ICR090 - Selling your pension annuity

In this episode of Informed Choice Radio, Martin talks to Steven Cameron from Aegon about selling your pension annuity and why they have been lobbying the financial services regulator to ensure consumers are well protected.

There is also a roundup of the latest personal finance news and an update from the world of Informed Choice.

Selling your pension annuity

This week, Martin spoke to Steven Cameron at Aegon about the new secondary market for pension annuities which is being introduced next April.

Steven is responsible for regulatory and legislative analysis, and for lobbying on behalf of Aegon UK and the life and pensions industry.

He joined Aegon UK in 1996 and is an actuary by profession, with 30 years of experience in financial services.

Steven represents Aegon on a number of committees for the Association of British Insurers, including the Long Term Savings and Life Insurance Committee. He is also a member of Scottish Financial Enterprise’s Insurance, Life & Pensions Sector Policy Group.

Martin asked Steven if he could explain how the planned secondary market for pension annuities might work when it was introduced next April.

Earlier in the week, Aegon called on the Financial Conduct Authority to go further in setting out clearly its protection measures for potentially vulnerable consumers.

Martin asked Steven what measures Aegon would like to see the regulator introduce before next April in order to protect consumers.

Finally, he asked Steven how important it was for financial advisers to be involved in the new secondary annuity market and what a lack of participation from financial advisers would mean for consumers.

Personal finance news update

-Millionaires in Asia are now in control of more wealth than those in North America, Europe and other regions.

-More than 100,000 people are set to receive letters telling them they won’t qualify for the new state pension.

-Consumer group Which? has warned that the most loyal customers of banks are getting ‘woeful’ interest rates on their Individual Savings Accounts.

-The UK population has risen by over half a million during the past year, or 0.8%, to reach 65.1m people.

-Half of UK’s mortgage holders have no life insurance cover in place, meaning that 8.2 million people are leaving themselves and their families financially exposed if the unforeseen were to happen.

Get answers to your personal finance questions

Do you have a personal finance or investing question for Martin?

Email martin@icfp.co.uk or ask on Twitter @martinbamford.

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Martin and Informed Choice Martin Bamford is a Chartered Financial Planner, Chartered Wealth Manager and SOLLA Accredited Later Life Adviser. As Managing Director of Informed Choice, the award-winning firm of Chartered Financial Planners in Surrey, he is responsible for nearly £200m of client assets. Martin is the author of several bestselling personal finance books and produced his first feature-length documentary in 2014, about the post-war Baby Boomer generation in retirement. “Bamford excels at making even the dullest topics interesting” – Pensions Management Visit www.icfp.co.uk to find out more about Informed Choice, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/informedchoice.