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

Okay, just that comment alone tells me a lot! So you don't rate it very highly. A very useful addition to the debate might be had by listing (by you or someone else) the names of the main companies in order of dependability.

Let us see whether the lists tally from e.g. Miss L Toe, John, Daytona, Ron et al !

Now, despite the greatly reduced bonuses and shortfalls in recent years, which seem common to all insurance companies, I still rate SL as somewhat less of a fly-by-night organisation than, say, Equitable Life, over which I have heard far more doom and gloom for longer.

So, where are the lists, say the top five so as not to tax people too much, of the best companies to consider. Let's forget about IFAs for the moment and concentrate on the actual companies that will, or could be, providing a pension.

MM

Because I knew nothing about pensions and he was my IFA!!

I am following this debate very carefully as my OH will be 65 at the end of the year, and has his private pension with SL.

Whose fault was it that paperwork took so long? Yours for not making up your mind early enough, or not contacting the IFA early enough? This should all have been sorted out months in advance of when you should have begun drawing your pension.

In your bemoaning that you "lost" one month's pension, did you make allowance for the fact that your pension fund would have enjoyed one extra month's growth (since the annuity will have been bought a month later)? Should that not have allowed you to buy a slightly bigger annuity? Of the order of half a percent or so.

How does he feel he has been treated by SL overall?

MM

We don't have much to do directly with SL. His accountant works out how much he should pay each year and we send the cheque to the IFA. We get half a forest of paperwork form SL each year, most of which we don't understand.

a: I am not moaning - just stating what can happen.

b: I was only notified 4 week before my retirement the value of the options open to me.

c: The transfer value remained unchanged so did not gain or lose

d: The paperwork took so long as I was a new customer to NU and had to go through all the money laundering loops, proving date of birth, etc.

ARRRGGH

Why drag me into this :-)

I just provided a link I found that has been interesting for my personal future planning.

I am not an IFA - although becoming one has crossed my mind as I seem to know more (without formal training) than the few I have encountered.

Entirely optional!

MM

This must have been done by Money Management magazine (order the back issues) or Which? (available from the library).

You need several categories -

Integrity Day to day efficiency Efficiency when something's gone wrong

I'm not anywhere near choosing an annuity so I know little more than general basics.

I think you're placing far too much emphasis on brands. It's impossible to tell what will happen 5+ years down the road, you simply have to rely on the financial regulators if anything untoward occurs. If you want to take responsibility then do what I suggested the other day and aim to get as much out as quickly as possible and invest it within an ISA.

I have a stakeholder pension with SL. My sole contact with them is a statement once a year, and that's the way I like it. I can't give you any reliable feedback on that basis.

Previous to this I had a pension with EL. I took advantage of the higher bonus rates and then removed the non protected rights (contracted out) part before the trouble hit. Again my contact with them was minimal - contributions (all correct) and a statement once a year.

Having read the links provided you should now have some idea of your strategy, if not why not ?

Daytona

I have only been looking at anuinty rates and pension options for future planning purposes. I am leaning towards Income Drawdown (but have lots of questions I will reasearch over the coming years).

But If I was to chose an Insurance Company for Annuity purposes:

1) - I would check what Government protection is available (if any) and what rules/limits apply to it. 2) - I would look seriously at splitting my fund between 2 or more providers. 3) - I would only deal with companies that had been in business at least 20 years - probably at least 50. 4) - I would then checkout the top 5 payers for the type of annuity I wanted and see if I could spot any reasons to avoid any of them.

I don't think that means an awful lot as circumstances can change.

I believe that the tier 1 capital ratio is commonly used to measure the strength of financial institutions -

Money Management magazine probably still does periodic rankings.

Daytona