By Lisa Picardo, Chief Business Officer UK, PensionBee
When I think about how far we’ve come in financial services, it’s easy to feel optimistic. Open banking, digital wallets, instant investing – it’s a new world compared to when I started out in finance. But when I look at pensions, whilst some progress has been made, it often feels like the industry is still stuck in the past. There’s definitely a lot more to be done.
I’ve spent most of my career in business and working with money. First in mergers and acquisitions, then in private equity, a stretch as an entrepreneur building my own business, and now as the Chief Business Officer UK at PensionBee. Alongside a first-class team of passionate, purpose-driven individuals, I work every day to make pensions simpler, clearer and more accessible for savers. We want them to enjoy a happy retirement.
But despite all that, I recently found myself knee-deep in paperwork, chasing responses, navigating outdated processes and enduring excessive delays when it came to the transfer of one of my own old workplace pensions. If I’ve found it challenging, and I work in pensions – how on earth are others supposed to manage?
The accidental apathy of my twenties
My pension story starts like that of many others: in my first job after university. I was automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. Grateful for the safety net and foresight of auto-enrolment, I was still expected to make investment choices I didn’t fully understand – percentages in equities, bonds, cash – without defaults or guidance.
What followed was inevitable. I asked a few friendly colleagues what they had picked, made what can only be described as an “educated guess”, and promptly forgot all about it. Occasionally, a paper statement would arrive, or some literature full of jargon and weighty with pages, but light on relevance to me at that point in time. Into the drawer it went.
Looking back, it’s no surprise I was disengaged with my pension. No customer service or support. No tech. No accessible communications, content or tools. No encouragement. The system didn’t seem built for someone like me – an ambitious, time-poor, young woman with a career to build and later a family to grow – it just didn’t resonate with me. It was almost as if the pensions industry accepted my indifference and expected me not to care – in that moment, and for many years after, I didn’t care enough.
A costly pause in the middle
Fifteen years later, after my second child was born, I stepped away from investment banking life to spend more time with my children and fulfill a long-held ambition to build my own business. Whilst life as an entrepreneur was wildly exciting and fulfilling, a new business necessitated investing in growth, absorbing all available savings and cash flow. And the costs of having children – childcare, nursery and the rest – were by no means cheap. Pensions still didn’t make it onto my list of priorities.
Whilst I knew in the back of my mind that retirement planning was becoming more urgent, it was easy to ignore as it still felt a little abstract – something for “later” as retirement just felt like it was a lifetime away. I now see that moment as a lost opportunity, where I could have taken action to take control of my retirement. Having left my corporate job, I was no longer able to contribute into my old workplace pension and I wouldn’t have been able to withdraw from it when the time came in the future. With my new found self-employed status, I also didn’t take the opportunity to set up a new personal pension, so wasn’t contributing – either myself, from our household, or from my business.
In retrospect it would have been the perfect time to consolidate my old workplace pension into something I could engage with – something digital, accessible and aligned with the way I lived the rest of my financial life. But like many women who juggle multiple roles, I put myself last. And as time-elapsed I built up my very own ‘pension gap’ – like so many millions of other women do when they take on caring responsibilities, or become self-employed and are no longer caught by auto-enrolment.
The turning point: working in pensions
That all changed in March 2020, just before the first COVID lockdown, when I joined PensionBee. The irony wasn’t lost on me – I’d neglected my own pension for years, and now I was joining a business whose mission was to empower people to take control of theirs. But there’s nothing like your own personal experience to make you appreciate the challenges that your own customers are faced with.
Almost immediately, I saw how transformative simplicity could be. Our customers weren’t asking for miracles – they just wanted clarity, control, accessible content and modern tools to help them manage their future. I realised how much my own situation mirrored theirs: multiple pots, opaque information, low engagement.
So I decided to walk the walk and transfer my old workplace pensions to PensionBee. That was easier said than done.
Years to sort a single pension transfer: when they don’t work well
In January 2021, I initiated my first transfer. It started promisingly. The administrator sent the policy details. But then life happened again – a busy IPO at work, an ongoing global pandemic, and the general juggle of life. I dropped the ball. I had every intention of returning to it “when things settled down”, as we often tell ourselves, but it didn’t make it to the top of the to-do list for some time.
