Using our data

Version 2026-10-21

What this is

Fairworth's free tools show two kinds of figures. Private equity fund returns shows figures that public pension plans publish about their own investments, and statistics we work out from them, such as the median of a group of funds. Platform costs shows what preset portfolios would cost a year at UK investment platforms, which we work out from each platform's published charges. Each tool gives the date its figures were built or checked.

These terms cover those figures and statistics. Using the Fairworth app is covered by its terms of service.

Not advice, and not an offer

Nothing here is advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell anything. The figures are past results of funds, most of them no longer open to new investors, and past results do not tell you what a fund will do. We do not offer, sell or recommend any fund, and we receive nothing from any fund manager.

Platform costs compare charges only, for portfolios we chose. They say nothing about a platform's service, safety or suitability for you. We do not recommend any platform or account, and we receive nothing from any platform.

Accuracy, and its limits

For private equity funds, each plan reports its own holding in a fund at its own date, as it records it, and plans pay different fees, so one fund can show different figures at different plans. We take the figures as the plans publish them; we do not audit them.

Matching the different names plans give the same fund, and classifying each fund's strategy and region, is done with the help of AI models, checked by fixed rules. Doubtful cases are left out, but the result can still be wrong. Funds whose sources disagree, on their vintage year or their figures, are left out, as are holdings that are not funds.

Platform costs are worked out by the same calculation as the Fairworth app, from each platform's published charges as we read them on the date shown. Platforms change their charges, and some charges depend on things the presets cannot show, so a figure can be out of date or differ from what a platform would charge you. Check the platform's own charges before acting.

Corrections

If you think a figure is wrong, write to contact@fairworth.io. We check it against the plan's own report or the platform's published charges and, if it is wrong, correct it in the next update of the figures. A platform whose figures are disputed may be shown without figures while we check.

Sources and credits

The figures come from the reports the plans publish. Each tool lists the plans it uses, with links to their reports: see the sources of Private equity fund returns.

Some figures come from plans we do not name. They count in the statistics, but the plan is not named anywhere on this site.

Figures from three UK local-government pension funds carry the Open Government Licence credit, which anyone re-using them must keep: West Midlands Pension Fund's historic data set (Source: Wolverhampton City Council licensed under the Open Government Licence), West Yorkshire Pension Fund (©City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, 2019. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.) and Greater Manchester Pension Fund (©Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.).

No pension plan endorses Fairworth.

Platform costs come from each platform's own published charges, and the tool links each one: see the sources of Platform costs. No platform endorses Fairworth.

Re-using our figures

You may copy, share and adapt the figures and statistics in Private equity fund returns, for any purpose, including commercial use, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).

Credit them as "Fairworth (fairworth.io), from public pension plan reports", with a link to the page you took them from, and say if you changed them.

The licence covers our figures and statistics only: not the rest of this site's text or design, and not the Fairworth name or logo. It is compatible with the Open Government Licence v3, under which the West Midlands figures are published.

Platform costs are not under this licence. You may quote individual figures with the date they were checked and a link to the page, but not copy the tool's figures in bulk or republish them as a comparison of your own. They describe named firms' charges on a given date, and we correct or withdraw them as charges change, which a licence that cannot be taken back would not allow.

Provided as-is, and liability

The figures are provided as-is. To the extent the law allows, we're not liable for investment losses, or for decisions you made using these numbers. Nothing here limits liability for anything that can't legally be limited, such as fraud.

Changes

We may change these terms. Each version is dated. A change never takes back the licence on figures you took under an earlier version.