FIL

Fidelity is a name UK savers mostly meet through pensions. The brand runs workplace pensions, which employers set up for their staff, and personal pension plans, which people arrange themselves, and customers manage their retirement savings online at fidelitypensions.co.uk¹. If you have a pension through work, or one you set up in your own name, Fidelity may already be looking after it: employers choose a pension provider to invest pension contributions for their staff, and Fidelity is one of the firms that can be chosen².

This page explains what Fidelity offers, how its pensions and charges work, how to manage a plan online, how to check you are dealing with the real firm, and where to go if something goes wrong. The company behind the Fidelity name has been an active UK business since 1997³, and its details are in the key facts below.

What Fidelity offers UK customers

Fidelity's UK business is pensions. Its website, fidelitypensions.co.uk, is the home of its workplace pension administration and its personal pension plans, where customers manage savings for retirement online¹. Fidelity's legal documents also describe how investments are contracted: investors contract with a general distributor, FIL Distributors, as principal, with Fidelity's UK administration arm acting as its agent⁵. For a customer this changes nothing day to day, but it explains why the Fidelity name and the FIL company names appear together on documents.

If you are weighing up pensions generally, the pensions guide covers how the different types work, and the pension and investment providers directory lists the firms operating in this market.

Life insurance: what the cover does

Life insurance of this kind pays out a sum to your family or other beneficiaries if you die during the term of the policy, and it is often bought alongside critical illness or income protection cover. The company behind the Fidelity name appears on the Prudential Regulation Authority's list of UK-incorporated insurers⁴. The protection insurance guide explains the types of cover and how they differ.

Where a policy is underwritten by a different insurer, the policy documents name that insurer, and it is that firm which pays the claim. The FSCS, the UK's compensation scheme, protects long-term insurance claims: for term life insurance and critical illness insurance, and for income protection insurance, it pays 100% of the claim if the firm failed on or after 3 July 2015, and 90% if the firm failed before that date⁶.

Fidelity pensions: workplace and personal plans

Fidelity runs two broad kinds of pension. A workplace pension is one your employer sets up: the employer chooses a pension provider to invest your pension contributions, and Fidelity is one of the firms employers can pick². A personal pension is one you arrange yourself: you choose the provider and decide how your contributions will be paid, sometimes through an independent financial adviser⁷. Some employers offer personal pensions as workplace pensions, so the line between the two can blur⁸.

All personal pensions are defined contribution schemes, which means the value of your pension depends on how much has been paid in and how the investments have performed, rather than being a fixed salary-linked promise⁹. You can normally claim a personal pension or workplace pension while still working, as long as you have reached the age agreed with your pension provider¹⁰. The pensions guide sets out how defined contribution pensions build up and how they turn into income at retirement.

How charges on a Fidelity pension work

Pension providers may charge for starting and running a pension, and usually they take a percentage of your pension fund¹¹. That means the charge is not a fixed fee: it is worked out against the value of your pot, so the amount you pay in pounds rises as your savings grow, and falls if the pot shrinks. Charges of this kind are deducted from the pension rather than billed to you, which is why many people never notice them.

Fidelity publishes the current charge levels for its own plans on its website, and this page carries no rates: check its own documents for today's figures. What matters when comparing is the total cost, not a single headline percentage, because a plan can carry more than one charge. The general rules on pension charges, and how they eat into a pot over time, are covered in the pensions guide.

Managing a Fidelity pension online

Fidelity Pensions customers manage their plans through PlanViewer on fidelitypensions.co.uk. To plan your retirement income, you log in to PlanViewer, select "Plan your retirement income" from the "Planning my retirement" menu, and click to generate your retirement pack¹². The retirement pack sets out what you have and the options for turning it into income.

When you come to withdraw money, Fidelity runs checks first. Its guidance states: "To help protect you and Fidelity against financial crime, we need to check your identity and run an electronic check on" the bank account you want the money paid into¹². This is a fraud-prevention step, and it means withdrawals are not always instant: allow time for the checks to complete.

Online pension services are becoming easier to see in one place. Pensions dashboards are online tools where people can access their pension information, and by December 2025 the programme had connected 60 million, or three-quarters, of workplace and personal pension records in scope¹³. If you are tracking down an old pension, the government's Pension Tracing Service helps people find contact details for workplace and personal pension schemes, including those of someone who has died¹⁵.

Joining, transferring in or moving a Fidelity pension

Joining a Fidelity workplace pension happens through your employer, since it is the employer that chooses the provider². A personal pension is arranged directly with the provider, by you or through an adviser⁷.

If you are thinking of moving an existing pension into a Fidelity plan, or out of one, the usual steps are: check your current scheme allows transfers out; make sure you will not lose any benefits; decide which scheme to transfer into; check whether you need to pay for financial advice; ask your current provider for a transfer value; and ask the new scheme to start the transfer¹⁶.

Transfers out of defined benefit (salary-linked) schemes carry particular weight, because you are giving up a guaranteed promise. Trustees of defined benefit schemes are required to provide members with a link to official information on considering a transfer from a defined benefit pension¹⁷. Take your time, and never move a pension because of an unexpected call, message or offer: that is how pension scams begin.

Checking you are dealing with the real Fidelity

Pension scams are common enough that the body overseeing workplace pensions pressed trustees in 2026 to use every contact with savers to warn about pension scams¹⁸. Scammers impersonate real firms, so before you act on any approach, check the contact details match those listed on the Financial Conduct Authority's Firm Checker, to avoid scammers pretending to be a real firm¹⁹. The same advice applies to any firm, not just Fidelity: use the contact details on the register, not the ones given to you²⁰.

Searching the official register by the firm's reference number is the most accurate check²¹. Fidelity's is 186526¹. If a website, caller or adviser claims to be Fidelity and the details do not match the register, treat it as a scam and report it. The scams and fraud guide explains the warning signs and where to report them.

Complaints and where to get help

Start with Fidelity itself: firms must handle complaints and give you a final response. If you are unhappy with that response, or eight weeks pass without one, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which covers personal pensions⁷. The ombudsman's online form guides you through the information needed²². Its service is free.

The ombudsman looks at complaints about pensions and annuities, including how a plan was run, how it was sold and how a transfer was handled¹⁹. If your complaint is about a workplace pension scheme run by trustees rather than a personal plan, the body that oversees workplace pensions explains how scheme members can report concerns about their workplace pension²³.

Some complaints go elsewhere. If your complaint is about a decision made about you without human involvement, for example by an automated system, the first step is to complain to the organisation, and if you remain dissatisfied you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office²⁴. The consumer protection guide maps out all these routes.

How your money is protected with Fidelity

Money in a pension is invested, not deposited, so the protection that applies is different from bank account protection. The value of your pot can fall as well as rise with the investments. If the firm holding your product fails, the FSCS compensation scheme steps in, and the level of cover depends on the type of product: for long-term insurance such as life insurance and income protection, it pays 100% of the claim if the firm failed on or after 3 July 2015, and 90% if before⁶.

The company behind the Fidelity name has been an active UK business since 1997³ and appears on the Prudential Regulation Authority's list of UK insurers¹. You can verify a firm's status yourself on the Financial Conduct Authority's register using its firm reference number²¹, which is the single best check that you are dealing with a genuine firm.