Utmost Life and Pensions Avis 356

Is anybody else here old enough to remember the Monty Python sketch about the insurance company which sold special ‘No Claims Policies’? Well Utmost are the No-pay Out Investment Specialists. My wife has been attempting to realise some investment policies she was left since April. Nothing much happened at first - after we chased them they sent us some forms. Since then, the service has got worse. After we sent the forms in, they just gave up replying to emails. It is now July. We finally managed to phone them. The lady on the phone seemed to think the payout could have been delayed because the original purchasers were recently deceased. I suppose that could be the case: they passed on roughly a decade ago, but then, time obviously passes at a different rate for Utmost.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE… We’ve had an email from Utmost saying the assets have been realised and payment would be made in a few days… Oh - hang on, that was a week and half ago. Still no payout. The incompetence of these people verges on criminal negligence…

Slow, slow, slow. Two week response time for anything. I telephoned and asked why so slow, answer was we are very busy...
So surely hire more staff!
I am transferring out!

Extremely helpful whilst also professional and personable.

Awful,awful timeline with reclaiming/altering your pension plan/needs.Filled out their option form with my decision to drawdown some of my pension more than a month ago.As someone with liver cancer,time is not on my side.Phoned today and assured their response was posted out yesterday-v.convenient..So,after filling in my option form a good month ago-and giving my bank/payment details,they will (allegedly)be sending out a letter asking me for my bank details!!Nice one utmost-hopefully, I'll still be alive when you finally get your act together and feel ready to give me some of MY pension!

Quick and courteous initial response by post all forms I requested have been provided and everything explained. Will update throughout my process of funds withdrawl. Mr D King...

12/05/25 Just a quick update on the progress of my request I was sent all relevant forms in relatively quick time. The forms contained detailed explanations and I had to sign a declaration that I understood fully the implications of withdrawing funds early. 7 days after I sent the completed forms I was sent written confirmation that they had been received and when I can expect payment. So surprising straightforward so far after reading some of the reviews I was a bit dubious to say the least will update when this process has completed so far 5 star!

It’s impossible to contact them by phone. When I finally got through after nearly half an hour they pretended they could not hear me and put the phone down! Worst customer services of a pensions company I have ever come across.

A website run on steam power at best. You try to log in and you will wait 10 or 15 mins. Then you are told that you will be sent a code to your phone....it never arrives.
Keep clear of these lot if you can.

Absolutely a waste of time.
The App they have for registration doesn't work, spent 15 minutes going through everything to login only for it to not work, called their customer services who first of all challenged me in stating I wasn't registered when I clearly was then to admit there's an issue with their app, it made them look like fools, made me look like an idiot having to repeat myself more than once.

Yes I had a missed call and ignored it as came across as Equitable Life and I was working. EMAIL for any further contact. If voice communications are required I will call when I'm not working and is convenient for me.

I found some old paperwork from an equitable life pension I had. It had an address from 20 years and also my maiden name so I thought it would be impossible to sort. However spoke to a lovely helpful lady who advised to email in passport and address details and it was sorted within a couple of days. So no I have found the pension I didn't realise I had which I will be moving into current pension pot. Very pleased with the service

The customer services are satisfactory but the administration charges are very excessive and consequently significantly reduce any possibility of credible financial advantage. I was poorly advised by a financial advisor and suffered a £15k loss: not due to fluctuations in the market but entirely due to administration charges. On discovering this potential loss Utmost chose to ignore my requests and continued to take every penny possible from my savings. Beware! They're not in existence for your benefit!!!

I left a review in January saying that my relative that died almost 18 months ago had a considerable amount of money invested with Utmost and they WILL NOT PAY OUT. After excuses such as not my fault, not my department etc. etc. they asked me to remove the review which I did in the belief that they were going to pay. A month on and STILL waiting. They do not reply to our solicitors emails. Phone calls from the solicitor are cut off with a message that they are undergoing training. They certainly need training but the sort of training they must be doing is how to keep clients money and what they can spend it on. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MONEY unless you can afford to have it taken from you. YOU WILL NEVER SEE IT AGAIN.

We are trying to assign the final segment of a managed policy to our youngest son and the saga is still running well after a year. Originally we were Old Mutual, then Quilter customers all without a hitch. We were moved to Utmost, and never dreamt the delay tactics we have been experiencing and just how niave we have been. Providing all documentation and responding to emails and letters with red herring questions promptly! We regularly get letters asking us where the monthly payment is, when in reality it was closed years ago and most of the segments assigned! After reading these reviews I now realise we are not alone, and this is common business practice. How can this be allowed in this day and age? Lucy G has been helpful when we get to speak to her e.g. both calls today have gone un returned, first she was in a meeting, then she had left for the day by 1655hrs. It looks like another year end will have passed before we manage to sort this.

Dickensian (in the worst possible way) organisation to deal with. Outdated, unnecessarily structured and delayed responses to queries, seemingly contrived hurdles to leap, and ALWAYS the most difficult and time consuming of the four pension companies I’m invested with.

People’s investments require legal and professional safeguarding, but not at the cost of dilly-dallying, wranglings over signatures that don’t QUITE marry their records, demands for returned documents without the courtesy of reply-paid envelopes, and repetition of information already provided. Twice this organisation have ‘lost’ documents returned to them, and the impression left in dealing with them is unsavoury at best.

What should be a very simple transfer request for a small pension to a different fund provider is proving extremely difficult - unlike two other organisations I’m dealing with where the process for transferring much larger funds was efficient, sensible, yet with safeguarding still evident and legally sufficient.

Don’t listen to the PR motivated reply that may/may not ensue - just know the bad reviews here match my own experience with this awfully inept company!

The gentleman I was dealing with as very helpful and prompt with his replies.

Excellent Personal Service

Excellent service

Thank you for your speed of service.

I have contacted them a couple of times but have had no response.

I need access to my funds , but am unable to because of lack of response.

Why does it take 5-8 days to reply to a simple email request?