Standard Life UK Reviews 

Interminable difficulties trying to withdraw one of my wife's pensions from a past employer. Standard Life's system wouldn't accept her name on the joint bank account - only mine, as I'm the first-named; their coding is incompetent in this respect.

After a week of meaningless, deflective responses via online messaging we were finally told just to go ahead and they'd sort this out at the back end. - They were given a bank statement for verification.

- All seemed to progress, and a confirmation letter appeared on the portal. Luckily I downloaded and archived this, because today (11/05/26) the account had completely disappeared from the portal! - Complete with all the messages that passed to-and-fro!

For clarity... part of what has disappeared here is evidence of their mishandling the account; evidence that might otherwise be presented to the FOS! - I find this suspicious, and it certainly engenders mistrust of Standard Life.

- There has been NO contact from Standard life via email and of course we now have no way of contacting them either!

- For clarity; as we are both partially deaf, the telephone option is NOT suitable... especially as this fails to provide a record of exchanges and is only available at inconvenient times... And that's even if their system weren't (as is evidenced by many complaints from others here here) plagued with problems.

All in all I'll be glad when we manage to extract the money and will be studiously avoiding ALL standard life products in the future...

This has been an appalling experience; my wife suffers from anxiety and is very very distressed at the moment... Formal complaints WILL be made and if necessary taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Very good experience with Standard life, quick and easy to transafers no hassle thank you. Excellent!

Good communication and clear understanding of what action I needed to take to allow the transfer to proceed.

Poor communication between Phoenix and Standard Life, not being informed of the correct process / procedures ( had 3 different answers from members of the same team?) Still waiting for my money after nearly 5 weeks , yes “My Money” Still waiting for a call from the Supervisor / Manager from a week ago?

Very professional & friendly service

From the beginning when I first called standard life for help with my pension to the end result every one I spoke to was very understanding and helpful as I recently experienced a brain hemorage making talking a difficult process,
Everyone was patient with me and helped me get all my ducks in a row,
Many thanks Mr A Drake.

I transferred another pension to standard life and it could not have been eny earlier. One message was all I had to send. Thay said it could take between 4 and 6 weeks. It only took 2 so happy with how it was done

Promt response, so far

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.