A list of those that are the worst offenders for delayed pension annuity transfers has been released by the Annuities Clearing House (ACH), with the likes of Windsor Life and Phoenix topping the bill. As well as these two, major life insurance companies are taking more than 50 days to transfer pension fund money for customers exercising the open market option (OMO) on their personal pension plans at maturity.
Research from the ACH reveals the best, and the worst, providers for fund transfer times, with many taking over a month to make funds available for annuity purchase. Windsor Life and Phoenix both took the longest to transfer pension funds for OMO customers, with a terrible average of 51 days needed to carry out the transfer to allow customers to go elsewhere for the best deals.
Zurich was found to provide the quickest transfer service, with average transfer times of a comparatively miserly 18 days, closely followed by Abbey Life (taking 19 days) and Virgin Money (taking 21 days). The managing director of ACH, Steve Hunt, says the performance of many top pension companies is simply not good enough and he has called on the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to take action, as too many are missing out on the best annuity rates. He stated that ACH is determined to bring this matter to the attention of the FSA in order to encourage them to clamp down on these appalling inefficiencies we are witnessing. These transfer times are gradually improving but three to four weeks to transfer pension funds across is still far too long, and there are clearly some pretty serious offenders out there.
ACH says that many consumers risk losing out on the best annuity rates, because pension funds take so long to transfer that initial annuity quotes, which tempted the move in the first place, have often been withdrawn by providers. New quotes might then be for less meaning that the consumer gets a lower retirement income as a direct result.