Welcome to the Smart Pension Terms (the “Terms”). Below are the terms of the legal agreement that apply to our relationship and your use of the Website and Platform. These Terms should be read alongside our Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy. We also have an Accessibility Notice which can be found here.
If you require the Definitive Deed and Rules of the Smart Pension Master Trust (the “Scheme”) which govern the Scheme they can be found here.
You are encouraged to read these Terms carefully. By using the Website, Member’s Portal and Platform you acknowledge and accept these terms and any additional terms that may be applicable to any product or service. If you don't accept these terms, you should not use the Website, Member’s Website or Platform. On each occasion that you access the Website, Member’s Portal or Platform you'll be deemed to have accepted the Terms as applicable at that time.
We may revise or amend the Terms, so you should check here from time to time for any updates. With the exception of changes to fees, any revisions or amendments to these Terms may take immediate effect on being placed on the Website.
Active Member
An individual who has been:
Adviser
Any person who is authorised and instructed by an Employer to act on its behalf to manage its use of the Platform and who has registered as such with us on the Platform.
Definitive Deed and Rules
The Definitive Deed and Rules of the Scheme (as amended from time to time).
Employer
A corporate body, partnership, unincorporated association, charity, individual or other person or body which has signed a Participation Agreement and not otherwise ceased to participate in the Scheme.
Member
Someone who is either paying contributions into the Scheme or has built a value within the Scheme.
In the case of automatic enrolment it can also be someone who was automatically enrolled but due to the definition of pensionable earnings does not have a value in their plan because they were assessed mid way during a pay reference period (“PRP”) as needing to be automatically enrolled but then in the first complete PRP does not earn enough to meet the minimum contribution threshold.
Member’s Portal
The part of the Website which is accessible by a Member and where a Member can read about and manage their workplace pension.
Participation Agreement
The formal legal agreement by which an Employer joins the Scheme.
Platform
The software tools available on the Website include (non-exhaustively) the automatic enrolment assessment tool, letter generator, information and management tools and other communication tools available at www.smartpension.co.uk.
Scheme
Means the Smart Pension Master Trust. The Scheme is authorised and supervised by the Pensions Regulator, further information of which is available here: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/.
Smart Pension
Smart Pension Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 09026697, whose registered office is The Smart Building, 136 George Street, London, W1H 5LD.
Users
Means you or anyone that you authorise on your behalf to access our Website or Platform. You should make others that use the Website or Platform on your behalf aware of these Terms and ensure that they must comply with them.
Trustees
Means the trustees of the Scheme.
Website
Means our websites www.smart.co ,www.smartpension.co.uk, www.smartretire.uk or www.labs.smartpension.co.uk (as applicable).
We, us, our
Means Smart Pension Limited.
You, your, yours
The person to whom these Terms apply including, guests to the Website, Advisers, Employers and Members.
We don’t guarantee that our Website, the Member’s Portal or our Platform, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted and we may suspend, withdraw, change or restrict the availability of all or any part of our Website, the Member’s Portal or Platform for business and operational reasons without notice.
All information provided on our Website is for general information only. We do not accept any liability for any damage or loss caused by any use, reliance or information on our Website, including any errors or omissions.
This section applies to Employers.
Employers can join the Scheme by registering and setting up an account on the Platform and completing a Participation Agreement. An Employer’s participation in the Scheme is governed by the Definitive Deed and Rules and its Participation Agreement.
In return for you as an Employer agreeing to be bound by these Terms, Smart Pension grants the Employer a non-transferable, revocable, non-exclusive limited licence to use the Platform.
Your agree that:
(i) where an Adviser has been authorised to act on your behalf, we have no obligation or requirement to verify any actions, instructions, or amendments made by the Adviser, and we shall be entitled to act in accordance with the Adviser’s instructions without liability or obligation whatsoever. You must notify us immediately when an Adviser ceases to act on your behalf;
(ii) you must notify us immediately if any information provided changes, is inaccurate or incomplete. If an employee is no longer employed by you, you must notify us without delay;
(iii) you will comply with these Terms, all provisions of the Scheme and any applicable regulatory or statutory obligation.
Nothing in these Terms shall be interpreted or taken to mean that Smart Pension is responsible for your compliance with the Pensions Act 2008, and any other legal requirements or obligations (including tax). Each Employer remains solely liable for all such adherence and compliance including keeping any employee information up to date.
