Reduce Employer NICs: Salary Sacrifice Pensions
The Penfold Plan
Exclusive to Penfold, our default plan offers 100% FSCS protection, pursues sustainability goals and is custom built to help boost your pension pot.
As with all investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investments may go down as well as up.
The Penfold Plan
The Penfold Plan is one of a kind. Exclusive to us. Designed to help everyone save enough to be comfortable in later life.
To create it, we’ve combined BlackRock’s MyMap Select Environmental, Social and Governance funds with listed real assets and liquid alternatives – which are usually reserved for wealthy investors like high-net-worth individuals or large financial companies.
We’ve done this to increase your pension pot’s growth potential while adding an extra layer of protection from market ups and downs.
And that’s not all. With the Penfold Plan, you also get:
100% FSCS protection and expert management
100% FSCS protection
Your entire pension is fully protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, no matter how much you’ve saved. If the provider Blackrock Life Funds were to fail we would seek to recover 100% of any loss suffered by you.
Expert management
We're proud to collaborate with the world's largest investment manager, BlackRock, to protect and grow our customers' pension savings with our Penfold Plan.
One simple all-in fee
You'll only pay one annual fee of 0.75% for savings under £100,000 and 0.4% for any amount over £100,000. Find out more about our fees.
Industry-leading plan performance
Fund performance plays an important role in growing your pension value over time. Choosing a provider with strong returns can make a significant difference to your financial future.
Here's how we compare against other workplace pension providers, on an annualised basis in 5 year period to 30th September 2024.
The technical bit:
The Penfold Plan launched in February 2025, but its underlying components have existed separately for several years! BlackRock has provided a simulation of how the portfolio may have performed over the past five years had the components been combined.
Past performance is not indicative of future returns. The value of investments can rise and fall and you may get back less than you put in.
Figures are net of investment fees but gross of provider fees. 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. 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.
A Strategy for Sustainability
We believe that environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters are crucial for the future of our planet. The Penfold Plan aims to balance positive impact with potential returns, aligning your savings with your values.
As part of our commitment to a sustainable future, all three BlackRock MyMap Select ESG funds used by the Penfold Plan aim to:
Invest at least 80% of their government bonds* with sovereigns with improved ESG credentials**
Achieve a carbon emission intensity score of 30% less than an appropriate comparator fund.***
A pension plan that manages itself
The Penfold Plan is designed to support you throughout your life. Rather than sticking with one investment plan throughout your life, it automatically adjusts your risk level as you get closer to retirement – seeking to grow and protect your money when you need it.
This kind of plan is suitable for the majority of our customers who do not want to make their own investment or fund risk decisions. It aims to take customers through to retirement, pursuing a low-cost and good-value outcome.
You can also tailor your pension to fit your stage of life and investment preferences. It's easy to adjust your risk level in a couple of taps, online or with our app.
A risk level to suit everyone
The Penfold Plan is made up of three portfolios with different risk stages: Protect, Balance and Growth. We'll automatically move you through the different risk levels as you age, unless you choose to select your own risk level.
Penfold Growth: Medium to high growth potential and risk
To maximise growth more than 10 years from retirement, contributions are invested in a higher amount of “riskier” investments, such as stocks and shares. This involves more volatility but in the long term there's more time to “correct” any drops.
Penfold Balance: Low to medium growth potential and risk
When approaching retirement, investments will start to move away from things like stocks and shares to more stable investments like bonds and government gilts. There should be far less ups and downs in pension value than before.
Penfold Protect: Lowest growth potential and risk
For tax reasons, it normally isn't wise to withdraw an entire pot. So, some money will stay invested. This stage tries to preserve pot value with safe, less volatile investments. Part of each pot will remain invested in to ensure there's still some growth, and to protect from losing value with inflation.
Penfold Plan FAQs
With the Penfold Plan, your entire pension is fully protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, no matter how much you’ve saved. If the provider, Blackrock Life Funds, were to fail we would seek to recover 100% of any loss suffered by you. Any loss caused as a result of Penfold’s failure would be capped at £85,000 – but as we do not hold your cash or assets any such loss is highly unlikely.
At Penfold, we don’t hold or manage your money ourselves. Anything you pay or transfer into your Penfold pension is initially deposited into a secure account held by a custodian bank. Your money is usually held here for one business day before being used to buy into your investment plan, managed by BlackRock, one of the world’s largest money managers.
As with any investment, this involves risk. The value of your pension can go up as well as down, and you could get back less than you put in. However, greater risk can lead to greater returns. If you have a long time before retirement, investing over the long-term can help ease any short-term losses.
All of your pension savings are kept separate from Penfold and belong entirely to you – your money can’t be touched by us or any of our partners. In the unlikely event that something negative happened to Penfold your pension would be transferred to another provider, ready for your retirement.
Find out more about how we keep your pension safe
Customers are allocated to one of three risk stages depending on whether they have over 8 years until planned retirement, between eight and three years, or three years or less. Explore the details in our summary of the Penfold Plan, our default plan.
As part of our commitment to a sustainable future, all three BlackRock MyMap Select ESG funds used by the Penfold Plan aim to invest at least 80% of their government bonds* with sovereigns with improved ESG credentials** and achieve a carbon emission intensity score of 30% less than an appropriate comparator fund.***
*The % of government bonds that each underlying MyMap fund invests in differs. For example, MyMap ESG Select 7 invests 100% in equities.
** Sovereigns with improved ESG credentials are those who have an ESG rating of BB or higher (as defined by MSCI or another third party data vendor). See here for more detail: https://www.msci.com/web/msci/esg-ratings;
*** The carbon emission intensity score aim applies to companies that are invested in that make up the 'Other CIS' part of the fund portfolio only.
Once your Penfold pension has been set up, tap 'Your Plan' on the dashboard. There you can switch your pension investment option to our options, including our Sharia Plan.
Find out more about our other pension plans.
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