Phoenix today announced that customers who wish to annuitise and do not have a guarantee with their pension policy will be required to shop around and obtain comparison quotes through Phoenix’s annuity partner, Just Retirement Solutions (JRS), before making a decision.
This service will enable Phoenix’s pension policy customers to compare the Phoenix annuity rate to the JRS near whole of market representative panel, providing a service to find and facilitate access to the best annuity to suit their individual needs. The scheme was introduced as a pilot in May 2016 and has today been rolled out to cover the vast majority of policyholders.
Access to the service is also available for customers with guaranteed benefits on their pension policy, although this will not be compulsory.
Danny Dowd, Head of Retirement Propositions at Phoenix Life, said: “We are committed to ensuring that consumers are offered great value when selecting a retirement product and, whilst we have offered the opportunity for our customers to select their annuity through a comparison service for some time, we are now making this compulsory for those customers who do not have a guarantee attached to their pension policy.
“This decision follows a pilot that we have been running since May. It means that our customers can be sure they are getting access to the best rate for their pension pot, without having to do any of the legwork. The service is also an option for those customers who do have a guaranteed annuity as part of their pension policy 1 , Phoenix continues to meet those guarantees.”
1 Phoenix has a high number of customers with guaranteed annuity rates which could be worth over double what they could find currently on the open market. These can be as high as 11%.
From now on, when customers contact Phoenix to request a guaranteed income for life, the majority2 will be referred to the JRS comparison service. The service comprises a near whole of market panel of annuity providers: Aviva, Canada Life, Hodge Lifetime, Just, Retirement Advantage and Scottish Widow and covers both standard and enhanced annuities.
Danny Dowd, added: “At Phoenix we ensure customers are offered a competitive3 rate for their standard annuity with us. However we recognise that customers may have medical conditions or lifestyle factors which could qualify them to attain a higher rate on the open market. This change to our service ensures customers have made an informed decision and have visibility of the highest income and most suitable product available when taking benefits using an annuity.”
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Enquiries
Shellie Wells
Head of Corporate Communications
Phoenix Group
020 3735 0922/07872 414 137
shellie.wells@thephoenixgroup.com
Lorna Russell
Lansons
020 7294 3609
LornaR@lansons.com
Notes to editors
The Phoenix Group is the UK’s largest specialist consolidator of closed life and pension funds with over 6.1 million policyholders and £74 billion of assets held by the Group’s life companies, including the acquired AXA Wealth, SunLife and Abbey Life businesses.
Just Retirement Solutions (JRS)
JRS is a subsidiary of JRP Group plc, a FTSE-listed specialist UK financial services company created by the merger of Just Retirement Group and Partnership Assurance Group. A leader in the individual retirement income, care and defined benefit de-risking markets, the Group has been trusted to manage over £16 billion of customers’ retirement savings and has helped customers release over £3.5 billion from their properties. The companies within JRP Group - are authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority and / or the Prudential Regulation Authority.
2 There are some customers that cannot use the panel, for example those that have very small pension pot sizes of under £2,000 where no open market exists; those customers living overseas; customers an IFA
3 Phoenix Group aims to offer our customers an average non-GAR annuity rate that is at least 97.5% of the average of the top five open market standard rate providers (or equivalent should the number of providers reduce below five)