fee, there is no additional charge for pausing, stopping or consolidating pension pots.
It has also eliminated drawdown fees, so anyone aged 55 or over who decides to take money out of their Penfold pension won’t be charged for accessing their funds. Plus, there are no transfer fees for customers who want to move their existing pension over to Penfold.
Penfold offers its customers a variety of benefits and features that include the following:
Yes, you can transfer an existing pension to Penfold. The company offers a free “find & combine” feature that allows the company to look for customers’ other pensions and consolidate them all under the Penfold pension. All customers need to do is provide a name, reference & estimated amount of their previous pension and Penfold will track it down and combine it to your Penfold pension.
Penfold has a range of different portfolios over 4 different categories: “Lifetime”, “Standard”, “Sustainable” and “Sharia”.
The “Lifetime” plan is an automated plan — it automatically adjusts as you get closer to retirement. This protects your investments from any sudden and unexpected market dips when you’re closer to retirement, as your money is moved into “safer” investments the closer you get.
This is a portfolio that has a broad range of investments. It’s well diversified, which means that you’d be invested in a range of sectors and countries. You can choose between 4 different risk profiles with this option, with Level 1 having the least risk, and 4 having the highest risk.
The sustainable plan is for those that want to consider the environment with their investments. The fund invests in those that have the highest ESG scores in each sector. Your money is invested in companies that are prioritising environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution and waste.
This fund invests only in Sharia-compliant companies, as approved by an independent Sharia committee. This includes Halal investments, which is where the fund excludes investment in industries such as alcohol, tobacco, pork, finance sector, weapons & adult entertainment.
Founded in 2018, Penfold became regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in June of 2019. This means that the company is subject to a wide range of controls and procedures that are approved by the UK’s financial regulator to keep your pension safe and secure.
Along with approval from a regulatory body, Penfold also partners with Seccl Custody Limited as its custodians for managing payments and added security. With the company specialising in providing financial advisers, wealth managers and fintech firms with fast and flexible solutions for managing clients’ money, you can rest assured that your money will be kept secure.
Along with this, Penfold itself does not manage money. So when you add money into your Penfold pension, it is invested in a special plan provided by either BlackRock or HSBC, which will continue to invest your pension even if Penfold itself ceases to exist.
Given these added measures, customers can be sure that their pensions will be secure with Penfold even though it isn’t a traditional pension service.
Penfold is filling a gap in the market by offering an easy-to-use digital pension option to a range of different types of saver that allows them to set up a basic pension plan. Penfold is definitely a service that has grown extensively in the past few years, and we are looking forward to seeing it develop even further.
Get started by visiting Penfold and opening an account. Still not sure? Compare other share trading platforms with our comparison table.
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