ReAssure

ReAssure is an insurance company that looks after policies people took out years, and often decades, ago. It does not sell new policies to the general public in the way a high-street insurer does. Its business is the "closed book": pension, life insurance, endowment and investment bond policies that were originally opened with other companies and have since been transferred to ReAssure to administer. Many of its customers did not choose ReAssure and first encounter the name on a letter about a policy they had almost forgotten.

ReAssure is a brand best known for looking after pension and life insurance policies that were originally sold by other companies. It has taken over blocks of business over the years from providers including Barclays, Guardian Financial Services, HSBC, Legal & General and Old Mutual Wealth¹. So if your old paperwork says Skandia or Old Mutual Wealth, your policy may well be administered by ReAssure today, and the same applies to policies bought through independent financial advisers under those earlier names².

ReAssure's own governance reporting for 2024 gives a picture of what it is like as a customer. On average 80% of customers were satisfied with the service they received across 2024, slightly below the company's target, and 86% were satisfied with the digital service. Some 95% of transactions were completed within 10 days, although money-out and retirement journeys were slower⁴. The main complaint issue is delays, particularly when customers want to take money out of their pension at retirement⁴.

Why your policy may now be with ReAssure

Policies end up with ReAssure through transfers of business between insurers. When one insurer sells or transfers a book of policies to another, the policyholders keep the same policy numbers and the same terms, but a different company administers them and sends the annual statements. ReAssure has taken on books from several well-known names over the years, which is why its own past includes the Skandia and Old Mutual Wealth names².

For the customer, the practical change is who you contact. Your premiums, fund choices, guarantees and policy terms continue on the same basis, but letters, valuations and queries now go through ReAssure. If you hold a former Old Mutual Wealth life assurance policy, the provider Quilter confirms that online access for those policies moved to the new ReAssure Online Customer Centre⁵.

ReAssure's servicing arrangements have also changed recently. In 2024 it outsourced all customer servicing to an external company, Diligenta, which has involved moving some work to India⁴. If you call ReAssure, you may therefore be speaking to staff employed by that external company rather than by ReAssure itself. The firm's own governance report notes that vulnerable customer servicing needs some improvement⁴, which is worth knowing if you or a family member needs extra support when dealing with the company.

Policies ReAssure looks after: pensions, life cover, endowments and bonds

ReAssure administers several kinds of long-term policy, and the type you hold determines what you can do with it.

Pensions. Personal pensions, including stakeholder pension schemes, are provided by insurance companies, banks and building societies⁶, and ReAssure holds many personal pension policies taken out with former brands. A personal pension is a pot of money built up from your own contributions and, where relevant, contributions from an employer or tax relief, invested to grow until retirement. Pension schemes invest in different types of assets, including bonds issued by corporations and governments, equities (shares in companies), property, infrastructure and other alternative investments⁸. The value of your ReAssure pension therefore depends on how those underlying investments have performed.

Life cover. ReAssure administers life insurance policies, including term assurance, which pays out if the policyholder dies within the policy's term. Life insurance is priced on factors such as age, health and lifestyle⁹, but for an existing policy the terms were set when it started and continue unchanged.

Endowments. A savings endowment policy combines investment with life cover: life assurance is always included in savings endowment policies, with the cost taken from the returns on the investment, varying according to the consumer's age when the plan started, and charges tend to be higher for those who were older at the outset¹⁰. Endowments were commonly sold alongside interest-only mortgages and run for a fixed term, paying out either a guaranteed amount or the investment return at maturity.

Investment bonds. These are single-premium investment policies, often with-profits, held for growth or occasional withdrawals. Complaints about transfers from with-profits funds often involve market value adjustments, an exit penalty that reduces the payout when investments have performed poorly¹¹.

Protection policies. ReAssure also administers policies that cover illness or redundancy, such as mortgage payment protection insurance, which covers your repayments if you become ill or lose your job¹².

For a wider explanation of each product type, see our guides to pensions, protection insurance and investing.

How charges and fund switches work

Every policy ReAssure administers carries charges, and these were set out in your original policy documents and in the annual statements ReAssure sends. Charges typically cover the cost of administering the policy and managing the funds your money is invested in. For endowments, the cost of the life cover element is taken from the investment returns and varies with the age at which the plan started¹⁰. This site carries no rates or fee figures for ReAssure's products: for the charges that apply to your own policy, check your latest statement or ask ReAssure directly, since charges differ by policy, by fund and by when the policy started.

