PensionBee originally offered three plans: tracker, matched and tailored. In October 2017, it launched the Future World plan, an ethical option for those keen for their long-term savings to help protect the planet.
The Future World plan is managed by Legal & General. It has a reduced exposure to environmentally unfriendly companies while increasing and engaging more with greener companies.
Companies that fail to meet the minimum environmental standards will be excluded altogether from the Future World Fund.
The move was driven by PensionBee’s 50,000 customers, asking to invest their money more sustainably. The choice to choose the L&G Future World fund was based on ethical grounds but also on not jeopardising performance.
Romi Savova, CEO of PensionBee, said: “Customers want to invest responsibly but without sacrificing returns. The PensionBee Future World plan does both.”
The PensionBee Future World plan is an alternative index tracker that only includes companies that score well on four performance measures: value, quality, low volatility and size.
The tracker then reduces its exposure to companies with high oil and gas reserves and those with high carbon emissions, while increasing its exposure to companies with low carbon emissions and those with increasing revenues from environmentally-friendly activities.
L&G will also uses its position as UK’s largest investment manager to vote against chairmen of companies that perform poorly on its environmental sources across all its funds.
PensionBee’s other products:
The Tracker plan is managed by State Street – it’s the simplest and cheapest plan, with a fee of 0.5% – and also the least risky.
The Match plan invests in a portfolio that more closely mirrors what the rest of the pension industry invests in. This one is managed by BlackRock and charges 0.6%.
The Tailored plan charges 0.7%, is also managed by BlackRock, and is a risk-managed approach that reduces exposure to equities the closer you are to retirement.
The average cost of a UK pension is 0.8% annually, so these are cheaper. This fee covers everything, including your transfers in, the underlying fund fees and making contributions. PensionBee never charges any exit fees – and it will let you know if your old providers charge exit fees of £10 or more.
It’s common for many pension providers to hide fees. Most pension plans will charge at least annual management fees and underlying pension fund fees. Some will also charge transfer-in fees, contribution fees, inactivity fees, commissions and exit fees.
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