A trusted alternative to Cushon
More visibility for employers. More support for employees.
Penfold combines dedicated account management and payroll support with practical tools that help you understand employee engagement.
Employees get an intuitive pension with one-to-one support and personalised guidance to help them manage their retirement savings.
Whether you’re setting up a new scheme or switching from Cushon, we’ll help make the process straightforward.
Compare Penfold and Cushon
Penfold and Cushon both offer many of the features businesses expect from a modern workplace pension, including dedicated support, payroll integrations and employee education.
Penfold adds more ways for employers to understand engagement, alongside one-to-one support and personalised guidance for employees.
- Understand employee engagement
Our engagement dashboard and employer insights help you see how employees are interacting with their pension.
- Help employees take action
Employee reminders give your team regular prompts to stay connected with their retirement savings.
- One-to-one support
Employees can access individual support sessions when they need more help understanding 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 9.2% for Cushon’s default fund.
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.
A workplace pension employees can engage with
Penfold and Cushon both give employees practical tools to manage their pension and plan for retirement.
Penfold adds personalised guidance, tax-saving prompts and one-to-one support to help employees understand their options and take a more active role in their savings.
- Personalised guidance
Employees get guidance relevant to their pension, helping them understand their options and make more informed decisions.
- One-to-one support
Sometimes it’s easier to speak to someone. Employees can access individual support when they need more help with their pension.
- Helpful prompts along the way
Tax-saving prompts and savings nudges give employees practical reminders to think about their retirement savings.
A complete picture for employers and employees
Cushon and Penfold both offer a strong range of workplace pension features.
Penfold gives employers additional visibility through engagement insights and dashboards, while employees get personalised guidance and individual support.
It’s a workplace pension designed to help both sides stay engaged.
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.
