My Prudential Pension Delayed 7 Months And Getting No-Where

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This discussion was created from comments split from: Prudential Pension Delayed 8 Months.

JAY10000

My Prudential Pension Also Delayed 7 Months And Getting No-Where:

I have a guaranteed Annuity rate (GAR) pension with the Prudential.

Prudential state they no longer provide Annuities but have instigated agreements with Legal & General to provide annuities that will honour all conditions of their former Pension Policies; (L&G pay them £3000 for this client transfer). However, Legal and General say they cannot pay the stipulated GAR and Prudential just prevaricate and will not give me a reason why; this has been going on for 7 months.

I have pushed this over to the Pension Ombudsman, but they are saying this could take 11 months for a reply due to the numbers of people having similar problems.

Any Advice would be appreciated.

dunstonh

Prudential state they no longer provide Annuities but have instigated agreements with Legal & General to provide annuities that will honour all conditions of their former Pension Policies; (L&G pay them £3000 for this client transfer). However, Legal and General say they cannot pay the stipulated GAR and Prudential just prevaricate and will not give me a reason why; this has been going on for 7 months.

There seems to be some confusion here.
L&G do not pay the equivalent rate of the GAR.   However, Pru will increase the transfer value to L&G to give the equivalent monetary amount of the GAR.   i.e. higher value multiplied by lower annuity rate = lower value multiplied by higher annuity rate.

The £3,000 is the commission rate but it doesn't matter as the income to you should be the same as the GAR in monetary terms.

Any Advice would be appreciated.

Somewhere along the line there seems to be a misunderstanding.   Who is the problem?
L&G will just apply their annuity rate to the transfer value and are not involved in the GAR itself.   So, why L&G are saying anything about the GAR is a strange one.
Pru will increase the transfer value to reflect the GAR.  So, are Pru saying that they will not increase the transfer value?

I have pushed this over to the Pension Ombudsman, but they are saying this could take 11 months for a reply due to the numbers of people having similar problems.

What was the complaint outcome to the Pru?  (you cant go to the ombudsman without the Pru looking at your complaint first)


Also noting that your issue has nothing to do with the subject of this thread.  So, I am going to ask a board admin to 
split it into it's own thread.

JAY10000

My 38-year-old pension rules/contract Policy gives guaranteed annuity rates per £1000 of pension value, according to the persons age.

As previously noted, Prudential have stated that Legal and general Assurance will honour my pension policy on their behalf.

I have gone through the Prudential complaints procedure prior to contacting the PO.

The thing I am starting to realise is that trying to resolve this type of issue probably requires solicitors involvement which can in itself be quite costly.

dunstonh

My 38-year-old pension rules/contract Policy gives guaranteed annuity rates per £1000 of pension value, according to the persons age.

That is the case with may of these old plans.   

As previously noted, Prudential have stated that Legal and general Assurance will honour my pension policy on their behalf.

Not quite.   Prudential will honour the GAR by paying L&G an increased transfer value that equates to the same monetary value of the GAR.    L&G do not honour the GAR.  You get the standard L&G annuity rate.

I have gone through the Prudential complaints procedure prior to contacting the PO.

And what was the outcome of that complaint?  (you cannot go to the PO until you have a response)

The thing I am starting to realise is that trying to resolve this type of issue probably requires solicitors involvement which can in itself be quite costly.

No it doesn't.  I did enough of these without any issues, which makes me think there is some misunderstanding happening rather than an issue.  

Dazed_and_C0nfused

JAY10000 said:

My 38-year-old pension rules/contract Policy gives guaranteed annuity rates per £1000 of pension value, according to the persons age.

As previously noted, Prudential have stated that Legal and general Assurance will honour my pension policy on their behalf.

I have gone through the Prudential complaints procedure prior to contacting the PO.

The thing I am starting to realise is that trying to resolve this type of issue probably requires solicitors involvement which can in itself be quite costly.

@dunstonh

If I've understood this correctly then L&G won't honour the "pension policy".

But Prudential will give them additional funds so that the annuity paid to the op will at least match the monetary value specified in the policy?

dunstonh

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

JAY10000 said:

My 38-year-old pension rules/contract Policy gives guaranteed annuity rates per £1000 of pension value, according to the persons age.

As previously noted, Prudential have stated that Legal and general Assurance will honour my pension policy on their behalf.

I have gone through the Prudential complaints procedure prior to contacting the PO.

The thing I am starting to realise is that trying to resolve this type of issue probably requires solicitors involvement which can in itself be quite costly.

@dunstonh

If I've understood this correctly then L&G won't honour the "pension policy".

But Prudential will give them additional funds so that the annuity paid to the op will at least match the monetary value specified in the policy?

Yes.   

It is a similar arrangement with a number of pension providers and GARs.  So, its not unusual or unexpected.

The effective steps are:
1 - Pru will find out what the income will be for the GAR against the current value.  T
2 - L&G will tell Pru what monetary amount they have to transfer to them to provide the same monetary amount to equal the GAR.   
3 - Pru will send that higher value to L&G and the pension holder gets the correct monetary value.

Marcon

JAY10000 said:

My Prudential Pension Also Delayed 7 Months And Getting No-Where:

I have a guaranteed Annuity rate (GAR) pension with the Prudential.

Prudential state they no longer provide Annuities but have instigated agreements with Legal & General to provide annuities that will honour all conditions of their former Pension Policies; (L&G pay them £3000 for this client transfer). However, Legal and General say they cannot pay the stipulated GAR and Prudential just prevaricate and will not give me a reason why; this has been going on for 7 months.

I have pushed this over to the Pension Ombudsman, but they are saying this could take 11 months for a reply due to the numbers of people having similar problems.

Any Advice would be appreciated.

It's not for L&G to pay/honour the GAR. It's for the Pru to tell them what level of annuity is payable to you, taking into account the promised GAR, and then for the Pru to send the necessary funds to L&G (see dunstonh's answer immediately above this one).

Could this just be a hopelessly crossed wire which is simply getting more crossed (and you crosser!) as time goes on? Have you actually been given details of the annuity L&G will be paying?

DRS1

Do you know what amount the Pru are proposing to transfer to L&G?  How does that compare to the value of your pension in the last valuation you received (eg a 2024 annual statement)?