Penfold's pitch is subtraction. One Sharia plan, one underlying fund, one all-in fee, no minimum contribution, and an app that onboards you before your tea cools. In a market where pension paperwork defeats good intentions, that simplicity is the product. Penfold Savings Limited is FCA-regulated (826097), and the Sharia plan is also available through its workplace scheme. Verified against Penfold's published pages, August 6, 2026.
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What your money actually buys
The Sharia plan invests 100% in the HSBC Islamic Global Equity Index Fund, the Dow Jones Islamic Titans 100 tracker that anchors most of Britain's halal pension money. Governance is therefore inherited from the deepest bench available: HSBC's Global Shariah Supervisory Committee (Sheikh Nizam Yaquby, Dr. Mohamed Ali Elgari, Dr. Aznan Hassan) with annual certificates and AAOIFI-aligned screening. Purification runs at fund level, with cleansing donations to charities chosen by the Sharia board, and Penfold's own pages document the mechanism accurately, including non-interest-bearing cash handling. What Penfold adds is the wrapper, the app and the tax relief plumbing; it adds no independent Shariah oversight of its own operations, which is worth knowing and rarely matters in practice.
The fee: one number, genuinely
0.88% a year on savings under GBP 100,000, 0.53% on the portion above, fund costs included, with no set-up, contribution or transfer charges. That single-number honesty deserves credit in a market of stacked fees: Wahed's SIPP runs its wrap fee plus GBP 2.50 monthly plus fund costs, and comparing them requires a spreadsheet Penfold makes unnecessary. The critique writes itself anyway: 0.88% wraps a fund whose retail class costs 0.62% and whose institutional version costs 0.15%, so the convenience premium is real. NEST undercuts it on pot charges for the employed; the comparison piece runs the numbers by scenario.
Where Penfold genuinely excels
- Self-employed savers: contributions flex from any amount and pause anytime, matching gig and contract income, with automatic basic-rate tax relief; our self-employed guide has the context.
- Consolidators: app-based transfers plus a find-my-pension service pull scattered pots into one compliant place.
- Employers: the workplace scheme can offer the Sharia plan, giving Muslim staff a compliant option by default.
- Anyone defeated by friction: opening takes minutes, and the plan runs itself.
The limitations, stated plainly
The single-fund design is a single risk profile: 100% global equities at risk level 5 of 7, with the US-tech concentration that index carries and no sukuk, gold or de-risking option at any age. For a 30-year-old that is textbook; for a 58-year-old it is wrong, and Penfold offers no dial to turn. NEST solved this with its 30% sukuk sleeve, Aviva with a full glidepath. Until Penfold adds a defensive option, savers nearing retirement should look at Aviva's strategy if their employer offers it, or a multi-portfolio SIPP.
The app experience, concretely
Penfold's genuine innovation is administrative. Opening takes minutes with identity checks in-flow; contributions adjust from the home screen in seconds, including down to zero for a lean quarter and back up after invoices clear; and the find-my-pension service chases old pots with your authority, handling the forms that defeat most consolidation intentions. Basic-rate tax relief lands automatically as a visible top-up, which does quiet motivational work: watching GBP 100 become GBP 125 teaches the pension's value faster than any explainer. Employer contributions route in gross for workplace users. None of this changes the investment case a basis point, and all of it changes whether the account exists and keeps receiving money, which across a career matters more.
The fee, benchmarked properly
At GBP 20,000, Penfold's 0.88% costs GBP 176 a year, against roughly GBP 124 plus platform fees for the same fund held DIY in a SIPP, and against NEST's GBP 60 AMC plus the 1.8% levy on that year's contributions. At GBP 150,000 the blended Penfold rate falls as the 0.53% tier takes the excess above GBP 100,000. The premium over DIY buys the app, the consolidation service and the automatic relief plumbing; the premium over NEST buys flexibility and the absence of the contribution levy. Both premiums are defensible for the savers they fit, and visible enough to re-examine as balances grow, per our fees guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Penfold's Sharia plan properly halal?
The underlying fund carries the market's most cited scholar committee, annual certification and fund-level purification with an up-to-5% impure income tolerance cleansed to charity. The plan's compliance is as strong as its single ingredient, which is strong.
Penfold or Wahed for a personal pension?
Penfold for simplicity and typically lower all-in cost at small and mid balances; Wahed for risk-tiered portfolios including sukuk and gold sleeves. Nothing beats Penfold on friction; Wahed beats it on construction. The SIPP guide compares all four providers.
Can I transfer old workplace pensions in?
Yes, through the app, including a find-my-pension service for lost pots. Standard cautions apply: check for exit fees and valuable guarantees in old schemes before moving, since consolidation is usually but not always the right call.
The verdict
Penfold built the halal pension people actually open, and for self-employed savers under 45 it may be the best-fit product in Britain. Just know what the simplicity costs: a premium over the raw fund, and a construction that ignores your age. Start here if starting is the obstacle; graduate deliberately if your circumstances outgrow one fund. The full field is on our retirement page.
What happens at retirement with Penfold?
Standard wrapper rules apply: access from 55, rising to 57 in April 2028, with up to 25% tax-free. Drawdown mechanics and options at the point of retirement are worth confirming with Penfold as you approach it; the single-fund construction means de-risking before that date is entirely your initiative.
Is my money safe if Penfold fails?
Client pensions sit in regulated custody arrangements separate from Penfold's corporate finances, so a platform failure would transfer administration rather than destroy holdings. Investment risk, the fund falling, is uninsured as always; the underlying HSBC vehicle's scale (USD 8 billion strategy) makes fund-closure risk negligible.
The verdict
Penfold wins the category it invented: the halal pension you will actually open, fund and keep. The 0.88% buys real administrative value, the HSBC engine underneath is the market's standard, and the single-fund bluntness is a known cost you can plan around. Open it if friction has beaten you before; diarise an allocation review for your fifties; and enjoy being the rare saver whose pension needed five minutes. The full market sits on our retirement page.
Questions worth asking before you open
- Am I capturing my full workplace match first, if employed alongside self-employment?
- Will the 0.88% (0.53% above GBP 100,000) stay competitive as my pot grows, or should I diarise a comparison at a milestone balance?
- What is my plan for de-risking, given the plan holds one all-equity fund at every age?
- Do I have old pots the find-and-transfer service should chase?
Compare providers in your state
See side-by-side comparisons of Shariah-compliant products, or let our matcher recommend the best options for your situation.
Four honest answers and the decision makes itself. Penfold's figures on this page carry their August 6, 2026 verification date.
One closing observation from the wider market: every rival either demands employer scheme membership, more money, more decisions or more paperwork than Penfold does. That is not an accident of design but the design itself, and for the self-employed saver it solves the problem that actually blocks most halal pensions, which is never the fund selection and always the starting.