Cashing in a small Annuity

I have an Annuity with capital of under £5000. Legally I can cash it in. What is the best way of going about it?
According to the newspapers, many of the ompanies are not willing to allow it, so in my contacts with them I need to pre-empt their refusal or blocking tactics!

Comments

  • greenglide
    greenglide Posts: 3,301
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    You cannot "cash in" an annuity.

    Do you really have an annuity (an annuity does not have a "capital") or do you actually have a pension fund which you want to drawdown?

    Are you receiving payments from this?
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    Arthog wrote: »
    I have an annuity with capital of under £5000.

    Does not compute.

    Either you have an annuity, or you have capital of £5k in some form.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    Both those articles seem to me to be misleading and contradictory

    They talk about your "pot" but you don't have a pot once you have an annuity.

    They also variously talk about the £10k rule saying you can cash in your pot (that you don't have) if it's less than £10k or you can cash in your annuity if the payment is less than £10k.

    The OP talks as if he has a definite sum, but that's not possible. He may once have had a lump sum but that went when he bought an annuity (if he did)

    I'm suspecting the OP does not have an annuity, but has a lump sum with a provider that doesn't provide drawdown. But until more info is forthcoming not much more to be said.
  • jamesd
    jamesd Posts: 26,103
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    Do you really already have an annuity that is paying you regular income? Or do you just have a pension pot that allows buying an annuity as one of many possible choices? Annuities don't normally have a pot value so it seems unlikely that you actually have an annuity at the moment.

    If you have a pension pot worth five thousand Pounds you can simply ask for it to be paid to you or transferred to a pension which offers this feature. No fuss or strife required.
  • Arthog
    Arthog Posts: 223
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    Thanks for the replies.


    It is called a Retirement Annuity, yet I am informed annually of the value of the units I hold, currently £4,900. It's with a Canadian company and I'm wondering whether the terms differ. The documents say 'There is no cash-in value at any time', but that was before the law changed in the UK
    After reading your posts, the best thing for me to do is to contact the company to find out the exact details.
    Many thanks.
  • jamesd
    jamesd Posts: 26,103
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    Seems like a retirement annuity contract, a common sort of thing there. It's governed by Canadian law, not UK, so you can pretty much ignore anything you read about what UK law requires or allows. Given the contract term it's unlikely that you will have a choice but no harm in asking.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    Arthog wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies.

    It is called a Retirement Annuity, yet I am informed annually of the value of the units I hold, currently £4,900. It's with a Canadian company and I'm wondering whether the terms differ. The documents say 'There is no cash-in value at any time', but that was before the law changed in the UK
    After reading your posts, the best thing for me to do is to contact the company to find out the exact details.
    Many thanks.

    In what way do you think the law changed in the UK regards annuities ?
    Are you receiving payments from this scheme ?
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 10,898
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    jamesd wrote: »
    It's governed by Canadian law, not UK

    Not necessarily. The OP may have a UK pension from Sun Life Financial Of Canada's UK subsidiary or Canada Life's.

    The OP has still not drip-fed enough information for us to give a useful answer.
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