By Daniel Lanyon on Wednesday 25 August 2021
The wealthtech infrastructure provider says its digital-first offering makes SIPPs more accessible and affordable for fintechs looking to shake up the self-directed pensions market.
WealthKernel, a provider of digital investment services, has launched a digital SIPP (self-invested pension plan) offering.
The new functionality will enable WealthKernel’s fintech clients to offer SIPPs to their customers, via an API.
There are over 800,000 SIPP investors in the UK currently, according to Intelligent Partnership, with an average pot size of c.£80,000. The market is reasonably mature but is still growing at 20-30 per cent annum.
Most SIPPs on the market currently still rely on paper-based transactions, WealthKernel says, but by digitising the SIPP process lower costs and speedier results can be gained.
Penny, a pension focused fintech is one firm currently using its automation technology to help users find and transfer all their pensions savings into one place. Penny will use the product to offer its users additional retirement saving capabilities alongside their traditional pension pots.
Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO of WealthKernel, says “SIPPs are a valuable savings vehicle that allows people to have more say over how their pensions are invested.
“Thanks to seamless integration with our APIs, fintechs large and small will be able to support their customers with greater flexibility for their retirement savings,” he said.
Josh Stott, CEO of Penny, says: “This partnership with WealthKernel is an exciting step towards serving our customers even better by giving them more control over their pensions.”
WealthKernel is a portfolio company of ETFS Capital, the owner of AltFi and ETF Stream.
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