The sponsor to Crystal, Evolve, has been bought by Smart Pension with a view to transferring Crystal’s members to the Smart Pension Master Trust. The Crystal Trustee has undertaken an in depth due diligence exercise and agrees this is a positive move with an opportunity for greater value for money and access to state of the art member tools, financial wellbeing support and member rewards.

For more details on these improvements, click here.

The Crystal Trustee will be contacting members in the next few days as The Pensions Regulator has reviewed and approved details of the transition plan. We’ll ensure members are reassured about the process, how to find out more information and if they need to take any specific action. You don’t need to formally notify your employees but please share this information if you feel this is appropriate.

An extensive and robust plan is now in place which will be monitored by the Crystal Trustee and overseen by The Pensions Regulator. The Pensions Regulator has approved this implementation plan and you can access a copy here.

Yes, to continue to fulfil your auto enrolment duties it’s your responsibility to pay your contributions to Crystal as instructed on your payment schedule until you’re instructed to make the payment to Smart Pension. The payment date for paying contributions to Smart Pension will be confirmed during the registration process later this year. We’ll provide updates over the coming months.

Yes, please continue to assess and enroll your eligible employees into Crystal as usual. More information about enrolling new employees into Smart Pension will be provided in future communications.

There will be no charge for transferring your pension provider to Smart Pension.

There will be no immediate change to the process, please continue to submit your schedule through ROOT and pay your contributions to Crystal as instructed on your payment schedule. We’ll provide updates over the coming months.

Optess will continue to provide their usual support during the coming months, so please contact employersupport@optess.co.uk if you require assistance. Optess will also be available to provide support during and following the transition to the Smart Pension employer account. More details will be provided in future communications.

By transferring to Smart Pension, you’ll be invited to sign up and register for the Smart Pension employer account. There is no additional cost to you for using the employer account and you’ll be provided with guidance and support through the registration process and the submission of your first payroll files.

Smart Pension can also provide support with the assessment of your employees to ensure that they are correctly enrolled into the pension scheme.

More information about the Smart Pension employer account and assessment services will be provided in future communications.

If you don’t wish to sign up to Smart Pension when the time comes, you'll need to review your workplace pension options and choose an alternative. If you decide to sign up to a different workplace scheme, please let us know either via email clientservices@evolvepensions.co.uk or call 01322 640530 and select option 2 so we can ensure we can support you to achieve this. You must notify us in writing by 8 December 2023 that you have selected an alternative authorised master trust and have explained this decision to your employees.

To help inform your decision you can choose to take independent advice or guidance. You have a statutory duty to provide a workplace pension for your employees, so you’ll need to either transfer to Smart Pension or select another workplace pension provider. In the meantime, please ensure your contribution payments to Crystal are up to date.