Understand the risks

With your pension (as will all investments), your capital is at risk. It’s important that we help you understand what that means, and maintain transparency with our customers and the wider Penfold community at all times. Here's our pensions glossary, in case you'd like to refer to it.

The main way risk can be managed is by ‘diversifying’, which means buying lots of different investments that have different chances of losing money, that aren’t related to each other.

You can diversify by putting some money in a bank account, some in property, some in stocks and shares, and so on. That way, the chance of losing money on all of them in one year becomes much lower, so the gains from the winners are more than the losses from the losers.

The plans that Penfold offers are all highly diversified, which means they invest in thousands of different companies (either equities or bonds) and other types of assets all around the world. This means you don’t have to worry as much about managing risk, because BlackRock, the world-class money managers that look after your money, do this for you. We do let you choose how much risk you want to take within our plans though.

Basically, higher risk should mean your pot potentially makes more compound interest over the long term, but with more ups and downs along the way. Low risk might mean nice and steady growth with fewer bumps, but probably less money overall.

Usually, people with several decades to go until retirement pick a higher risk rating, then switch to a lower rating when they get closer to stopping work. On the other hand, people with less time to go until retirement might choose a lower risk rating upfront.

Is my money safe with Penfold?

Once your money is sent to us, it is part of your pension. Your money is held in your name in a special client money account, so it is separate from any of Penfold’s money.

To be extra safe, we use a third party to manage these accounts, who are also regulated by the FCA. Their job is to hold your money and invest it in the plan you have chosen. Those plans are managed by some of the world’s largest money managers.

As a registered pension administrator, Penfold is also authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. If something happened to Penfold, your pension would still exist and could be moved to a different pension provider for no charge. For more on this, check out our article on what happens if a pension provider goes bust.

Penfold is also FSCS protected, so in the extremely unlikely event that something happened to both Penfold and BlackRock, your money is guaranteed by the government up to £85,000.

Who regulates Penfold?

Penfold are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 826097. Penfold is a trading name of Penfold Savings Limited (company no. 11668244)

Who looks after my money?

Once your money is sent to us, it is part of your pension. Your money is held in your name in a special client money account, so it is separate to any of Penfold's money. To be extra safe, we use a third party to manage these accounts (and they are also regulated by the FCA).

Their job is to hold and invest your money in the plan you have chosen. Those plans are managed by BlackRock, one of the world’s largest money managers.

You can find out more about how pensions work in our pensions FAQ.

Ready to take control of your finances? Set up your Penfold pension and start saving today.

With pensions, as with all investments, your capital is at risk and the value of your pension with Penfold may go up as well as down. You may get back less than you put in.