Reassure Pension: What to Do When Yours Lands Here
A letter from Reassure landed on a million doormats. They are not a scam, but they are not a great long-term home. The one box on the statement that decides whether you stay or transfer.
Stay or transfer out of Reassure?
| Situation | Stay if | Transfer if | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small or medium DC pot, modern fund needs | Charges below 0.5% and fund choice fits you | Charges above 0.75% or no global tracker option | Fee drag and fund limits compound for decades |
| Statement shows a Guaranteed Annuity Rate | Almost always | Almost never | GARs of 8 to 11 percent can be worth 2 to 3 times the transfer value |
| Statement mentions GMP or safeguarded benefits | Almost always | Only after FCA-regulated advice | These are guaranteed income for life and easy to give up by accident |
| With-profits pot with terminal bonus | If the bonus only vests on the policy maturing | If there is no bonus or you are decades from maturity | Terminal bonuses can be 20 to 40 percent of the pot value |
Key takeaways
Reassure is the UK's largest closed-book pension consolidator and a subsidiary of Phoenix Group. About a million policyholders were moved to them when Aegon UK sold its book in 2020, with earlier transfers from Old Mutual Wealth, HSBC Life and Zurich UK.
Before doing anything else, check your statement for a Guaranteed Annuity Rate, a Guaranteed Minimum Pension or other safeguarded benefits. These can be worth two to three times the headline transfer value and you can sign them away by mistake.
Charges in legacy Reassure schemes often sit between 0.5 percent and 1 percent a year, with narrower fund choice than a modern SIPP. Over twenty years a 0.5 percent fee gap on a 50,000 pound pot is roughly 17,000 pounds in lost growth.
If your statement shows no safeguarded benefits and the fees are uncompetitive, transferring to a low-cost SIPP is often the better long-term home. Anything with safeguarded benefits worth more than 30,000 pounds legally requires FCA-regulated advice before transfer.