Online IRA Rollover Firm PensionBee Enters US Market

U.S. consumers may start seeing advertisements encouraging them to roll their workplace savings into an individual retirement account through a mobile app designed to help them save and plan for retirement.

PensionBee Group PLC, an online IRA provider based in London, announced this summer it is entering the U.S. market with its mobile IRA platform that offers consolidation of accounts, retirement income projections and contribution setup.

CEO and Founder Romi Savova says she started the business in 2014 after going through the hassle of combining her own workplace accounts when she changed jobs in financial services.

“I had to mail things in the post, and there were checks flying around, and I just thought: This is terrible for an ordinary person,” she says. “If you are a mass market consumer and not a high-net-worth individual … good luck finding someone who wants to serve you and serve you well.”

Romi Savova

Savova went on to build PensionBee with Co-Founder Jonathan Lister Parsons. The two did not want to manage the money, so they partnered with BlackRock Inc. and State Street Global Advisors to manage the underlying investments.

“We provide the full experience for the consumer … to manage the transfer and rollover journey and then give them the transparency of where their money is, how it’s doing, and the confidence that it is invested with large money managers,” Savova says.

PensionBee is also focused on customer service, with “beekeepers” available to customers—though the representatives are not financial advisers and are not there to guide investment strategy.

The model has led the firm to $7 billion in assets under administration and about 250,000 invested customers. Savova also notes that about 60% of U.K. consumers know the brand, in part from advertisements that include paid search, social media, soccer sponsorships, billboards and even their yellow bee logo on taxi cabs.

Now the firm is entering the U.S. market: Savova makes investor presentations in New York, and a few customer service “beekeepers” are already on staff. In July, it registered as an investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also has another partnership with State Street Global Advisors to manage investors’ money through target-date portfolios, as well as to assist with marketing support.

“Our collaboration with PensionBee will enable millions of Americans to have access to model portfolios built with our ETFs in individual retirement accounts managed by PensionBee,” State Street Global Advisors CEO Yie-Hsin Hung said in July, regarding PensionBee’s U.S. launch.

Marketing efforts will likely start small, Savova says. But she believes there will be strong demand for PensionBee’s services.

“The U.S. is the world’s largest defined contribution pension market … and we had a sneaking suspicion there would be similar issues of scattered accounts,” she says. “People would love to have their accounts in one place, but it seems daunting and confusing to try to figure out how to get money out of Fidelity, or Vanguard, or TIAA or wherever it may be.”

Savova says the firm’s brand and model will prompt U.S. consumers to make the move, similar to the company’s progress over 10 years in the U.K.

“We have invested in the capabilities that make us attractive to a mass market consumer,” she says. “From brand to investment content and educational information … we have been able to engage consumers with something as boring as retirement.”

She hopes to find even greater success in the U.S.: By 2034, she is aiming for PensionBee to have between $20 and $25 billion in AUA in the country.