A more hands-on alternative to Royal London
More support for managing your workplace pension.
Penfold combines payroll integrations, dedicated account management and practical employer tools with an intuitive pension experience for employees.
Whether you’re setting up a new scheme or considering a move from Royal London, we’ll help make the process straightforward.
Compare Penfold and Royal London
Royal London offers onboarding support and a range of tools to help employees understand and plan for retirement.
Penfold adds more hands-on support for employers, including payroll integrations, payroll support, a dedicated account manager and insights into employee engagement.
- Payroll that works with you
Penfold integrates with payroll software and includes payroll support, helping reduce manual work and make contributions easier to manage.
- 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.
- Better visibility for your business
Our engagement dashboard and employer insights help you understand how employees are interacting with their 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 7.7% for the Royal London 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.
Practical tools to help employees plan ahead
Royal London and Penfold both offer tools to help employees understand their pension and prepare for retirement.
Penfold combines those tools with pension consolidation, savings nudges and one-to-one support, giving employees more ways to manage their retirement savings.
- Bring pensions together
Employees can combine old pensions with Penfold, making it easier to see and manage their retirement savings in one place.
- Support when employees need it
Alongside pension education and digital tools, employees can access one-to-one support when they need more help understanding their pension.
- Keep retirement on the radar
Personalised guidance, tax-saving prompts, savings nudges and retirement forecasts give employees practical ways to understand their savings and plan ahead.
More support behind your workplace pension
Royal London and Penfold both give employees tools to help them plan for retirement.
Where Penfold goes further is the support around your business. You get payroll integrations, a dedicated account manager and greater visibility into employee engagement.
Your employees still get the tools and support to understand their pension and stay connected to their retirement savings.
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.
This comparison is based on publicly available information and internal analysis as of May 2025. We aim to ensure fairness and accuracy. If you believe any details are incorrect, please contact us.
We encourage you to visit each provider’s website or speak to their teams directly to understand what’s best for your business.