Cavendish Online

kalashcats

I have today received my policy for a retirement pension to be paid by Norwich Union. I got the details about Cavendish Online from this site and made enquiries first. My previous Financial Adviser quoted 'at least £500' to do the work, but Cavendish did what needed to be done for £50. Instant savings of 'at least' £450. PLUS, any commission came to me. It was a bit more difficult in that you have to say which policy you want to buy (a few phonecalls and a bit of surfing takes care of that), and then you have to fill in long forms; sometimes I didn't understand the questions as they can be tied up in insurance people's jargon. I found Cavendish very good at answering my queries by email while I was working on the forms. I think a £500 FA may have done it a lot quicker, and she always fills in the forms for me, but I think the savings are well worth it. It took about two months. Much of the hold-up was caused by the company which was holding my fund dragging its feet. Thanks to Martin for another great tip. The good thing about this site is its accessibility, isn't it?:j

dunstonh

Why Norwich Union? NU havent been coming up as best annuity provider for me for some time. They are usually in the top 5-7 but havent seen the top for ages. Getting paid £450 commission may be nice but if its cost you £200 a year then its short sighted.

Why did you take the commission and not go for a nil commission option which would have increased the annual income?

Another issue to consider is that a networked IFA (particulary those with the larger networks) should be able to beat Cavendish's terms. Providers will often improve pricing of a product based on levels of business generated and when I have compared pricing in the past on like for like basis, I have seen Cavendish come out more expensive. This was also the case of someone who posted in the pensions forum a few months back that their IFA was getting better terms than the online providers despite the IFA being paid more.

toonfish

I hope you fully investigated the options for impaired lives, guarantee options, drawdown etc.

"Cheapest" is very often far from "best" as in all walks of life