If your policy is invested in funds you can choose between, you may be able to switch funds. A switch moves your money between the investment funds available under your policy, for example from a fund holding shares to one holding bonds. Different funds carry different charging levels and different levels of risk, so a switch can change both the growth you might get and the charges you pay. Some older policies also carry exit penalties or market value adjustments on certain funds, particularly with-profits funds, which reduce the amount paid if you move money out¹¹. Before switching, ask ReAssure in writing what the current charges are on both the existing fund and the one you are considering, and whether any penalty applies.

ReAssure cannot advise you on which funds to choose. Guidance bodies are clear about the limits of this kind of help: they cannot tell you what the best course of action is or recommend specific products or investments⁷. A personal recommendation on fund choices comes from a financial adviser, who will normally charge a fee for that advice.

Taking money from a pension: the options and where to buy them

When you reach the point of taking money from a ReAssure pension, it is important to understand that ReAssure administers the policy but does not sell the products you might use to turn your pot into income. The only types of pension that can be paid from money purchase arrangements are scheme pensions, lifetime annuities or drawdown pensions¹³. In practice this means:

• An annuity, where you use your pot to buy a guaranteed income for life from an insurance company.
• Drawdown, where your money stays invested and you draw an income from it. Because your pension remains invested, its value can rise and fall until you take the money, so your retirement income is not guaranteed¹.
• Taking the whole pot as cash, which Pension Wise warns about in strong terms: do not withdraw or transfer your pension because of a cold call, visit, email or text, as it is likely a scam designed to steal your money¹⁴.

You buy an annuity or set up drawdown with a provider of your choosing, not necessarily ReAssure. Shopping around for an annuity matters because different insurers offer different incomes for the same pot, and you are not obliged to take the options your current provider quotes. Free guidance is available from Pension Wise for people aged 50 or over with a defined contribution pension, and it explains these options without recommending any particular one.

One protection is worth knowing about at this stage. The Pension Protection Fund protects members of defined benefit schemes whose employer fails, but it does not protect defined contribution schemes, sometimes known as money purchase schemes¹⁵. A ReAssure personal pension is a defined contribution arrangement, so its value depends on investment performance rather than any compensation scheme guaranteeing a payout level.

ReAssure's own reporting acknowledges that money-out and retirement journeys are where its service is slowest, and that delays at retirement are the main complaint issue it receives⁴. If you are planning to retire, it is worth starting the process well before you need the money.

Transferring a pension away and the scam checks involved

You can move a ReAssure pension to another provider, and many people do so to consolidate pots, access wider fund choices or reach a provider offering the retirement product they want. The usual steps in any pension transfer 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.

A pension transfer usually cannot be undone, so always make sure you will be better off before committing¹⁶. Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman about pension transfers commonly involve advisers failing to disclose higher charges on the new arrangement, the loss of guarantees such as guaranteed annuity rates, market value adjustments on with-profits funds, unsuitable risk checks or investments, and the loss of workplace pension benefits¹¹. Ask ReAssure in writing whether your policy carries any of these before you transfer.

Scam checks are a formal part of the process. The Pension Schemes Act 2021 helps protect members from pension scams by requiring trustees of occupational pension schemes to ensure transfers are made to safe and not fraudulent schemes¹⁷, and there are restrictions on transfers of pensions overseas, transfers that might not be in the saver's best interest and transfers where there are signs of a scam¹⁸. A pension scams leaflet must be sent to any member who requests a pension transfer¹⁹, and guidance notes that scams can occur when members seek to transfer their benefits, take early retirement or take their benefits²⁰. Industry concerns have been reported that 5% of pension transfers could have features of a scam²¹.

Making a claim: death, illness, income protection and maturity

Different policies pay out in different ways, and the claim process depends on which type you hold.

Death claims on life cover. Contact ReAssure with the death certificate and the policy details. Once a firm knows a customer is deceased, rules require it to take all reasonable steps to communicate instead with a personal representative of the estate or the beneficiaries of the estate²². If the person who died was receiving benefits, use the Tell Us Once service, which reports the death to multiple government departments in one go²³. In Scotland, a Funeral Support Payment may be recoverable from the estate if the person who died was aged 18 or over and had money or assets in their estate²⁴.

Illness and income protection claims. Policies such as income protection or mortgage payment protection pay out when you cannot work due to illness, and in the case of mortgage payment protection, if you lose your job¹². Insurers have an obligation to handle all claims promptly and fairly, to update you on a claim's progress, and not to reject a claim unreasonably. If you are nearing the end of life, there is a different, faster way to claim certain benefits such as Attendance Allowance²⁵.

