who do i get to help with my penion

blackcat698

Hi i worked for a well known bank for 12 years and have a small pension to come. As i am not in the best of health I have decided to take a lump sum but i have to buy an annuity with the rest .
Is it better to let the bank sort it out or to find and pay a pensions advisor to do it for me.
many thanks

atush

You don't have to take an annuity, you could go via Drawdown. But with health problmes an annuity could be the way to go as you could get an enhanced annuity.

Never go to your bank. Go to an IFA, the stress is on the Independant bit. Get a recommendation from someone you know who is happy with the work that was done, or go via WWW.unbiased.co.uk

jem16

blackcat698 wrote: »

Hi i worked for a well known bank for 12 years and have a small pension to come. As i am not in the best of health I have decided to take a lump sum but i have to buy an annuity with the rest .

Is it definitely a defined contribution pension as opposed to a final salary pension?

CannySaver_2

Hi

I definitely think you need to see an IFA, don't ever go to the tied, commission based adviser at the bank :mad:

As a guide though the first thing you / the IFA should do is find out whether it is a final salary (aka defined benefit scheme), it may well be if you were with the bank 12 years ago.

Usually the conversation would stop there i.e. take the benefits directly from the scheme, but as you are "not in the best of health" it would be sensible to also get a transfer value and see what annuity you could buy. The final salary scheme will provide a set level of income, generally assuming a spouse's pension, and will take no account of your health. As you are in poor health you may be better off buying an annuity, of course you might not be, but it's worth checking.

Make sure the IFA does like for like comparisons between the benefits your existing scheme will give you and any annuity you could buy. I'd also do some of your own research, use an online pension annuity calculator to get some of your own quotes (although they probably won't take into account your health issues) and generally read up on the subject.

Ask a friend or family for a recommendation to an IFA or use www.unbiased.co.uk make sure that the IFA is fee based (you don't want commission skewing their advice) and that they are suitably qualified and active in this area.

Hope this helps.

The Canny Saver

jamesd

General answer is that you should not buy an annuity from a bank. If the value is £10,000 or more then you should be able to find an IFA from unbiased.co.uk who will find the best annuity deal on the market for you, on commission basis, using the money that the annuity provider would have kept for themselves if you didn't use an IFA. If you can't find a local IFA then one of the annuity web sites can probably do better.

There are better annuity deals available for people who have health problems that are likely to affect how long they live. Many companies just offer standard good health annuities, not the enhanced or impaired life ones that pay out more for people with these conditions. Many of the companies involved in this market only sell via IFAs. This is a time when it's important to list all medical conditions because the worse they are, the more money you get.

If your ill health is sufficient that a doctor has said that you may have only a year to live it's normally possible to take the whole pension amount as a lump sum.