Updated: 22nd January 2022
PensionBee Review
Very much focused on pensions and transferring and consolidating them, as the name implies. You get your own ‘beekeeper’ too, to help you through the process.
Overall Score 3
Overall Score
Our View
What accounts are available?
As the name suggests, PensionBee is all about pensions, which explains why they appear to score lowly here. That’s because their focus is on the Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) they run, rather than other accounts like ISAs and GIAs. On the face of it, that restricts choice, but the point here is that you’re getting a pension specialist. Not only that, their big thing is pensions consolidation. That means getting all your old, probably smaller, pensions in one place to make that money work harder for your retirement.
Score 1
Score
What kind of investments can I make?
PensionBee offer 9 different investment portfolios – but what marks them out as different is that they aren’t just 1 to 8 with a socially responsible option. Yes there is an SRI portfolio, but there’s also things like ‘Future World’ that invests in companies that pledge to move to an environmentally-friendly economy; or ‘Sharia’ which Invests your money only into Sharia-compliant companies. The most popular ‘plan’ as they call them is the tailored one which invests your money differently as you go through life, moving your money into safer investments as you get older.
Score 3
Score
What account features are available?
Pensionbee offer 9 different investment portfolios – but what marks them out as different is that they aren’t just 1 to 8 with a socially responsible option. Yes there is an SRI portfolio, but there’s also things like ‘Future World’ that invests in companies that pledge to move to an environmentally-friendly economy; or ‘Sharia’ which Invests your money only into Sharia-compliant companies. The most popular ‘plan’ as they call them is the Tailored one which Invests your money differently as you go through life, moving your money into safer investments as you get older.
Score 1
Score
How can I access my account and get support?
There are actually three ways to contact PensionBee – you can call, and there’s a chat app on every page, but you can also email in too. You have a dedicated BeeKeeper who’s on hand to answer any queries you may have. Once you’re signed up then you can access your account through the website, or via an app available for both iOS and Android smartphones.
Score 5
Score
How much does it cost?
The platform fee for PensionBee is at the higher end of the range, but the costs of the funds they use are incredibly low meaning the overall cost comes in at a decent level when compared against the other DIWM offerings.