Origen FS Reviews 33

Total waste of my time to try to sort my Aegon pension. Beware, this company are actually linked to Aegon. Absolutely no help at all and totally unless!

Origen have been very helpful in resolving a slightly complicated situation regarding my pension. Claire has been particularly knowledgeable and effcient. I would not hesitate to recommend or use again.

I have been trying to transfer an old pension and my old company gave me this company details.
I wish I had never heard of them.
The service and unprofessional service is 5*, this is something they have to a T.
I am now with the FOS and will see what they say but if you are referred to this company please do yourself a favour and go somewhere else.

We have been clients of Origen and our advisor Anna Dawson for many years. In all that time we have received relevant and occasionally challenging advice to make us look at our objectives carefully. She has been very good at identifying what our risk profile is and then making sure that our investments were in line with that. Particularly Anna helped me to organise my pension fund into an appropriate wrapper and we have been very pleased with the level of performance as well as communication we have received both from the provider and from Origen. She is currently helping us with a review to ensure that our investments is appropriate to our stage of life.

Many thanks to my financial advisor Leon and new business administrator Michele. Once again they managed the transfer of my finances to a successful conclusion whilst keeping me upto date as the process was ongoing.
Philip Rogers

An expensive tick boxing exercise.

I'm now worse off because of their advice.

Avoid

This company has given me wrong advice that has completely wrecked my wellbeing after the loss of my husband. It will take months to sort out. They admitted they screwed up but offered paltry compensation that doesn't even cover my costs in seeking specialist advice. They have treated me and my family with contempt. And then it turned out that they had dropped me as a client, even though they told me I was their client and kept sending me publicity material for months, and then a new contract! I thought I would suffer an exit penalty and was tied to them so hadn't yet consulted anyone new, I was waiting for the complaint to be sorted out. I wasted months. And then they just said "you're not our client any more". IHonestly, if I could give them no stars, I would. They made so many errors, large and small.

We've been with Origen for a good number of years and have always been happy with the service they have given us, especially from Anna Dawson and her team. Yes, there is a cost implication but it is money very well spent, as far as we are concerned. They don't always tell you what you want to hear but we are not financial experts and they are. Anna has always treated us with respect and is never patronising, which would be quite easy, considering her breadth of pension knowledge and our limited understanding. We are nearly always kept informed of what is going on and feel our investments are in a safe place.

My regular meeting with the Private Client Adviser was, as usual, very helpful and the advice I have received from her has always been excellent and everything is now set up to give me confidence to enjoy peace of mind in my retirement knowing my financial situation is in a good position. I am very satisfied with how Origen manages my investments.

Like others on here, we were pointed in the direction of Origen by my husband's workplace pension provider. We filled out the questionnaires and had a lengthy telephone conference. When their advice came through, it was clear they had not read our questionnaire or listened to what we said during the telephone call. We pointed this out and said we were going to do what we had said we planned to do all along and the adviser got very defensive and frustrated. He finally agreed to provide the illustration we wanted but once we declined his future ongoing advice - at a very expensive price - he and Origen completely lost interest in us. The rest of the process was done without hearing from them again.

I decided to access the free advice offered by my workplace pension as I wanted to find out if it might be a good idea to transfer out rather than take the pension. This turned out to be a complete waste of time. The Advisor was unprepared and obviously disinterested. I was hoping to be taken through the options on Offer and to be able to ask some questions. Instead I was condescendingly and at length taken through the questionnaire I had already completed about my outgoings. It seemed the Advisor hadn’t bothered to look at the form until the meeting. His manner was arrogant, disrespectful and demeaning throughout. I had intended to proceed to the paid advice as I was fairly keen to transfer, but not at all sure if this would be the best thing and I needed clear advice. The month I had been forced to wait for this appointment had eaten up too much of the three month deadline I had to complete the process. I didn’t have the heart to find another advisor and start again after this experience. I am annoyed by the fact that the advisor will have been paid for this meeting from my workplace pension fund having not given any useful advice at all, while at the same time damaging my opportunity to receive any worthwhile advice. The whole experience felt like a tick box event for the advisor to take a fee for doing nothing of any use. I made my own mind up about what to do with my pension, and I wish I hadn't wasted my time and effort in speaking to Origen.

Re: Versha Aggarwal apparently now of Origen

This financial advisor apparently employed by Aegon and Origen - previously of Nationwide - created a booking for a financial review without my consent and without any communication. And she totally failed to contact me prior to the booking she created.

I responded to generic addresses for Aegon stating that I cannot do phone calls nor video conferencing. No one responded telling me what to do. No one bothered to cancel the review which I couldn’t do. No one bothered to tell her. And she continued to send me emails addressed to my Christian names without my consent.

This is appalling and totally unprofessional.

Indeed I emailed the addresses for Aegon to request help but received no advice on how to set up Teams and Calendar and how to contact her.

