Addition of health details for Annuity triggers Underwriter referral

grn99

DRS1 said:

Oh and if you take the enhanced annuity they may well be checking with your doctor at some point after the annuity has started and that check may lead to a change in the amount of the annuity..

Yes, this could become an ongoing nightmare... and I still don't know why. Suddenly drawdown looks attractive again!!!

DRS1

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

It won't take too long with the underwriters - a few days (well 5 in my case).  And as pointed out you may get a better annuity rate (enhanced is the term they use).

Just be aware that if any of the health details change then it is back to the underwriters again (and yes you do have to tell them)

Yes that's I thought, once you're into the underwriting loop and comparisons become a lot trickier.

How are you doing the comparisons?  Is it just using the annuity quoter things on Moneyhelper HL or RetirementLine?  If so all of those allow you to input the same health details you gave to SW.  Whether you get the same results as with the underwriting I don't know but SW will be one of the results you get so you should be able to tell easily enough.

grn99

DRS1 said:

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

It won't take too long with the underwriters - a few days (well 5 in my case).  And as pointed out you may get a better annuity rate (enhanced is the term they use).

Just be aware that if any of the health details change then it is back to the underwriters again (and yes you do have to tell them)

Yes that's I thought, once you're into the underwriting loop and comparisons become a lot trickier.

How are you doing the comparisons?  Is it just using the annuity quoter things on Moneyhelper HL or RetirementLine?  If so all of those allow you to input the same health details you gave to SW.  Whether you get the same results as with the underwriting I don't know but SW will be one of the results you get so you should be able to tell easily enough.

That's the thing, the online quotes just come back, no suggestion of an issue, yet with the phonecall to SW and the health Q&A with second life, they couldn't generate any quotes, and referral necessary.... so I would've thought whatever the issue is, it will just keep cropping up and the computer generated numbers mean nothing until you approach each provider.

I was hoping the good figures I already had from SW would make this straight forward, otherwise I'd have to search out another IFA and effectively start the whole process again (previous IFA has lost interest) , which i really don't want to do and with SW I can DIY it. In the meantme, there's no pension of course. I guess if it's the second life that's the issue, I can remove that issue with a single life, but that's far from ideal.

MyRealNameToo

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

Oh and if you take the enhanced annuity they may well be checking with your doctor at some point after the annuity has started and that check may lead to a change in the amount of the annuity..

Yes, this could become an ongoing nightmare... and I still don't know why. Suddenly drawdown looks attractive again!!!

Because the FCA did a review of the non-advised sales process for Annuities and the likes of the Pru got a £24m fine and had to run a £110m redress programme because they hadn't done a good enough job of identifying people who's health or lifestyle entitled them to an enhanced annuity and instead they'd taken a standard.

Most insurers dont want to be paying out that sort of money and so now are better at ensuring they check if the annuity rate should be increased to reflect poor health. 

DRS1

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

It won't take too long with the underwriters - a few days (well 5 in my case).  And as pointed out you may get a better annuity rate (enhanced is the term they use).

Just be aware that if any of the health details change then it is back to the underwriters again (and yes you do have to tell them)

Yes that's I thought, once you're into the underwriting loop and comparisons become a lot trickier.

How are you doing the comparisons?  Is it just using the annuity quoter things on Moneyhelper HL or RetirementLine?  If so all of those allow you to input the same health details you gave to SW.  Whether you get the same results as with the underwriting I don't know but SW will be one of the results you get so you should be able to tell easily enough.

That's the thing, the online quotes just come back, no suggestion of an issue, yet with the phonecall to SW and the health Q&A with second life, they couldn't generate any quotes, and referral necessary.... so I would've thought whatever the issue is, it will just keep cropping up and the computer generated numbers mean nothing until you approach each provider.

I was hoping the good figures I already had from SW would make this straight forward, otherwise I'd have to search out another IFA and effectively start the whole process again (previous IFA has lost interest) , which i really don't want to do and with SW I can DIY it. In the meantme, there's no pension of course. I guess if it's the second life that's the issue, I can remove that issue with a single life, but that's far from ideal.

I was able to get automatic quotes for my annuity including health conditions with no trouble from Moneyhelper and the others but when speaking to SW the enhanced annuity was referred to underwriting.  I don't think it is a thing to worry about (I think it is just the process not a problem) and certainly not one to make you switch from joint to single.  

grn99

Thanks all, I think it's just a wait and see job now and hope for the best

westv

MyRealNameToo said:

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

Oh and if you take the enhanced annuity they may well be checking with your doctor at some point after the annuity has started and that check may lead to a change in the amount of the annuity..

Yes, this could become an ongoing nightmare... and I still don't know why. Suddenly drawdown looks attractive again!!!

Because the FCA did a review of the non-advised sales process for Annuities and the likes of the Pru got a £24m fine and had to run a £110m redress programme because they hadn't done a good enough job of identifying people who's health or lifestyle entitled them to an enhanced annuity and instead they'd taken a standard.

Most insurers dont want to be paying out that sort of money and so now are better at ensuring they check if the annuity rate should be increased to reflect poor health. 

That seems to imply they double check all non-advised sales whether the customer has health issues or not.

MyRealNameToo

westv said:

MyRealNameToo said:

grn99 said:

DRS1 said:

Oh and if you take the enhanced annuity they may well be checking with your doctor at some point after the annuity has started and that check may lead to a change in the amount of the annuity..

Yes, this could become an ongoing nightmare... and I still don't know why. Suddenly drawdown looks attractive again!!!

Because the FCA did a review of the non-advised sales process for Annuities and the likes of the Pru got a £24m fine and had to run a £110m redress programme because they hadn't done a good enough job of identifying people who's health or lifestyle entitled them to an enhanced annuity and instead they'd taken a standard.

Most insurers dont want to be paying out that sort of money and so now are better at ensuring they check if the annuity rate should be increased to reflect poor health. 

That seems to imply they double check all non-advised sales whether the customer has health issues or not.

Something similar, I dont think it was 100% of cases as some had had appropriate questions at the time but not all. Obviously a lot after being contacted turned out they didnt have any conditions so no uplift was due but there is still an operational cost of writing to them, reviewing the questionnaire when it comes in etc. 

Most that were due something had modest conditions or lifestyle so got a minor bump some had major health issues and got a significant increase. Inevitably there are also the complex ones where the insured has already died and so finding out their BMI or medications back when they took out the annuity was difficult. 

grn99

One more aspect I remain unsure of, is getting the various options on the quotes such annual increment, Guarantee period, and how much of the fund to use etc. Given these were going to be done today to show the differences (we never got that far), how will that now work with Underwriting's involvement? Will they be involved for every quote or do they just give an annuity value to someone that is used during future quotes, or is it done another way?

DRS1

grn99 said:

One more aspect I remain unsure of, is getting the various options on the quotes such annual increment, Guarantee period, and how much of the fund to use etc. Given these were going to be done today to show the differences (we never got that far), how will that now work with Underwriting's involvement? Will they be involved for every quote or do they just give an annuity value to someone that is used during future quotes, or is it done another way?

I think once underwriting has done its thing you get an email asking you to call them.  Then you tell them the sort of annuity you want (which may be two three or a dozen variations) and they go away (for half an hour - that's what it feels like anyway) and run the figures and then they tell you over the phone what those figures are and you say send me a written quote for that one or those two or however many you like the sound of).  Be warned they come in the same envelope and mine didn't fit through the letterbox!  That's because each quote comes with its own acceptance forms (yawn)

But what you should not get is another 5 day wait between quotes (unless you are changing any of the medical details)