Reassure personal pension

happywelder

I phoned Reassure this morning as I`ve not had a statement for over a year now and have started to start considering my retirement options, after getting through the security questions and giving them the policy number I was told that the policy had been terminated, and as such the balance was zero.
I have so many questions, none of which they can answer, it is now passed onto the Heritage Termination Team, who will find out why it was terminated, and then send me a letter giving the details, this could take between 10 to 15 days.
After the first call I was in shock, so I called back a couple of hours later asking questions they cannot answer, who terminated the pension policy, when did this happen, where is my pension fund now, why was I not notified of this termination? 
My policy was originally to run until my 60th birthday in 2022, before this arrived Reassure asked me what I would like to do, I contacted Pension Wise and decided that as I cannot afford to retire before my state pension age of 67, that I would leave my pension pot where it is and keep it running, Reassure confirmed this decision in writing with new direct debit figure and that was that, its only recently I realised I`d not had a statement, and checked with my bank and found that Reassure took the last direct debit in September 2023, then nothing. ok a bit slack on my part for not noticing earlier, but you expect your money to be in your account, its a bit of a shock when you phone for a statement to be told the policy has been terminated?

so I now have to wait 10 to 15 days to find out where my pension fund is, why was it terminated, why did they stop taking the direct debits, I`ve had no communication from them since June 2023.
Feeling shocked, stressed and worried, has anyone else had this happen to them?/

dunstonh

Feeling shocked, stressed and worried, has anyone else had this happen to them?/

Don't be worried.   This is an administration frustration.  Once the issue is identified, errors are usually easy to sort although they may not be quick.   

Without knowing the cause, its difficult to say if there has been the same but in respect of what you are seeing without knowing the cause, then yes. I have seen it several times before.    From a staff member of the provider only looking at one segment and not the other segments (where the value was), an error where the wrong policy was transacted on by the provider (same name - and it was an unusual name) and another where it had transferred from a legacy system to a new system.    

happywelder

thanks dunstonh, my last letter from Reassure was in June 2023 telling that the life cover with the pension had lapsed, and they gave me a small refund and lowered the direct debit amount for future payments.
As my policy was originally set to finish in 2022, I assume any life cover with the pension expired in that year, and it took them 13 months to realise? the life policy was provided with the pension so I was puzzled as to why this was not extended when I opted to keep my pension going , would this have any effect on the pension suddenly terminating do you think, I cant find anything online that says its a legal requirement, but I imagine it depends on the policy, but surely Reassure would ask me about extending the insurance if it was required, and the fact that they reduced the monthly direct debit tells me it wasn`t needed.

just trying to weigh up all scenarios and making mountains out of molehills until Reassure do their internal investigation.

Albermarle

happywelder said:

thanks dunstonh, my last letter from Reassure was in June 2023 telling that the life cover with the pension had lapsed, and they gave me a small refund and lowered the direct debit amount for future payments.
As my policy was originally set to finish in 2022, I assume any life cover with the pension expired in that year, and it took them 13 months to realise? the life policy was provided with the pension so I was puzzled as to why this was not extended when I opted to keep my pension going , would this have any effect on the pension suddenly terminating do you think, I cant find anything online that says its a legal requirement, but I imagine it depends on the policy, but surely Reassure would ask me about extending the insurance if it was required, and the fact that they reduced the monthly direct debit tells me it wasn`t needed.

just trying to weigh up all scenarios and making mountains out of molehills until Reassure do their internal investigation.

It is not a scientific study but some pension providers crop up on this forum giving people problems more than others, and Reassure is one of them.
Hopefully it will not take too long to sort out. When it is you might consider transferring out to a different provider.

Marcon

happywelder said:

thanks dunstonh, my last letter from Reassure was in June 2023 telling that the life cover with the pension had lapsed, and they gave me a small refund and lowered the direct debit amount for future payments.
As my policy was originally set to finish in 2022, I assume any life cover with the pension expired in that year, and it took them 13 months to realise? the life policy was provided with the pension so I was puzzled as to why this was not extended when I opted to keep my pension going , would this have any effect on the pension suddenly terminating do you think, I cant find anything online that says its a legal requirement, but I imagine it depends on the policy, but surely Reassure would ask me about extending the insurance if it was required, and the fact that they reduced the monthly direct debit tells me it wasn`t needed.

just trying to weigh up all scenarios and making mountains out of molehills until Reassure do their internal investigation.

Because your original life policy would have been underwritten and costed to 2022. Life cover gets more expensive as you get older, and the insurer would have no way of knowing if your decision to extend was because you knew your survivors might be grateful (ie something really nasty has happened to make you extend). The pension policy is entirely different, because you'll get whatever is in the 'pot'.

You are making mountains out of molehills but it's entirely understandable. I don't think anyone here is going to be able to reassure you (sorry, no pun intended) whatever we say - but this is so obviously an admin issue, just one causing you huge alarm in the short term.

dunstonh

As my policy was originally set to finish in 2022, I assume any life cover with the pension expired in that year, and it took them 13 months to realise?

Reassure buy old books from insurers that are no longer interested in keeping that book.    Sometimes the details that get sent over to them are not as good as they could be.  Especially on old plans.

the life policy was provided with the pension so I was puzzled as to why this was not extended when I opted to keep my pension going 

Pension term assurance (PTA) is set up to finish at a specific age and cannot be extended without it being a new plan.   It hasn't been possible to set up PTA for almost 20 years.

 would this have any effect on the pension suddenly terminating do you think,

It shouldn't do.  However, it would show as a terminated plan with no value on it.   So, you cannot rule out the individual looking at the wrong policy or segment.   i.e. if the PTA was segment one on the plan and the pension contributions were segment two and the person was only looking at segment one.  

I cant find anything online that says its a legal requirement, but I imagine it depends on the policy, but surely Reassure would ask me about extending the insurance if it was required, and the fact that they reduced the monthly direct debit tells me it wasn`t needed.

ReAssure is closed for new business and its not possible to extend.  So, that wouldn't apply.

happywelder

Latest update, received an email letter today from an Operational Actuarial, telling me that the policy has been terminated and that they do not hold any records or information relating to it, and they cannot provide details of the termination of this policy.

This really sounds like we are talking at crossed purposes here, how can they terminate my pension and have no record of it, who did they pay the money out to? Time for another lengthy phone call, as the letter is sent from a no reply email address.

happywelder

now making a complaint and asking for my case to be investigated again, properly, my pension money must exist somewhere? really worried now.

xylophone

Have you made the complaint in writing giving all relevant details?

Date of commencement of policy and original insurer?

Date of transfer to Reassure?

Policy number(s)?

Pointed out that this was a policy with Life Cover and that only this element  terminated at age 60?

DD amounts up to end of life cover and reduction in 2023?

Date of letter from Reassure notifying that DD would be reduced?

Last date DD taken?

happywelder

first stage complaint is to their complaints dep over the phone, given a one to one contact whom I deal with from now on, they have 3 working days to look into the case, if its not easily resolved it moves up the chain where they say it will take another 4 weeks, if still not resolved then it refers to the pensions ombusman, I think thae last bit is correct.
in the letter it says they have no rocords at all of the policy because it has been terminated, yet the lady in the complains department confirmed all records of corespondance back to January 2023, which included the 2023 annual review, but they said they had no records?? 
I am now in the process of typing up a record of all documentation ready for round 2 if it comes after the next 3 days.

xylophone

I fail to see how there are no records if it has been confirmed that records for 2023 (including annual review) are held.