Our board, advisory and senior management are a highly experienced, multi-disciplinary team, with a proven track record of building some significant financial services firms such as: Embark, now part of Lloyds Bank, Tandem Bank, Peel Hunt, Capital One and Worldfirst, now part of Ant Group.

We're building a digital first wealth management platform that offers transparent, fair and low-cost access to a broad range of investment accounts, such as:
- Self invested personal pensions (SIPPs)
- Individual savings accounts (ISAs)
- General investment accounts (GIAs)

Our members will enjoy zero or low annual costs on a wide selection of investment products from a wide selection of established and well-known asset managers. From Vanguard, the low cost leader’s ETFs, to ready made portfolios from Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, Prosper caters for a broad range of investing experience and preferences.

We offer zero cost index funds, a zero cost pension and zero trading fees on those index funds. We are driven by the philosophy that cost matters and minimising ‘fee-drag’ for members is key to their long-term investing success.

We will make money from the investment products people want to use to personalise their portfolios to their preferences. For these products, we charge low fees, again helping our members to save more of their money. We believe this combination of free and low fees will change the UK investing and pension landscape for the better – and put more money in our members’ pockets.

First and foremost we believe that existing investment and pension providers earn too high a profit margin at the expense of their customers. We are happy making less, because our members make more.

Secondly, we believe that those organisations are cost inefficient, caused by legacy technology and manual processes. In short, they could be making far more profit than they are from your hard earned cash. We are using modern scalable technology and have partnered with a digital Custodian called Seccl Custody Limited to help us to build a low cost, highly scalable, digital first business.

We work hard to find the lowest cost fees, but make sure they are actually great value for money too by looking at their performance and only work with the very best asset managers in the world who have the scale cost advantages to also keep your fees low.

Keeping your money safe is our number one priority. So we have extensive protective measures in place.

1. We’re FCA regulated

Prosper Savings Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 991710.

We’re also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller, under number ZB467772, and adhere to regulations set out by the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Your assets are held in a separate nominee company

Prosper never touches your money. It’s securely held by Seccl Custody Limited (FCA authorisation number 793200), who is our third-party custodian. Your money is sent directly to and from our custodian.

A UK custodian is an FCA-authorised and regulated company that legally holds financial assets and money on your behalf. Custodians are legally required to have safeguards and procedures to protect your assets.

The legal structure of custody ensures that your assets are segregated, or ring-fenced, from company assets. So if they go out of business, your money is safe.

Seccl custodies £1.8 billion of assets for over 172,000 clients. They are fully owned by Octopus Group (FCA authorisation number 194779), a group of companies that includes Octopus Investments, Octopus Energy and Octopus Ventures.

3. Your assets have government protection

Your assets are protected by the government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). So if we, or Seccl, go out of business, you’re entitled to compensation of up to £85,000 from the scheme.

And if Prosper were to stop trading, your investments would be unaffected and remain invested in the investment products you have chosen.

We would propose a new pension provider and give you 30 days notice in case you wanted to choose a new provider yourself. After 30 days, we would then instruct our custodian where to transfer your savings.

If you're still unsure about opening an account, you can consult the ScamSmart website and get free, independent advice with PensionWise.

Footnote: The numbers mentioned in this section are accurate as of 10 April 2024.

Currently Prosper offers a "Self Invested Personal Pension", otherwise known as a SIPP, a Stocks and Shares ISA account as well as a General Investment Account. We may add to these account types in future, mostly specifically by adding a dedicated cash account, but others are still to be planned out.

No, we plan to broaden the number of account types to cater to the broader range of tax and non-tax advantaged accounts. Please note: tax rules may change in the future and are subject to your individual circumstances.

Prosper has a broad range of investment products available for our members. These fall into two main categories:

**Passively managed index tracker funds**
Aim to track the performance of a particular index, such as the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500.

We have over 30 diverse Equity, Fixed Income & Multi-Asset funds. The funds are either ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) or Mutual funds.

**Actively managed multi-asset investment funds**
Aim to provide a return whilst managing a pre-defined risk profile. This means the fund manager aims to constrain any gain or loss to a defined target over time. They do this by varying asset allocations in different market conditions.

To view the full list of funds available, head to our key investor info document.

If you’d like to request a fund that isn’t currently available, please email support@joinprosper.co.uk

When you invest, your capital is at risk.

