Tag Archives: annuities

Joe Otten

Most of the benefits of an annuity at a fraction of the cost?

By Joe Otten | Tue 25th March 2014 - 12:20 pm

AnnuityAn annuity is a reasonable solution to an obvious problem. You don’t know how long you will live in retirement, but an annuity provider can estimate this, take a risk, and sell you an income that lasts the rest of your life. In practise this hasn’t represented good value for money, so I welcomed the budget announcement to give retirees more choice in investing or disposing of their own money. Yesterday Janice Turner argued for the Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 30 Comments
Joe Otten

The price of trusting people with their own money

By Joe Otten | Thu 20th March 2014 - 4:29 pm

pensionsThe world of the private “Defined Contribution” pension is one that sees so many hidden fees it has been described as generating a greater return for the financial services industry than it does the saver. A large bite of this comes with the annuity purchase, where the pension pot, built up over the years, is spent on an annuity, converting a cash sum into a fixed (or index-linked) income for life.

Annuity purchase represents a kind of insurance against getting too old and running out of money.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 52 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The battle for pensioners’ votes begins with Cameron on Liberal Democrat turf

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th January 2014 - 11:35 am

The latest Ashcroft polling shows that the Conservatives have a long way to go to be within a shout of victory, with 37% of those who voted Tory saying at the moment that they would not do so if there were an election tomorrow. It’s hardly surprising, then, that David Cameron kicks off the next stage in the 2015 election campaign, in an interview with today’s Sunday Times (£), by pledging to stick to one of the Coalition’s most successful policies through another Parliament.

The Tories have previous for trying to claim the credit for a Liberal Democrat policy. Last …

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