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Scottish Widows: Pension reviews

1.14
Based on 67 reviews, last reviewed 21st Oct 2025
No new 5 star reviews
in the past 90 days
75% decrease in 1 star reviews
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2 star
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94%

Latest highest rating:

5

Great customer and digital services Switched all my pensions to my workplace pension with Scottish Widows. Such a smooth process, I was kept well informed throughout. Their app is great,... Read more Reviewed on: 12th January 2022
Jonny West's avatar
Jonny West

Latest lowest rating:

1

Scottish widows lost over 38K in one year of my har... Scottish widows lost over 38K in one year of my hard earned pension without consultation or information Reviewed on: 21st October 2025
Peter Eriksson's avatar
Peter Eriksson

About this product

Scottish Widows pension reviews 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 Scottish Widows pension reviews to find out what life at Scottish Widows is really like. If you hold this pension, we'd love you to write an honest review here too!

Scottish Widows Pension reviews (67)

Review of the Scottish Widows, Pension:

Incumbent Fund Managers

1
2 years to my retirement….Q: Where is my pension going? A: Down the drain faster than a rat! As a laymen I now dread scanning my pension pot value…I am aware and accept that returns can rise an fall in value. Unfortunately SW‘s Fund Managers for my Pension Protector (PP) and Portfolio 4 (P4) appear to be ignorant of the fact that when you move funds from a low depreciating P4 to a larger depreciating PP, they are not managing the pension fund with our best interests at heart in line with changing investment market conditions. Uncanny it is that since 4/1/2022 to 29/9/22 the unit price for PP has dropped from 250.40 to 138.00 (112 = 44.7%) whilst the P4 unit price dropped from 227.00 to 189.40 (37.6 = 16.56%) Indeed over the period noted above, my pension pot has went down from 261K to 178K a fall of 83K = 31.8%. Would any of these fund managers and their seniors want their own future retirement pensions mismanaged in this shoddy, head in the sand attitude hoping that in 2 years my pot may recover…I think not! Oh! Is the Pension Protector supposed to protect one’s pension? To smooth out the high peaks and low troughs to give a balanced an less volatile pathway to retirement. My Wife‘s small pension pot with Royal London has only gone down around 1K less than 10% they even monitor, restructure and inform you of changes to help protect your assets. SW‘s get your house in order! Reviewed on: 29th September 2022

Great Eco Product

5
I got pension 25 years ago and it slowly rose in value, with climate change it surged nearly 25% this year. Ethical investing pays. Reviewed on: 9th October 2021

Very poor in all aspects.

1
I have two pensions. One with Scottish Widows (Clerical Medical), the other with Aviva. In comparison, SW/CM were exceptionally poor on all fronts, when compared with the competition. Over 20 years their investment return was a fraction of others, their record keeping and sharing of investment data is secretive, and suspiciously absent, and now their customer service provides delays and lip service. Mark Radin. Reviewed on: 28th September 2020

Par Excellence

5
First class customer service, clear honest transactions, future advice and transparency. Options discussed, and a tailor made service to meet your needs. Reviewed on: 4th February 2019

Don't waste your money

1
Dug meat company don't waste your time or your money with a company which does not invest in its staff or technology. Lloyds banking group try to run this as a bank and do not invest any time or resources into this once successful firm Reviewed on: 17th July 2018

Straight forward

5
Nice clear website and communications from this company Reviewed on: 5th September 2016

Distressing

1
I was persuaded by an advisor at Lloyds TSB to start a pension with Scottish Widows. At the time I could barely afford it but it seemed sensible to start saving for my pension. A couple of years later I was horrified to discover that there was now half the money that I had saved in the account. I was upset that money I had struggled to save had been halved. I stopped payments and rang Scottish Widows who told me that there was nothing that I could do about it as it was a risk I took when I took the policy out. In the great scheme of things it was a relatively small amount of money, but money that I could ill afford to lose. Reviewed on: 29th August 2015

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