Smart Pension fees on the main default were 0.30% to 0.40% a year plus £1.85 a month, says the trustee's statement for the year to 30 June 2025.
Smart Pension's website gives no single rate for its fees, so the figures here come from the trustee's papers, with their dates. Free, impartial guidance on taking your pension comes from Pension Wise. Holding Smart alongside older pots? Sending our free form here brings a call with an FCA-authorised adviser about setting Smart beside them. The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than was paid in.
Where the figures come from, and how old they are
Smart's charges page, read on 20 October 2026, carries no percentages or pound amounts. It says "Our Total Expense Ratio covers the total cost of investing your pension and varies depending on the funds you are invested in", adds that Smart "may also charge a small monthly fee", and sends members to their own account for the charges that apply to them. The member guide dated April 2026 says the same and adds that fees are taken from the account itself.
The numbers are in the Chair's statement of the Smart Pension Master Trust, covering 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. It was the latest statement on Smart's governance pages when checked on 20 October 2026; nothing for the year to 30 June 2026 is posted there yet. Its charges section opens with a warning: "The level of charging varies by employer and investment strategy". A colleague at another company can legitimately pay a different amount from you.
What the trustee's latest statement lists
The percentages below are the trustee's figures including additional expenses; the statement defines the Total Expense Ratio as the Annual Management Charge plus those expenses. The monthly fee is a flat amount per member, on top.
| Arrangement in the statement | Percentage a year | Monthly fee |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Sustainable Growth, the scheme's default pricing structure | 0.30% to 0.40% | £1.85 |
| Smart Sustainable Growth Core | 0.25% to 0.28% | £1.75 |
| Smart Cash fund, a temporary default | 0.17% | none stated |
| Schroders-introduced employers | 0.32% to 0.40% | £1.25 for some employers |
| Mercer-introduced employers, growth phase | 0.31% to 0.36% | none stated |
| Wahed-introduced employers | 0.50% | £1.50 |
The Schroders structure is described as running "with and without" the £1.25 fee. Ranges exist because the charge differs by fee series and by fund, and the statement points members back to their login: "Please refer to your online account to determine which fee arrangement is applicable to you." Transaction costs are not in these figures; the statement reports them separately in an appendix.
Once a member moves into Smart Retire, which Smart's retirement page presents as a way to move from saving to spending within the same account, a separate set of ranges applies, by pot and fund. The annual management charge is 0.22% to 0.69% (0.25% to 0.72% with additional expenses) for the Flexible Income pot, 0.25% to 0.68% including additional expenses for the Later Life and Rainy Day pots, and 0.22% to 0.55% (0.24% to 0.57%) for the Inheritance pot. Whether anything is charged on a withdrawal or on moving money out is a question to put to Smart before you commit. Income choices are compared in pension drawdown, annuities and your options at retirement.
The £1.85 a month on a small pot
A flat fee stops for very small pots, but Smart's two documents set the line in different words. The charges page says "If the combined value of your pension savings is £100 or less, we will not charge you a monthly fee." The Chair's statement says "If a member’s account value is equal to or less than £105 (assessed monthly), any monthly flat fee is not charged." The papers read do not explain the difference, so anyone with a balance near either figure can ask Smart which it applies.
Above that line, a fixed fee weighs most on a small pot. Our arithmetic below takes the default structure (0.30% to 0.40% including additional expenses, plus £1.85 a month, which is £22.20 a year) and assumes the pot stays the same size all year and is charged the fee in every month. It leaves out transaction costs, is rounded to two decimal places and is not a projection.
| Pot | Percentage part | With £22.20 of monthly fees | As a share of the pot |
|---|---|---|---|
| £2,000 | £6.00 to £8.00 | £28.20 to £30.20 | 1.41% to 1.51% |
| £10,000 | £30.00 to £40.00 | £52.20 to £62.20 | 0.52% to 0.62% |
| £50,000 | £150.00 to £200.00 | £172.20 to £222.20 | 0.34% to 0.44% |
For other schemes' structures, Nest and The People's Pension have their own pages, and Scottish Widows against Smart Pension sets providers side by side. Laying several pots out like this takes time. An FCA-authorised adviser, contacted free through this page's form, can work through Smart's fee series beside your other schemes.
How the 0.75% limit works for a master trust
The Smart Pension Master Trust "is authorised and supervised by The Pensions Regulator", and its Chair's statement is prepared under the occupational pension scheme regulations. The default-fund charge cap for occupational schemes is regulation 6 of SI 2015/879, and it has conditions. It reaches only the part of a member's savings held in a default arrangement, not funds chosen outside one. A charge that is purely a percentage of the pot is limited to 0.75% a year.
Smart's defaults pair a percentage with a monthly fee, which the regulation treats as a combination structure with its own limits: no more than £25 a year in flat fees, and a lower ceiling on the percentage that steps down as the flat fee rises. Where the annual flat fee is more than £20 but no more than £25, the percentage limit is 0.4%. The flat fee may be taken only from a pot of more than £100 and not so as to take it below £100. So the combined shares in the table above are not a test against 0.75%. The trustee's own view, in the same statement, is that the amount charged "is compliant with the charge cap for default funds set by the Government". What the cap leaves out, transaction costs among them, is in pension charges.
Questions to put to Smart about your own account
Both Smart documents say your login is where your charges appear. From there, or from Smart, note:
- which pricing structure and fee series your employer's scheme uses, by the statement's names above;
- whether a monthly fee applies at your balance, and whether Smart applies the £100 or the £105 line;
- the Total Expense Ratio of each fund you hold;
- what Smart Retire would charge, and anything payable on a withdrawal or transfer out.
Before moving other pensions in, the member guide lists what to compare, including "the charges for each pension plan" and "whether there are any penalties for transferring".
Smart Pension charges: questions people ask
Is Smart Pension a government scheme or a private provider?
It is private. The Chair's statement describes the master trust as funded by Smart Pension Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, and The Pensions Regulator authorises and supervises the trust. The state's own scheme is the State Pension, which is separate.
Can I combine my old pensions into Smart Pension?
Smart's transfer page says "It's worth checking what benefits your other provider offers before you transfer". Set the old scheme's charges against your Smart fee series first; the mechanics are in moving a pension, and provider choice in pension consolidation.
Can I cash in my Smart Pension, and when?
Smart's page says members can start taking money once they turn 55. The normal minimum pension age is 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028, according to HMRC's note on the measure, with exceptions covered in at what age you can take your pension.
Is Smart Pension any good, and what are its pros and cons?
This page covers charges only and does not rate Smart Pension. What you pay depends on your employer's fee series, your funds and your pot size; workplace pension providers looks at the wider field.
Your next step
Start with your Smart login: it names your fee series and fund charges, which the trustee's table can only bracket. Earlier jobs may have left pots priced in quite different ways. To see Smart's £1.85 a month beside your other pots' charges, complete this page's form; an FCA-authorised firm then phones you, without charge.
Sources: Smart Pension, Our charges (page read 20 October 2026), Member Guide (April 2026), Transfer your pensions and Taking your pension (pages read 20 October 2026); EC2 Master Limited, Chair's statement of the Smart Pension Master Trust for the year ended 30 June 2025; legislation.gov.uk, SI 2015/879 regulations 4 to 6; all accessed 20 October 2026.