Annuity rate pressure

The key to the size of annuity received going forward is the performance of pension funds rather than the movement of bond rates, according to Billy Burrows, managing director of William Burrows Annuities. Burrows pointed out that although annuity rates fell for most of the 1990s, the capital value of annuities was increasing faster than rates were falling because the stock market was doing so well. In the past two years, however, annuity rates have continued to fall alongside declining interest rates and have been dampened by the decline in equity markets, he said. As such, Burrows fee...