Phoenix Life | Private Pension

I have read some real bad reviews about them which have shook me up.

Really? I have absolutely no concerns about Phoenix life. There are some frustrations with certain legacy companies they own but nothing that would shake me up.

As you can imagine, I'm fearful that by the time they decide to release it, I would have lost substainly via fees, market etc especially with what's going on with the brexit issue!

I cant imagine that. I suspect your imagination on a subject you know nothing about is driving this.

Apparently, the Ombudsman has received lots of complaints in many have been upheld in which the company in question was forced to compensate pensions based on compound interest.

The ombudsman does not award compound interest in cases of wrongdoing. It uses 8% simple.

I just checked the complaints stats at the FOS for Phoenix and the number of complaints received is quite low. 250 to Phoenix life ltd and 113 to Phoenix Life Assurance Limited over the last 6 months. The figures are ballpark for expectation given the number of policyholders they have. Indeed, possibly a bit lower.

What is surprising is that the FOS only uphold 15% and 17% of complaints (respectively on the two parts). That is way below the average of 30%. This indicates a company with a good complaints culture giving the correct outcome the majority of the time.

Your comments do not reflect reality.

The reviewers echoe what I have been asking for years in terms of poor performance and bad management because it should be worth more than I have been told - currently standing at 60k which I believe should be much more?

But is your expectation realistic or pie in the sky?

I told them I want to take it all out and reinvest, spread around in an ISA, Savings etc. Since informing them of this as each day passes, it being eroded at a rate of 200 a day!

Well I appreciate your generosity to the Treasury but is that really a sensible thing to do? Yes, it is very kind of you to gift the taxpayer but i very much doubt it is the right course of action.

The last 6 weeks have been a market downturn. So, values will drop in that period. Just as they go up in positive periods. You cant get one without the other.

I would appreciate some pointers on what I can do to save what I have left before it is eroded by fees!

It isnt charges that are lowering the value.

Firstly. Stop reading completely rubbish online reviews. Phoenix have bought hundreds of old insurers over the years. Many of these still operate out of the same old life offices with the same staff as their original brand. Some of these offices are better than others in terms of admin. So, any of these reviews that mention Phoenix without mentioning the legacy company are just pointless. Are you talking about a Phoenix plan operated out of Glasgow? or Peterborough? on completely different systems, in completely different investment funds with completely different staff?

Phoenix are financially sound. So no issues there. As I said, the main issue is that they can be a bit old fashioned in places or operate methods which can frustrate but absolutely nothing you should be scared of.