Zurich Pension

Saved with these people for years and it seems they don’t even offer a drawdown pension option! What is that? They’ve been instructed to release funds in a transfer to another pension provider and we’re close to a year now with almost nothing happening. Complete jokers in terms of service.

We have been trying to transfer my husbands superannuation from UK to Australia since March (4 months ago) and are still waiting. Every time we call we have a different person dealing with it. Their information and instructions vary from person to person and we have been constantly misinformed. Zurich accept this and have made two compensation payments to date. Eventually they allocated one person to deal with our claim and arrangements were made to send the cheque to Sydney by express traceable mail. Well that was almost 4 weeks ago and the cheque and covering letter have disappeared.Despite promises the cheque was not sent in any traceable form. We have had to cancel the cheque and now they have made a total mess of the electronic transfer as they failed to include the sort code (BSB) in the transfer. Their staff are incredibly badly trained and if they don't know something just seem to make it up. I would never ever trust this company or anything they say or promise. Eventually the cheque will turn up and we will see what error was made at which point we will contact the ombudsman. This has to be the worst and most inefficient service we have ever had and the stress it has caused my husband and I has been severe. A dismal performance.

My husband worked for 47 years for the same engineering company. When he first started there was a superannuation scheme which was wound up and the money put into Guardian Financial Services, no problem with them, at his retirement in February 2012 they immediately paid out a not unreasonable monthly pension. From 2001 the company then had a variety of Pension Providers including Norwich Union (now Aviva) and Eagle Star which is apparently now Zurich. This has resulted in a tiny monthly payment from Aviva and a very small payment from Zurich neither of which has yet been paid. Zurich have informed him that the last payment they received from his employer was 2 months late (the latest in a long line of excuses)which neither of us believe. This company (Zurich) has been obstructive and disingenuous with every enquiry that has been made. They also do not make the pension payments themselves that is done though Legal and General. This gives everyone a great opportunity to blame the other company. I would strongly advise steering clear of them.

been with this lot 8 yeras never missed a payment all of a sudden refuse to accept direct debits never made a claim what a joke... would not recommend them at all - not very loyal are they. disgusting in my view

I find these reviews disturb me as I will retire next March and although I have spoken to the financial advisor(who is employed by the Zurich Pension people) I am totally confused as to what to do for the best.

Can anybody advise me?

Thankfully I do not have a pension through Zurich Insurance but I am posting warnings about this company everywhere I can. I had a home & contents insurance policy with them and made a claim in 2005 and am still fighting for justice. Read the full story in my blog elainesbrokenankle.blogspot.com

My employer's pension scheme was with Zurich, so by choosing it I benefitted by my employer making contributions to my scheme. Or so I thought, actually Zurich benefitted, as for every pound put into the scheme, they pocketed 65 pence.

This 65% "charge" was not called a charge though, they referred to it as 'reduced allocation'.

When I subsequently changed jobs, my new employer's pension administrators had to write five times before Zurich transferred what was left of the pension - the transfer process took a year to complete.

I would recommend anyone to steer well clear of Zurich and their associated advisors - mine was Barry Cunningham Associates.