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Royal London: Pension reviews

Name: Pension
Rating: 1.83 (105 reviews)

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1.87

Based on 105 reviews, last reviewed 9th Feb 2026

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

No new 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

17%

76%

Latest highest rating:

5

Caring and helpful Positive very helpful. Easy to talk too Reviewed on: 23rd January 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

Deeply frustrating My experience with Royal London has been utterly shocking. For months, I was unable to access my pension portfolio due to an unresolved IT issue that ... Read more Reviewed on: 9th February 2026

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About this product

Royal London pension reviews are written by Smart Money People like you. For many of us, our pension is an important part of our financial future. Finding a pension provider that you can trust and rely on is a must for many people. Take a look at our Royal London pension reviews to find out what life at Royal London is really like. If you hold this pension, we'd love you to write an honest review here too!

Royal London Pension reviews (105)

Review of the Royal London, Pension:

Terrible

our financial advisor recommended Royal London along with a couple of others to choose from. Wish we had never gone with Royal London. The charges taken by Royal London and our advisor are seriously wrecking an already poorly performing pension. We are changing both advisor and pension provider. Incidentally we have been told by a number of financial advisors we should never have gone with Royal London. Reviewed on: 3rd October 2020

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

Communications non exsitant!

Will not use phones pr emails to communicate. Deliberately delay payments by putting obstacles in the way and passing to different departments. Drip feed you bits of information by post. Never by email or phone. I have also wasted over an hour trying to get through on the phone. I know pensions are a long term thing, but they deliberately delay your pensions presumably so they can keep getting interest on your money! Reviewed on: 8th March 2021

The Satan Of The pension World

I have requested to transfer my Pension and have taken FCA approved financial advice, yet still they refuse to allow me to move MY money. I’ve now wasteD £1296 Seeking full approved financial advise. A quite disgusting company, avoid a ALL cost! Reviewed on: 29th October 2020

Totally useless

I have never known such a useless company Totakly useless Un professional and un helpful Do not invest any money or pensions thru this company you will never get it back It takes 2 months for them to reply to anything and another 7 weeks to send mail You phone them and they can't help have no idea what they are doing Can't get our pension money back Hard earned cash that we have earnt Next stop is ombudsman Furious Reviewed on: 16th October 2020

Very Poor indeed

This company has made calculation errors on my pension statement for the past 5 years at least and having requested a transfer value the errors were identified and a poor letter of apology received. I have £20,000 less in value than was communicated and the Ombudsman will be advised. The offer of £1k is equally unacceptable. Trust is important in your chosen provider as is integrity and the ability to add up! Reputation is clearly not priority #Royalcockup Reviewed on: 27th August 2019

Very professional

I have been with the company for many years and I have always felt in safe, competent hands. Statements are on time and bonuses are progressive. I highly recommend Royal London to anyone - for all your pension needs and income protection. Reviewed on: 21st July 2019

Excellent Service

I could not have asked for a better service from Royal London and in particular their representative Mel Mullender. Could not fault them. Reviewed on: 8th July 2019

Great pension product

I have my pension with Royal London. The literature is all easy to understand and the investment has grown really well. Charges are low and because they are a mutual they have started paying me profit share each year which boosts the value of my pension. Financial advisers tell me they are one of the best around for value for money and service. Reviewed on: 29th June 2018

Pension fund portfolio

WEALTH WARNING!! WEALTH WARNING!! Was told that portfolio 7 had very good statistical returns over the years and trusted my pension to them. What a mistake!! despite a fairly flat worldwide stock market worldwide my portfolio has crashed by 4-5%, and I pay for the service! they now wont even reply to my emails asking what is happening. Reviewed on: 18th April 2018

Good option

I have had a pension package with this company for a number of years and the service and interest rate has been great. Reviewed on: 8th January 2018

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