Annuities

Advisers are set to turn their backs on conventional annuities and recommend asset-backed alternatives as annuity rate crashes continue to plague retirees.

Mike Morrison, head of pensions development at Axa Wealth, says the death knell may have been sounded for DB schemes

In a lively debate the panel discuss the progress being made towards offering retirees the open market option when buying an annuity, as well as the different types of products now available.

Axa will begin offering variable annuities before the end of 2010, Michael Gregg, managing director of Axa Global Distributors, has announced.

The government's plans to remove the age-75 annuitisation rule will make scheme pensions far more attractive to IFAs and clients, Hornbuckle Mitchell claims.

As the Treasury consultation on removing the requirement to annuitise by age 75 closes, the pensions industry has warned the proposals will only benefit "those who need them the least".

Over 80% of IFAs have predicted annuity rates will drop over the next five years, according to a survey from MGM Advantage.

The myths and the facts surrounding annuities as an investment model

Groves discusses the problems surrounding the scrapping of the annuity age

Consumers and not pension providers are to blame for the lack of take-up of the Open Market Option (OMO), claims The Annuity Bureau.