Is PensionBee a Good Pension Plan to Invest In?

Planning for retirement is a tricky business. With so many options and intricacies, it can often feel overwhelming. Step forward PensionBee. Promising to consolidate your old pensions in one place, help you get on top of contributions, and plan for retirement, PensionBee appears to be the all-in-one solution many could do with. Let’s take a closer look.

Who is PensionBee?

First, the basics. PensionBee was founded in 2014 by Romi Savova. The aim of the company was to create a platform which made pensions more accessible and affordable for all. It is regulated by the FCA, and investments are protected by the FSCS.

The company won multiple industry awards for innovation in its early years and in 2018 it launched its mobile app. In the same year, it received recognition from the Association of British Insurers as their third platform member, alongside established names Hargreaves Lansdown and Vanguard.

By 2021, PensionBee had total assets under administration (AUA) of over £1 billion. And in April 2021, it listed on the London Stock Exchange (PBEE).   

As of March 2023, the company says it now has £3.4 billion AUA for 198,000 invested customers with a customer retention rate over 95%.

What services does it offer?

PensionBee keeps it simple – there are no general investment plans or other products to look at, just pensions. And it does that very well.

The company will consolidate all your old pension pots into one, new account. It will help you start an account if you have never had a pension plan before. And it can also receive employer contributions if you have a workplace pension scheme.

Once you have opened an account, it can take up to 12 weeks for old funds to transfer in. But you can start making contributions right away. And with an understanding that people need flexibility, there is no minimum contribution, and no need for them to be regular although you can set up a standing order.

With your account open and contributions on-going, the app and website provide easy to use dashboards to give all the information you need to track your pension performance. And in line with keeping everything as easy as possible for the customer, PensionBee will claim any pension tax relief owed by HMRC for you.

What are the pension plans and fees like?

PensionBee customers can currently choose from 8 plans. This allows you to have more control over how and where your money is invested. There are plans with higher and lower risk investment portfolios. Then there are plans which automatically taper to lower risk as you get older. And as well as risk, you can also opt for plans to meet your personal ethical choices such as “Shariah”, “Impact”, and “Fossil Fuel Free”.

The company brought in experienced, expert money management teams to work with. This means you will find reassurance in the names of HSBC, BlackRock, Legal & General, and State Street Global Advisors managing each of these. Each plan also comes with a fact sheet. These provide past performance results and let you see where the plan is investing and what its benchmark is.

What about costs? There are no entry fees to open an account. You may find an old pension provider charges a small fee to transfer to PensionBee, but they would do this no matter the platform. Each plan then has an annual management fee which ranges from 0.50% to 0.95%. This compares favourably with the market and is often cheaper than others who charge both a platform and fund fee. And there are no exit fees if you decide to move to another service in the future

What do other people think of PensionBee?

PensionBee currently has a Trustpilot rating of 4.6, comfortably beating its closest rival, Nutmeg, with 3.7 and ahead of Vanguard with 4.1.

81% of reviews give 5 stars and the common thread is the simplicity of the platform and ease with which people could almost effortlessly get on top of their pension savings. In the press they have received praise from the likes of Boring Money, and The Financial Times.  

Current users are also quick to highlight PensionBee’s 24/7 customer service. Again, the company excels against rivals by providing a dedicated team of actual humans to provide help where many other providers increasingly rely on bots.

Other things we liked

One of the things we most like about PensionBee is how intuitive and user-friendly it is. Entering the website, we find a clean and easy to navigate layout. Just the right amount of information is brought to the front, providing clear guidance on their products and simple menus to dig down for details.

There is a comprehensive FAQ for most questions but a real highlight for many will be its “Knowledge” section. This includes easy-to-use calculators for pension planning, tax relief, drawdowns, and inflation. There is a section explaining the intricacies of pension types and laws. And even a podcast and video academy if you’ve had enough of reading.

So, is PensionBee the best pension app?

PensionBee is easy to use, has transparent fees and can consolidate your old pensions in one place. It has the widest range of funds you can invest in which allows a greater level of personal control over your retirement income. And it has 24/7, human, customer service. All in all, that makes it stand out against the competition.

The most important thing you can do to start working towards a more secure retirement is educate yourself. Pensions should probably be top of your list. And PensionBee is a great place to start and could provide an easy to manage pension pot long into the future.

Author Mike Davies

Disclaimer:

The Editorial Team at #DisruptionBanking have taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this Article. This Article is most definitely not Financial Advice.