December 2008 Archive
A cold and frosty end to 2008
What a year it’s been. Certainly one to forget. We’ve had stockmarket turmoil around the world, the end of Woolworth’s, job losses, falling interest rates, falling annuity rates. Then we get freezing fog today to round it all off. You’ve probably seen a drop in the value of your pension fund this year. You might [...]
Are you planning to buy a pension annuity during 2009?
Putting it another way; are you planning to retire during 2009 and considering a pension annuity as a vehicle to provide your valuable retirement income? If the answer to this is ‘yes’, start looking at your options now and ask yourself some questions: Do you want to spend your reduced pension fund on a pension [...]
Still no result for Equitable Life annuity holders
It is now nearly ten years since newspapers first reported Equitable Life’s refusal to honour guaranteed annuity rates that had been sold to some of its 1.5m savers. In this period, this without-profits fund has cut bonuses and imposed exit penalties on leavers, while policyholder numbers have dropped to 500,000. And, in 2008, the Government broke a series of promises regarding [...]
Pension annuity rules and the EU
Leading pension annuity providers are calling for a rethink of sweeping new EU solvency rules that could force them to hold billions of pounds of extra capital and make them cut annuity payouts to pensioners. One annuity provider has calculated that under Solvency II, new European rules, due by 2012, (aiming to match the capital insurers hold much more closely [...]
What might 2009 hold for pensions and annuities
For all matters of personal finance 2009 is not expected to be an easy year. It is very likely that when it comes to the subject of pensions and annuities that there will be cuts in contributions and scaled-back pension schemes. 2008 can be seen as the year that stockmarkets around the world hit the buffers, [...]
Don’t just plump for a single life pension annuity
Well, not if you are married, anyway. If you have received annuity quotes from your existing pension provider they will have quoted you on a single life pension annuity basis, basically because they don’t know if you are married or not. If you do happen to have a spouse you need to explore beyond this single life [...]
Just how much can you get from a pension annuity?
A longer version: how much annuity income might you be able to get by spending your pension fund via the open market option (OMO)? This is the option you have at retirement to move your pension fund from the company you have saved with to another annuity provider to get better annuity rates for your [...]
Pension transfer service launched for annuities
A new pension transfer service is being launched for annuities by leading ecommerce standards body Origo, in conjunction with 16 UK annuity providers. This to speed up service levels for customers. It is being called Options, and it is an open market pensions transfer service designed to speed up transfers being made utilising the open market option (OMO) [...]
You think it’s all over…..well it isn’t
Well, Christmas might be over for another year, but the retirement plans you are considering are just starting. And it’s best to plan ahead. So, if you are going to retire in 2009 start looking at information about annuities now. Get to know what pension options you have available to you. With the ongoing stockmarket turmoil and [...]
Some frightening statistics about pensions and annuities
We have a very complicated British pension system. Just look at some horrifying statistics: Only pensioners in Latvia, Spain and Cyprus are statistically more likely to fall into poverty than those pensioners in the UK; 2.5 million older people in the UK now live on less than 60% of the average national income; Up to 9 million people working [...]