Retirement

In this week's Retirement Planner news round-up we highlight five key stories you might have missed over the past seven days

Scottish Widows will continue to pay trail commission on workplace pension schemes until 2016.

Aviva UK has reported a 21% drop in the value of new life business it wrote in the first half of the year, mainly due to a steep fall in annuity business.

Legal & General (L&G) is considering launching lifetime mortgages as more retirees eye equity release to fund their income.

Sesame Bankhall Group has set aside £31m for possible customer redress as "a number" of business reviews with "uncertain" outcomes are completed, parent company Friends Life has announced.

Potential drawdown clients looking to keep their pension pot invested after April next year will be a "big target" for Standard Life, which earlier announced a near 60% drop in annuity margins for the first half of the year.

Annuity margins at insurer Standard Life were down 59% in the first half of the year due to the sweeping changes to retirement income announced in the Budget, latest results show.

All UK commercial property should be classed as a non-standard asset in a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) due to the uncertainty that exists around transfers, according to Suffolk Life.

A think tank has called for Chancellor George Osborne to create a single "lifetime ISA" by 2017, saying recent changes to ISAs are not enough to spark a savings culture.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has added UK commercial property as a 'standard asset' eligible to be held within self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), as it confirmed operators will have to hold a minimum of £20,000 under finalised capital adequacy...