Swallowing the bitter annuities pill

With bond yields at an all-time low, helping a client to decide how they take their income at retirement is not an easy process - whether it is through annuities, income or phased drawdown on one of the new products on the market. Stewart Ritchie, pensions development director at Scottish Equitable takes a look at the options and highlights the issues your clients need to know. Almost all of the recent publicity about annuities has centred on people wanting to avoid buying them. This is because of their perceived inflexibility and, especially, the loss of capital when an annuitant die...