There is a grave danger that pensioners are missing out on the best annuity rates because of too many delays in transferring their pension funds.
Annuity rates have broadly held up well recently, depite everything. With continuing market volatility pensioners should move quickly to take advantage of the best rates.
Yet delays by major pension and annuity providers has frustrated many pensioners who now want to switch their pension funds and take advantage of the best annuity rates for their circumstances, via their open market option, rather than stick with their pension provider.
One leading writer of annuity business has written to the chief executive officers of over 30 of the top pension providers, outlining the difficult situations faced by many pensioners due to unacceptable delays in the transfer of funds.
Delays can put the retirement income of many people at risk and will often cause significant difficulties for people at what is an already very stressful time of their life. Unfortunately, some pensioners could see their annuity rate falling before their funds are transferred, which could potentially cost them thousands of pounds in lost income.
Pension providers really do need to get their act together and move fast to help retiring people to secure the best annuity rates.
