Costs and charges for members of People’s Pension
Find out what the costs and charges are for members of People’s Pension, and find out what our Chair had to say about them in the 2025 annual report.
Chair’s annual governance statement on member costs and charges…
Mark Condron, Chair of The People’s Pension Trustee, gives an annual governance statement each year. The section about charges and transaction costs from his most recent statement (for year ending 31 March 2025) is included below.
For the full governance statement, download The People’s Pension Scheme annual report and financial statements.
Member-borne charges and transaction costs
The Trustee is required to set out the on-going administrative charges borne by members in this statement. The Trustee confirms that it has taken account of statutory guidance when preparing it. These are annual fund management charges plus any extra fund expenses, such as custody costs, but excluding transaction costs.
The Trustee and Administrator refer to this as the member annual management charge which is made up of:
- An annual charge of £4.50 on members’ pots of £104.50 and over, deducted during the Scheme year. Please note that from 1 April 2026, this charge will increase to £6.50 and be deducted from members’ pots of £106.50 and over.
- A management charge of 0.5% of a member’s pot each year.
- A savings reward on the management charge, for savings over £3,000.
Exact member charges
Members can find out more about their exact charges in their online account. Once logged in, they'll need to go to ‘Manage my pension’, followed by ‘Charges’.
Trustee review of member charges and transaction costs
The Trustee confirms that the Scheme’s member annual management charge is comfortably within the Government charge cap for schemes with combination charges. The Scheme can charge a maximum of £10.00 or less per year as a flat fee charge, as well as a maximum of 0.6% of funds under management.
Considering the breadth and quality of the Scheme’s core service elements (investment, administration, communications, governance), the Trustee is satisfied that the costs and charges are appropriate for the Scheme both as a whole and compared to other options in the market. The Trustee believes the Scheme represents good value for members.
The Trustee reviews the transaction costs associated with the investment funds used by the Scheme at least annually, and most recently at the 1 August 2025 (previously 4 August 2024) Trustee Investment Committee meeting. Transaction costs result from buying, selling, lending or borrowing of investments. They’re part of the overall costs borne by members, as they have the effect of reducing the funds’ net investment returns.
Transaction costs are incurred by pension schemes in 2 ways.
- Firstly, a fund manager will trade in markets to invest money flowing into or out of a fund (when Scheme members contribute to or leave a fund).
- Secondly, they will implement investment decisions in the course of day-to-day management to achieve the fund’s objectives.
Transaction costs can be broadly broken down into explicit and implicit costs.
Explicit costs are observable and, where the costs are incurred, an invoice could be generated. Examples include brokerage fees, stamp duty and custodian fees, and foreign exchange levies.
Implicit costs
Implicit costs form part of the overall transaction costs that members pay. Implicit costs can’t be directly observed or invoiced.
These include:
- bid/offer spreads
- implementation shortfall (the difference between the decision price and the execution price of a trade)
- market impact (the change in the price of a security caused by the trade).
Implicit costs will use a ‘slippage cost’ methodology to calculate the market impact of trading. This method calculates the trading cost by comparing the price at which the transaction was actually executed with the price when the order to transact entered the market.
Implicit costs can be positive or negative depending on whether market movements were favourable or not.
The average transaction costs over the five years to 31 March 2025 are shown in the table below. The transaction cost data was provided by the Scheme’s investment manager, State Street Global Advisors, and prepared in line with statutory guidance. All transaction cost information required was received and is reflected in the figures tabled below.
Default arrangement: charges and transaction costs
The Scheme’s default arrangement (the 'balanced' investment profile) is used by 98.44% of the membership.
| Fund | Management charge | Transaction costs |
|---|---|---|
| Global Investments (up to 85% shares) Fund* | 0.5% | 0.09% |
| Pre-Retirement Fund* | 0.5% | 0.05% |
Non-default arrangements (self-select investment options): charges and transaction costs
| Fund | Management charge | Transaction costs |
|---|---|---|
| Global Investments (up to 60% shares) Fund | 0.5% | 0.06% |
| Global Investments (up to 100% shares) Fund | 0.5% | 0.07% |
| Ethical Fund |
0.5% |
0.01% |
| Annuity Fund |
0.5% |
0.01% |
| Shariah Fund |
0.5% |
0.02% |
| Cash Fund |
0.5% |
0.00% |
Projections of other funds
You can see an illustration of the charges and transaction costs on our page about transaction costs…
*These funds are also available as self-select options.