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 annuity quote. Why? To provide for your spouse in the event of your untimely premature death.
How does this work? Well, if you take out a single life pension annuity and die before your spouse he/she gets nothing. The annuity effectively dies with you. There are two avenues to explore. First, a guaranteed period can be built into annuities, meaning that should you die in that period, typically 5 to 10 years, the annuity is still paid out for the balance of the period.
Secondly, and perhaps a better option because of longevity, is for a spouses benefit to be built in to the annuity contract. Then, if you die first, the spouse you leave behind would receive ongoing annuity payments around half to two-thirds of what you received, depending on the choice you make at the outset.
The catch? Choosing either of the above will reduce the amount of annuity payments you receive initially, moreso in the second scenario. The benefits? You are planning to take care of your spouse in the event of your early death. If nothing else, that should be worth a few brownie points.
And, don’t forget the issue of ill health. This can lead to greatly increased enhanced annuity rates.
