Howden Anmeldelser 

I would like to make it clear that, in my opinion, Barnett Waddingham demonstrated significant negligence in its handling of my late husband’s pension scheme. Although I was appointed trustee of my husband’s entire estate by the court in the U.S. in which we lived, my requests for information were, in my view, largely ignored.

I also believe that a serious conflict of interest was overlooked when an Ex-wife, who was acting as a trustee, was permitted to influence in the decision making process. Furthermore, the process took considerably longer than I believe was necessary. These actions added to the pain and grief I was already experiencing following the sudden death of my husband.

Despite the existence of a valid Barnett Waddingham Expression of Wishes, signed by my husband, which stated that the pension should pass to me as his widow, I believe an alternative narrative advanced by the former wife, who was a trustee, was accepted. In my view, this resulted in the primary beneficiary being overlooked and the entire pension being awarded to contingent beneficiaries who were intended to receive benefits only after my death.

I was informed that I had no financial need, despite facing substantial medical costs, tax liabilities and expenses arising from my husband’s death. Meanwhile, the pension was awarded to his daughters, who were already beneficiaries of his UK estate worth several million pounds.

In my opinion, the outcome was deeply unjust. I hope that the Scheme trustee and senior partners are satisfied with a process that I consider to have been fundamentally flawed and an outcome that I believe was influenced by a vindictive former spouse. I would like to think that Barnett Waddingham will one day uphold the principles and values it promotes, and I feel compelled to warn prospective clients that a similar situation could, in my view, happen to them.

Awful company and awful response time.
Dealing with my recent late mother’s pension.
Reported her death 27/3/26.
To be told the trustees would make a decision 2 weeks after all information has been collected. They collected 16/4/26. I have had to chase this many times.
9/6/26 finally get a response. Uploaded all information they need that day via SFX, called today to ask when payment will be made to be told they cant tell me that. I am glad i dont have my pension with this company!! I will have to seek legal advice regarding this now as if is disgusting especially when you are trying to grief as well!!!

Daniel Anderson was excellant in navigating me through the difficult government gateway website.

The attention received from Graeme & Chris re our Pension Drawdown was exceptional and has restored our faith in Barnett Waddingham which had been lacking in the past few years.

Excellent and prompt service

I have spent nearly a year trying to get answers from Barnett Waddingham about when the death benefit from my Mother's pension will be paid out and I'm no closer to an answer. No one emails you back. No one calls you back. When you finally are able to speak to someone, they don't have the answer. Either the relevant team aren't replying or they are in a "meeting". I've never experienced service as atrocious as this with any other company in my life.

Sent a retirement pack 26th May and have tried 5 times to get answers to questions before selecting the best retirement options for me - the 0121 828 0341 number only takes messages - they have not replied to any of the 3 I've sent. I used their contact form 3 times via their Clarity portal - again no replies. I've contacted the pensions ombudsman and will contact the Pensions Regulator on Monday because of unequivocal evidence of maladministration - they should provide me with the info I need to make decisions and they are uncontactable and reply to nothing. I have had problems dealing with pension companies in the past and ended up going down the same route and received pay outs because of incompetence e.g. incorrect record keeping, sending out incorrect data and misleading information - no doubt BW is complete chaos like the recently defunct Phoenix Life. Don't trust that any pension administrator are on top of their records and have the correct figure - especially if they have taken over a pension - they won't be. BW show all the same signs Phoenix Life exhibited - completely unresponsive. I can guarantee - the business is in a mess internally.

Terrible non-service from Barnett Waddingham , trying to simply withdraw my 25% tax-free amount from my pension. It took them 22 days to 'write to me' and when I queried where my info was after 13 days of waiting, the chap said 'we've had a bank holiday' , this was a weak , non-ownership excuse which made me cross and I now can't wait to remove all of my money from their future (non-)handling. Shockingly poor customer service and poor attitude, avoid !

I have recently set up a Flexible SIPP for a property purchase. The team were extremely helpful before application stage and transfer of funds. At application stage the process was incredibly straight forward and the team were very proactive

One of the worst companies to deal with. After COVID the percentage has only been 4% and the markets have gone to record highs,but not this pension hardly moved. Documentation takes ages to get up dated, and very condensending when on phone.

