Private pensions in the UK refer to both your workplace pension (arranged by your employer) and any additional pension you set up yourself. We’re going to be focusing on the best private pensions you can create because you often don’t get a say about your workplace pension, so it’s out of your control.
Using the best possible pension provider you can get your hands on won’t guarantee you a perfect retirement, but it will put you on a solid path to achieve your goals. One of the great things about UK private pensions is the freedom you have to combine and control your pots. So it’s well worth taking advantage of those pension freedoms.
Finder Score 3.0★★★★★
| Min investment | £0 |
|---|---|
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 6200 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for 0% commission: For offering 0% commission, including fractional US shares.
If you want to use Freetrade’s SIPP, you’ll need to sign up to the Plus plan which costs £11.99 a month (or £119.88 per year which works out at £9.99 a month). This gives you access to the Freetrade SIPP and also its flexible stocks and shares ISA, and means you can invest your pension commission-free in over 6,200 stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other assets from the UK, US and EU. On Freetrade Plus, you also get priority customer service, 5% interest on up to £3,000 of cash, and its lowest foreign exchange (FX) fee of 0.39% for 0% commission international trades.
| Min investment | £0 |
|---|---|
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 6200 |
| Transfer available |
Finder Score 5.0★★★★★
| Annual fee | 0-0.45% |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £100 |
| Min monthly investment | £25 |
| Number of funds | 2500 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for customer satisfaction: For winning the 2024 Finder Share Dealing Customer Satisfaction award.
HL not only topped our customer satisfaction table this year, it’s also won for the past 3 years. It’s definitely the private pension provider to beat when it comes to customer service. The HL SIPP fees start at 0.45% for holding the account (£200 annual fee cap for holding shares and percentage fund fee gets cheaper for large portfolios). You can invest for retirement from £25 per month and it’s free to buy or sell funds, but the commissions for stocks and other assets are steep, starting at £11.95 per trade.
| Annual fee | 0-0.45% |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £100 |
| Min monthly investment | £25 |
| Number of funds | 2500 |
| Transfer available |
| Annual fee | £25 |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £1 |
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 1,400+ |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for beginners: For a simple and well-designed app to hold and manage a private pension.
CMC Invest offers an excellent beginner-friendly app for setting up and managing your CMC Invest SIPP. It’s dead easy to navigate your way around the CMC Invest app. It usually costs £25 per month to subscribe to the CMC Invest Premium plan (which includes the SIPP), but you can get it for free for 12 months (saving £300!). There’s no commissions to pay when investing, you get a USD and EUR currency account, access to thousands of investments, and a flexible stocks and shares ISA thrown in for good measure.
| Annual fee | £25 |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £1 |
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 1,400+ |
| Transfer available |
| Min investment | £0 |
|---|---|
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | >10,000 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for financial advice: For offering an integrated financial advice service.
Charles Stanley Direct has an excellent slogan “using technology where it’s helpful and people where it matters”. If you want a more hands-on approach with your pension and retirement (and by that we mean someone else’s hands), Charles Stanley lets you access its in-house financial advisers and planners to assist you with your pension planning and investing (for an additional fee). You can open and hold a SIPP pension account on its platform for £100 + VAT per year (no fee if your portfolio is over £30,000). However, there are a slew of other SIPP fees to watch out for, especially if you use Charles Stanley for pension drawdown
| Min investment | £0 |
|---|---|
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | >10,000 |
| Transfer available |
Finder Score 4.5★★★★★
| Annual fee | £10/month |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £0 |
| Min monthly investment | £25 |
| Number of funds | 3000 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for investment choice: For offering over 40,000 investments with the ii SIPP.
To use ii’s SIPP, and access a mammoth selection of assets, you can sign up for the Pension Essentials plan for £5.99 a month (if your portfolio is under £50,000) or the Pension Builder plan for £12.99 a month once your portfolio balance hits the £50,000 threshold. Or if you’re on the Investor Essentials plan you can add a SIPP for an extra £5 a month, or if you’re on the Investor or Super Investor Plan, you can add the ii SIPP for £10 a month. If you set up a regular investment of at least £25 a month, you don’t have to pay any investing commission, but this starts at £3.99 per trade otherwise.
| Annual fee | £10/month |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £0 |
| Min monthly investment | £25 |
| Number of funds | 3000 |
| Transfer available |
| Annual fee | 0.15%, capped at £200 |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £100 |
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 660+ ETFs |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for low fees: For a cheap 0.15% platform fee and no commissions.