Opening an account is quick and easy! We'll send you an email with links to download our iOS or Android app. Once you've got the app, fill in your personal details to open an account. The whole process takes about 5-10 minutes. We'll notify you once your account is activated and ready for funding.

Withdrawing from a SIPP:

You can’t withdraw from our SIPP before the age of 55. However, you can of course, invest, buy and sell investments at all times. Please see the FAQ ‘what are my options at retirement age?’ for more information on our SIPP account.

Withdrawing from an ISA or GIA:

Withdrawing funds from an ISA or GIA is simple, and you can do so at any time using the app. In the app, go to the ‘Withdraw’ section, enter the amount you'd like to take out, and confirm your details. When you withdraw from an ISA, this won't affect your annual tax-free allowance.

For security reasons, withdrawals over a certain threshold may require additional identity verification. The funds will be sent to the same bank account you used to deposit the money. This usually takes between 1 - 3 business days. Let us know if you need any help.

The following only applies to your Prosper SIPP, all other accounts are not affected by your retirement.

Currently, the Prosper Pension does not support what is called ""Drawdown"" — the ability to start taking money from your pension after the age of 55. Nor are we able to offer “Annuities”, which is a regular guaranteed income in retirement.

If you reach 55 and want to start accessing your money, we will help you move your pension to your chosen provider. If you do not need to access the money, you can of course keep the pension with us.

From the age of 55 (rising to 57 in 2028), you can choose to begin taking money from your pension pot through one of the options listed below, or a combination of them. The most suitable option for you will depend on your age and personal circumstances. It will also depend on the service offered by your new provider once you have made the transfer.

Your main options are:

1. Keep your pension savings where they are – and take them later.
2. Use your pension pot to buy a guaranteed income for life, also known as a lifetime annuity. Or you can buy an income for a fixed term, also known as a fixed term annuity. The income from either is taxable, but you can normally choose to take up to 25% of your pot as a one-off tax-free lump sum at the start.
3. Use your pension pot to give you a flexible retirement income. This is also known as pension drawdown. You can take the amount you’re allowed to take as a one-off tax-free lump sum – normally up to 25%. You can then use the rest to give you a regular taxable income.
4. Take a number of lump sums. Usually, the first 25% of each cash withdrawal from your pot will be tax-free. The rest is taxable.
5. Take your pension pot in one go. Usually, the first 25% will be tax-free and the rest is taxable.
6. Mix your options – choose any combination of the above, using different parts of your pot or separate pots.

Please note: tax rules may change in the future and are subject to your individual circumstances.

We recommend that you seek advice before actioning any withdrawal strategy for your pensions. We don’t offer financial advice at Prosper but you can get free, independent advice at ScamSmart and PensionWise.

Our longer run mission is to expand access to potential higher return investments in private markets. We will do this through a combination of regulatory and technology innovation, bringing down the minimum investment size into these products to allow them to be more accessible to investors.

We'll get in touch via email and in-app messaging when this available.

When we launch private market investments, your funds will be handled by our custodian, who is FCA regulated. Your investments will be managed by third party investment managers who have been selected by our investment committee for their track record, strategy and diversification benefits within a broader portfolio. Investments in private markets are often illiquid (i.e. cannot be easily bought and sold) and are deemed by the FCA to be high risk. Whilst the potential for returns is high, so too is the risk that you may lose some or all of your money.

It’s important that we’re transparent about the risks involved. They could include some or all of the following investment risks:

1. Volatility Risk:

- Investments can go up and down in value, and there's no guarantee you'll get back what you initially put in.

2. Liquidity Risk:

- It might be hard to quickly buy or sell certain investments in the Fund, especially if they involve private credit assets.

3. Interest Rate Risk:

- When interest rates go up, the value of bonds tends to go down.

4. Credit Risk of Underlying Issuers/Lenders:

- If the companies or institutions that issued the bonds or loans in the Fund run into financial trouble, the value of those bonds or loans can drop or even become worthless.

5. Currency Risk:

- The Fund deals with different currencies, and changes in exchange rates can lead to losses.

6. Counterparty Risk:

- If the parties the Fund deals with in various agreements can't fulfil their commitments, it could result in losses for the Fund.

7. Derivatives Risk:

- Sometimes derivatives don't perform as expected and can lead to losses that are greater than the cost of using them.