This section applies to Members.
Employees of Employers participating in the Scheme can be admitted as Members. Upon being admitted as a Member of the Scheme, you will be issued with access information to use the Member’s Portal.
In return for you agreeing to be bound by these Terms, Smart Pension grants you a non-transferable, revocable, non-exclusive limited licence to use the Member’s Portal.
For the avoidance of doubt, if you cease to be an Active Member, but your funds remain invested in the Scheme, you will continue to have access to the Member’s Portal to view your annual statements and access other important information.
This section applies to Advisers.
By acting as an Adviser, you agree that:
(i) you are legally entitled and authorised to act on behalf or an Employer as documented in your Adviser account on the Platform. If not already registered as an Advisor, the Advisor must then register with Smart Pension;
(ii) an Adviser (Primary Adviser) can add another adviser (Secondary Adviser) to manage the Employers listed in the Primary Adviser's account by sending an invitation through the Platform.
(iii) the Primary Adviser acknowledges and confirms that it retains all responsibility and liability for any actions undertaken in its account (including any transfers, additions, changes, or deletions of information or data) whether or not such action was undertaken by the Primary Adviser, or by the Secondary Adviser. A Primary Adviser can revoke the Secondary Adviser's access to its account at any time;
(iv) if an Adviser wishes to transfer a client into the Scheme from a like-for-like qualifying auto enrolment workplace scheme, it may do so, however, the Adviser acknowledges and understands that such client may require advice from an FCA regulated investment adviser to do so. You acknowledge that Smart Pension cannot provide this advice;
(v) you will keep account information accurate and up-to-date. You must notify Smart Pension immediately if any of the information provided changes, is inaccurate, or is incomplete.
If you choose, or are provided with, a user identification code, password, or other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential and you must not disclose it to any third party. Smart Pension has the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time if, in our reasonable opinion, you have failed to comply with any provision of these Terms.
You must use all reasonable endeavours to prevent any unauthorised access to, or use, of the Member’s Portal or the Platform, and in the event of becoming aware of such unauthorised access or use, promptly notify us.
In accordance with Rule 6 of Definitive Deed and Rules, Smart Pension may charge such fees as it shall determine necessary for the provision of the Scheme from time to time (and as notified to the Trustee), decide to charge Employers and/or Members of the Scheme.
The level of fees applied to Employers are set out on the website.
The level of fees applicable to Members are set out in the Member’s Portal. The fees applicable to Members may vary according to the investment choices made by members.
No fees are currently paid by Advisers in respect of the services provided under these Terms.
Smart Pension may from time to time change the fees for the provision of the Scheme, the Website, the Members’ Portal and/or the Platform and shall provide Employers, Members and Advisers with no less than one month's notice of such changes by updating the Website and, as applicable, the Member’s Portal or the Platform.
Our Website, Member’s Portal and Platform, including any information or material displayed on its pages, are the property of Smart Pension unless otherwise stated. You must not copy, modify, duplicate, decompile, reverse compile, disassemble, reverse engineer or create any derivative works of any content from our Website, Member’s Portal or Platform, unless expressly permitted by us. You must not access any or part of the Member’s Portal or Platform in order to build a product or service which competes with the Platform or the Scheme, or to use the Member’s Portal Platform (or any part of it) to provide services to third parties.
“Smart” and “Smart Pension” including the Smart logo are UK registered trademarks and European Union trademarks of Smart Pension Limited. Please do not use any of our trademarks or logos without our prior written permission.
Our Website, Member’s Portal or Platform may contain links to other websites or services provided by third parties. We have no control over the content or security of such websites. We do not endorse or make any representations about the suitability or appropriateness of services or material provided by third parties nor the security of any third party website. We do not accept any liability whatsoever for your use of third party websites or services.
We may offer services or products from third parties through partnerships with other organisations from time to time. Your use of these services or products will be governed by separate terms and conditions with that third party and we exclude any liability for any use of such services or products.
No endorsement or approval of any third parties or their advice, opinions, information, products or services is expressed or implied by any information on our Website.
If you use a virtual assistant (for example, Amazon Alexa or Google Home) to access the Member’s Portal or Platform, you agree that:
We may provide links to various social media channels for general communication purposes from time to time, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
We are not responsible for any information posted on those websites unless we posted it ourselves. We use them as channels of communication - we don't endorse the social media platforms themselves, nor do we endorse any information posted on them by third parties or other users.
