'Force annuity firms to treat all customers equally'

Annuity providers should be forced to offer existing customers the same rates as those given to new customers, a leading insurer has said. 

Aviva called on the City regulator to force all pension providers to offer the same annuity rates to "internal" and "external" customers.

Internal customers are annuity buyers who took out their pensions savings product with the same insurer; external customers saved with a different company before using their pension pot to buy an annuity elsewhere. Those who do shop around are said in industry jargon to be exercising the "open market option".

To read the full article from the Telegraph, open this link.

Open market annuity lead-generation tool launches

Advisers can now use a new web-based tool designed to promote to consumers the benefit of advice when searching for open-market annuity products, founder Bernard Down has announced.

The new service, dubbed the Open Market Option Bureau, is a “unique not-for-profit service” which would focus on local, impartial advice for annuity purchasers, and would help advisers promote themselves to consumers within a 25 mile radius of their businesses.

Take a look at the full article from the FT Adviser.