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Royal London: Pension reviews

Name: Pension
Rating: 2.77 (114 reviews)

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2.77

Based on 114 reviews, last reviewed 23rd Jul 2026

300% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

50% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

20%

74%

Latest highest rating:

5

They were very helpfull and polite and patient with... They were very helpfull and polite and patient with me Reviewed on: 9th July 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

I trusted this company with my pension, shocking!! I have 2 pensions with these, one set up by my company and the other that I opted out of SERPS with. I moved home a few years ago and didn’t get stat... Read more Reviewed on: 23rd July 2026

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About this product

Royal London offers personal and workplace pensions through financial advisers.

Your money is invested which means the value can go down as well as up and you may not get back what you put in. Royal London’s online service makes it easy for you to track your pension and make changes to your plan.

Royal London pension reviews help you find out what it’s really like to be a customer. If you’ve used Royal London before, you can also leave a review and share your experience.

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Royal London Pension reviews (114)

AVOID Royal London Pension scemes

AVOID Royal London pensions. I have had a shockingly bad time with them and have received terrible shoddy service. For the last 12 months I have sent numerous emails and had numerous phone calls regarding a mistake that they have make on their part in regards to my first name. This situation has still not been fixed and they have no empathy whatsoever with the stress that it has caused me. I am in the process of transferring this pension to another company but I cannot do this until they fix my first name (a very simple thing to do) Avoid this company like the plague (pay close attention to the other reviews on here) I will be taking legal action as they are clearly holding on to my money, this is an untrustworthy and fraudulent company! “Big red flags people” BEWARE!! Reviewed on: 19th January 2022

Another unable to access pension

Same as the first review I read. My pension was also a CIS pension but it is well over a hundred thousand pound fund. I turned 60 in August of 2021 and from July of that year Royal London were informed what I wanted to do with my pension. It is now January 2022 and I still have no lump sum and no pension. The same old crap every time you contact them. The cannot verify my identity. They didn't get the settlement figure quick enough. They have a lot of departments that don't talk to ETC ETC ETC. I have gotten to the point where I firmly believe that I will never receive my pension and that Royal London are an absolute con. Reviewed on: 15th January 2022

Unable to access Pension

I took an annuity pension about 20 years ago when Royal London was formerly CIS (Co-op). It is not a large pension, only around £12,500 fund. I turned 60 years old in May and since around July, I have been trying to access my pension, so far without success. I have sent all relevant documentation to them including, sending proof of ID, not that I should need any as every time I call them, or they call me, I go through the same security checks etc etc etc! After sending my signed documents however, they then contacted me a month later to tell me they have not been able to establish my identity. I found this hard to believe, as I have banked with the same bank for over 40 years, I have had a paper trail of mortgages and loans going back over 40 years, I’m a UK resident and tax payer and I am on the voters register!!! They now wanted someone on authority to certify my ID (passport & driving licence) and I arranged for a close friend a former retired police officer of over 35 years to certify that he had seen my ID. Once again, I sent these off, but have received further communication rejecting the documents as the person certifying is now retired!!! After expressing my dissatisfaction to the customer service person, she was quite rude and abrupt, and it was clear I was getting nowhere fast! She suggested I have my GP certify the documents! You really couldn’t make it up. I would be lucky to see my GP if I was dying, let alone get him to sign my pension ID!!! It would appear that Royal London do not wish to part with MY money and are seeking to obstruct me at every stage of the process. Do not use this useless company!!! My score is -0/10 Reviewed on: 9th November 2021

Awful process to transfer in and out!

It took an eternity to transfer in from Nest... I thought this was Nest's poor CX. Now it's taking an eternity to move from Royal London to Aviva. Each side says the other is causing the delays. Reviewed on: 21st October 2021

mortgage protection life insurance

DO NOT TRUST ROYAL LONDON WHAT A LOAD OF SCAMMING CONS WHEN MY DAD DIED IT TOOK 5 MONTHS FOR THEM TO SORT THE CLAIM OUT TO SAY THEY NOT PAYING OUT YOU ARE SCAMMERS HE PAID 10 YEARS PAYMENT TO SAY YOUR NOT PAYING OUT THIS WILL BE TOOK FURTHER WITH OMNIBUS YOUR ROTTEN GETS HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO PEOPLE WHEN THEY DIE LOOK AT ALL YOUR BAD REVIEWS THAT DOES SAY WHAT YOUR ARE RIPPING CUSTOMERS OFF Reviewed on: 8th October 2021

Totally unacceptable

I have been trying to cash in my pension since April 2021. It is now August I have just received my lump sum, they were supposed pay my back dated monthly payments in July there was a problem it will now go in mid August. I would never recommend this company for pensions . They never reply to emails or phone calls. I wish the Co-Op had never sold out to to RL BIG MISTAKE Reviewed on: 12th August 2021

Do they live up to their 1 star

Decided to cash in a policy after receiving the updated cashing in letter! Phoned with promise to call back of course they didn't, name taken was more than likely a made up name! 3 calls so far, Yes a letter form will be in the post! it hasn't arrived! They act like a company that would be high on the list of a Fraud investigation by the police! Is the head office in Nigeria? Reviewed on: 31st July 2021

Terrible Customer Service

They don't get back to you. You have to chase constantly. Taken 3 weeks of emailing multiple teams and gotten nowhere for a simple request. Do not use. Reviewed on: 25th June 2021

Very slow, unhelpful and hanging on to my money (3 months pension so far - over 2K now)

I had an ex CIS pension that was transferred to Royal London.. Recently reached 65 but in the run up to this, Royal London wouldn't reply to letters and emails and had to be chased again and again about annuity quotes. The process dragged on for months. Now over 3 months after my pension start date I still haven't had any money. They now tell me payments will start next month but not back dated and it is my fault for applying too near retirement. They have effectively stolen 3 months of my pension. They said it was because I applied late. Not the case - they wouldn't communicate with me or my IFA in spite of constant chasing. Absolute rubbish and I think fraudulent as well. Disgusted. Reviewed on: 10th June 2021

Poor performing funds with the default pension option invested in one of their worst.

Of the 179 Royal London funds analysed 64.3% rated as poor performing 1 or 2-star funds. https://www.yodelar.com/insights/royal-london-review Most of their funds are actively managed and fail to beat the benchmark whilst charging you activley managed fees. Moreover, the default option for pensioners is one of their governed portfolios (depending on how long you are from retirement) which have performed simply awfully. I'm 41 years from retirement and so should be looking to take a fair amount of risk and I've been stuck in governed portfolio 4 with a 5 year average annual return of 6% ish. Compare this to the 5 year return of the S&P 500 of 15%+ over the same time period (at the time of writing 30/4/21) this is simply a terrrible option from Royal London. Moreover, the fees available to put your money in the S&P 500 are as low as 0.07% (from Vangaurd and others) whereas RL charge an astonishing 1% (at their cheapest!) for you to lose money relative to the benchmark. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some strategy to put the majority of pensions in these low performing funds to keep them afloat as the fund managers continue to lose you money relative to the benchmark. Do your due diligence and check their fund performance for yourself: https://www.royallondon.com/pensions/investment-options/investment-performance/ And please please if you do chose RL (or have no choice) edit your pension away from the default option into one of the high performing tracker funds. If it's a tracker fund the fund managers can't actively lose you money and then charge you for doing so! :) Reviewed on: 30th April 2021

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