We will not use any social media channels to respond to member, employer queries or complaints. If you require any assistance related to our Member’s Portal or Platform, please contact us using our online enquiry forms for employers, advisers and members.
We do not provide any financial, pensions, regulatory, legal, tax or investment advice. Nothing on our website should be construed as financial, pensions, regulatory, legal, tax or investment advice.
The Website, Member’s Portal and Platform are provided on an “as is” basis. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we hereby disclaim, make no representations or warranties of any kind, including without limitation:
(i) any implied representations, conditions or warranties of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a specific purpose, title or non-infringement;
(ii) that the Website, Member’s Portal or Platform, will meet your requirements, always be available, accessible, uninterrupted, secure, free of error or omission, or will contain any particular features or functionality; or
(ii) any implied warranties arising from the course of dealing or usage.
We do not exclude liability for:
(i) death or personal injury resulting from our negligence;
(ii) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
(iii) any other matter which cannot be excluded or limited.
We do not have any liability for any losses or damage caused by errors or omissions in any information, instructions or scripts provided to us by a Member, an Adviser, Employer or its representatives, or any actions taken by us at such parties' direction. We do not have any liability for any losses or damages caused if, for any reason, the Website, Member’s Portal or Platform is unavailable at any time or for any period.
You agree to abide by all applicable laws, regulations and codes of conduct in force from time to time in respect of your use of our Website, Member’s Portal and Platform. You must not misuse our Website, Member’s Portal or Platform by knowingly introducing any viruses, worms, trojans or other malicious or technologically harmful material. You must not use the Member’s Portal or Platform to conduct any activity that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, infringing, harassing, discriminatory, racially or ethnically offensive.
You may only not use the functionality within the Member’s Portal or Platform for the purposes of participating or membership of the Scheme or facilitating such participation or membership, including the updating of employee records. You cannot use the Member’s Portal or Platform to create, check, confirm, update or amend your own or someone else's directories, customer lists, mailing or prospecting lists (data mining).
We may suspend or terminate access to the Member’s Portal or Platform immediately, or where we reasonably believe your account has been accessed improperly or fraudulently.
We may terminate your access to the Member’s Portal or Platform if you are in material or persistent breach of any of your obligations under these Terms and if that breach is capable of remedy and you have failed to remedy that breach within 30 days after receiving written notice requiring it to remedy that breach.
On termination of these Terms for any reason:
(i) all licences granted under these Terms shall immediately terminate and
(ii) any rights and remedies of Smart Pension that have accrued up to the date of termination, including the right to claim damages in respect of any breach of these Terms which existed at or before the date of termination shall not be affected or prejudiced.
We sometimes create new features for members to assist them in the management of their pensions and other aspects of financial wellness. To ensure members find these features useful and easy to use, we invite a group of members to try them out for an unlimited period of time. These are called Beta Trials and they are provided within the Smart Labs area which sits on the Platform. The purpose of a Beta Trial is to obtain your feedback on a particular service, technology or feature that is not generally available (the Beta Service), to help us to make improvements. If the Beta Trial is successful, we may decide to launch the Beta Service as part of our wider Smart service.
If you are invited to participate in a Beta Trial, you will be asked to accept the Smart Labs terms of use. You must accept these before you will be granted access to the Smart Labs area and before you are permitted to use and test the Beta Service. The Smart Labs Terms will govern your use of the applicable Beta Service and any responsibilities or liabilities we have to you in connection with the Beta Service. Therefore, you must read these carefully before you agree to participate in any Beta Trial.
Waiver
No failure or delay by a party to exercise any right or remedy provided under these Terms or by law shall constitute a waiver of that or any other right or remedy, nor shall it prevent or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy. No single or partial exercise of such right or remedy shall prevent or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy.
Severance
If any provision (or part of a provision) of these Terms is found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal, the other provisions shall remain in force. If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision would be valid, enforceable or legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is necessary to give effect to the commercial intention of the parties.
Force majeure
Smart Pension shall have no liability for any breach of these Terms caused by an event or circumstance beyond its reasonable control.
These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, the courts of which have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms.
If you wish to contact us for any reason, please email workplace@smartpension.co.uk.
Last updated: 9 September 2020