preparing for a Fixed Term Annuity

Nick9967

Hi all ,

You've all helped me over the passed few years more than you can imagine , so thanks for that in advance!

I'm now preparing myself for the final run in, to buy a fixed term annuity at the end of the year.

I have 3 pots with SW , some crystalised , some not crystalised both in same retirement account and a works pension under a separate account.

I will take the remaining tax free at the same time as the purchase.

I need a little more growth in it this year to reach my target value, should get to that somewhere between August and November if there are no sudden movements (fingers crossed) over course no guarantees!

In order for me not to risk that final stage 3/4 months perhaps I want to consider safe guarding the value of all and avoiding any sudden drops.

If I leave in SW retirement fund and works pension has anyone got any pointers on the quickest /easiest /safest "funds" to stick them all in - essentially as I need to call SW to enact this at my chosen point/value I want simplicity and speed with no risk attached -

In my head i have the scenario that on a given day i reach my target , same day or next day i call SW and make the switch - they take a couple of days? then act on my annuity with whoever i decide to go with.

Any guidance on this final step would be gratefully received - then off to semi retirement!!

thanks all

incus432

Ther are a few questions that could be asked here, like
-why a FT annuity?
- what funds are you currently invested in?

As to the 'quickest/easiest safest' funds those may be different things. Cash might be the 'safest' if you dont want to risk losing value for a few months. Or a short term Money market fund?

DRS1

It may not be the same because I was buying a lifetime annuity and wasn't looking to hit a target figure for my pension but I can tell you what I did last year before buying an annuity with my SW pension. I should mention the annuity was also from SW but I don't think that made any difference.

A few months before I started to get quotes from SW I switched my investments (the unit linked ones) from a Mixed Fund and an Equity Fund to a Cash Fund and a Fixed Fund. The Cash Fund was for the tax free lump sum and the Fixed Fund was meant to guard against fluctuations in the pricing of annuities. It was a conventional gilt fund. Don't ask me the duration - it was the only one they had for my pension so the choice was easy.

At the time I thought I was going to be buying an annuity which increased at a fixed rate.

To my surprise I ended up buying an index linked annuity. That did of course mean that I should have switched to the Indexed Fund not the Fixed Fund. The Indexed Fund was the one with the index linked gilts in it.

It is fair to say that I have no idea whether I did the right thing or not. Would I have had more money if I had not switched? Possibly The period covered was roughly March to August 2025 so maybe I missed some equity recovery? But at least I was in something which did not move around so much.

The main lesson you could learn from this post is that if you are set on one type of annuity (Indexed, level or fixed increases) be sure you aren't going to change your mind part way through and find like me that you worry you have put the money in the wrong thing (possibly).

Nick9967

Thanks all

Pot A 87% of total	% Pot A
SW Pension Portfolio Three	59%
SW Pension Portfolio Four	14%
SW Pension Portfolio A	27%
	Split
Equities	59.8%
Bonds	34.6%
Property etc	3.5%
Cash +	2.1%
Pot B - 13% of total	% Pot B
Scottish Widows Cash CS8	0.5%
Scottish Widows Fixed Interest CS8	1.8%
Scottish Widows Global Growth 2 CS8	3.9%
Scottish Widows International CS8	29.9%
Scottish Widows UK Equity Tracker 2 CS8	29.0%
SW Baillie Gifford North American CS8	10.6%
SW Fidelity Asia CS8	15.7%
SW Invesco Corporate Bond CS8	8.7%

they seem pretty stable most of the time so perhaps I'm worrying about nothing, or am i answering my own question and whack it all into cash for a couple of months ?