To get the best annuity rates and enjoy your retirement years you need to ensure that you shop around at the annuitysupermarket and use your entitlement to the open market option.
To get the best annuity rates follow these top tips:
1. Dont accept the first offer from your pension pot provider
About 6 month before your retirement date you will get a benefits pack (often called a wake up pack), this pack will tell you the current size of your pension fund and the annuity rates your pension provider will pay at retirement. Of course unless you are days away from retiring then this pack is just a guide.
2. Use your right to the ‘Open Market Option’ to find better annuity rates
Everyone has the right to the ‘open market option’ which allows you to take your pension pot from one provider to another to purchase your annuity. It is not complicated to do, yes, there are a few forms to complete but this should not deter you.
Will I get better annuity rates from the open market?
This question in probably 95% of cases is yes and the reason is this. Your existing pension provider will normally only quote you standard annuity rates and hope you accept them because that is how they make their money of course. The open market option allows you to see if another provider will give you more for your personal circumstances. So things like gender, age, postcode, height and weight, if you smoke and your medical conditions can all help towards getting better annuity rates.
3. Use a specialist annuity adviser
To find the best annuity rates you could phone all the annuity providers yourself and ask them to give you annuity quotes. To save time and effort you doing this just approach a specialist annuity adviser like annuitysupermarket and they will do all the work for you. There are some annuity providers that will only deal with advisers and do not deal direct with consumers so you would never get a quote yourself anyway.
Good luck in your quest for better annuity rates and if you follow these simple tips you should have a better retirement.
