Investments
Delivering choice and a greater purpose, while powered by intelligent technology.
Our investment funds
We give our members the option of:
- letting our team handle the investments (We do it for you)
- choosing investment strategies themselves (Do it yourself)
Assets under management
Funds to choose from
Total return over 5 years to 31/03/2026*
Pre-built investment strategies
*Based on the Smart Sustainable Growth Fund. Read our investment report for further detail. Historic investment performance is not guaranteed and investments can go down and up in value.
Partnering with trusted global financial institutions
Our investment approach
We implement our best ideas by default. We select top-tier managers and continuously stay at the forefront of new thinking. What this means in practice is that our members automatically benefit from the strongest investment opportunities available, without needing to opt into higher-cost funds.
Our technology plays a crucial role in our investments. We benefit from technology developed within our group through Keystone, which gives us a level of integration and control that many providers simply don’t have. This efficiency reduces our reliance on third parties and lowers administration costs. At the same time, it improves the member experience.
Thanks to our proprietary technology, members can use the Smart pension app or their online account to easily access and view fund options and performance, while also changing their investments at any time.
Our investments aim to create local and global impact, while optimising for growth. In our Smart Sustainable Growth Fund, we focus on delivering strong long-term returns alongside positive outcomes for people and society. This isn’t just an overlay, it’s embedded into how we allocate and make decisions, including investing to support the transition to a lower carbon economy and grow UK and global businesses.
Find out more about how we invest with purpose.
How do our funds perform?
Download latest investment reports
For further historic investment performance, this is available to members in their account, alternatively contact us to request.
Investments linked to beliefs
Our Halal Investment Strategy allows members to align their investments to their beliefs.
Award-winning investments
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Expert governance
You can be confident that employees’ savings are looked after and that expert governance is in place.
Stewardship, Voting and Engagement
We carry out focused stewardship and engagements with our investment managers and companies with the aim of making real change to businesses and our world, improving the profitability of our investments.
We aim to invest in funds where we can influence positive change. This includes voting and engaging with fund managers and companies to improve their sustainability practices. However, we may exclude companies if we believe there is little or no potential for meaningful improvement in their negative impacts on people, nature and the climate.
Robust policies
The pension scheme is run by a ‘Trustee’ which consists of six Board members and is supported by Smart Pension’s in-house specialist teams and external advisers. Our Trustee has policies and processes in place to avoid harmful business practices, and to engage with fund managers with the aim of improving their practices. The majority of our fund range has strong ESG integration within the investment process*.
*Currently the only funds without ESG integration are the Smart Sharia Fund and the Smart Index-Linked Gilts Fund. Given the investments in these asset classes, it is difficult to fully assess or limit investments to certain ESG criteria.
FAQs
Stewardship is the responsible allocation, management, and oversight of members’ investments to deliver long-term value.
It includes engaging with appointed managers, investee companies, exercising voting rights and, setting clear expectations, and monitoring and holding investment managers to account.
Stewardship is carried out by appointed managers and the Trustee of the Smart Pension Master Trust, supported by its sub-committees and Smart Pension’s in-house teams. External advisers provide analysis, research, and guidance on the investment options offered through the scheme.
By investing in a fund and acquiring shares in companies (equity), comes with the right to vote on company matters at shareholder meetings.
Often, this voting is carried out by the fund manager or their appointed ‘proxy’ firm on behalf of the entire fund.
We have set specific expectations for managers and monitor how they vote and engage in our Trustee’s policies, set out for our managers to follow, and where possible, we have set our own voting guidelines that they will follow for the proportion of investments in the fund held by our pension scheme.
This is sometimes referred to as ‘split’ voting. The Trustee directors are keen to get as much feedback as possible, so if you have a suggestion, please do not hesitate to contact them.
Engagement means communicating with an investment manager or a company that a Smart Pension fund invests in.
Engagements are carried out through collaborative initiatives or by external investment managers on behalf of the Trustee and members. The aim of engaging is to bring about a positive change of approach, policy or behaviour.
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