Standard Life; proposal to transfer all business to Phoenix Life Ltd

engagedandopen

I feel there has already been a lowering of standards since Phoenix took over Standard Life.

The stakeholder pension is 1% for retail customers, which seemed okay for their actively managed Stock Exchange pension fund, although most other comparable pensions are now retailing at 0.55%-0.75%.  However, Phoenix has since changed the investment objectives to include trackers, and the factsheets are opaque: they do not indicate what trackers or which active funds are being used.  This is quite different to transparent pension funds, like those of Legal & General's 'Multi-Index' range, or of Virgin Money's abrdn funds like their 'Virgin Money Growth Fund' range.  Phoenix has also moved away from the Myfolio range of options which they inherited.

Also, does anyone know whether the law of England will apply to the transferred pension contracts, please?  I believe the pensions are currently under Scottish jurisdiction, and I couldn't see that detail on the paperwork they sent through, yet the High Court of London is involved in the business transfer and I understand Phoenix Life Limited is headquartered in Birmingham.

Albermarle

The stakeholder pension is 1% for retail customers, which seemed okay for their actively managed Stock Exchange pension fund, although most other comparable pensions are now retailing at 0.55%-0.75%

Stakeholder is an older pension. You may well be better off switching to their Active Money Personal Pension. There are some discounts depending on the size of your fund. If you have a larger fund, then with SL you were a priority customer and got better customer service and you could negotiate a bigger discount. As far as I am aware they still do this although it may have been quietly shelved. I don't know.

CrabsterCove

I've had this letter and am worried, based on other dealings I've had with Phoenix's administration. I intend to move my pension pot if this goes through. Phoenix have been astonishingly incompetent and careless with documentation on another financial product. Amongst other failings they provided details of another family member's transactions to me, gave me inaccurate information about my own financial situation, calculated values of the sale of a bond incorrectly etc etc. They have so many complaints that they have apparently outsourced their complaints function to Capita. When you get through to complaints they are always "on the point of resolving" your issue - or things are "about to go into first class post." But nothing happens- still waiting for one of these first class letters from about 18 months ago. After more than 2 years of exhaustion I have accepted their offer of compensation even though I think its insufficient for the stress they have put me through.

Albermarle

CrabsterCove said:

I've had this letter and am worried, based on other dealings I've had with Phoenix's administration. I intend to move my pension pot if this goes through. Phoenix have been astonishingly incompetent and careless with documentation on another financial product. Amongst other failings they provided details of another family member's transactions to me, gave me inaccurate information about my own financial situation, calculated values of the sale of a bond incorrectly etc etc. They have so many complaints that they have apparently outsourced their complaints function to Capita. When you get through to complaints they are always "on the point of resolving" your issue - or things are "about to go into first class post." But nothing happens- still waiting for one of these first class letters from about 18 months ago. After more than 2 years of exhaustion I have accepted their offer of compensation even though I think its insufficient for the stress they have put me through.

Phoenix have owned standard life retail pensions for a couple of years now, with little obvious change. The changes detailed in this letter are more technical than anything.

Perhaps of some concern is that I think they lost some customer service posts in Edinburgh and some of that is being outsourced. 

dunstonh

Phoenix run a number of the old books out of the same office as the original legacy company.  The ones that they have managed to consolidate onto their systems out of Peterborough have much improved service levels than the old legacy company.   Some of the others are not so good.   I have found the old Scottish Mutual office to be poor.  However, I haven't had to use them for some years now.   As Albermarle says above, you cannot compare the SL situation with some of the others that Phoenix have taken on.

Albermarle

As Albermarle says above, you cannot compare the SL situation with some of the others that Phoenix have taken on

I think ( although this is getting a bit technical and beyond my pay grade) that Phoenix seem to be using the SL system as a sort of template, rather than trying to change it to their own systems.

For sure they have kept SL as actively looking for new customers, which is not their usual modus operandi.

dunstonh

I think ( although this is getting a bit technical and beyond my pay grade) that Phoenix seem to be using the SL system as a sort of template, rather than trying to change it to their own systems.

Phoenix typically use a third party company and the template outputs look like the old Pearl Assurance layout.

With SL, they appear to be using the SL software/infrastructure.  Indeed, I was told just the other day that the old SL SIPP has or is about to be moved onto the new Abrdn software as Abrdn were paying Phoenix and that will end.

Normally when legacy books are bought, the consolidator moves it onto their software.   In this case, it is the seller that is moving the stuff they are keeping.

For sure they have kept SL as actively looking for new customers, which is not their usual modus operandi.

There was very little new business opportunity with the old stuff but with everything that Phoenix have bought over the years and the fact they bought the books at a discount which has led to a significant cash generator, there is the possibility that Phoenix could become a major player in the new business arena if they choose to do so.    With legacy book options drying up, there will come a point where they need to look at what to do next with all the cash they have.    Maybe they will look to replicate outside of the UK.  Many of the insurers that left the UK said that the UK is not very profitable and other markets offer better returns on their capital.