InvestEngine’s SIPP is relatively new, but it came out swinging with an extremely low 0.15% fee to use the account (capped at £200 per year). There’s no fee to buy or sell exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and you can get a managed SIPP for an additional 0.25% fee, making this one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) SIPP available to retirement savers in the UK.
| Annual fee | 0.15%, capped at £200 |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £100 |
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 660+ ETFs |
| Transfer available |
| Annual fee | 0.00% - 0.40% |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £5,000 |
| Min monthly investment | £25 |
| Number of funds | 5,100+ |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for funds: For having over 5,000 funds to choose from and low fees.
The Aviva self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is an excellent option for funds because there are over 5,000 to choose from, including Aviva’s very own curated list of 80 funds recommended by experts. It also offers 5 ready-made funds if you want a more simplified approach. The fee structure for the Aviva SIPP is simple too, there’s a 0.4% maximum account fee and it’s free to buy or sell funds with Aviva. You can get started investing with an Aviva SIPP from £25 per month (or a much steeper £5,000 lump sum).
| Annual fee | 0.00% - 0.40% |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £5,000 |
| Min monthly investment | £25 |
| Number of funds | 5,100+ |
| Transfer available |
Finder Score 4.1★★★★★
| Annual fee | 0.15% - 0.45% charged monthly |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £1 |
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 3 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for mobile app: For offering a well-designed app for managing your pension and much more.
Moneybox does an excellent job of catering to all types of pension savers with its slick, yet simple app. There’s no confusing jargon or complex fee structure here. It costs nothing to open an account and there’s no monthly subscription fee for the Moneybox pension (as with some other Moneybox accounts), but you still pay a platform fee of 0.45% for a pension up to £100,000 (and 0.15% on anything over that). Moneybox can also help you find and combine lost pensions and so much more, it’s a fantastic app.
| Annual fee | 0.15% - 0.45% charged monthly |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £1 |
| Min monthly investment | £0 |
| Number of funds | 3 |
| Transfer available |
| Annual fee | 0.15% (capped at £375 per year) |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £500 |
| Min monthly investment | £100 |
| Number of funds | 423 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for index funds: For offering some of the best index funds available for the lowest price.
Vanguard’s SIPP is our best option for index funds because this is the company that actually invented index funds. So, you get access to some of the best index funds in the world when using the Vanguard pension, and its pricing model means the fees are extremely cheap with a simple 0.15% annual fee (capped at £375 per year). The Vanguard SIPP is fairly limiting in terms of investment choice (Vanguard funds only).
| Annual fee | 0.15% (capped at £375 per year) |
|---|---|
| Min investment | £500 |
| Min monthly investment | £100 |
| Number of funds | 423 |
| Transfer available |
Why it’s the best for simplicity: For offering an easy-to-use app, low fees, and a limited choice of investments.
Dodl’s private pension ticks plenty of beginner must-haves: it’s cheap, easy to use, and doesn’t have an overwhelming choice of investments. But what makes it stand out is the app's simplicity. You’re not going to find thousands of pension investments here, but you will find an easy-to-use app that has a limited number of quality assets to suit most beginners saving into a retirement pot. The Dodl pension fee is a simple 0.15% (£1 per month minimum) and there’s no commission to buy or sell investments in your pension.
There are few universal elements that help make UK private pension providers stand out as a top option. Here are some key things to look out for when looking for the best private pension provider:
All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you find a private pension provide:
Here’s a quick overview of some key terms and phrases that you may have been scratching your head over:
Freetrade’s SIPP promises fee-free share dealing and the ability to take control of your pension.
Find out how a pension drawdown works and how it compares to buying a pension annuity.
Find out how a group personal pension works and how you can use a workplace pension scheme to build your wealth.
Tax relief and employer contributions mean that saving into a workplace pension is an invaluable way to bolster your retirement income.
Discover how the Aviva pension works, how much it costs and what we thought of it. We’ve listed some features and pros and cons.
Moneybox’s pension service can help track down your old pensions and put them into one pot. We take a closer look to see how it stacks up.
In this guide, we break down the pension offering from the online provider PensionBee, including a look at its history, fees, frequently asked questions and more.
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Read this guide to find out if AJ Bell’s pension schemes are the right decision for you. Find out more about the low-cost SIPP and other retirement options here.