8. Concentration Risk:

- The Fund might focus heavily on a few geographic areas, industries, or specific investments. This can lead to significant changes in the Fund's value, either up or down, which could affect its performance.

9. Gearing Risk:

- The Fund might borrow money to make more investments. This can boost returns if the investments do well, but it can also reduce returns if they don't.

10. Valuation Risk:

- The pricing of private credit assets can be uncertain, and for property-based investments, the value often depends on the opinion of a valuer.

11. Industry/Country Risk:

- Changes in laws, economic conditions, and competition can impact investment values. There's also the added risk of social and political uncertainty and natural disasters.

12. Infrastructure Asset Risk:

- Infrastructure investments come with extra risks related to construction (like delays and cost overruns) and deploying capital over time rather than upfront.

Remember, it's crucial to understand these risks before investing, as they can affect your financial outcomes.

The investment minimums for each fund will differ but are substantially lower than the amounts required to directly invest in the underlying funds which are usually in the millions. They will be as low as £10,000.

Buying and selling private market investments has traditionally been more difficult than public market investments as they are negotiated in private and are not traded daily on public securities exchanges. Private markets investments like private equity, private debt, and venture capital funds have historically had high minimum investment amounts but Prosper is able to reduce these through our digital investing journeys. Investors are still required to be High Net Worth Individuals or Sophisticated Investors and the capital committed to these investments will be inaccessible for periods specific to each fund (i.e., investments cannot be sold anytime like public market funds). The minimum holding period is determined by the fund itself and will likely vary on a case by case basis. Typically, private funds have long holding periods of 10 years or more.

Research by academics, asset managers, asset allocators and industry bodies show private equity has historically outperformed public equities. This outperformance is attributed to factors like illiquidity premiums, having stronger governance structures and having control over assets, using leverage and operational expertise as well as the lack of short-term price efficiency. This outperformance is one of the reasons that private market investments have been an important part of the portfolios of large pension funds, university endowments and family offices. However, past outperformance does not guarantee future outperformance.

Private market investments tend to have higher fees than their public equity fund equivalents, however a significant component of these fees are based on performance, usually over a hurdle rate of return, and are often more than offset by the higher returns generated on underlying investments. A typical private equity fund would charge a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee (on profits above a 8% return) compared to the average public equity fund which has an average expense ratio of 0.66%.

Private equity funds invest in non-public companies to help them grow. Private debt provides financing to companies that are not adequately served by banks. Private equity provides equity financing and operational improvements to help established private companies maximize their market opportunities. Venture Capital provides the first rounds of institutional capital and guidance to help startups establish themselves.

After signing up, you'll receive a welcome email with instructions to complete setting up your account. This involves confirming your identity and funding your account.

Most accounts are approved immediately after sign up and identity verification. Once approved, you can fund your account right away via bank transfer and begin investing. In rare cases additional verification is needed which can take 2-3 business days.

Founding Member codes are our way of managing the onboarding of our early users. We sent you a code because you signed up for our waitlist early on. Be sure to use it at sign up to lock in Founding Member status before 31 January 2024!

There are no additional risks for Founding Members. You enjoy the same great service and security as all our users. The only difference is Founding Members pay lower fees for life.

We have no account minimum as we want to make investing accessible for everyone. However, some public funds and all private markets funds will have applicable investment minimums. However, you can also start small now and make regular contributions over time!

Prosper was founded in late 2021. The company was funded by the founders until March 2022 when the first angel and institutional investors funded the company.

Any Prosper member is free to withdraw their money at any time. In the case of pensions, this would need to be a pension transfer if you are under the age of 55. Prosper charges no fees to exit, and we will support your transfer process as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Just like every pension administrator in the UK, we are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You can find us on the FCA register here. Your money and assets are not held by Prosper, but securely held by an FCA Authorised and Regulated third-party custodian called Seccl Custody Limited.

Seccl custodies £1.8 billion of assets for over 172,000 clients. Seccl is wholly owned by Octopus Group, within the group are other companies such as Octopus Investments, Octopus Energy and Octopus Ventures.

On top of this, your assets are covered by the government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and in the unlikely event that Seccl stops trading or is unable to meet your obligations, you may be entitled to compensation from the scheme up to a maximum of £85,000 (or such other value covered from time to time by the FSCS) against the company.

Footnote: The numbers mentioned in this section are accurate as of 10 April 2024.