It’s true that there have been many high profile defined benefit pensions that have gone bust in recent years. The fundamental principle of the way that defined benefit pensions are structured can indeed sound like a risk. A defined benefit pension will promise to pay you a salary in your retirement as a fraction of the salary you were on when you left when you left the company. If this is paid to you at age 60 and you live until 100 then you will clearly cost the company a lot of money. As people are living longer, these schemes are rarely offered these days and are seen as a legacy from the times when people retired at 65 and would only live for another 10 years.
However, the majority of schemes are well-funded and should not have any problems meeting their obligations. Advisors might want to scare you into believing that your scheme is at risk and will use the examples of big pensions that have failed. However, you can easily do your own homework. There is no need to be scared into believing that your pension is going to go the same way as British Steel (TATA), BHS or Carillion. You can usually find the trustees annual report by either requesting it from the scheme or finding it online. This will tell you the funding level which is basically the assets held to meet the liabilities (i.e. the pension members). If the scheme is less than 90% funded and has been decreasing year on year then it might be reasonable to think of the scheme as being at risk however very few schemes are actually in this position.
There is certainly merit to considering the transfer of a defined benefit pension for reasons such as generous transfer values (worth considering if you will not rely solely on the pension in your retirement, and can therefore afford some investment risk – especially if you are still some years away from retiring). There are also benefits in terms of inheritance planning or simply having more control over how you take your pension (either in ad hoc amounts, as a fixed income or all at once) but these are clearly dependent on your individual circumstances and you should seek truly independent advice before making a decision.
A good financial advisor will help you to evaluate the options objectively and without emotional bias to lead you down the road that lines their pockets.