I raised a request for a CETV in November 2025. I advised that this was urgent and despite numerous calls and emails I am no closer to getting the invoice I need to pay to get the certificate. I have been making the contact with absolutely no responses by email or by phone on the progress. As of earlier this month I am now divorced with still no sign of an invoice to settle let alone the CETV therefore I am unable to submit paperwork for the divorce settlement to be examined and settled. As someone who worked in customer service for several corporate companies I am amazed at the length of time this is taking, the total lack of any communication from Barnett Waddingham at what is very upsetting situation for me.

I needed to extract some funds from my SIPP. This was achieved efficiently and quickly.
I think the service at BW has improved recently. My 4 stars will become 5 if this improvement becomes the norm.

A great service from a professional trustee. They act methodically, do their research, bring in the correct advisors when required, and have been proficient, calm, sincere, and thorough in all our dealings with them. We have relied heavily upon their insights for over 20 years and are 100% satisfied with their expertise and guidance.

A dreadful experience. The whole company needs a thorough shake-up. It has three addresses, sometimes on the communications, sometimes not. The property team is in Glasgow - why there? Emails come from two sources, neither of which has BW in the title. You never know who is dealing with the matter - it changes frequently. To claim my 25% tax-free payment took almost two months, and I received reams of ill-thought out information. Even the address, when it was given, spilled onto two separate pages. As was said recently in 'The Times' any fool can make things complicated; it requires intelligence to simplify - sadly lacking at BW.

I have been trying for a month to get access to my pension money, first i had to wait several weeks for them to send me a request for transfer value quote, when I called them and said there is no value on it, I was told by a quite rude woman that I will have to wait for a quote value, when I said this is not good enough , she said she will transfer me to admin, then I was left holding for about 25 minutes , so I hung up. I am now going to report them to the FCA, Disgraceful Company to deal with!

I had a query on my Annual Pension Review with B&W. After waiting at least 15 minutes for anyone to answer the person I spoke to was very vague & said the administration team would write to me, that was 3 weeks ago. Now they tell me it will be looked at but would not commit to when I could expect a letter. This is disgraceful service & B&W need to do a lot better in helping their clients

Attempting to withdraw my pension since November 2025, STILL waiting. In my 48 year working history, Barnett-Waddingham is the most dreadful, unprofessional, condescending, patronising organisation I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Ignoring emails; ignoring phone calls; sent email in January 2026 claiming that I could view payslip on Clarity, not true! I lodged formal complaint on 30 March 2026, no update. Anyone expecting BW to administer their NSPCC pension - GOOD LUCK!!

Family pension scheme managed by BW for many years. We have had a great, personal experience. Previously Andrew and now Robert have taken the time to understand our unique needs. They respond quickly and thoughtfully. Overall, a great service.

It has now been over thirteen months since the passing of my client’s husband, yet the pension scheme remains unresolved. The deceased had been a trustee of the scheme and, at my client’s request, was to be replaced by an impartial, independently appointed trustee. However, Barnett Waddingham (BW) has stated that it has proven very difficult to identify a suitable independent replacement. This raises a pertinent question: are there truly no candidates in all of the UK to act in an unbiased and impartial capacity who could be called upon to act as a successor trustee.

It appears that responses to my client have been subject to excessive review by BW’s corporate solicitors, resulting in significant delays and an apparent reluctance to take decisive action.

At present, the remaining trustees number only two: one being an employee of BW, Mr Pipe, and the other the deceased’s former spouse, whose position clearly presents a conflict of interest. Based on BW’s own stated principles, the appropriate course of action would be to do the correct thing.

There has been a pattern of delays and what can only be described as obstructive behaviour by Mr Pipe, alongside a failure by senior partner Mr Vaughn to intervene and bring this matter to a resolution and disbursement of the pension scheme.

Having reviewed all correspondence between my client and BW, it is of my opinion that this is not a complex matter and ought to have been resolved many months ago. The ongoing situation represents a considerable injustice to my client who has already suffered a personal and financial loss and is seeking closure in accordance with her late husband’s wishes.

She has had no reimbursements to date from the estate or pension fund. In light of the above, I have reviewed many numerous complaints on Trust Pilot regarding Barnett Waddingham. This is most definitely a common issue and our hope that they will promptly “do the right thing” as per their senior partner, Mr. Vaughn states in his bio.

Having used Barnett Waddingham both as a Financial Planner and a customer I continue to be impressed by both their service standards and the functionality of their SIPP.
Their response times and professionalism have been excellent in facilitating the withdrawal of cash and I am still happy to recommend them as a SIPP provider for both the accumulation and subsequent withdrawal of funds. Great company.