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Higher Returns and Modern Tools: Penfold vs Scottish Widows

Penfold and Scottish Widows are leading workplace pension providers, but Penfold stands out with higher fund performance, superior employee engagement tools, and unmatched business support.

With no business fees, a transparent fee structure, and tools designed to simplify management, Penfold delivers a seamless experience for businesses and empowers employees to save for a comfortable later life.

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A mobile interface for Penfold's pension management app and a desktop interface for Penfold's pension processing platform. The mobile screen shows "Rose's Dashboard" with a total pot value of £12,994.54, options to transfer an old pension, and add money. There's also a prompt to combine an old pension and a forecast feature. The desktop interface welcomes back "Elevate Accounting Group" and prompts to upload files. Two dashed boxes offer to "Add employees only" or "Add pension payroll files" with drag and drop functionality. There are also options to download templates for enrolment and contributions, and a section for the last upload.

Why Choose Penfold Over Scottish Widows?

Penfold provides a superior workplace pension experience for businesses looking for a modern, efficient, and high-performing solution.

Better Customer Ratings

Penfold’s 4.5-star Trustpilot rating reflects exceptional customer satisfaction and service quality, surpassing Scottish Widows’ 4.3-star score. This higher rating highlights Penfold’s dedication to delivering an outstanding experience for businesses and employees alike.

Dedicated Business Support

With our dedicated account managers, Penfold ensures hands-on guidance throughout onboarding, compliance, and payroll integration. Scottish Widows lacks this level of personalised support, leaving businesses to handle challenges independently.

Streamlined Payroll Tools

Penfold’s advanced payroll integrations reduce admin time and ensure compliance, helping businesses focus on what they do best. This allows businesses to avoid admin headaches and save hours every month on pension management.

A comparison table between Penfold and Scottish Widows. Both offer group personal pensions and have a Defaqto rating of 5 stars, but Penfold has a higher Trustpilot rating (4.5 stars vs. 4.3 stars). Penfold provides a dedicated account manager, which Scottish Widows does not. Both offer features like onboarding, compliance support, payroll integrations, and salary sacrifice support. Penfold has no business fees, while Scottish Widows’ fees are not listed.

Fund Performance: Helping Employees Save More

Penfold delivers market-leading fund performance, ensuring employees’ savings grow faster. Over the past five years, Penfold’s default fund, managed by BlackRock, has achieved annualised returns of 7.6% (gross) and 6.8% (net). In comparison, Scottish Widows’ default plan has delivered 5.2% (gross) and 4.4% (net).

This performance difference enables employees to build their pension pots faster, boosting financial confidence and helping businesses attract and retain top talent.

This information should not be regarded as financial advice and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

A bar chart comparing default fund performance for annualized returns over five years to 30 September 2024. Penfold shows higher gross returns (7.6%) and net returns (6.8%) compared to Scottish Widows, which has gross returns of 5.2% and net returns of 4.4%. Penfold’s bars are highlighted in pink and dark blue, while Scottish Widows’ are shown in gray.

Returns are based on data collected by investment advisors DWA from a variety of sources including individual providers and data published on Morningstar. These are annualised returns are based on data in the 5 years to 30 September 2024. Returns for Penfold are based on a customer being invested in our default Standard Lifetime plan. Competitor returns are based on customers invested in their default plans.DWA have estimated the Gross Returns based on available information for a member with a typical pot size of £10,000 and an average salary of £30,000. DWA have estimated the Net Returns net of all costs and charges based on available information for a member with a typical pot size of £10,000 and an average salary of £30,000.

Actual returns may vary depending on a variety of factors including specific costs negotiated by a member's employer, actual pot size and actual salary. Where possible we have used actual return series available, though in assumptions have been made based on the underlying funds because of poor data availability and this may also result in some variance. The effect of charges have been applied to the return series on a monthly basis via a subtraction/addition of the proportionate amount, this may create small discrepancies with actual experience depending on charging structure. DWA are happy to correct any discrepancies should evidence be provided.

Advanced Features for Employees

Penfold’s goes beyond basic pension management, offering employees modern tools and a more engaging experience:

Intuitive App

Penfold’s sleek, user-friendly app empowers employees to track their savings, combine pensions, and set financial goals. While Scottish Widows also provides an app, it lacks some of Penfold’s interactive features, such as savings nudges and pension consolidation tools.

Financial Wellbeing Features

Penfold helps employees take control of their financial future with tools like savings nudges to encourage better saving habits, retirement income forecasts for clearer planning, and shareholder voting for ethical investment control. Scottish Widows lacks Penfold’s innovative features for proactive engagement.

Easy for Employees, Easy for You

Getting stuck trying to solve clients and employees’ pension problems? Our app helps employees find and combine other pensions, and make changes to their pension independently.

A comparison table between Penfold and Scottish Widows. Penfold offers 10 investment funds, while Scottish Widows provides over 160. Both have an app, sustainable and Sharia funds, retirement income forecasts, and financial wellbeing programs. Penfold also includes savings goals and nudges, which Scottish Widows lacks. Penfold charges an annual management fee of 0.75% (0.88% for the Sharia plan), while Scottish Widows charges 0.41% or prices individually. Neither has additional employee fees.

What Makes Penfold Stand Out?

Stronger Fund Performance

Penfold delivers higher annualised returns, ensuring employees’ savings grow faster and giving them greater financial security.

Exceptional Business Support

Penfold’s dedicated account managers provide expert, hands-on guidance for businesses, from onboarding to ongoing compliance.

Employee Engagement

Penfold’s interactive tools and focus on financial wellbeing improve employee satisfaction, boosting retention and productivity.

A composite image featuring a laptop and smartphone displaying Penfold’s pension management interface, alongside two colleagues working together in an office setting. The laptop screen shows an employee management dashboard, while the phone displays a personal pension overview. In the background, a man in a yellow sweater works on a laptop, and a woman holding a coffee cup smiles while engaging with him. The setting is a modern, well-lit office.

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.

Ben Nacca

Founder of Cone Accounting

How to Choose the Right Workplace Pension

Step 1: Assess Your Needs

What does your business need from a pension provider? Are you looking for higher fund performance, better employee tools, or a more cost-effective solution?

Step 2: Compare Providers

Review how Penfold and Scottish Widows align with your goals by evaluating features, reviews, and support options.

Step 3: Plan Your Switch

Penfold’s dedicated account managers ensure a seamless transition, making it easy for your business and employees to switch.

Why Businesses Are Switching to Penfold

Save Time

Automate payroll and pension contributions.

Boost Compliance

Stay on top of regulatory requirements effortlessly.

Support Employees

Offer a pension scheme that’s easy to use and engaging.

Ready to upgrade your workplace pension? Join thousands of businesses already transforming their schemes with Penfold.

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