Frequently Asked Questions
Moving to Smart Pension - Active, Deferred and Drawdown Members
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.
The sponsor to Crystal, Evolve, has sent the following communication(s):
Yes, Crystal will continue to operate normally until shortly before the transfer to Smart Pension in 2024. We’ll have a short period of time just before the transfer during which we’ll be working with Smart Pension to create your new account, during this time you won’t be able to withdraw or transfer your benefits. We’ll keep you regularly updated on the progress of the transfer but before then you can access your savings as normal by contacting the Administration Team at penadmin@evolvepensions.co.uk.
Yes, evoLink will continue to be available until shortly before your retirement savings are transferred to Smart Pension, we’ll keep you updated throughout. If you haven’t registered for evoLink you can still get access to all your information by signing up here.
Not unless you want to. Smart Pension will provide a default investment option, similar to your current investment option. However, there will be other investment options you can choose or self-select, if you wish. We’ll update you with details of the investment options over the coming months.
There will be no increase in the level of the charges deducted from your retirement savings when you move to Smart Pension.
We are happy to support you with questions about the transition to Smart Pension but we, Evolve and Smart Pension, are not regulated to give you financial advice. If you require any advice, you should contact an independent financial adviser.
The UK government also offers free support to people over the age of 50 through MoneyHelper. You can find more information about this on their website.
You can continue to contact Evolve Pensions on 01322 640530 (option 1) or by emailing penadmin@evolvepensions.co.uk.
The UK government also offers free support to people over the age of 50 through MoneyHelper. You can find more information about this on their website.
Moving to Smart Pension - Drawdown Members Only
Other FAQs
Please see our section on leaving Crystal where you will also be able to complete a form to opt-out
If you are struggling to log in to evoLink, please follow the below steps:
- Ensure that your email address and password are entered correctly,
- If your email address is entered correctly but you think you may have forgotten your password complete the forgotten password steps,
- If your email address is incorrect, consider if your Employer could have provided us with a business email address,
- If you cannot remember the email address you have been registered with, or no longer have access to this email, please use the contact us form and let our administration team know.
Crystal does not use a policy number, instead we use your date of birth and National Insurance (NI) number to identify you. Please ensure you provide your NI number on communications with us to speed up the process of identifying you. If you do not provide your NI number in your request we may contact you to obtain further information in order to deal with your enquiry which may delay our ability to respond to you.
The quickest way to see the value of your Retirement Savings is by logging in or making an account on evoLink. Here you will be able to see the real-time value of your Retirement Savings and make any amendments to your account.
Our Administration team do not provide projections statements. However, you can use evoPlanner, our Retirement Savings calculator to see how your retirement date, transferring other pensions in or paying AVCs could affect the value of your Retirement Savings. You can also see your most recent Annual Benefit Statement and current value of Retirement Savings by logging into evoLink.
Unfortunately, we cannot continue to receive contributions to your Retirement Savings once you have left your Employer. However, you can choose Crystal as your pension provider at retirement and consider consolidating other pensions into your drawdown fund.