Tag Archives: annuities

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

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 »

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The price of trusting people with their own money

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

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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  • Big Tall Tim
    Thank you Kevin. Theakes - That is correct, so good news for our team in the target constituency of Hamble Valley....
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    I think we all know that if it’s true that Hamas has agreed to disarm (which would be a clever move by them) Israel will not like it, and will try to prevent ...
  • Tristan Ward
    "A true national liberal party I do not see how a "true national liberal party" can be solely based on social liberalism - such a party can be only half a li...
  • Stephen Robinson
    We may wish to have a clear and distinctive policy on the subject. But we shouldn't proactively be talking about it. For the same reason as we were wrong to get...
  • Tom Arms
    point taken...