Maturity claims on endowments and bonds. Endowments and investment bonds pay out at the end of their fixed term, or earlier on death. ReAssure should write to you as a policy approaches maturity, but if you hold an old endowment and have heard nothing, contact it with your policy number.

When a claim is rejected, the Financial Ombudsman Service can be asked to look at what happened. It can ask the insurer to deal with a claim it has rejected, add interest to any claim that should have been paid, pay for more work to be done, and pay compensation for any distress or inconvenience caused²⁶.

Managing your policy online with ReAssure Now

ReAssure's online offering is more limited than those of banks and mainstream insurers. Its own governance reporting states that the online self-service offering remains limited and that it does not currently offer an app⁴. What exists is a web-based customer centre rather than a mobile app.

For former Old Mutual Wealth policyholders, online access is through the ReAssure Online Customer Centre. The provider Quilter, which previously owned the Old Mutual Wealth business, confirms that if you have a former OMWLAL policy and want to register online, you will need to do that through the new ReAssure Online Customer Centre, and that if you used the Old Mutual Wealth online Customer Centre you will still be able to access your former policies online, with the same information and services provided⁵.

Through the online centre you can typically view your policy value, check your fund choices and update personal details. Transactions that involve money leaving the policy, such as retirements and transfers, generally require you to contact ReAssure directly, and these are the journeys its own reporting identifies as slower⁴. If you need support because of illness, bereavement or a change in circumstances, say so when you contact the firm: its governance report acknowledges that vulnerable customer servicing needs some improvement⁴, so it is worth being explicit about what help you need.

Service and complaints record

ReAssure's own governance reporting for 2024 gives the most direct picture of its service. Customer satisfaction averaged 80% across 2024, slightly below target, and 86% of customers were satisfied with the digital service⁴. Some 95% of transactions were completed within 10 days, although money-out and retirement journeys were slower⁴.

Complaint volumes were higher than the firm's tolerance, with an average of 41 complaints per 100,000 policies per month⁴. The main issue is delays, particularly when customers wish to take money out of their pension at retirement⁴. For these reasons the Independent Governance Committee, which oversees workplace pension value for money at the firm, gave an Amber rating for 2024⁴.

For context on where pension complaints go more widely, the Pensions Ombudsman closed 1,551 pension complaints through its Resolution Service in the year to 31 March 2026, a 2.6% increase on 2024/25²⁷. Complaints about pension transfers are among the issues it and the Financial Ombudsman handle, commonly concerning undisclosed charges, lost guarantees and unsuitable advice¹¹.

Complaints: how ReAssure handles them

If something goes wrong, complain to ReAssure first. Set out the policy number, what has gone wrong and what you want the firm to do, and keep a copy of everything you send. The firm has a set period to respond, and if it does not resolve the matter or you are unhappy with the answer, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free for consumers. The ombudsman can tell the insurer to put things right and may pay compensation for distress or inconvenience²⁶.

If your complaint came about because a claims management company acted for you, for example a firm that offered to pursue mis-selling on your behalf, complaints about claims companies go to the Claims Management Ombudsman. Complaints it can look at include unjustified or unclear fees, delays in progressing claims, inappropriate or incorrect claims advice, poor communication or customer service, and failure to follow instructions²⁸. To complain about a claims company, ask it for a copy of its complaints procedure or check its website, contact it with your complaint so it has a chance to put things right, and keep a record of your complaint²⁹.

How your money is protected

ReAssure has been looking after pension and life insurance policies for decades, having taken over blocks of business from providers including Barclays, Guardian Financial Services, HSBC, Legal & General and Old Mutual Wealth¹. Its registered office is Windsor House, Telford, Shropshire, TF3 4NB, and it can be found on the FCA Register using reference number 110495, or using company reference 754167¹. You can check its current status yourself using those references.

Money in insurance and investment policies is protected differently from bank deposits. There is no FSCS-style cash limit that applies in the same way as it does to a current or savings account. For a defined contribution pension such as those ReAssure administers, the value of your pot depends on investment performance and is not guaranteed by any compensation scheme: the Pension Protection Fund does not protect defined contribution schemes¹⁵. What exists instead is the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and, in the extreme case of an insurer failing, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme can provide protection for long-term insurance, with the level depending on the type of policy.

If you are worried about a specific policy, the practical steps are to check your annual statement, ask ReAssure for a current valuation in writing, and take free guidance before making any decision. Pension Wise offers free guidance for people approaching retirement, and MoneyHelper provides free help on pensions and investments generally. Neither can recommend a product, but both can explain your options and help you decide what questions to ask.