Drawdown Pension Advice

kirstie87

If anyone has been in a similar boat any advice on what you did would be great.

After having problems with 2 previous pension providers; the last being Scottish widows who just lied every time I called them chasing my pension. I spoke to a solicitor and he advised to move it again if they’re not going to carry out the draw down. I have moved to pension bee, once everything was in place they told me 5-10 days and the money would be in my account. 3 weeks later and still nothing, I chase it daily and now have the direct number for a director who apologised and said this is not how they run the company, even offering a £100 gift card and it would be in there Monday morning, yesterday came without no money. So called him again, he said he didn’t understand and left it with someone to sort Friday. He then called back saying it’ll be in there tomorrow, surprise surprise it’s not in the account still. I haven’t called him today as he just seems to lie every time I speak to him. After already moving twice, I’m not sure what to do? Any advice would be really appreciated 

Thank you

dunstonh

 I spoke to a solicitor and he advised to move it again if they’re not going to carry out the draw down. 

Most older plans do not support drawdown.  SW only have one plan that they offer it on for individuals.  A solicitor should not be offering advice like that as it is not within their remit.   I suspect it was more a comment than advice (for example, did he write to them to obtain details on safeguarded benefits etc before "advising" you).

I haven’t called him today as he just seems to lie every time I speak to him.

I very much doubt they are telling lies.  Pensionbee are reputable and ideally suited to small pension funds where people don't really know how to invest.    I suspect it is more likely they have having a technical issue and it's not being resolved as expected.

Pensionbee are relatively new to offering drawdown.  Many firms have been offering it for decades.  Sometimes when software is not very mature, it suffers ocassional problems.     It may possibly be down to the tax year changeover.  A lot of firms suffer capacity issues at this time of year.  Some handle it better than others but a slow down is not uncommon.  Sometimes issues just occur unexpectedly and the cause cannot be immediately found despite best efforts.  Sometimes, with DIY providers, it can be the end user (i.e. you) that can cause the issue by requesting something you didnt mean to,

They have already offered £100 for the inconvenience. They may well extend that with the continued issues.  

 After already moving twice, I’m not sure what to do?

Moving it again will take you weeks.   

And just playing devils advocate a bit here, you say you are having problems with pensionbee and accusing them of telling lies.   You say you had problems with two other pension providers and accused one of them of telling lies.   You seem to be having lots of problems and being told lots of "lies"   Is it perhaps you doing something unexpected or not understanding the processes that could be causing this?

Marcon

kirstie87 said:

I spoke to a solicitor and he advised to move it again if they’re not going to carry out the draw down. 

No solicitor would be authorised to give that sort of advice off the cuff - it may have been a passing comment, but no more than that.

dunstonh said:

And just playing devils advocate a bit here, you say you are having problems with pensionbee and accusing them of telling lies.   You say you had problems with two other pension providers and accused one of them of telling lies.   You seem to be having lots of problems and being told lots of "lies"   Is it perhaps you doing something unexpected or not understanding the processes that could be causing this?

If this may be the case, get yourself some help (free and impartial, and able to contact the provider to chase on your behalf if necessary): https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-us

kirstie87

dunstonh said:

 I spoke to a solicitor and he advised to move it again if they’re not going to carry out the draw down. 

Most older plans do not support drawdown.  SW only have one plan that they offer it on for individuals.  A solicitor should not be offering advice like that as it is not within their remit.   I suspect it was more a comment than advice (for example, did he write to them to obtain details on safeguarded benefits etc before "advising" you).

I haven’t called him today as he just seems to lie every time I speak to him.

I very much doubt they are telling lies.  Pensionbee are reputable and ideally suited to small pension funds where people don't really know how to invest.    I suspect it is more likely they have having a technical issue and it's not being resolved as expected.

Pensionbee are relatively new to offering drawdown.  Many firms have been offering it for decades.  Sometimes when software is not very mature, it suffers ocassional problems.     It may possibly be down to the tax year changeover.  A lot of firms suffer capacity issues at this time of year.  Some handle it better than others but a slow down is not uncommon.  Sometimes issues just occur unexpectedly and the cause cannot be immediately found despite best efforts.  Sometimes, with DIY providers, it can be the end user (i.e. you) that can cause the issue by requesting something you didnt mean to,

They have already offered £100 for the inconvenience. They may well extend that with the continued issues.  

 After already moving twice, I’m not sure what to do?

Moving it again will take you weeks.   

And just playing devils advocate a bit here, you say you are having problems with pensionbee and accusing them of telling lies.   You say you had problems with two other pension providers and accused one of them of telling lies.   You seem to be having lots of problems and being told lots of "lies"   Is it perhaps you doing something unexpected or not understanding the processes that could be causing this?

No, it’s not me doing anything. They talked me through the process and told me when it would be in the account. Every day it’s chased up it is a different excuse as to why it’s not in there. Such as ‘oh I got them to do it I don’t know why it’s not’ to ‘I don’t understand why they’ve not done it’ this is the only explanations a director is offering. If they explained software issues or anything else it would be more than fair enough, but they don’t. It’s gone way beyond the deadline of when they said it would be in the account without ever giving a valid excuse as to why it is so late. And take one look online at Scottish widows reviews, you’ll see how unusual it is not. 

dunstonh

 And take one look online at Scottish widows reviews, you’ll see how unusual it is not. 

No sane person takes much notice of online reviews with insurance companies.   Most of the people posting the reviews are clueless and marking the provider down for not doing something that they were never able to do in the first place.    Most of the time, you are not able to identify what product or legacy insurance company they are referring to and how it may or may not compare with yours.

green_man

I suspect there is a some general capacity issue.  There have been a number of people complaining of expected sums not appearing when they expect in the past couple of weeks, across a few different providers.

I myself have been expecting a UFPLS that was supposed to be payed on 6th (all paperwork etc completed a couple of weeks before) it eventually arrived today.  When I did a UFPLS back in February the payment was made the day after it was requested, this time it’s a week late!  So I wonder if it’s just a very busy time generally for the industry?