Clerical Medical Investment Group Limited Reviews 

Our Trust investments 10 years ago with SCOTTISH WIDOWS.... Made a Withdrawal Request October 2021 recorded delivery, rang numerous times, spent over 2 hours on the phone at times, raised a official complaint with them on 4th January, finally got a email & direct contact with a gentleman who is responding to us daily as we continue to try and get funds released. Previously in 2019 our withdrawal request was processed & funds received in 10 days when it was still Scottish Widows.... Clerical Medical is appalling, we have already been in touch with the Financial Ombudsman & they will take up our case on the 1st March 2022, their protocol is one must give the company 8 weeks to resolve the complaint at which point they then take the complaint regarding Clerical Medical/Scottish Widows forward.

Tried to progress a notification of death this morning. No delays in speaking to an assistant but was advised that they had a huge backlog in bereavement team such that once death certificate received it was currently 114 days before they would be able to process a valuation for probate. This was 10 weeks longer than any other company I am dealing with over investments

It doesn't even deserve a star. This is a disgraceful company. Delays, lies, excuses. No one taking responsibility for fixing things. Constant fobbing off. I am now told that the service standard for dealing with payments from deceased accounts is now 108 days. This is outrageous and immoral. They are borrowing money from the bereaved. I shall be reporting their egregious behaviour to the Financial Conduct Authority.

Dreadful - wait times ridiculous on the phone - given an email to correspond with when I finally got through - nothing back from that either after over 3 weeks - disgraceful service considering that the email contains sensitive information and no one bothers to respond.

our endowment policy matured two weeks ago. we were told it would be delayed by up to 105 days. then up to 105 WORKING days. we complained by letter ( signed for ) straightaway. we also threatened them with the press ( daily mail and BBC.) this seemed to stir them into life. money arrived by magic a few days later. TBH it was seeing all these bad reviews that encouraged me to lean on them hard as soon as it seemed they were going to mess me about.

Would agree, that it takes hours to get through and often when you do they cut you off and you are back in the queue. Our last but one call lasted 122 minutes and cost around £20 and still no resolution to the cashing in of an investment bond (been going on since May and still not sorted in October, despite various promises)

Trying to transfer my pension pot to another company - each time I phoned them it takes well over an hour to speak to anyone. If you wait for correspondence it can take more than a month. When transferring investments all of this can have a significant cost. The most appalling customer service and would never recommend them. Indeed this is one of the reasons I am moving my money away from them. At one point they were citing internal system problems lately though that excuse has worn to thin to use.

Dreadful, changed bank in April and everyone else managed to claim direct debits. Not Clerical Medical. Moved house in 2016 and advised them of change of address. In Early June I realised they had not taken payment. 3 long waits on phone, paid 3 payments by bank transfer as advised in one call and new direct debit later,they take 4 payments putting account in red.
In addition, they hassled the Trustee for the final payout several times. Eventually saying they were closing the account. Emailed chief exec, no response til I rang and got refund of payments and ex gratis for hassle and was promised letter. Today my bank tell me they are taking another large sum from account which will put me in red again. Today is Sunday so I stew til tomorrow!

This is not my first review of this company. Today was the 3rd date I have been given to receive the funds from my late mother's bond. Nothing, yet again.Their staff seem to be trained to be ultra nice and apologetic but I imagine they put you on hold while they 'look at the notes' but in reality they're at home, feet up, watching whatever is the latest on Netflix. Then after an unreasonable amount of time they tell you your claim is being escalated. Personally I could not work for such an incompetent company because I have more integrity and would not be able to sleep at night knowing I am lying to vulnerable people. But there you have it. 10 weeks since my claim. 50 days when I was originally told 32. John Edwards the CEO is obviously not in control. Next stop the Financial Ombudsman.

Tried to withdraw my bond and have been told it will take 90 days. That is an absurd amount of time. Whenever I call to discuss this with a representative i have to wait on hold for at least an hour no matter what time I call. They have had IT issues all summer and their withdrawal form has the incorrect address on it meaning you will be sending your financial details to a building they are not in. Hardly fills you with confidence.

This is an appallingly run company.

SENT A LETTER TO THEM ON 5TH AUGUST, SITLL NOT HAD ANY REPLY. BEEN TRYING TO CALL DIFFERENT NUMBERS NO ONE PICKS UP TODAY THE PHONE HAS BEEN RINGING FOR ALMOST TWO HOURS AND IN THE PAST FEW DAYS HAVE TRIED AND THE PHONE WAS AGAIN RINGING FOR ALMOST ONE HOUR. WAITING TIME IS SAID TO BE 40 MINUTES. BUT THE WAIT NEVER ENDS.
APPALING SERVICE, TOTLLY NOT ACCEPTABLE. NEED A RESPONSE FROM THEM ASAP. wE ARE FINANCIAL ADVISORS

I have telephoned Clerical Medical twice in the past month.
The first time I was fobbed off and provided with misleading information and the second time I was forced to make a formal complaint.
On both occasions it took an hour and twenty minutes to get through and speak to somebody.
WHO AT CLERICAL MEDICAL FEELS THAT THIS IS AN ACCEPTABLE LEVEL OF SERVICE??
Absolutely Appalling.

