Reassure Pension: What to Do When Yours Lands Here

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.