In this article, I review my experience of joining Pension Bee in 2024. I cover the pros and cons of joining Pension Bee, the Pension Bee fees, how Pension Bee works, plus a final review verdict of Pension Bee with a £100 refer a friend bonus to your pension account once you transfer your pensions to Pension. *Disclosure: If you complete a Pension transfer via Pension Bee, we both get £100 added to our pensions. This article is a review and not financial advice of any kind.
Table of Contents
Retiring Jokes
The age to retire keeps going up, my age will be 68. Check out yours here. Retiring and pensions all seem so serious. Before we get into the meat and bones of pensions for retirement, here are my favourite five retiring jokes. 1. Money isn’t everything but it sure keeps you in touch with your children. 2. You’re retired – goodbye tension, hello pension! 3. What do you call someone who’s happy on Mondays? Retired! 4. The best time to start thinking about your retirement is before the boss does. 5. Don’t mess with old people, life imprisonment is not that much of a deterrent anymore.
What is Pension Bee?
PensionBee is a leading online pension provider listed on the stock exchange. The platform helps you transfer your old pensions into one new plan, that you can then manage online. PensionBee lets you manage your pension like you manage your bank account: check your live balance, see your projected retirement income, and set up contributions. You can combine all your old workplace pensions and SIPPs into one new online plan through PensionBee. If you have worked for several companies with different pensions, it can be very useful to have them in one single place, so you know what you have in total. N.B. If you join via these links, I will get a referral bonus.
What is the Pension Bee Calculator?
A pension calculator is a tool that estimates your projected retirement income based on the duration of years you have left until retirement and your long-term saving goals. With PensionBee’s pension calculator, you can set a retirement goal and see if your savings seem to be on track.
Is Pension Bee Free?
Using PensionBee to find your pensions is free. The only fee you pay once your pension is invested is the annual management fee. This ranges from 0.50% – 0.95% fee, depending on which plan you are in. See the below section for more details. Join PensionBee here.
What are the Pension Bee Fees?
An annual pension fee in the market of 1–2% should be considered expensive. PensionBee fees depend on the type of account you choose. PensionBee’s annual management fees range between 0.50% and 0.95%. Personally, my one was a 0.7% annual fee, as I had only a few thousand pounds in pension amount. The fees are 0.70% for the first £100,000 and 0.35% for the remaining balance above £100,000.
Is Pension Bee safe?
Pension Bee is authorised under the Financial Conduct Authority to provide pension services in the UK. Your money is also protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so if something goes wrong with Pension Bee/Your Pension Provider you would get 100% of your pension back, so you are safe from a legal point. However, you do put your money at risk every time you invest in the markets, as pensions can grow and decline over time. Generally, they trend higher over time.
How does Pension Bee work?
Pension Bee starts by transferring your old pensions and investing them into a brand new online plan.
Step 1: Sign up in minutes, just apply basic details, National Insurance number,
Step 2: Tell Pension Bee about your existing pensions
Step 3: 12-week switching process – their Beekeepers will provide regular updates every step of the way
What is the Pension Bee Calculator?
The Pension Bee calculator shows how much income your pension could generate in your retirement. It is quite useful to find out how long your pension could last and see how contributions might impact your savings.
Pension Bee referral code
Currently, there is a £100 referral bonus if you join up.
What’s good about Pension Bee?
*Better control over your overall pension pot – All your pensions from previous jobs are in one place, which is easier.
*Live pricing information.
*It’s very quick to sign up – literally a few minutes.
*Simple but clear range of investment plans.
*A strong summary of your pension pots, but with the option to get further details too.
*The customer service is good with a live chat feature and a reactive customer service team.
*There are useful videos to watch and the website is easy to follow.
*£100 referral code.
What is not so good about PensionBee?
*Their annual costs are not the lowest in the market (between 0.50% and 0.95%). For people with more than 20K in savings, there are cheaper funds out there and you could self-manage your pension funds (through a SIPP) via many trading platforms like AJ Bell.
*There is a bit of administration needed to get set up with Pension Bee, e.g. phoning up your old pension provider and verifying change of address details etc.
*Like any pension provider, your pension can go up and down in performance (yet you will still pay an annual management fee).
*Each plan has only set funds, which may disappoint some people who want to invest in shares and bonds.
*No financial advice was given by PensionBee.
PensionBee alternatives
Alternatives to PensionBee include AJ Bell’s lower-cost self-invested personal pension (SIPP) which gives you more control over how your pension pot is invested. The right option for you will depend on several factors, including your risk appetite, and the time you are willing to keep funds locked away. Soon there is likely to be a Government pension dashboard, which will show where your previous pensions are but won’t consolidate them, which could push more people to review SIPP options on the likes of AJ Bell, Bestinvest and Hargreaves Lansdowne.
PensionBee tracker plan
State Street Global Advisers manage this PensionBee pension. It invests your money in global shares, bonds, and cash. This tracker fund follows the markets as they move. When it comes to the risk level, this plan is classed as medium and its fee is 0.50% annually.
PensionBee tailored plan
Managed by BlackRock, this is a plan that reacts according to your age. The further away from retirement you are, the more risks you can afford to take purely because there is time for things to correct themselves should they go wrong. As you get older, this pension fund will become more conservative with the risks being taken. This way of managing a pension is usually referred to as life styling. When it comes to the risk level, this plan is classed as higher and its fee is 0.70% annually.
PensionBee fossil fuel-free plan
Managed by Legal and General, this plan is a socially responsible one. It won’t invest funds into companies where there are reserves of coal, oil, gas or tobacco products. For anyone who wants their investment to make a difference by investing in a socially responsible plan that excludes violators of the UN Global Compact, this could be a good fund. When it comes to the risk level, this plan is classed as higher and its fee is 0.75% annually.
PensionBee Reviews – Trust Pilot
PensionBee Reviews are currently on 4.6/5. Most customers highlight the easy-to-use, simple-to-transfer service of Pension Bee. The negative comments are mainly from customers who have found it challenging to communicate with their customer services. Join here and occasionally there are signing-up new customer bonuses.
Overall rating of PensionBee
PensionBee Reviews are currently on 4.6/5. Most customers highlight the easy-to-use, simple-to-transfer service of Pension Bee. The negative comments are mainly from customers who have found it challenging to communicate with their customer services. Join here and get a £100 bonus into your pension.
Overall, PensionBee is an innovative pension provider, which offers a top service where you combine your old pension into a pot, making it easier to know your current and projected pension pot. Despite, it not being the cheapest service out there a bit of admin time is needed to ensure the transition. The control over your pension pot, the strong summary of your pension pots. GreatDealsMadeEasy gives it a 7/10 rating.
If you have any money-saving or pension tips, please share them with us.