Standard Life UK Reviews 

I am reviewing Standard Life plc (formerly Phoenix Group) for a systemic failure in group oversight. Their subsidiary, ReAssure, is currently withholding my £32,000 pension using a shameful administrative loop.

After a 10-month delay caused jointly by the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) and ReAssure, ReAssure is now claiming my Cambodian ID—which was valid when I submitted it—is now "expired." They are effectively weaponizing their own delays to block access to my funds.

CEO Andy Briggs MBE claims Standard Life is a "trusted brand" for retirement. In reality, his group is causing "foreseeable harm" to a 56-year-old customer by creating unreasonable barriers. This is a clear breach of the FCA Consumer Duty. I have rejected the FOS decision and will continue to hold Standard Life plc publicly accountable for this withholding of my money.

Went on line and done a pension transfer into standard life. It was so easy and even thou the other company said that I hadn’t gave the right information so the transfer couldn’t go through. Standard life got in contact with me via letter and told me what information was required, then the other company released my funds and it went through smoothly.

I didn’t choose Standard Life, my employer did. Having said that I have nothing but praise for them. I’ve consolidated pensions from 3 other companies into Standard Life without issue. The performance of my plan looks good even in current uncertain times. Admin fees are low too but that was a company group negotiation.

I had to give this organisation 1 star to write the review, but they are not even deservant of that. They have had my money since late march, and i have made several requests for drawdowns, both online, and on the phone. They don't want you accessing your own money basically. Ive had excuse after excuse, the latest one was a promise of a CHAPS payment, which as we all know, is a same day payment That was a week ago, and still nothing hits the account. Seriously, if anyone is reading this, i would advise you to choose a better provider, they are deliberately trying to prevent me accessing my money, with excuse after excuse. Truly awful to deal with.

Dealing with standard life Ireland. Not one reply for basic information about my policy to 5 emails . 3 phone calls just fobed off. So disappointed with their lack of interest. Time to go to the ombudsman I think.

I was referred by Reassure, the person I spoke to was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction I needed to go.

I applied to transfer a small pension and it was done in one piece of correspondence. Brilliant service 👏

Took ealy retirement in2018 due to severe depression.Recieved my state pension and two small private pensions immediately ..apart from Standard life.Did get a form asking for my options e.g. lump sum or monthly pension. Never filled in form as by then i had been admitted to a psychiatric ward .Three years later received a letter telling me my pension date had been changed to 2024. Never recieved another form about my options,but three years later Received another letter saying i would now be getting my pension in2030??Spoke on phone and got nowher.Went on line as advised and changed retirement date back to April 17 th 2026 Today I received a letter NOT about options but telling me my retirement was now set for 2030 again ...so every time my pension is due they add another three or for years on...seems like some sort of fraud here..and I!m not the only one after reading these reviews.Spoke on the phone 3 times over the last couple of years and was passed from advisor to advisor each one only wanted me to talk to a finacial advisor...no help from Standard life with my options whatsoever.Spoke again on phone today apparently I'm getting a letter sent for my options even though I asked on the phone to cash this pension in! No doubt I will fill in this form and still not get "MY" money..Been waiting 8 years now while Standard life invests my money and take out admin fees etc..If no results from todays phone call will be taking legal action and consulting a solicitor because its pretty obvious they don't want to part with my money Disgusting firm

Easy, secure transactions when transferring pensions in. Great communication. Highly recommended.

update in addition to my review of 7/4/2026 ref my Annuity Policy signed in 1993 with Legal & General . According to ReAssure (Part of Standard Life) they had an Agreement with Legal & General that once my Annuity was due i was to be referred back to Legal & General for a fee and for them to fulfill my Annuity Contract. I approached Legal & General as directed by ReAssure (part of Standard Life) but Legal & General would also not fulfill my Annuity Contract as per 1993 Agreement i Signed with them , so something agreed between them or that affected them not to pay my annuity contract as per the 1993 Agreement, We know it was not retrospective legislation. But still neither will say what it is .?????

I dont think i have ever successfully logged on their website , even when i try to tell them my name , email,and date of birth its say its wrong , sort it out folks .We have paid into pensions for years , at least when need them in old age the least we should have access.

I have had to move my pension to Standard Life from ReAssure. I was given an estimated date for things to have happened by. We are now a month past that date and the only contact I have had from Standard Life is this chance to review them....

