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Standard Life: Pensions reviews

Name: Pensions
Rating: 2.35 (60 reviews)

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2.55

Based on 60 reviews, last reviewed 26th Feb 2025

No new 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!

Standard Life Pensions reviews (60)

Review of the Standard Life, Pensions:

Poor service re tax free lump sum

On 14th April 2016 I rang Standard Life’s office to request to take 25% of my pension fund as a tax free lump sum. I was disappointed to learn that before I could do this, I had to discuss my request with one of their advisers and this appointment could not be arranged for up to 2 weeks. In the event, an appointment was made for a telephone consultation on Friday 22nd April. During the course of the consultation that lasted around 1 hour, I was advised that the value of the 25% tax free lump transaction would be £149,889.52 but it might take 8 - 10 days to get the funds because Standard Life might need to verify my bank details. At this point, I believed that the transaction had been effected and the figure quoted was the amount I could expect to receive. I was thus disappointed to receive an e mail on 29th April from a Drawdown Administrator at Standard Life asking me to confirm the amount of the tax free lump I wished to take. During a further exchange of e mails, it became clear that there had been no progress made by Standard Life to process my request and further, that contrary to the impression given at the time of my telephone conversation, the figure quoted was not the amount I could expect to receive. When the adviser mentioned the 8 – 10 days, she intended to state that this was the normal time that Standard Life takes to effect the sale of units from their fund to provide sufficient cash to pay the tax free lump sum. By this time the value of units in the fund had dropped significantly and the amount I could expect as a tax free sum had fallen by over £2,000. At this point I immediately asked Standard Life not to sell any of my fund until such time as I had chance to consider my option. I felt very strongly that it was poor practice for Standard Life to take 8 - 10 days to process a simple sale of units in my pension fund and wrote to them to complain about the lengthy period during which they expected me to absorb the risk that the market could move adversely. At this point Standard Life did advise me that another option was available to transfer some of my funds into a cash fund. This process only took 1 – 2 days (not 8 – 10) and thus was a significant reduction in the risk of market movement but it is not an option that Standard Life make their customers aware of. Notwithstanding the poor quality of advice I received from Standard Life, when I complained, their Customer Complaints Department concluded that I had been made aware that the value of the investments could fall. I contend that I believed that this statement only referred to the 75% of my fund that I was not taking as a tax free lump sum. As I was unhappy with Standard Life’s conclusion, I complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS”) on 16th May. The FOS initially agreed that the Standard Life advice was misleading and stated that “I’ve listened to the recording of the call where you made the request to take the tax free cash amount. The adviser tells you what the amount would be based on its value on that day. And she confirms your understanding that the value of your remaining investment can go up as well as down on a daily basis. But I don’t think the payment process was made clear enough to you. It’s confirmed towards the end of the call that you wanted to withdraw the tax free cash amount, which the adviser explained “is the £149,986.” She didn’t mention on that occasion that this figure was based on that day’s value. She went on to say: “In terms of the payment, it will normally take eight to ten working days for the money to be in your bank account.” I think this gives the impression that the payment had been put in motion. It wasn’t explained that it can actually take eight to ten working days before the money is even sent. So you won’t have been aware that during this period, the tax free cash amount would still be invested and exposed to market risk. You were told that Standard Life might require additional documentation to verify your bank account details. But then later in the call you were told you’d passed the verification check and nothing more was needed from you at that time. I think it was reasonable for you to come away from this part of the call with the impression you were going to receive £149,986 into your account within eight to ten working days. I don’t think that at any point during the call it’s specifically explained to you that you weren’t guaranteed the value of that day. Or that the amount you’d eventually receive might be lower or higher due to fluctuations in the market as it would stay invested until the verification checks were completed.” In spite of the fairly damning conclusions about the quality of the Standard Life service reached by the FOS in red above, they went on to state that “But this doesn’t mean I think you should receive the amount as it was valued on the day of his request. That’s because it’s the role of our service to put you back in the position you would’ve been in if no mistake had been made. And in my opinion, if you’d been given a better explanation of the payment process, you’d be in a similar position to the one you’re in now.” I subsequently went back to the FOS to explain that Standard Life can offer a service that limits the length of market risk exposure to 1 – 2 days but chose not to me make me aware of this but still the FOS remain adamant that I suffered no loss as a result of the poor advice. A subsequent review by a second person at the FOS reached a similar conclusion albeit for different reasons. I still feel that the service I received from Standard Life was very poor and I suspect that very few of their customers are aware of the market risk that they are expected to accept because Standard Life cannot process simple transactions within reasonable timescales. Reviewed on: 9th January 2017

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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