Life Annuity

Single & Joint Life Annuity

Before buying a lifetime annuity you will need to make a decision if you want an annuity that will pay an income for yourself in retirement. Some annuity's will also cover your partner or spouse should you pass away. These policies can also include financial Dependants.

These two main types of annuities:

• Single life – a single life annuity may be right to look at if you don’t have a spouse or partner or other dependents that look to your income to support them. Single life annuity policies will not continue to make payments to you loved ones if you should die, unless your policy has a guarantee period included – but even then this will only continue payments for a fixed number of years.
• Joint life – a joint life annuity will cover multiple individuals and will continue to pay an income even if one of the policy holders dies. Policies covering financial dependents usually have an age limit for when income payments will cease.

If you select a joint life policy after you die, the income the policy will pay out to your spouse may drop . At the point of taking out the annuity you will have to choose by what proportion, for example it could be 100%, two thirds or 50% of the income your annuity at the time of your death was paying.

The higher proportion you opt for will have a higher cost, thus meaning your annuity income will be lower.

Annuities offered by companies can vary by as much as 40% and you should not take the first policy offered to you by your pension company.

You could save thousands of pounds of income by shopping around to find the right annuity that suits your needs.

To speak to an annuity specialist either call us on 0845 302 2287 or fill out the short enquiry form and we will call you back.