Same as Review posted below by Penny . My regular monthly payment apparently failed on 02/04 , due to me on 09/04. I was never contacted to explain why my regular payment was not sent / failed. I have had to chase and chase via telephone and message service receiving the same reply of its being investigated or its being done manually which it obviously has not. I requested a call from Standard Life twice now to allow them to explain and update but no call received. This in my opinion is awful customer service. I have been a SL customer for many years and would expect much better.My regular monthly payment which was due on 09/04 still not paid 14/04 with no information as to when I may receive it.If a SL employee did not receive their salary on the allotted day I wonder how that would go ?.Now received my regular monthly payments showing April and May by ad hoc system not regular payment however…

On going issues. Now have more regular monthly payments showing in my transactions via SL app than I have received.Also , worryingly according to my inland revenue account I have received 4 payments this tax year. I have received 2. My app shows another payment dated yesterday which I have not received so in total 5 payments over April and May. That last showing payment is still to hit my IR account . I have noted this with IR. Over April and May I have received 2 payments. My account dropped just short of 3000.00 pounds overnight with a fund growth of 0.052 !!.It appears to me that transactions are being deducted from my account but I am not receiving them and Inland Revenue are being told I have had them !!.Call SL frequently and message only to be told my case is escalated. No one from SL calls me back (since 09/04) from the relevant department after countless promises.I have now requested no further payment leave my account. Next step press and ombudsman as what other recourse do I have.

Fantastic service. Consultations were detailed and informative to my personal needs. My financial adviser (Ben Whisken) was polite and easy to communicate with. Thank you

This company took over Phoenix insurance and obviously do not take their responsibilities seriously. They do not action any complaints that are reported. I am still waiting for resolution a year down the line, even when I have got a solicitor involved we are no further forward. Absolutely disgraceful.

I had just transferred over another pension and decided to retire and travel for a bit, I needed another way to receive my security link.
I found the Two I talked to very understanding, professional and prompt.
I would like to express my sincere thanks.
10/10

We have been trying to set up a trust for our grandchildren via our financial advisor for over a year now. We have filled multiple forms, so have our doctors and responded to all their queries immediately. They are sitting on our money and noting is happening. We will be contacting the FSA now and probably the media to warn people that Standard Life is either incapable of setting this up or completely incompetent. We having worked hard all our lives to be duped by this company. Following the reply from standard Life below, no email received. Avoid at all costs.

Get a life policy with them if you want to be penalised for living too long. End of life policy has went down £7000 in one year so don’t live too long if you want your beneficiaries to receive anything. Also if you get a terminal diagnosis you’ll be offered about £5000 to cash in if you’re lucky. Decide to leave it for once you’ve passed and the policy goes down £7000 a year. Absolute joke

Never had any problems using standard Life pension.
The app is easy too navigate and use.

The worst company I have ever come across. I have had nothing but trouble since the day I started to draw my pension twelve months ago. I quickly had an issue which took so long to sort out I ended up having to complain. The issue was so bad I was granted £200 compensation. I had two pots. One very small so was soon needing to take funds from my second pot. A quick phone call I got to a call handler that was very helpful and efficient who started asking me lots of questions. I said I’d never been asked before and turns out the operator I spoke to when drawing my first pot did not take all of the information needed to correctly work out my tax free lump sum. That was in January and now finally in April I am told that Standard Life have paid me too much tax free cash which I must pay back and is still not resolved. This is despite being told twice I have £400 tax free lump sum still to take. Roll on setting up my regular payment on the 1st March. 4th March I still had no money. I made a call and they said the regular payment set up had failed and someone would investigate and call me back that afternoon or the next day. No call. I called again and explained how urgent it was because it was my only income which fell on deaf ears. I called several times and sent several messages saying I was now desperate and was having to borrow money from family to stop me going in to debt and still nothing was done. I raised my third complaint since drawing my pension before anything was sorted. I was told in the 13th March that the payment had been sent, but it failed again. I only found out when I called again when it wasn’t received. One operator told me I needed to be patient and the next one told me the payment had failed again and would need investigating. I had to contact them almost daily. Not once did anyone make contact with me. Not even the complaints team. I finally got an email on the 19th March from the complaints team who said payment was on its way. I finally got my money on the 19th March TWICE!! I called again and agreed I would send the second incorrect payment back. I did this ten days ago and it has still not been allocated back to my pension pot. I am now at my whits end and left with no option but to transfer my pension to another provider. If you have a choice do not choose Standard Life. They have a 5-10 working days for everything and you’re lucky if it happens at all. It is the most shocking service I have ever had.
UPDATE: I rest my case that everything takes 5-10 days. Below it took 6 days to even respond to feedback. I have had contact from the complaints team today and guess what apparently there is another technical issue. Everything gets blamed on a technical issue. The call is just too late. I have now made contact with the ombudsman who have agreed if I get the documentation over they will look at my complaint. I have foolishly given Standard life 7 days to fix it then I will follow through with the ombudsman. I cannot wait to get my pension transferred to my husbands pension company who receives a request and within three days money is in his account. He’s never had one single problem. I know I’m foolish giving them one more chance and the only reason I have is because I know it will take the ombudsman longer to get it resolved. I live in hope.