Immediate needs annuity question

gibbo9 · 12 September 2018 at 10:45AM

Hi,I realise this may not be the right place but I know people on here have helped on this subject.
From what I read the are 2 providers of these, but who are they?
Most people seem to recommend advisors associated with SOLLA.
Any local to us are restricted not independent and all seem to be part of st jame's place. SJP website lists Friends Life and Just as their providers of immediate needs annuities.
Are these the 2 people mention?
Hope someone can lighten the darkness for me as I need to start my enquiries soon
Many thanks in anticipation
Ray

dunstonh · 12 September 2018 at 11:07AM

Any local to us are restricted not independent and all seem to be part of st jame's place. SJP website lists Friends Life and Just as their providers of immediate needs annuities.

Which search engine are you using? If unbiased, the deselect the option that only shows paying firms. Or better still, use a different search engine as most IFAs I know have stopped using unbiased.

You should have IFAs relatively local unless you are extremely remote. The issue could be that many IFAs just dont advertise and pay to go on listings as they dont need to. So, using the free listings or semi-free like Adviser book ( https://adviserbook.co.uk/ ) or the professional body PFS may be a better solution https://www.thepfs.org/yourmoney/find-an-adviser/

gibbo9 · 12 September 2018 at 11:15AM

Thanks for the quick response. I was using the search facility in the SOLLA website as quite a few people recommend using advisors registered/linked with them. I'll see what your suggestions give me. Do you know who the providers are as a matter of interest?

xylophone · 12 September 2018 at 11:30AM

Friends Life now Aviva.

http://www.aviva-for-advisers.co.uk/adviser/site/public/products/retirement-solutions/lifetime-care/immediate-lifetime-care

https://www.justadviser.com/products/care-funding/what-is-an-immediate-or-deferred-care-plan/

You might try Adviserbook - type in location then see filter on left hand side - you would need to tick the "long term care" box and "confirmed independent"?

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

gibbo9 · 12 September 2018 at 11:39AM

Thanks xylophone.
Those are the 2 mentioned on SJP website, so are they the only 2 providers in the market?. If that's the case would it really matter if the advisor was not independent as there would be no other place to get quotes from and we are not really looking at any other product

gibbo9 · 12 September 2018 at 11:43AM

Ticking long term and confirmed independent gives a result of 0 for our area

dunstonh · 12 September 2018 at 12:32PM

untick independent and see what you get. Adviserbook is a relatively new directory and most have not verified their independent status yet. At least it may show other options

Malthusian · 12 September 2018 at 2:21PM

gibbo9 wrote: »

If that's the case would it really matter if the advisor was not independent as there would be no other place to get quotes from and we are not really looking at any other product

Possibly not, but I would be concerned about

a) SJP charging a much higher fee on the annuity than an IFA would

b) even though you may currently only be interested in immediate care annuities, SJP might try to persuade you to buy a much more expensive solution.

If you genuinely can't find a local IFA then a local restricted adviser (not SJP, or any of the other national stack-em-and-squeeze-em consolidator outfits) is the next best option. But as dunstonh said, you must live somewhere very remote if you really don't have any IFAs within reasonable driving distance.

Friends Life and Just are indeed the only providers at present.

xylophone · 12 September 2018 at 2:32PM

Have you tried outside your immediate area - the nearest city?

https://ukcareguide.co.uk/immediate-care-annuity/

You might try here.

gibbo9 · 12 September 2018 at 3:29PM

Thanks for the replies. We live in Newcastle/stoke area, so not remote. Any of the local/SOLLA ones seem to be SJP related, so perhaps we do need to cast a wider net or go for someone not registered with SOLLA. Will different firms charge different fees for the same product. I suspect that's a silly question possibly

Shedman · 12 September 2018 at 4:23PM

We used Eldercare remotely (ie over telephone) - they are SOLLA registered. Found them very helpful and the process for getting quotes was straightforward and pretty quick.

Their basis of charging is that you either pay an amount for a full report (which gives a number of different quote options such as level, indexed, deferred) and a lesser % based on premium if you proceed or you get the report for free but pay a higher commission.

You don't need to progress if you don't want once you have the report, so you could get the quotes for free with no upfront commission. Other more local advisors wanted to charge a large fee before getting quotes. (In fact Eldercare will also give you a ring and give headline quotes before issuing report so that you dont even necessarily need to get full report if those headline quotes are way over expectations).

For premiums of £70,000 or more first option works out cheaper overall assuming you do actually progress.

As indicated there are only 2 providers (Aviva and Just) but apparently a third provider is soon about to enter this market (how soon wasn't indicated).

As an indicator, if it helps, the premium for level (non indexed) payment for an 86 year old woman with some health issues (but nothing life threatening) was around 5.6 x the annual payout (ie needs to live until around 92 before break even). However main part of our reasoning for an annuity was to have the certainty that money wouldn't run out how ever long she lives so we are comfortable with the risk of possibly losing out if she dies early.

PS PM me if you want some further info on the process we went through or if you've got more queries as I know it's a difficult decision.

Immediate needs annuity question

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