Skip to content

Exciting news which will affect your company’s participation in Crystal

After an in-depth due diligence process the Crystal Trustee has made an agreement with Smart Pension to merge Crystal into the award-winning Smart Pension Master Trust.

This will mean you and your employees will continue to have access to a high-quality pension arrangement with excellent value but with amazing new membership benefits which are detailed at www.smartpension.co.uk/crystal-employer.

A robust plan is in place to move all members’ retirement savings to Smart Pension during 2024, but we will keep you updated on this progress in the coming months.

In the meantime, Crystal will continue to run exactly as it does now and you and your employees will continue to have all the normal Crystal benefits and access to the usual support, including use of the online system evoLink.

More information about this change is available at www.smartpension.co.uk/crystal-employer#faqs.

Crystal Appoints new Chair of Trustee, Samantha Pitt

Evolve is delighted to announce that the Trustee of Crystal has appointed Law Debenture Pensions Trust Corporation (LawDeb), represented solely by Samantha Pitt, as its new Chair. Samantha succeeds Tony Filbin, who has served as the Crystal Trustee Chair for 6 years prior.

LawDeb is the longest established and largest provider of pension trusteeship in the UK. Having provided these services for over 50 years, it has a strong track record, and currently works across 190+ pension schemes including DB, DC and Hybrid, as well as various Master Trust and IGC roles.

Denis Jackson, CEO of LawDeb, comments on the appointment: “DC governance clearly isn’t just a nice to have, it’s essential. The team at LawDeb Pensions has a wealth of experience, working with DC arrangements both small and large, Master Trust boards, Independent Governance Committees and DC Governance Committees. In appointing FTSE250 Law Debenture’s Samantha Pitt, the Crystal Master Trust and its members can be confident the requisite risk controls and protections are in place. We very much look forward to working with the team at Evolve and developing a long-lasting, enduring partnership.”

Samantha is a Trustee Director at LawDeb and brings strong commercial experience gained from her previous investment-focused corporate roles. She prides herself on her collaborative, pragmatic and proactive approach to working with fellow trustees and sponsors. She previously held roles at Powergen, the Strategic Rail Authority, and Network Rail, and currently holds a Non-Executive Director role at The Guinness Partnership. She also chairs the Financial Conduct Authority Pension Plan.

Samantha adds, “We understand that membership of DC occupational pension schemes now exceeds that of both DB and hybrid schemes and that millions of savers will depend on savings in DC schemes in later life. Our Pensions team at LawDeb, therefore, places great emphasis on looking after the needs of DC members. In particular, we believe the key to positive member outcomes is based around good member engagement, a clear and understood direction of travel, and fit for purpose investment options supporting the member journey.

I am delighted to have been appointed as Crystal’s new Chair of Trustee – I look forward to bringing the benefit of my experience both of working with large, market-leading DC schemes as well as Master Trusts. I am passionate about ESG integration into investments and on improving member engagement and communications through digital solutions, including apps and member outcome solutions.”

The recruitment process for our new Chair of Trustee attracted us to some really strong candidates and it was always going to be a challenging position to fill, taking into consideration the ongoing Supervision requirements and also wanting to ensure we replaced the skill sets being lost when Tony steps down.

However, we managed to find the perfect candidate in Samantha who we feel is an excellent addition to the Trustee Board, and we believe Samantha will work collaboratively with the rest of the strong and diverse Trustee Directors that make up the Crystal Trustee”, says Katie Court, Head of Governance at Evolve Pensions Ltd.

On behalf of Crystal Trustee and Evolve Pensions Ltd we would like to thank Tony for his hard work and dedication to Crystal during his tenure and wish him well in his future ventures.

Samantha commences her role as Chair of Crystal Trustee Company from 16th June 2021.

If you need help or would like to discuss any issue that this video series raises, please contact us now.

Contact us

This contact form is for Employer enquiries only. If you are enquiring about a Member or your own Retirement Savings, please click here.

Please use the form below to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Evolve logo

Contact

Our Administration Teams are
available by phone
Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

  • 01322 640530
  • Swanley Office
    Unit 2
    White Oak Square
    BR8 7AG

PASA Logo Cyber Essentials Logo

© Evolve pensions 2024

Designed by Clay10 Creative