Which Annuity

missile

My mother has three sons, she always asks our advice and comments and if any of us say one thing "but he said ......" Then she usually ignores all three of us and takes advice from a tied agent at the bank / building society. Does her own thing and quite right too, as Margaretclare would no doubt comment?

margaretclare

Thanks for your response.

I have no axe to grind with anyone at all. Someone mentioned that another poster's comment had 'struck a raw nerve'. I have a raw nerve which keeps getting struck, and it's the widely-held assumption that many people have about retired people, which may be true of a lot of people, as the study you quote seems to show.

I've learned - oh how I've learned! Much of my financial 'savvy' has been learned in fairly recent years. I continue to learn. Re annuities - I have 3 already. In all 3 cases I asked an adviser to research the market and find me the best possible deal. More recently, I've built up yet another pot in a Friends Provident stakeholder and I've just transferred this to a SIPP. You can see that I don't need the money immediately but there may be a time in the future when I do need it. The stereotyping that I've found with FP has been amazing and I've really had to insist on what I want.

If I could go back a few years, I wouldn't have 3 different annuities. One of them dates back to 1989 and that was the best I could do under the legislation at that time. For the other 2, I'd leave them to grow and now combine them with my stakeholder pot.

It's worth remembering that the concept of stakeholders - i.e. being able to save from non-earned income and have tax relief added - did not exist until a relatively few years ago. 4 or 5 years I think. With 'A' day this year other possibilities have opened up. It's worth keeping track of these changes, and as they say here 'no one looks after your money better than you do' and 'always do your own research'.

Margaret Clare

margaretclare

missile wrote:

My mother has three sons, she always asks our advice and comments and if any of us say one thing "but he said ......" Then she usually ignores all three of us and takes advice from a tied agent at the bank / building society. Does her own thing and quite right too, as Margaretclare would no doubt comment?

Well, she does her own thing, does what feels right to her, and good luck to her!

However, if I was going to seek advice it would be from an IFA (as was the case when we did equity release 3 years ago). The last people I'd take advice from would be a tied agent at the bank!!

Margaret Clare