Norwich Union personal pension

Mojo71

(Note: this thread is in response to DunstonH's reply to me about Norwich Union's pension plan in the Savings & Investments section, so I've posted in here where it's more relevant)

Dunston has just mentioned that NU are about to introduce access to more external providers' funds within their personal pension plan.

Any idea what sort of timescale's we're looking at here? (weeks / months?)

Also, is their customer service in general not up to a very good standard, or are they just not used to dealing with customers directly, and mainly deal with IFA's?

I ask this after seeming to have received ongoing "sub-standard" service, which I have never encounted from non-insurance company investment providers.

Firstly, I was incorrectly informed that I couldn't transfer the non-protected rights part of my plan to another provider's SIPP while still retaining the NU plan for my employer to contribute to. But when my employer suggested I contact our pensions rep, they suddenly decided it was possible. (In the meantime, even though they informed me wrongly, I was subjected to completing 2 short customer satisfaction telephone surveys, and also an external servey company phoning me up one evening to spend about 10 minutes answering questions about my "customer satisfaction experience"!)

Secondly, a fund switch was carried out incorrectly, and premiums directed into the wrong fund that I asked for.

Thirdly, I've just discovered this week that they seem to have "lost" two months of my employer's contributions from last year. My employer was aware of a problem last year with electronic transfers, but were informed it was all sorted out. However, a statement of contributions supplied by NU (another misunderstood request which I didn't actually ask for, but good job in this case) shows zero employer contribution for 2 months, so I've alerted my employer to this, and it also probably affects all our staff.

And now, I'm sitting here reading a letter from them in reply to another fund switch request (including correcting their previous error), but the letter just seems that they have interpreted it as a request to transfer to another provider (already recently been there, done that!) Should I bother replying to this now, or wait a while until I've more funds to choose from and wait until then to do some fund switches.

FYI, prior to using NU, our employer used Canada Life, and they messed up my plan so much (another fund switch request carried out incompetently) that they "froze" my plan and didn't invest any of my premiums for 2 years! Ended up getting £400 compensation from them and making someone backdate all the premiums to the prices they would have been if they had been invested regularly over that time).

Should I write to NU and complain that I'm getting quite annoyed with their service that I am paying for, or should I just accept that maybe their admin staff aren't required to be of the same level as other investment providers who are used to dealing directly with their customers?

EdInvestor

The service at all lifecos is dire compared with the normal standard at other financial service cos, though I have heard from IFAs that NU is especially bad.Moving to an online SIPP makes a massive difference and can be highly recommended on this basis alone.

Mojo71

Hi Ed,

I have recently moved all of my non-protected rights part of the NU pension to the HL SIPP in order to gain control of my money.

However, I still have to retain the remainder with NU, since my employer will only contribute to this plan (has to be the same plan for all staff). I suppose it's like any company pension policy... they assume most people aren't financially on the ball (which tends to be true), but for those few who might be more savvy, it just seems so frustrating feeling "locked out" of having full control over what is essentially my own money, and having to deal with insurance company admin staff who don't in any way appear to justify any of the fees that get charged from my plan.

In this day and age of online access and instant dealing, it's just so old fashioned if they think people are going to go to a financial advisor, who then goes to the insurance company with any instructions, and things can take days, and chinese whispers can lead to the wrong thing being actioned....

Anyway, that's enough of my moaning.... following up an earlier comment from Dunston (my original reason for this thread before I got carried away), any chance of more information on when Norwich Union are introducing more external funds to their pension range?

dunstonh

When looking at NU (more than any other company) it would be unfair to say they have poor service levels. They have more legacy issues than any other insurer. It is mostly on legacy business where they are prone to suffering with lower service levels. New business contracts are fine and the service I get from them is first rate. Indeed, probably up there with the best currently. Almost overkill now with the number of phone calls and emails we get from NU telling us that a transaction has moved from one stage to the next. I know a lot of advisers complain about them but a lot of that is reputation from years ago. They are much improved. Reputation and reality are often different. It takes longer to repair reputation that is damaged.

Whilst I do have a few insurers blacklisted, I wouldnt have a single hesitation using NU if their contract was the best option.

I have recently moved all of my non-protected rights part of the NU pension to the HL SIPP in order to gain control of my money.

However, I still have to retain the remainder with NU, since my employer will only contribute to this plan (has to be the same plan for all staff). I suppose it's like any company pension policy... they assume most people aren't financially on the ball (which tends to be true), but for those few who might be more savvy, it just seems so frustrating feeling "locked out" of having full control over what is essentially my own money, and having to deal with insurance company admin staff who don't in any way appear to justify any of the fees that get charged from my plan.

A couple of things we have to look at here are that you are in a more expensive contract with HL. They typically earn over a third more than NU on their contract. So, they can set their service levels based on a higher earning per case. Also, HL's service isnt exactly known for being good.

If you pay cheap, you often get cheap and the introduction of stakeholders and low cost personal pensions (which are all cheaper than SIPPs) mean the insurance companies dont have the budgets for staff that they used to.

Anyway, that's enough of my moaning.... following up an earlier comment from Dunston (my original reason for this thread before I got carried away), any chance of more information on when Norwich Union are introducing more external funds to their pension range?

This year. Quarter 3 apparantly. It was suggested that it would be brought in line with their life funds. So, for an idea of availability, you may wish to look at their life fund series 4 range.

Rich1976

I couldn't agree more with Mojo71. I too had a pension with Norwich Union for 4 years and their service was average at best.

What frustrated me more then anything was the several weeks delay in getting any response from them and going through to overseas call centres.

Having said that, they are better than Legal and General who have the worst customer service I have ever come across in a Financial Services provider.

Mojo71

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm very happy with Hargreaves Lansdown... any additional costs are more than outweighed by investment flexibility and facilities offered.

I always look at investments themselves as more important than fees, since better funds more than make up for any slight increase in charge, and over last 10+ years I've had ISA's and PEP's, my fund choices have more than doubled in % growth than the performance of my pension funds. Hence my reason for wanting greater choice.

Anyway, I shall check back at the end of the year for any additional funds that Norwich Union make available. Dunston, that range of Series 4 life funds looks great...