Economic turmoil and political uncertainty has lead to a recent fall in rates for pension annuities. Those who are about the retire and are planning on buying an annuity may find themselves worse off financially due to recent events. Stock markets have been tumbling and there are huge questions about the economic climate in the eurozone which have together contributed to the pessimistic outlook for savers. On top of all this inflation has started to creep back into the economy, currently standing at 3.7%.
Standard Life , one the most prominent annuity providers in the UK have cut their rates recently by 2%. No one will be surprised if other major insurers follow this move. Although these falling rates are unfortunate, they are not as unfortunate as not getting the best deal. With so many annuitants still failing to shop around between rival providers, the real problem in the industry remains the fact that thousands of pensioners every year miss out on income due to a lack of understanding over what an annuity is.
