"This organisation is a disgrace!"

This organisation is a disgrace. I have been trying to transfer my investments from JH to another platform since January 2022 and I am still waiting. They are more than happy to accept my money and take their charges, but when it comes to returning what is rightfully mine, their customer service is non-existent!! Every follow-up is met with either blame or excuses. I would not recommend this organisation to anyone.!!

"Sadly stuck with them"

The worst company in the world, do they know what customer service is, stay away if you can.

"SIPP transfer delayed endlessly"

JH is terrible when it comes to transferring your SIPP. My transfer will take 3 months now from the start. Even though I did everything via internet (no delays on letters), still no end in sight. I had some assets in my SIPP, but I since sold them hoping that it will speed-up the process. 4 weeks ago I was told by JH that it will and the transfer is imminent - nothing happened till now. I field a complaint, but do not hope for any fast response based on other comments here. Next stop is the complaint to the Pensions ombudsman - I do not intend to wait 8 weeks they claim they have to answer, only to find out that they will not. I will also request the ombudsman to change the statutory deadline for complaints from 8 to 4 weeks. Even in burocratic states, all requests have to be answered within 30 calendar days - and a UK regulator allows twice of this time?! Only flood of complaints to the Pensions ombudsman requesting intervention and change of the deadline can make any difference to all affected by similar problems. But this will not happen without your complaint to the Ombudsman - so please do complain to the ombudsman.

"Don't trust James Hay with your SIPP!"

I would strongly recommend anyone choosing a SIPP provider looks through the reviews here, because I can see many others have had all the same sorts of problems we have had with James Hay – a lazy and incompetent company that seem to take full advantage of the difficulties any customers will have in moving to another provider. Even the Chief Executive, Richard Rowney cannot be bothered to get his staff to respond to complaints.

We chose a SIPP to purchase commercial property for our pension income with a different company that were good, then unfortunately for us, James Hay purchased this company. We kept a large sum of money in cash to purchase an industrial unit, but James Hay made us jump through so many hoops before they would even instruct a solicitor (including insisting on surveys and a valuation) that the vendor lost confidence and sold to someone else. Even when James Hay finally had instructed the solicitor - the instruction was to pay three times the sum agreed to purchase the building! The result is we lost £6,000 in costs and James Hay did not bother to even reply to our complaint in the statutory 8 weeks.

"James Hay provide me with SIPP…"

James Hay provide me with SIPP services. I have been with James Hay since January 2019 but am now looking for more competent provider. On every occasion I have tried to use their services I have met with payment delays, conflicting advice and excuses for their very poor customer service. I would definitely not recommend this company for their(pension trustees) SIPP provision services

"Totally inept."

If I could give a negative score I would. Dire service, inept action, totally failure to effectively manage my SIPP.
I wouldn’t want these people to mange my pocket money never mind my pension.
UPDATE - started process of moving pension from these cowboys in February 2022, finally completed transfer at the end of April 2023. 14 months of pain & hard work to get the transfer done but would go through the all the pain & hard work to get away from James Hay

"Transfer away takes over a year"

On 27th Jan 2021 I sent James Hay a formal request to transfer my pension assets from the James Hay SIPP to a Self Administered Small Scheme (SSAS) I established for the purpose. I sent the documents recorded delivery.

Despite many secure messages and enquiries I received no communication from James Hay until April 2021, when in a telephone call (from me) I was told that James Hay needed:
- the Trust deed for the new scheme,
- details of advisors,
- Pension ombudsman registration,
- registration with the Information Commissioner.
All of these were supplied.

I later ( end of April 2021) had a very helpful conversation with Amy Wardell of the in-specie pensions transfer team. In this we agreed that James Hay would first complete the transfer of property held in the scheme, then equities and funds held in the scheme, followed by the cash balance.

Legal teams were appointed from the James Hay panel to act for both sides, and just before the September quarter day, (25th September 2021)we were all ready to transfer the property.

The property work was delayed, but in the end, I was notified we would complete in mid December. The legal teams have not completed on the property because james Hay have not yet agreed to pay the legal fees. The issue is simple. Until the receiving fund (SSAS) has received the cash balance from the existing SIPP, it cannot pay the legal fees on its side of the transaction. James Hay has authority from me the beneficial owner to settle these from my SIPP.

James Hay stopped responding to my requests for updates via secure messages months ago.

So here we are in January 2022, with a frozen property transaction that freezes the transfer of all of my pension assets. I continue to this shockingly awful organisation.

"They are the worst company I have ever…"

They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. Have gone to the FOS about them. They clearly don’t care.§

"Avoid, Avoid, Avoid"

I'm currently in the process of transferring my SIPP away from JH, it's been painful to say the least and is only happening at all because my new provider is very resilient when it comes to chasing and spotting and correcting their errors. They charge for EVERYTHING, even a min £50 for every trailing dividend they receive once you close your account. I raised a formal complaint that was not answered within the 8 week timeline, I have been quantifiably left out of pocket by their inability to action instructions promptly and until recently their portfolio valuation was somethimes 48 hours out-of-date. In fact my pension advisor hid the fact from me that JH admin was so poor and this was one of the contributing factors for me ditching him. I don't know what to say other than do not get sucked in by the relatively low platform charge. You get what you pay for as they say and they will make up for charges in other ways anyway.

"Absolutely pathetic in every way."

Absolutely pathetic in every way.
Been with this lot for over 20’ years with a sipp and is the worst decision I ever made. The staff are horrible to deal with they operate unprofessionally and fee you to death.