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Royal London: Pension reviews

Name: Pension
Rating: 1.84 (104 reviews)

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1.88

Based on 104 reviews, last reviewed 23rd Jan 2026

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

100% decrease in 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

My pension pot is rapidly diminishing. My pension pot is rapidly diminishing. I have been trying now for 10 months to get to my pension pot from Royal London while there is something still ... Read more Reviewed on: 19th October 2025

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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 (104)

Review of the Royal London, Pension:

Avoid at all Costs - Be Warned

My wife has three pensions (AON, Scottish Widows and Royal London). The first two - no issues in drawing the pension out (would thoroughly recommend them). Royal London is a nightmare - held in queues for hours with no response then cut off. When she did get through they are putting up so many hurdles to get access to the money. Glad we have not got our main pensions with them or else we would be having solicitors involved. Just look above at how many negative ratings there are for them - says it all. Reviewed on: 20th February 2023

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

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

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