Purchasing an Annuity

NXEC2010

I'm 55 in 3 months time and want to take my Defined Contribution pension at that age. There's £60000 in it - of which I want to take 25% tax free as cash.

I know exactly what type of Annuity I'd like. I've looked at comparison sites to see the variable rates that are currently on offer.

I seem to be drawing a blank as to how to get those annuities. Can I go online, click a few buttons and do it all that way or do I have to go to a financial advisor?

My current pension (the DC one I want to convert into an annuity is with Pension Bee)

LV= rates are pretty good but they seem to want to charge me £995 to sort things out. Is this about average?

El_Torro

Just to confirm: Your pension is £60k? If so it”s on the low end for an annuity. It’ll probably be cheaper to arrange your own annuity at this value, assuming the provider allows you to do that.

£995 for an advisor to do it doesn’t sound terrible.

QrizB

I've looked at comparison sites to see the variable rates that are currently on offer. I seem to be drawing a blank as to how to get those annuities

I don't know which sites you've looked at, but eg Hargreaves Lansdown will buy you the annuity from their quote system.

https://annuitysupermarket.hl.co.uk/PersonalClient.aspx

Where have you been comparing?

dunstonh

I know exactly what type of Annuity I'd like. I've looked at comparison sites to see the variable rates that are currently on offer.

Your choice of LV suggests you are looking at flexible annuities rather than lifetime annuities.

LV= rates are pretty good but they seem to want to charge me £995 to sort things out. Is this about average?

Is that commission or fee? (former will be for a non-advised sale. Latter will be for an advised sale). LV retail their own product. An independent retails from the market place.

NXEC2010

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82139202#Comment_82139202

Yes. I have £60000 in my pension

NXEC2010

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82139207#Comment_82139207

I've looked at moneyhelper and done a few searches using Google. As I'm 3 months away from being able to obtain the annuity I've avoided sites that won't quote online and need you to provide a phone number as I don't want people calling me

NXEC2010

I'm not sure whether it's commission or a fee. I am looking for a lifetime annuity

NXEC2010

The Hargreaves Lansdowne link is useful. Thank you.

From the amounts they quite, do they take fees from it ?

DRS1

HL will get paid a commission. It comes out of the pension. You don't pay them a fee. An IFA would charge you a fee and may get a commission free rate. But you may not find an IFA who will do it.

PhoneBook

Try RetirementLine, they offered me better rates than Hargreaves Lansdown, any provider will take a commission/fee, so focus on the annuity actually offered https://www.retirementline.co.uk/

QrizB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82139262#Comment_82139262

I'm glad you persisted despite the phone number!

The HL quotes include their commission. If you click through as though you wanted to buy the annuity, it'll tell you how much that comes to.

Edit to add: here's an example of what you'll see regarding commissions if you click on the HL "apply" button:

I agree with PhoneBook that you should try RetirementLine too, and compare quotes.