Smoker annuity rates and female annuity rates are important considerations. If you’re a smoker, annuity providers factor in to their annuity rates that you are likely to pass away sooner than the average individual who doesn’t smoke. They therefore assume that they’ll not be paying you your annuity income for as long. A presumed shorter lifespan means that being a regular smoker can increase the amount of regular income you receive from your annuity. In addition, higher annuity rates are sometimes given to individuals who have retired from certain occupations or to individuals who live in certain parts of the country, based on postcode (via postcode annuities, which tend to benefit those living in ‘poorer’ areas). As a smoker, you may be entitled to receive a higher annuity income, perhaps up to 30% above standard level annuity rates.

Female annuity rates? 1000’s of women retire each week, but did you know that when they buy their annuity, in general, they receive a lesser income from their annuity than men? They are being penalised because of their biological difference to men. Insurance companies say that income from pension annuities for females are lower due to them having a longer life expectancy. Individual’s annuity income depends on the insurance company’s estimation of how long they’ll live. The same sized pension fund has to last longer, so it’s spread more thinly over a greater number of years.

Pension annuities; get more, and higher UK annuity rates as a possible result. Some tips on getting a better outcome with your pension annuity. First, you could retire later, and this will give your pension fund the opportunity to increase in value over time and potentially yield more annuity income. Plus, annuity rates are usually higher the older you get which will improve your annuity income too. Of course, you could take your tax-free cash entitlement, and take up to 25% of your pension fund as tax-free cash. Tax-free equals more cash in your pocket.

Then again, you could consider taking tax-free cash but deferring your pension, If you can afford it, leaving the remaining 75% of your pension fund invested. It could grow in value and provide a larger pension annuity income in the future. Of course, if it’s invested in the stockmarket, it could potentially fall in value as well. Don’t forget to recover any lost pension plans; a forgotten plan can really help to increase your income. You could start your search using the Pension Tracing Service. In addition, you could look at transferring old pensions; if there are still a few years remaining before you retire, think about transferring pension plans which aren’t doing well. The value may recover with better fund management.

Of course, when it comes to buying your annuity, there is a golden rule, use the Open Market Option (OMO) to shop around for the best UK annuity rates and don’t necessarily take the annuity rate offered by your current pension provider. It is possible that your pension plan has Guaranteed Annuity Rates (GAR) built into it; some older-style pension plans come with GAR’s which could be far higher than current UK annuity rates. If that’s not enough to consider, there is your health. You could use your health to boost your income, for example, if you smoke or you’re overweight, or of you suffer from ill health. If so, you could qualify for higher annuity rates from an enhanced annuity. Even more so if you suffer from a serious medical condition.

You might want to think about a with-profits annuity. These are invested in an insurance companies with-profits fund and have the potential to provide a rising annuity income if the fund performs well. You’ll also be guaranteed a minimum income. But they can be risky, and your income could drop. To cap it all off, you could simply defer your annuity purchase. Older people generally get higher pension annuity rates so the longer you leave it the better off you might be; but watch out for the annuity income you’ve missed in the meantime. 

Here we provide a look at some standard conventional annuity rates and enhanced annuity rates. Although this website contains many examples of annuity quotes, on the standard annuity rates page, the smoker annuity rates page, and the enhanced annuity rates page, we thought it sensible to pull some of these together to provide a quick guide to the benefits of shopping around using the open market option for a better deal. The following quotes are based on 65 year olds with a £50,000 pension pot, after taking tax-free cash. 

First, let’s consider a man who is fit and healthy and a non-smoker and looking for standard conventional  annuity rates. He can buy an annuity paying £281 per month, and a woman would receive £263 per month. If, instead, these same people smoked on a regualr basis, they might qualify for smoker annuity rates, which produce a slightly increased annuity rate. A man would receive an annuity income of £331 per month, that’s £50 more each month than a standard quote, or 18% more, and a woman would receive £314 per month, that’s £51 more each month than a standard quote, or 19% more. 

Now, if these people had a not too serious medical condition they could get a much higher annuity rate. Let’s say they had long standing well managed diabetes, and were taking medication which include some to control blood pressure and also cholesterol as well as diabetes specific medication, and recently had a stroke, but are now fully recovered and enjoying an active lifestyle. A man would receive an income of £345 per month, that’s £64 more each month than a standard quote, or 23% more, and a woman receives £325 per month, that’s £62 more each month than a standard quote, or 24% more.

Moving on, let’s look at an enhanced annuity quote for a very serious medical condition, which produces a significantly higher annuity rate. Let’s say that either life has been recently diagnosed with lung cancer, which has spread to the bones, having had a course of radiotherapy and currently in the middle of a course  of chemotherapy. A man would receive an income of £695 per month, that’s £441 more each month than a standard quote, or 147% more, and a woman would receive £654 per month, that’s £391 more each month than a standard quote, or 149% more. These examples illustrate very clearly the benefits of using the open market option to shop around for the best annuity rates at retirement.

Smoker annuity rates could be the best annuity rates for you. How? Well, quite simply, the easy answer is you must be a smoker to get a smoker annuity rates. When you decide to buy your retirement income you take your pension fund (probably after taking your tax free cash) and approach an insurance company (annuity provider) to purchase your pension annuity. Be careful, though, you do not need to buy your  annuity from the same provider who has managed your pension savings and you can elect to go to the open market instead to find the best annuity rates available and transfer your pension to a new provider, known as taking your open market option (OMO).

However, if you are a regular smoker you can apply for smoker annuity rates. The criteria for this is that you smoke broadly 10 cigarettes a day and you have regularly smoked for at least 10 years. Please check the annuity providers definition as the criteria can vary a little. You may think its not worth moving your pension pot around but on average you might actually gain around 20% against non-smoker annuity rates. In the first instance you should approach your existing pension provider and ask if they provide such rates for smokers. Using the services of a specialist adviser is a good idea as smokers annuities are a bit more complex than standard annuities. You will need to go through a medical questionnaire and the provider may contact your G.P. to check your smokers status.

Enhanced annuity and impaired life annuity sales fall but keep market share. Enhanced annuities or impaired life annuities were first introduced in the UK back in 1995 and have rapidly gained a pretty substantial market share of all annuities sold. These annuities include: enhanced rates for serious medical conditions; increased rates for smokers; and enhanced rates as a result of lifestyle factors such as being overweight or occupation. Interestingly, enhanced and impaired life annuity sales have recently fallen back a bit, but have maintained their overall market share.

Sales of enhanced annuities fell to £415.8 m in the third quarter of this year, a decline of 7% relative to the previous quarterly figure of around £447.7 m, according to research by leading consultants, Watson Wyatt. Andy Sanders, a senior consultant, said that whilst third quarter sales fell a little, enhanced annuities maintained their share of the annuity market relative to the second quarter of the year. Sales in the first nine months of this year were just over £1.3 bn, less than £150 million short of full-year figures for last year,  which, based on current trends, means that this year, 2009, is on track to be yet another record twelve months for the enhanced annuity market.

According to Watson Wyatt, retirees interest in taking out an impaired life annuity or an enhanced annuity,  which can provide much bigger retirement incomes, is likely to continue. Currently, they make up around a third of all annuities sold in the open market in the UK. Andy Sanders stated that the continuing success of the enhanced annuity market place means more retirees are benefiting from higher pensions incomes because their medical condition or lifestyle has been professionally assessed and a lower than average expectation of life anticipated, resulting in higher annuity rates.