Pension Bee: A good move?

dunstonh

PensionBee is not a financial adviser, we offer a simple way to combine your pensions from previous jobs online.

Nor are robo-advisers actually advisers. The robo-adviser title is misleading. Yet it is the one that appears to have stuck. It's more flow chart style guidance leading to a solution from 3-5 pre-built options. Advice permissions are not required by robo-advice solutions and there isnt the regulatory protection either as its largely self directed with a handful of prompts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robo-advisor

That was originally a US reference that a UK company has bolted themselves onto. The US has different regulatory standards to the UK. Advice has a regulatory meaning in the UK. That wiki page does not fit the UK definition of advice or UK robo-advice.

You do fit the UK definition of robo-advice. Surely you cannot fail to have noticed you are referred to as robo-advisers in the media.

On customers: I did spot the phrase "totally lazy" in your post, that's why I mentioned it. Apologies if I misinterpreted that. We do love our customers!

I would not expect any different from you. I cannot imagine you would want to do a Ratner. Totally lazy was in respect of researching providers and investments. Not personality. Your solution, like other robo-advice solutions, are an easy option.

PensionBee

Yes, we've seen us being mentioned as a robo-advisor many times!
When people are referring to us as a robo-adviser, they simply haven't seen the product and service we offer in full. For example, we don't offer a flow style guidance, you simply pick the plan of your choice where you consolidate your old pensions into.

Is it OK to disagree with you on the robo-adviser stamp?
Call us an online pension manager or online pension app and I'm happy! I don't like the term anyway .

On behalf of PensionBee
Jasper

bostonerimus

My advice would be to stick with well established, low cost platforms and implement you own "robo-strategy" using an index tracker portfolio and some simple rebalancing criteria. Take the time to educate yourself so you don't need to pay someone to manage your pensions - do it yourself.

dunstonh

Is it OK to disagree with you on the robo-adviser stamp?

you can disagree with me on whatever you like. I am quite used to that.
It is a good to see a company representative join in the discussion.

When people are referring to us as a robo-adviser, they simply haven't seen the product and service we offer in full. For example, we don't offer a flow style guidance, you simply pick the plan of your choice where you consolidate your old pensions into.

I prefer the term self directed to robo-advice. I think that reflects what people are doing more accurately.

TheTracker

Best of luck to you PB. Always good to see digital taking on the brown cardigans.

bostonerimus

TheTracker wrote: »

Best of luck to you PB. Always good to see digital taking on the brown cardigans.

The services offered by the "Digital" folks can easily and cheaply be done yourself. Equally, I think it's a waste of money to pay a "Brown Cardigan" for those services, but more important than saving the fees by going DIY is the empowerment of taking control of your own money. However, for complex situations and things like tax planning the "Cardigans" can be useful.

Alexland

Personally I would avoid Pension Bee until they become more established and have a few years of positive earnings at companies house.

Frankly for someone with 20k+ their offer is not very compelling compared to other established market participants so why take the risk?

I am now changing my larger pension to run at 0.37% (with a VLS fund) and my smaller pension already runs at 0.33% (with Blackrock funds) with no dealing costs on either. My larger pension will be a fixed price SIPP so the percentage should further reduce as the fund accumulates.

Alex

PhilEB_2

Thought I'd just post by way of an update - I started using Pension Bee around 7 months ago and have combined three old work pensions.

The service has been excellent (particularly in dealing with one very, very painful provider who made it as frustrating as possible to make the transfer) and the financial performance has thus far been noticeably better than what the funds were achieving in the past.

On the subject of fees, i think when you take the entire package into account it's very good value for money.

dunstonh

and the financial performance has thus far been noticeably better than what the funds were achieving in the past.

The last 7 months has been a burst growth period. So, that is likely why.

Do not assume that the last 7 months are the norm.

lessavyfav

I too have had a great experience with Pension Bee so far. I wanted to combine my 4 pension accounts into one to clean things up but none of the interfaces of the previous providers were any good (old school, not user friendly). Not having a huge amount in the pot, I also wasn't earning much money.

The process from some providers was a bit of a nightmare due to my name change, having to send round my marriage certificate to each and every place in order for them to then change my name, waiting for that to update their records (one place took 5 weeks to give me back my original marriage cert), before I could begin to transfer over. I cannot stand this legacy thing that banks and financial institutions do. For the record, I have been able to scan my marriage certificate as proof of name change to one bank, and everyone else (incumbents) have forced me to send the certificate via registered post. Anyhoo, Pension Bee were very helpful where they could be, couldn't fault them.

I've been with PB since Feb this year and my small pot has gone up several hundred quid. I am much more conscious of my pension now that I have the app on my phone !!!8211; I am self employed and need to pay my own way, and the ease of use is worth it to me.

My OH had Aviva, and while the platform/interface looked quite modern, they couldn't even set up a direct debit. They asked for a certified bank statement which was sent to them (WHY DID THEY NEED THIS?) and when they received it, still didn't set it up properly and just asked him to send another certified bank statement. Hence why he's in the process of moving over to PB too.

I appreciate everyone has their own opinions but I do have to laugh when I see people say 'well the more established places are catching up, so these new places won't last', as though they know it all. Not every person values the old school established places, and not everyone wants the cheapest deal. Waitrose isn't the cheapest supermarket but people love their customer service; Airbnb and hotels still co-exist, they just suit different customers.