Pension pot calculator
How can fees and tax relief affect your pension pot? Use our pension pot calculator to find out.
The only Which? Recommended Provider to also be rated as Great Value by Which? customers
If you are a basic rate taxpayer, then your pension contributions are not subject to additional tax relief
The maximum growth rate used for this calculator is 8%
Potential pension pot
£2,067,695
Value without fees and with reclaimed tax
£1,257,452
Value with fees and without reclaimed tax
£810,243
Estimated loss in your pension pot due to high fees and unused tax benefits.
£2,067,695
Value without fees and with reclaimed tax
£1,257,452
Value with fees and without reclaimed tax
£810,243
Estimated loss in your pension pot due to high fees and unused tax benefits.
Value without fees and with reclaimed tax | £2,067,695 |
|---|---|
Value with 1% fee and with reclaimed tax | £1,613,797 |
Value without fees and without reclaimed tax | £1,614,696 |
Value with 1% fee and without reclaimed tax | £1,257,452 |
If you are a basic rate taxpayer, then your pension contributions are not subject to additional tax relief
The maximum growth rate used for this calculator is 8%
Capital at risk
For illustrative and educational purposes only. The chart above presents potential future annualised returns based on past performance. However, past performance is not indicative of, nor does it guarantee, future results. The value of your portfolio may fluctuate due to market conditions, and your capital is at risk when investing.
Returns may also be subject to taxation depending on individual circumstances. Please note this is not intended to be financial advice or a promise of future performance. You should seek financial advice if in doubt before investing.
Values are adjusted to account for the decreasing value of money over time, based on the UK government’s 2% inflation target. This means the figures show what your savings are worth in today’s money, rather than their future total.
ETF costs apply.
Don’t let fees ruin your retirement
Fees can have a big impact on your pension pot. A 1% fee could lead to thousands less in your pension. This could mean you have to work longer, or simply end up with less money in your pension when you retire.Do you really want to work longer, or sacrifice your standard of living? Thanks to InvestEngine’s fee‑free SIPP, you can be sure that investing fees won’t be a worry for you.How can we afford to charge zero fees? Find out more here.
5 star reviews
Rated by experts
FAQs
Does the calculator include fund fees and hidden charges?
No, the calculator does not include fund fees, it only takes into account platform and trading fees. ETFs come with small fees, which do apply on the InvestEngine platform. There are no ‘hidden’ fees on InvestEngine to take into account.
What fees does InvestEngine charge?
InvestEngine has a simple and transparent charging structure. You’ll also find it hard to beat!
The fee we charge depends solely on the portfolio type you choose — zero for a DIY Portfolio and just 0.25% a year for our Managed and LifePlan portfolios.
The ETFs in your portfolio have their own costs — low annual charges (built into the performance of the fund) and buy/sell market spreads — which InvestEngine makes nothing from.
And we have no account fees — whether your portfolio is in an ISA, General or Business Account (though with our Business Account, there may be a Legal Entity Identifier or LEI charge after your first year).
We do not charge for opening, closing or administering your account, or for withdrawals. There is no stamp duty on ETFs and all the ETFs available through InvestEngine are denominated in £s, so we do not charge an FX fee.
Please note: promotional bonuses may be clawed back from your withdrawal, as per the terms and conditions of the promotion, if you have not maintained the minimum contribution amount for the minimum required duration (this is not a fee).
How do I set up the Savings Plan feature?
You may easily set up a Savings plan even with the Autoinvest feature already enabled and if you have submitted orders which are still pending on your account. To do that, follow these steps:
- Sign up or log in to your existing account.
- Navigate to a Portfolio page, select ‘Options’ and simply select the ‘Set up a Savings Plan’ button to get started.
- Choose the frequency of your recurring payments (weekly, fortnightly, or monthly).
- Enter the day you want your first and subsequent payments to be collected.
- Enter the amount you want to invest with each payment.
- Authorise the recurring payment directly with your bank via OpenBanking*.
- Confirm and activate your ‘Savings Plan’.
*Please note: not all banks currently support recurring payments. If you bank does not support this feature, then we will direct you to set up a Direct Debit instead.
See also: Which banks support Savings Plan (Variable Recurring Payments)?
Can I choose the frequency and amount of my recurring payments?
Yes, you have the flexibility to select the frequency of your recurring payments, such as weekly, fortnightly, or monthly*. Additionally, you can choose the amount you want to invest with each payment, starting from as little as £20 for weekly and fortnightly payments and £50 for monthly payments.