It wasn’t until late 2024 that I picked it back up. I had since become an active saver, using the PensionBee app to monitor my balance, switch funds, make additional contributions, and to grow in confidence. It felt empowering to see the difference small and consistent actions were making to my retirement prospects. I wanted the same experience across all my pension wealth and I wanted it all in one place.
But instead of a seamless transfer process, I found myself caught in an outdated and needlessly complex maze. Resetting forgotten passwords, updating my name after marriage, chasing a policy number that wasn’t even visible online – every step felt unnecessarily obstructive. It was a stark reminder that much of the system was never really designed with the consumer in mind – and was especially not built to accommodate women who are so frequently faced with name changes and fragmented career histories as they face life’s juggle. Instead of adapting to modern, diverse lives, it still expects a one-size-fits-all journey that too often fits no one.
Even once things were moving, the hurdles kept coming: forms that couldn’t be sent to third parties despite a Letter of Authority (the legal document that gives someone else permission to communicate with a provider or act on your behalf), requests for ID I had already submitted, and a utility bill requirement that ignored the reality of paperless billing. And just when I thought I’d cleared the final hurdle, I was sent an 11-page, 73-question “Scam Questionnaire”. Heart sink.
Let me be clear: I was not attempting to transfer my hard-earned savings to a shady outfit. I wanted to move my own retirement savings to PensionBee, an FCA-regulated, publicly-listed company. I flagged this, provided context and raised my concerns about the process, but was told it was “procedure”. I had no choice but to capitulate, complete the form and send it back.
In the end it took around five months to complete my pension transfer, having had it in mind for more than four years since my initial attempt. The emotional toll – frustration and disbelief – is very real. And I’m someone who understands the system. What chance does the average saver have when juggling this with all the other demands of everyday life?
A glimmer of hope: when transfers do work
Thankfully, there’s another leg of the story worth telling. In May 2025, I transferred my Nest pension to PensionBee. The entire process – from requesting the transfer to receiving the funds – took just 12 days. That’s it. No hassle, no follow-ups, no stress.
This wasn’t a one-off miracle. It’s a reflection of what can happen when pension providers embrace simplicity, modern technology and customer-centric design. My Nest transfer gave me the experience I believe every saver should have: one that respects your time, protects your peace of mind, and doesn’t demand a degree to complete.
So it begs the question: if some providers can do it, why can’t others?
The broader problem – and how it affects women most
PensionBee’s latest 10-day pension switch guarantee report – entitled Ending Pension Purgatory – shows just how widespread this issue is. Over 70% of savers surveyed want to consolidate their pensions, but only a fraction manage to do so each year. Why? Too much complexity, opaque communication and slow administration. All supported by a legislative framework that has failed to reflect consumer expectations and the existence of modern technology and processes that can fix this issue.
Women also face stiffer challenges when it comes to pensions. Many women have more fragmented career paths – often due to part-time work, career breaks, or caring responsibilities – which means they are even more likely to hold multiple small pension pots. This complexity, combined with systems that often fail to accommodate these realities, can make switching feel especially burdensome. As a result, women are more likely to face barriers that delay or prevent pension consolidation and engagement.
I believe poor switching processes are silently contributing to the gender pension gap. And unless providers fix the problem, women will continue to be disproportionately penalised.
A message to women in business
We’ve built businesses from the ground up. We’ve led teams through tough economic cycles. We’ve multitasked to the extreme – scaling start-ups, raising families, mentoring others. But we’re still being failed by a system that makes managing our own money feel like a full-time job.
It shouldn’t be this way.
Your pension should be as easy to manage as your bank account. You should be able to see it on your phone, adjust it on your lunch break, and trust that the process won’t take months – or years. You shouldn’t have to chase administrators or fight bureaucracy to do something as simple as moving your own money.
We’re not asking for favours. We’re asking for functionality.
And to any woman reading this who has been putting it off, I say this: you’re not alone. But there are providers out there who care, who listen, and who are built for consumers like us. You deserve better – and it starts with demanding better from the pension industry.
Change is possible. I’ve seen it up close. But it will only come when outdated practices are challenged, and when women – in particular – feel empowered to take control of their financial futures.
Let’s raise the bar. Not just for ourselves, but for the next generation of women who deserve a pension system that works for them – not against them.
Risk warning: As always with investments, your capital is at risk. This information should not be considered as financial advice.
