The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has abandoned its commitment to customer service on open market annuity processing, ditching its ten day turnaround standard, claims Hargreaves Lansdown.
Nigel Callaghan, pensions analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, comments: “We are deeply disappointed by the ABI’s action on the issue. The retirement boat is sinking and the ABI is not so much arranging deckchairs, as banging away at the hull with an axe in the mistaken belief that it will let the water out. There is no reason why their members cannot settle transactions within five days; the unit trust industry can do it, so why not the insurers?”
ABI spokesman Jon French comments: “The ABI believes that its new guidance is, in fact, more stringent and gives customers more certainty about when their payments start.”
Meanwhile the Pensions Advisory Service has launched an internet annuity planner which will encourage people to shop around and make as much as a 20% higher income for the rest of their life.
www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk
www.abi.org.uk
www.H-L.co.uk
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