*Please note: certain banks may only support monthly payments due to their direct debit infrastructure. This limitation is directly tied to the implementation of Open Banking payment technology. Not every bank supports Open Banking infrastructure.
How are fees calculated?
Our management fees range from 0.15% to 0.25% per year. To make it easier to understand, this is quoted as an annual percentage but is collected from your account on a monthly basis.
For example, divide the annual rate of 0.25% by 12. This works out to approximately 0.021% per month. The fee is calculated daily based on the value of your portfolio and summed up at the end of the month. The total amount is then deducted in the following month.
For DIY Portfolios, no management fee is charged. However, please note that ETF‑related costs still apply to any securities in a DIY Portfolio.
What is the advantage of ETFs over shares and other stock market investments?
How best to invest in the stock market? There are many different ways to put your money to work in the markets: shares, ETFs, and other types of funds like unit trusts and investment trusts.
If you’re struggling to choose between these different investment types, here’s a quick comparison to help you decide which is best for you:
Shares
If you want to invest in a particular company, whether Tesla or Tesco, then buying their shares is the obvious route.
Most shares are traded on a stock market with prices that constantly change throughout the business day.
You’re backing a specific business and returns can be high. As well as potential increases in the value of the shares, many companies also pay their investors a dividend, generally twice or more a year.
But, make no mistake, investing in a company’s shares is risky. Share prices of individual firms can be very volatile. Sharp falls in short periods of time are always a possibility and, at worst, you can lose all your investment if the company goes bust.
ETFs
Rather than picking individual companies to invest in, with an ETF you’re generally investing in a whole market.
Most ETFs aim to closely track the performance of a specific stockmarket index such as the S&P 500, which comprises the 500 biggest companies in the US.
Typically they do this by spreading your money across the shares of all the companies in the index according to their percentage weight within that index. With the S&P 500, for example, this gives you access to the likes of Apple, Amazon and Tesla in a single investment.
As well as share indexes, there are ETFs that seek to track the price of gold and other commodities or bonds. There are also ETFs that focus on specific investment themes such as cybersecurity and climate change.
ETFs are bought and sold on the stock market like shares, hence their full name of exchange‑traded funds. But as funds that hold a spread of different investments, they’re less risky than buying individual shares.
Compared with other types of investment funds, ETFs can also be very low cost — with annual charges of as little as 0.05%, or just 50p per £1,000 of investment.
And, unlike with purchases of shares in the UK where you have to pay 0.5% stamp duty (as well as any dealing commission), there’s no stamp duty to pay on ETFs.
However, because most ETFs are designed simply to track a market index, you don’t have the potential to outperform the index and, when the market falls, so will the value of your investment.
Unit trusts and investment trusts
Unit trusts (and their close cousins ‘OEICs’) and investment trusts are also types of investment funds. Like ETFs, they hold a spread of different shares or other investments.
But unlike ETFs, in most cases these funds are trying to beat the performance of their chosen market.
They do this by buying investments they think will do well, and avoiding those they think will do badly.
Some of these ‘actively managed’ funds outperform, but most don’t — particularly over time. They also tend to have higher charges than ETFs.
Unit trusts/OEICs are simpler than investment trusts. The former can only be bought once a day through their fund manager, there’s no stamp duty to pay and generally no dealing commission.
Investment trusts, on the other hand, are bought and sold in the stock market like shares or ETFs. They can increase their investment exposure using borrowed money (called ‘gearing’).
Shares of an investment trust can also diverge from the value of their underlying portfolio of investments, and may trade at a ‘discount to net asset value (NAV)’, or at a ‘premium’.
Both gearing and changes in an investment trust’s discount/premium can enhance or detract from the performance of the underlying investments.
And like other shares in the UK, purchases of most investment trusts are subject to 0.5% stamp duty.
At InvestEngine, our focus is on ETFs. Their low costs and diversification, along with wide choice and ease of buying and selling, make them an excellent option for investors’ portfolios. Find out more about why we love ETFs.
How does the AutoInvest feature work with Savings Plan?
The AutoInvest feature automatically allocates your recurring payments to the preselected ETFs in your 'Savings Plan.'
Once you activate the plan, InvestEngine will handle the investment process for you, making it easy and convenient.
AutoInvest can still be used independently of Savings Plan, read more about AutoInvest here.
Ready to invest?
'Get started' to build your portfolio
With investing, your capital is at risk, ETF/ETC costs apply.