Blog: Did George Osborne just kill the annuity market?

His radical reforms to the retirement income market came right at the end of his fifth Budget speech and went on for quite a while, taking much of the industry by surprise. Within moments of the impact being heard and understood, commentary started rolling in, stating the annuity market was effectively dead. Skandia retirement planning manager Adrian Walker's quote was headed up "RIP forced annuities", in fact. In his speech, the Chancellor said flexibility had been brought to the retirement income market but most people still ‘have to take an annuity', suggesting they cannot be trust...