Living Time is looking to mop up Hartford’s annuity business in the UK. They are looking to benefit as much as they can from The Hartford’s exit from the UK recently by taking on some of its staff and launching a really special offer to attract advisers who were in the process of submitting business to the Hartford.
Until 31 July this year the firm is doubling the commission levels for advisers to 3% on its fixed-term pension annuity 75 Plan. Living Time said the increased commission was supposedly aimed at compensating advisers for some of the time they have wasted completing Hartford applications.
The company said that the offer, which naturally is not exclusive to prospective Hartford clients, has the aim of discouraging advisers from reverting back to selecting straightforward lifetime annuities for their clients after the Hartford’s departure from the UK. I suppose they are trying hard to get the clients on side after being sold something by a firm no longer around.
Apparently, independent financial advisers (IFA’s) are seriously thinking of defaulting back to old habits, old fashioned annuities, and providing conventional lifetime annuity quotes to these clients destined for Hartford, suggests Dave Harris, Living Time’s managing director of both sales and marketing.
If you are a client in such a position, having seen a firm pull out of the UK partly because of the costs involved in offering these variable annuities, might you not be a bit concerned about the financial viability of a similar alternative. You might prefer the old fashioned way, and simply look for the best annuity rates.
