Re: Should I buy pension from Standard life or another provider?

I think the "confusion marketing" that arises from all this complexity is very beneficial to the finance industry. I am sure I am not alone in not being able to make head nor tail of it all. Where is the CD I can pop in and run a flow chart, selecting my options and seeing immediately the advantages and disadvantages? Something like that doesn't exist!

Thanks for all the advice, by the way.

MM

Why are you getting so hung up on a bloody word, for Christ's sake! You know what I mean, most everyone else here knows what I mean, so why are you so insistent on proving yourself right?

MM

Exactly so, Ron. You speak da lingo!

MM

In message , MM writes

Dont get hung up about. Its just Ronald & I having one of our pedantic spats.

I'll put it another way. Colloquially, the word 'hoover' is often used as being synonymous with 'vacuum cleaner'. Im saying you need a vacuum cleaner. RR is saying the word 'hoover' will do because that is the word you have used for taking income in retirement. The set of products covered by the words 'vacuum cleaner' is quite different from the set of products covered by the word 'hoover'. If you went into an electrical shop and asked for a Hoover you could quite legitimately be sold a washing machine made by Hoover.. If you went in the shop and asked for a vacuum cleaner, you would get a vacuum cleaner, but it might not be made by Hoover.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

You are saying that "a pension is retirement income"? Actually, no. "Retirement income" is "a pension" -BUT- "a pension" is *not* (necessarily) "retirement income".

"Pension" is a more general word, and can be used both before payment begins (investment stage) or after payment begins (while income is being taken).

"Annuity" specifically refers to the later stage, and even in a more precise way than that (eg excludes 'income drawdown').

"john boyle" wrote

Agreed!

Bitstring , from the wonderful person john boyle said

Or what my scheme documentation calls a 'pension in payment', as opposed to a 'pension in some other state' (typically investment, company scheme pot, or Rupert Murdoch's pocket).

In message , GSV Three Minds in a Can writes

That doesnt sound like an annuity though. It sounds like a defined benefit occupational scheme so no annuity will be involved

Sure, and that's why they do it.

Nope !

I assume that IFAs have it.

No problem !

Daytona

On the contrary. A pension is retirement income, but not all retirement income is necessarily a pension (other sources of retirement income could be investment dividends, bank interest, drawings from savings (not strictly "income", of course, except in the wider sense of something you "live off"), miscellaneous earnings (which might mean you've not *really fully* retired), rental income from land & property, etc), and then there is the state pension, and there are superannuation pensions, and there are annuities, which are another form of pension.

Well, most words have several meanings, so why should "pension" be any different? Your and JB's preferred meaning, is, I put it to you, very restricted ("restricted" in the popularity sense, i.e. not as widely used as the other meanings, so "general" in the sense of opposed to "specific" need not here contradict "restricted"). I would guess that it derives from an abbreviation:

While working, if you (or your employer on your behalf) contributes into a scheme designed to fund a pension when you retire, you are

*not* contributing *into* a pension, but saving *for* a pension. You are paying into a pension scheme or a pension fund, but those terms have over time and through laziness been abbreviated to "pension", thus notching up a new and non-original dictionary definition of "pension".

It's not a later stage, it's a completely detached beast. You're not paying into a pension, you're accumulating a nest egg fund, and when the time comes, you omelette it, eat some of it, and trade the rest for an annuity (i.e. a pension).

Sounds like a load of nonsense to me. Everyone knows the difference between "hoover" and "Hoover", though of course when it's only spoken you can't tell how you've spelt it.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person john boyle said

Oh it could well be an annuity, if the company scheme decides to lay off the risk by buying one. =HOW= they deliver the income to the pensioner is pretty much up to them, afaik.

In message , GSV Three Minds in a Can writes

Thats true, they are leaving their options open. Which is why the word 'annuity' isnt used. The OP had no such option.

In message , Ronald Raygun writes

I spell it D Y S O N.

I asked my IFA to get quotes from the open market when I retired. I was not given a choice, but told he had a better quote from NU. By the time all the paperwork/forms etc. where completed, I had lost 1 months pension. All this for an extra £3. per month (net) which will take about 2 years to make up for the lost month

Dysons suck.

MM

Ah. Good point.

MM

In message , MM writes

:-) !!

In message , Shirl writes

Hmm, NU, hmm nuff said, but you do have a good point. None the less, I assume you expect to live more than two years? so would you have rather had the lower pension for the rest of your life?

If you think the £3 per month wasnt sufficient for the hassle, why did you go along with it?