Enhanced annuity rates provider, Just Retirement, has cut down the time it takes to administer an annuity application by nine days. The specialist UK life assurance group said it now completes the annuity setting up procedure within 23 days compared to the 32 days it used to take. Just Retirement is now aiming to beat this record by processing new annuity applications within a 21-day average. That’s a very credible performance.

Pam Day, head of customer services for the company, said that the reduction in their processing time is yet another example of Just Retirement’s long standing commitment to treating customers fairly. The 30% fall means that customers are getting their enhanced annuity income much faster which, in today’s uncertain world, has to be something of a real benefit. Since its foundation in 2004, Just Retirement has sought to be at the forefront of customer service, and they are not resting on their laurels. There is more to do and they are intent on further reducing processing time to within three weeks on average.

More people ought to use the open market option for the best UK annuity rates. If you’re approaching the stage where you’re about to hand over your hard earned pension fund in exchange for an annuity in order to receive a guaranteed income for life, you’re probably already heard from your existing pension provider detailing what your pension fund will mean in terms of an income from them if you take their annuity. Fairly recently the Financial Services Authority (FSA) made it compulsory for your existing pension provider to tell you about the open market option. This is essentially your right to shop around and see if you can find more favourable annuity rates than those being offered by your existing pension provider. Not everyone knows they can actually do this, but the question is, why bother?

For many people of retirement age, an annuity makes up the majority of their monthly retirement income. The amount you receive each month will therefore have an impact on your standard of living. Annuity rates can vary massively from provider to provider and you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal you can. It is particularly important to shop around using your open market option if you think you might be eligible for enhanced annuity rates; if you suffer from ill health or if you’re a smoker.

Your existing pension provider is only providing you with a quote for their own annuity contracts. They are one of countless annuity providers available, so there’s a good chance that they aren’t offering the best UK annuity rates. Who wants to spend all those years working and then retire into many years of worrying about your regular income? At least shopping around will ensure you get the best deal you can from your pension fund.

There are various different annuity services offering ways to secure the best UK annuity rates for you. Some annuity services are probably a lot better than others, but do you know what you’re dealing with? If, for example, you decided to go with Saga, then you’ll only be offered annuities from Legal and General. If you choose to go with Aviva, they might be well known, but you’re only going to be offered their annuities. No one company offers the best annuity rates for all situations, so you’ll probably lose out.

What you need to do is think carefully about annuity services and the best UK annuity rates, and use an annuity service that offers you choice; one that can compare annuity quotes for you from various annuity providers to find you the best deal. An annuity service such as this one. This does present you with the best opportunity of securing the best annuity income for your time in retirement. You might find that one company is right for 60 year olds, but you might be 65. You might find that one company is good for a pension fund of £100,000, but yours might be £50,000. The only way to shop around properly is to use a service that offers you choice.

There is a simple, but brutal, reason why enhanced annuity rates are higher than standard annuity rates. If you consider other financial products, particularly insurance, if you smoke or if you’re in poor health you get a worse deal. The opposite is true when it comes to annuity rates. Smokers and people in poor health can all negotiate higher annuity rates, for the brutal reason that their life expectancy is actually lower than for healthy people, so the annuity provider calculates it won’t have to pay out for so long.

Enhanced annuity rates or impaired life annuity rates are designed for people who smoke, are obese or have a serious medical condition or condition. Several insurers offer these, which can boost your annuity income by up to 30%. Philip Brown, head of retirement at Partnership, says £1billion worth of enhanced annuities were sold in 2009, about one in 10 of the total, yet as many as four out of 10 people actually qualify. He urges that if you smoke, if you have been ill or even if you’re only slightly overweight it is worth checking out what rates are available.

For many people, pension funds are just too small to buy the best UK annuity rates, and there has been a warning over private pension fund values. Around 75% of Britons are retiring on incomes of only £2,000 a year, or less, from their private pensions, recent research has shown. 90% of people who retired between 2004 and 2009 had accrued a pension fund worth less than £50,000, while around 77% had saved less than £30,000, according to enhanced annuity specialist Partnership. The group said at current annuity rates, a pension fund of £30,000 would convert into an annual income of just about £2,000 a year.

Even once the state pension is included, single people will still have a retirement income of just about £7,000 a year, while couples will receive around about £10,100. In both cases this is significantly less than the current level of average earnings which is around £26,000. The group warned that one in four retirees currently lives in poverty, and the situation could get even worse unless people start saving more money for their retirement. Philip Brown, of Partnership, said that the figures demonstrate that people are not investing anywhere near enough for their retirement years. The data reveals that barely 10% of people have a non-state pension fund of over £50,000 to buy the best annuity rates with.

He added that with well over two-thirds of all of those in the post-50 age banding having less than £30,000 in an annuity, which at today’s annuity rates would typically give an annual income of just about £2,000 a year, or £40 a week, the burden on an already heavily stretched state is going to be pretty massive. The group also found that only 38% of people were taking advantage of the open market option when they bought an annuity. The open market option enables people to buy an annuity anywhere, meaning they can shop around for the best UK annuity rates.