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Standard Life: Pensions reviews

Name: Pensions
Rating: 2.35 (60 reviews)

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2.53

Based on 60 reviews, last reviewed 26th Feb 2025

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

No new 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

20%

12%

10%

53%

Latest highest rating:

5

The investment in my pension and advice The investment in my pension has increased significantly, year by year. They provide very informative webinars on pensions and I found this very helpf... Read more Reviewed on: 26th February 2025

Latest lowest rating:

2

What on earth has happened to Standard Life Chris Canham Write a review Reviews 3.6 949 total 5-star 43% 4-star 5% 3-star 3% 2-star 5% 1-star 44% Sort: Chris Canham 61 reviews R... Read more Reviewed on: 25th October 2024

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About this product

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

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Standard Life Pensions reviews (60)

The investment in my pension and advice

The investment in my pension has increased significantly, year by year. They provide very informative webinars on pensions and I found this very helpful and useful. Reviewed on: 26th February 2025

Standard Life were straight forward.

Buying an annuity from Standard Life was straight forward and everything went smoothly. They transferred me to Hub Financial Solutions to complete the transaction and they were very professional too. I also had a pension, (and now an annuity) with Aviva, who were poor in comparison to Standard Life. Reviewed on: 13th December 2024

What on earth has happened to Standard Life

Chris Canham Write a review Reviews 3.6 949 total 5-star 43% 4-star 5% 3-star 3% 2-star 5% 1-star 44% Sort: Chris Canham 61 reviews Rated 2 out of 5 stars Updated 5 hours ago Chaos continues - What has happened to Standard Life ?? Ive always had a high regard for Standard Life ( their people are nice and website and paperwork are great ) and it pains me to do this poor review but communicating with them over the past few years has become unbelievably clunky and drawn out ...... Having just turned 68, yesterday i called them to simply try and find out what potential lifetime annuity rate i would get with them from the large 38 year old plan i have with them ( to which i would also have combined 2 Aviva plans ) but after lots of long waits and almost 3 hours getting passed between numerous people and having to repeat myself numerous times and eventually telling me they could not answer my question and eventually getting bounced to HUB Financial Services who want to arrange another call with me in almost 2 weeks time earliest etc ....... and i still cant get an answer to this very simple question ....... Its quite ridiculous and life is too short when your 68 for this messing about especially compared to dealing with people like Annuity Line ....... What has happened to SL ? ...... A few years back you could call them and sort such things in 20 minutes but now it feels like a bureaucratic government department ....... I would have loved to give SL 4 or 5 stars but after yesterdays experience i feel that 2 is all i can offer. 25/10/25 Update - Well HUB Financial did call me a couple of weeks later as promised ( yesterday ) but only to tell me that " they have issues and it will be another 2 weeks before we can talk " so i told them not to bother ...... what on earth are we Standard Life investors and share holders supposed to do to get simple information from them ?? Its pretty disgusting !! Reviewed on: 25th October 2024

I love Standard Life.

I love Standard Life. Their app is so easy to use. Any queries I’ve had have been dealt with quickly. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them! Reviewed on: 14th September 2024

Managing pensions on the Standard Life Portal

Standard Life's incredibly user-friendly, transparent website and personable customer service operators have really helped to demystify pensions for me at every step; from checking in with me every year on the ethical standards applied to my investments, to making it incredibly simple to transfer older pensions that were left languishing. They also make the process of changing where my pension is invested under their umbrella very straightforward so I might optimise it when the time comes to drawdown. Whereas before I felt confused by my pension and tempted to 'leave it for another day', I now feel I have much better understanding and can make more informed decisions about it. Reviewed on: 12th April 2024

Great customer service and no hidden transaction cha...

Great customer service and no hidden transaction charges Reviewed on: 12th April 2024

Customer service pretty good

Customer service pretty good and the app is really easy to use Reviewed on: 2nd April 2024

Poor pension system landed me with a £32,000 tax bill

Tried to make a £300 withdrawal from my pension pot of £73,000. Selected the pot to suture from and Entered the £300 into the amount of withdrawal. Then clicked confirm. It then stated I had withdrawn my entire pension of £73k without any warning or double confirmation. This was on Saturday and they were closed until 9am Monday. Rang at 9am monday and told the payment had been processed and sent be reversed. Received £41k this morning so £32k tax deducted! This has put me in serious future financial difficulty The advisor on the phone admitted other people had the same problem You have been warned. Reviewed on: 26th March 2024

Workplace Pension Scheme Administered By Standard Life

I had some pension savings from a previous employer (one I left in 2004) in a scheme administered by Standard Life. It was a relatively small amount so I didn't pay close attention to it - more fool me! The charges are egregiously high, typically running at around 1.3% per year for actively managed funds which uniformly performed poorly and even as much as 1% per year for a simple FTSE index tracker (available from many other providers for as little as 0.1% per year). Finally I've transferred away but these people are a bunch of rip-off merchants. And the website's a load of rubbish too despite all that money . Avoid them at all costs. Reviewed on: 23rd October 2023

Extremely slow payout,

My 54 year old husband of 30 years passed away in March 2023. His pension will give me some security, and look after me like my husband intended. Now September and still nothing received. Standard Life say they have worked hard to make the process easy and quick. Don’t believe it…. I must be 30 phone calls in. All documents submitted in April. They have approved everything, They said you will receive funds within 10 working days…. Of course it’s 11 working days and nothing. They say they will keep you informed……. They don’t. You complain they throw £100 at you to go away. All I want is what they promised to do. Struggling with the loss of my husband, they just add extra stress that you don’t need. For a large company, they have dreadful processes, and no respect for their clients. Reviewed on: 7th September 2023

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