GROVE PENSION SOLUTIONS Avis 

The staff pulled out all the stops to meet a very tight deadline over the period leading up to Christmas.

Helped with D.B transfer, every member of staff really helpful, answered all questions and there were many truthfully and very promptly. They guided me the whole way through the process,making sure I understood this very complex transfer from start to finish, would recommend anyone thinking about transfer to give 5hem a call.

I would like to say I was very pleased with the customer service I received. The team were very friendly and professional and quick to sort my request. Thank you.

Timely, clear and helpful.

Great service, very thorough. Everything explained in layman's terms, so easy to understand and follow proceedings.
A very thorough findings/recommendation report submitted at the end.
It is a long process, started around September 2023, but you have peace of mind at the end.

Passed onto Grove by Manning and Co. To coordinate the transfer of 2 pensions into one fund. Communications and advice throughout the lenghty transfer process was second to none. All worked very well and in favour of my particular situation and future requirements. Cannot fault the service I received from Grove. Five Stars.

We went to Grove as we needed advice and guidance on a Defined Benefit Pension transfer. Our experience with the team at Grove has been first class. At first we thought that the fees were expensive but for the advice, recommendations and particularly the service we have received it has been worth every penny. Particular mention and thanks to Chloe Muddiman and Kevin Gallafent who with the rest of the team at Grove have gone above and beyond in terms of response and service, thank you, we will certainly be back when we next need pension advice.

Very understanding to what my expectations were and were always quick to respond if I asked for clarity on any points. Easy to deal with compared to a previous experience with another company. It is a long complicated process and they made things feel easier always considering what my feelings were at each stage

Grove helped me through the tricky process of transferring out of a final salary scheme, this is not a good choice for everyone, but my circumstances made this choice the best way to go. Grove helped me get over the many hurdles put in place to protect people from unscrupulous advisors. Luckily for me I got the correct advice for me and assistance to achieve my goals. Thank you, Grove.

What can I say fantastic from the start friendly approachable understanding and went above and beyond to help great team thankyou so much xxx

My experience with Grove has been really good, the team were always quick to deal with my query and always made sure I fully understood the risks of transferring out my Defined Benefit pension.

Gove were brilliant from start to finish. I cannot praise their approach to customer service enough: efficient, professional and understanding. Rare these days but every email was answered quickly and clearly, every call was dealt with in a friendly and helpful way. They listen.

Grove were very professional in carrying out my transfer. The explained everything in clear correspondence and conversations. They made everything clear on the risks of transferring my pension so that I fully understood the process and the risks. Based on several interviews to ensure I was happy with my decisions the transfer went ahead smoothly, and my transfer was completed. They removed all the stress. Thank you.

efficient, helpful, knowledgeable professionals who were a delight to do business with

Recommended by my financial adviser, I found Grove first rate. They were quick, thorough and communicated very well. I would be very happy to use them again. Engage them with confidence

From the start of my journey with Grove pensions. I was always kept informed by email or phone of every stage. Even when I had an hiccup with moving one of my pensions Grove quickly sorted the problem by finding a solution ( not Groves fault). Chloe and Louise were fantastic and always professional when I spoke to them getting straight back to myself with the answers to my questions. I would like to thank the whole team for helping me out and giving me peace of mind. Would highly recommend Grove pension solutions.

I was very impressed. Having a 40k lump sum within a final salary scheme , I was offered a derisory 3% annuity & decided to transfer my money to a SIPP. I struggled to find a company willing and able to take on my transfer. After three abortive attempts ( where companies seemed not to know they hadn't the authority to transfer out of a final salary scheme - or pulled out) Groves took on the job and stuck it through to completion. It is expensive but everyone I spoke to gave me about the same price but without Groves I wouldn't have got through the bureacracy and the pension company lies to get the transfer done

My pension was successfully transferred by Grove. If it was purely about the end result it would be 5 stars, unfortunately it’s not as I felt their process generated a fair amount of anxiety & irritation.

Positives:
- Grove is genuinely open to looking into the feasibility of transferring your pension. I contacted a LOT of IFA firms & a good 80% of them weren’t interested at all, with most of the rest just interested in taking a fee to introduce you to a firm actually in the pension transfer business.
- Grove offers free abridged advice, not all firms do this.
- I was impressed with Dan Hubbard, my Grove IFA. In my opinion, he gave a 5* service.
- They successfully transferred my pension.

Negatives:
1) For a relatively small sub £100k pension pot I paid £2,950 for “advice” I confess I didn’t really want, however the FCA legally obliged me to take. In fairness, Grove spelt this out in advance, I signed up for it, nonetheless it feels like I’ve been financially gouged by what I felt was an exorbitant fee (perhaps a consequence of an uncompetitive market place? There’s very little choice out there).
2) I, like I’m sure all clients, was told up front the process will take months (They’re not Liars!). It just felt there were needlessly long holding periods, I wondered perhaps to help justify my fee (see how hard we’re working on your one basic DB pension!) or to demonstrate their due diligence/consideration to the FCA? As the Client, it came across as No…. Sense….. Of…. Urgency. At various times I contacted my DB administrator only to hear nothing was pending on their side, which suggested to me the “ball” (deflated) was in Grove’s court.
3) I felt an awful lot of emails were generic copy/paste (read this, fill out that..), which is perhaps to be expected with this process, however others mentioned items that I felt had absolutely nothing to do with my own DB plan. The latter often caused anxiety until I twigged these emails, despite their fee, weren’t really tailored to me.
4) While I was impressed with Dan, I only spoke with him once for c.1hr, and couldn’t get through to him again. Unfortunately for me (the Client actually paying the bills!) this meant I had several months of dealing with significantly less knowledgeable staff, waiting ages for email responses &/or call backs. I get the fact that you may be busy (Frankly, that’s a Grove staffing decision), but so was I, your stressed fee paying client, I expected much better… Just one low level example, in the final stages after my transfer had been approved I emailed 3 grove addresses “please let me know ASAP if you think anything else needs to be filled out” to get the first (& only) response a WEEK LATER “I can confirm the documentation is in order.”…. Why the delay??? It was just admin left at this point!! This was my final impression, while in the real world the markets were gyrating & US/European banks were collapsing & I couldn’t take any action to protect my pension assets.

As a parting comment: The FCA says you must take advice (if pot>£30k) although there is nothing to say that you must follow it! While there are Firms that will take such “insistent clients” (e.g Aegon, Royal London etc), I began to think of Grove’s role as taking a fee from my current self to represent my future self (i.e. Am I ripping my future self off?). It’s a difficult tightrope for them, however also for their clients who I feel would benefit from a more personalised, professional service from better trained staff … as after all, they’re charging enough.

Unsung heros

Exemplary service; recommended by a family member in the financial services - was blown away by their professionalism and attention to detail. Really felt the advisors were invested in finding the best solution for us on a personal level.
Would give 10stars if possible.

I was introduced to Grove, via my IFA, who could not conduct the business transaction I was looking to undertake, a defined benefit pension transfer, to personal pension drawdown.

This has risk attached to it, specifically the loss of guaranteed income at retirement age and moving to an environment without guarantee. My pension funds now being at the mercy of investment markets and fluctuating annuity rates. However, the additional flexibility to my personal circumstances and objectives this is the correct route for me.

Grove where totally professional in testing my objectives and testing my understanding of the implications of my actions. They discussed at length my objectives and considered other options and possibilities, before making their recommendation.

They guided my expectations and exceeded these on time scales. Their communication by phone and email, never left me in any doubt and I never felt the need to chase them.

Overall Grove never over promised or underdelivered, I was always confident in their communication. Would I use them again, yes i very much intend to