Smart Pension has acquired Evolve Pensions, owner of the £750m Crystal Master Trust.
Smart Pension claimed its purchase of Evolve Pensions was one of the largest master trust consolidations of 2023 and takes the company's assets under management to £4bn.
Evolve Pensions, is a provider of workplace pensions through its master trust the Crystal Trust. The acquisition will improve experience and provide efficiencies for the Crystal Trust’s employers and members, enabled by Keystone, the cloud-based global technology platform developed by Smart Pension’s parent company, the Smart group.
Smart Pension's acquisitions have also included the Ensign Master Trust, the Welplan Master Trust, the Corpad Master Trust and Corporate Pensions Trust.
Jamie Fiveash, chief executive of Smart UK said the acquisition of Evolve Pensions was a "further acceleration" of its consolidation strategy.
Smart Pension master trust
He said: "It is clear that 'winning' in this market means delivering better value for savers. Size and efficiency are important for that, but also great technology. Synergies and economies of scale allow value to be passed back both to employers and to members. Smart’s Keystone platform delivers all of this."
“Our joint focus will be working towards merging the Crystal Trust into the Smart Pension master trust within the next 12 months, ensuring that members can benefit from the efficiencies and proposition improvements that scale and technology can bring.
Paul Bannister, chief executive at Evolve Pensions, said: “We have always put people at the centre of everything we do. Having seen Smart Pension’s rapid rise to provide best-in-class pension technology and member experience to more than 1.1 million savers in the UK, we realised our strategies are aligned and our commitment to our employees is key.”
What is the Crystal Master Trust?
The Crystal Trust currently has over 128,000 members and £750m in assets and is believed to have been in negotiations with Smart Pension for several months. It took over Evolve’s Bluesky master trust in early 2020.
