A more personal alternative to Aviva
Dedicated support for your business and employees.
Penfold combines straightforward pension technology with a dedicated account manager, one-to-one employee support and tools that help you understand pension engagement.
Whether you’re setting up a new scheme or considering a move from Aviva, we’ll help make the process straightforward.
Compare Penfold and Aviva
Aviva and Penfold both offer many of the features businesses need to manage a workplace pension, including payroll integrations, payroll support and salary sacrifice.
Penfold adds dedicated account management, employee education and engagement insights to give your business and employees more hands-on support.
- A dedicated point of contact
You’ll have a dedicated account manager who knows your business and can help with onboarding, payroll and ongoing questions.
- More support for employees
Pension education and one-to-one support sessions give employees somewhere to turn when they need help understanding their pension.
- Understand employee engagement
Our engagement dashboard and employer insights help you see how employees are interacting with their workplace pension.
Comparing default fund performance
Investment performance can make a meaningful difference to employees’ retirement savings over time.
Over the five years to December 31st 2025, Penfold’s default fund delivered an annualised gross return of 9.3%, compared with 8.0% for Aviva My Future Focus.
Figures are net of investment fees but gross of provider fees. Past performance, actual or simulated, is also not a reliable indicator of future returns. All investments carry risk and your investment value can go up or down. Returns may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations.
Figures for the Penfold Plan are based on a simulation, provided by BlackRock, of how the portfolio might have performed had these building blocks of the plan existed together over the last five years. It’s important to note that it cannot be definitively said exactly how this plan would have performed in the past. Simulations should not be taken as a guarantee of expected past or future performance, but are designed to be illustrative only. A full list of the assumptions made to generate the simulations is available and should be carefully considered.
The figures shown represent a weighted average of performance across 30 age cohorts (ages 36-65) to provide an overall view of member outcomes. Individual returns will vary depending on fund allocation at different points in a member’s investment journey, as well as personal fee structures. For consistency in comparison, returns have been estimated based on a typical pot size of £10,000 and an average salary of £30,000. Actual returns may differ due to factors such as specific employer-negotiated fees, individual pot sizes, and salary levels.
Returns are based on data collected by investment advisors DWA from a variety of sources, including individual providers and data published on Morningstar. Where possible, actual return data has been used; however, some assumptions were made based on underlying fund data due to availability limitations. The impact of charges has been applied on a monthly basis, which may create minor discrepancies with actual experience depending on the charging structure. DWA is happy to review and correct any discrepancies should further evidence be provided.
More personal support for employees
Aviva and Penfold both give employees digital tools to manage their workplace pension.
Penfold adds one-to-one support and practical features that help employees understand their options, bring eligible pensions together and stay connected to their retirement savings.
- Bring pensions together
Employees can combine old pensions with Penfold, making their retirement savings easier to see and manage in one place.
- Guidance when it’s useful
Personalised guidance and tax-saving prompts help employees understand their pension and the options available to them.
- Help employees stay on track
Savings nudges and retirement forecasts give employees practical ways to think about their savings and plan for the future.
Pension technology with personal support
Aviva and Penfold both provide the technology businesses need to manage a workplace pension.
Penfold adds dedicated account management, one-to-one employee support and greater visibility into pension engagement.
So there are real people behind the technology when your business or employees need them.
Penfold's user-friendly approach and transparency revolutionised how we manage pensions for our clients. Penfold has come in and changed the space, showing that we could have a pension that was user friendly as well. It's really adding value to not only the employers themselves but the employees of those employers. The app is the big selling point with Penfold, having a nice clean UI that’s easy to understand for people because the vast majority of people aren’t pension literate.
