A round-up of 2021

I am sure none of us expected, earlier in the year, that Britain would be seeing out 2021 in the way that we are. However, with the end of the year in sight, I wanted to wish you season's greetings and look back over the last 12 months.

What a busy year it's been at Smart Pension! We started off the year by launching Smart Retire. After two years of detailed user experience testing and refinement, Smart Retire now gives our members flexible and innovative options when it comes to accessing their retirement savings in later life. We have also partnered with Make My Money Matter to underline our commitment to net-zero, allocated some of our default growth fund to illiquid investments, and announced exciting new partnerships with Barclays and the Royal Institute of British Architects. In the Spring, we welcomed Nikesh Patel to our Board of Trustees and he was awarded Investment Manager of the Year by Professional Pensions. We launched our financial wellbeing hub followed by improvements to our member discounts scheme, Smart Rewards.   

In the second half of the year, we launched a free pension-finding tool that searches thousands of workplace pension providers across the UK, helping our members track down lost pension pots. We launched a pilot with Octopus Moneycoach, giving members the opportunity to have their own financial coach. Get in touch to find out more about how this could help you and members. We hit an amazing milestone with our default growth fund, where over 70% of the fund is now invested in funds that are sustainable, helping to tackle climate change. 

In the final two months of the year, members received their simplified annual statement and we’ve just launched a new and improved platform for advisers. The industry has recognised us as the Most Innovative Pensions FinTech Business and we have ended the year hitting £2.2bn Assets Under Management (AUM), helping almost 900,000 people save for retirement.‍

The year ahead

I’m looking forward to an exciting 2022, too. As well as making further enhancements to our investment proposition, we will be releasing a new online data tool, Smart Analytics, revamping our adviser, employer and member platforms and introducing SAVA, our new virtual avatar assistant. But before all of that great stuff takes place, I’d like to wish you and your families a safe and very Happy New Year from me and everyone at Smart Pension.‍

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