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What's happening to annuities? – Annuity rates have increased significantly this year. Why are rates rising? – Bond yields have doubled since January How much have rates increased? – So far this year the income from a £ 100,000 annuity has increased by £1,300 per annum which is 35% Annuities rates are linked to the yields on fixed interest investments such as gilts and corp ...

Annuities have always been a serious business* but since the introduction of pension freedoms in 2015 most retirees (and advisers) have not taken annuities seriously and many invested in pension drawdown rather than purchase an annuity.

Annuities have been unpopular for three reasons:

I have been advising clients about their annuity options for over 25 years and I too have not taken annuities seriously for the last 10 years because the since the credit crunch in 2008 rates have been so low, but I really believe that it is time to take annuities seriously again.

I want to help as many people as possible make the right decisions at retirement and plan for a financially secure retirement with peace of mind and security. To do this I have set up the Retirement Planning Project.

The project will make it easier for people to learn about pensions and retirement planning and easier to get help or advice. I hope the project will help close the advice gap.

This is a question I have been asked after launching The Retirement Planning Project.

The cynics might say that retirement planning is fancy name given to something that is just plain common sense and is a clever ploy for advisers to charge fees.

The more enlightened will know that generally speaking, the more planning that goes into something the better the outcome or the experience.

How to make the best financial and retirement decisions It doesn’t matter if you want to buy a new car, buy a new computer or even a new suit or dress, you will want to make the best decision possible so you not only get value for money but you want to make sure you are buying the right thing in the first place. So, if you invest a lot of time and energy making sure you make th ...

When the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) was put into place in 2013, financial advisers were banned from taking commission from investment and pension plans. This included advised annuities. However, the ban on commission did not apply to non-advised sales which means that non-advised brokers can still be paid commission. I have long argued that this is unfair and creates an u ...

Brits do not trust financial advisers!

The majority of Brits do not trust financial advisers according to a survey conducted by advice firm My Pension Expert.

This is nothing new as the poor perception of advisers has been widely reported in the past, and unfortunately the general public often cannot separate the trustworthy and passionate advisers from the firms that sell rather than advise.