Absolute incompetent company inside out. A big mistake to invest through this company. It will take me hours to write how incompetent and ignorant and lacking the least courtesy in communication. But I’m not going to spend any more hours wasting it on such a horrible company. if there is a zero star, they’ll get it without hesitation.

Appalling, can't even get them to answer the phone or reply to a letter !!!

So as a further update and a 3rd review of this apalling Company its now over 5 Months and still waiting for my pension funds to transfer. No response to the formal complaint letter. I make regular calls to the call centre but nobody from there can tell me when this money will transfer oe even what the issue is. I am now starting to worry that I have lost this money. A really shockingly bad company and I regret the day I trusted them many years ago to look after my pension.

Nobody reading these reviews can possibly consider going near Clerical Medical/Scottish Widows and the Lloyds Banking Group. The new CEO, Charlie Nunn has just started. One can only hope he reads these reviews. As no stars or minus stars are possible this review gets one.
My story is similar to others here. To settle an estate after probate, on the 13th May 21 a deed of assignment and a request for a valuation was submitted in writing for a life bond investment. Even allowing for their official 31 working day response time, we had no response. A series of 60 minute waits followed to get through to customer services. They appeared to have a grasp of the issues but could only speak to the central department by email and they claim their emails are ignored. Finally they offered to open a complaint on my behalf as that "should trigger a response in 10 working days" . They did this around 3rd July and there was no response at all until a letter dated 29th July arrived suggesting an investigation might start by September. Meanwhile on the 22nd July I got a brief 4 line secure email saying the bond was assigned but failed to say which person had been assigned which segments although it did give the numbers of segments. My attempts to get the full picture all failed. In w/c 14th August we received a letter dated 30th June saying the deed was NOT assigned. Further 60 minute waits to speak to customer services to get the latest picture. They assure us the bond is assigned. We are now at 29th August and there is still no valuation for the bond. This is around 15 weeks after we requested this. Yes, we have made several phone calls ( 60 minute waits) to chase the valuation. Clerical Medical/Scottish Widows have a real problem. The migration of the bonds to the Scottish Widows system has gone wrong and in my case the value of my bond shows as ZERO, which they know cannot be right. As this bond needs to be cashed, we have submitted (28th July) our encashment forms and our own valuation for the segments with an explanation of how this was worked out. All this has achieved however is the referral of our encashment request as a TECHNICAL ISSUE -THE VALUE CANNOT BE ASCERTAINED. We are not allowed to open a further complaint. As at 23rd August, we have been told that they are unable to give us any indication when the matter might be resolved. We are not dealing with a small amount here and like other bonds the value is floating with the ups and downs of the stock market as CM continue to fail to cash them. It makes you wonder IF as soon as the market realigns down, all will suddenly fall into place and much reduced payments will be made. I have written to the financial ombudsman about this potential. Surely I am being too cynical? or am I? Please read the experiences other people are reporting here.

I am reading these reviews and feeling more despondant than ever. My endowment matured in may and despite calling weekly , they have still not transferred the funds to me. I have been given several different bogus reasons to stall me even though they promised the funds were on their way, but have finally had enough and written this all in a formal complaint letter, to accompany my original complaint from 8 weeks ago. This an appalling way to treat customers who have invested for 25 years

I have a deferred annuity pension promised to pay at Age60 6Jan2020 £1,900pa. In 2019 they said they don't need to pay this as legislation for this GMP product says must pay no later than Age65 SO THEY CAN DELAY PAYING IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE FUNDS (Recently relooked at this & Section9 in Policy DOES NOT SAY THIS). Early 2021 they unlawfully extended this another 10years to 6Jan2035. Customer Service said there is nothing I can do about it other than take legal action against them.

Bond assignment form was sent back in April'21. Called call centre on 2/7 to get a value and claim form only to be told that there was no record of me being legal owner of segments. Eventually found out system was being migrated on to new one and that the record of my assignment was not easily located. I've since spent from 13/7 to today to try and the bond encashed. My inital email with encashment form was scanned on to old system so was missed. Called 15/7 and was adfvised that it would be scanned on to new system. Heard nothing so called 21/7 to be told couldn't find my assignment forms (yet again!) however, was eventually found. Nothing had been done on encashment so was raised as an escalation. However, a standard encashment take 8 working days but was told that an escalation takes 10 working days!!! Not very customer focused is it! Even with a complaint raised still no futher forward. Deadline for escalation is 4/8 and I have no confidence that anything will happen and I will see my funds - although really hope I'm wrong!! Friendly staff but VERY VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. I have had all the calls myself to get updates/chase. Would definitely not recommend this company at all.

Been trying to get my investment back off them. Matured at start of May. No luck at all. Call centre is poorly equipped. They can escalate, they can raise complaints but nobody ever does a thing. Managers are unavailable to talk to and do not call you back. You cannot book a time to call them either. Do they actually have any management? Official complaints are not responded to. The call centre can update the notes though (whoopee). Not sure how to get my money. I wish I had never used them and I will never use these people again. I am beginning to seriously doubt their solvency.