Since Aegon and Origen failed to advise me in general and Ms Aggarwell in particular it must be deemed that she persisted in holding this review even though I had emailed the generic contact addresses I did have stating I did not know how to set these applications up, and that I cannot use a phone, and certainly cannot do video conferencing. And she totally failed to contact me beforehand.

Indeed even if I had wanted to contact her there was no phone no. provided (I can’t do phone calls) and no email address.

This is appalling but judging by other comments on TrustPilot and Social Media par for the Aegon and Origen course.

I am sick and tired and stressed out with Aegon and its associated companies. ITS CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SERVICE RECOVERY IS APPALLING.

I have requested access to my holdings on my Aegon online account. But I need an activation code and my account no. These have not been sent to me. Why not?

It seems to me that Aegon and its associated companies are one massive financial and criminal fraud - with staff unwilling to even communicate with hapless investors.

And it seems that numerous companies are part of this fraud deliberately confusing investors whose holdings have been passed around amongst Nationwide and Aegon and Origen and Royal London.

I just had a bizarre conversation with a 'Financial Advisor', from Origen FS. HP's pension scheme is offering me two alternatives for the future of my pension. Presumably to protect themselves from future litigation, they forced me to talk to a financial advisor before allowing me to elect to take the second option. HP didn't insist on me getting any advice if I chose the first option - presumably because the second one will cost them money.

They got me to fill in a form. The first thing was the FA wanted to go through it all to 'double check' my answers - I could get no explanation as to why this was a fruitful exercise, unless they thought I'd filled it in capriciously for some reason.

Next she asked me for my prediction of the future of inflation - I explained that experts almost always get this wrong, so asking me, a non-expert, to make a prediction makes no sense. I see no point in making a fool out of myself by making a foolish prediction.

Next she told me the 'cross-over' date when the options would be the same, and my life expectancy - then asked me if I thought I was likely to make the former... I asked her why, since I was not an actuary, she was asking me. I'd expect such a conversation would involve the FA telling me what the actuarial position was, not her asking me to guess.

I also pointed out that giving inflation adjusted predictions without allowing for a discount rate, made no sense. She didn't seem to know what a discount rate is.

I've never had a high opinion of FAs. If they were any good at their job, they ought to be independently wealthy, the fact they're working as an FA suggests they are, ipso facto, no good at it.

My opinion of them has gone down after this experience.

At least she didn't ask me if I was interested in taking further advice from them, and paying for it, though she had said that was an option. I think she'd worked out that I wasn't hooked by the process I'd been put through.

Origen hasn't sent me the usual request to rate their advice, which is a bit odd, even the garage that does my MOT does that. So I thought I'd post this here instead.

Recommended by Tesco for former and existing Tesco employees. Given my wife's recent experience, AVOID!!, if you have a final salary pension you wish to access. Endless amount of calls and paperwork to get a very professional looking review of the pension. However our request was how to access the full amount now, not a pitiful amount monthly to whenever. The advice was to leave it with Tesco and charge over £1000 for this er? advice- SCAM !!!

Annuity Advice
I was referred to Origen and Stuart Allen when there were complications in setting up an annuity with a life company. I found Stuart to be very approachable and knowledgeable, and very efficient in solving my problem.

I have been a client of Origen Financial services for 20 years, with Leon Hunt as my pensions consultant for more than half that time. Origen have always provided regular detailed evaluations of my pension fund and Leon has been most helpful and meticulous in carrying out annual reviews and agreed action to ensure that my fund is correctly focussed.Some years ago I recommended Origen and Leon to a friend who became a client and is still with them. I would not hesitate to recommend them again.

I have been receiving financial advice from Origen for the last 4 years and this advice has always been delivered in a trustworthy and valued way. There is always supporting data and options are provided which consider both moderate and wider risks with regards to investments/pensions. There is a clear compliance/validation process and so far reasonable investment returns. I will happily be using them for the foreseeable future

We have used Origen Financial Services to manage our investments, in conjunction with the stockbroker recommended by Origen, for the last 5 years. Our main contact at Origen is Leon Hunt; he takes time to understand our circumstances and requirements at each annual review, enabling him to provide a professional, knowledgable & friendly service. We have complete confidence in the advice we have been given & look forward to continuing to work with Origen & Leon in future.

My wife and I have been advised by our Client Adviser Leon Hunt for several years leading up to my retirement and his advice and customer service are quite simply outstanding. He always listens intently in order to ensure our needs are met and I would highly recommend Leon to anyone seeking financial advice, thanks Leon.

My wife and I have been clients of Origen for over 30 years and have nothing but praise for them. They initially handled our investments which proved very successful over the years. For the last 10 years or so Leon Hunt has been our personal advisor and I cannot rate him high enough. He more recently helped with changing our savings into income to assist in taking early retirement and looks after our pensions. Nothing is too much trouble and he is thorough, clear and precise. Had we handled our own investments and finances I am quite sure early retirement would not have happened.