Annuity Direct warns of bad advice on impaired annuities
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Annuity Direct has warned that pensioners are losing out as a result of bad advice on impaired annuities and panels which restrict access to the best rates.
The specialist broker says that despite increasing sales of impaired life annuities, many people who could qualify for top market rates are being short-changed.
Annuity Direct says that in many cases it has seen, clients have not been made aware of often superior rates on the market – either because advisers only use a limited panel of providers, or because their retirement wake-up pack only shows annuity rates that do not take medical conditions into account.
If the client accepts the first offer the provider will not make medical enquiries and they will lose out.
Chief executive officer Bob Bullivant says: “It is not unusual for us to take a client back to the ceding provider who offers, via Annuity Direct, a higher medically enhanced rate than was originally offered in their retirement pack wake up letter that they send to the client.”
Bullivant says that firms using panels are also preventing clients from accessing the best rates.
He adds: “There are nine major impaired annuity providers, but we are seeing more and more examples of people who have no idea that they could significantly improve on their annuity rates, simply by exposure to the whole of the market offering.”
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