A sign of progress

A healthy increase in enhanced annuity sales has been heralded as a sure sign of progress by the industry. Latest figures show Q2 sales were up 30% on last year and accounted for 17% of all annuities written

Of the £460m annuities written, 97% came through the open market option, which means that 35% of external annuities were enhanced. Given industry estimates that around four in 10 retirees could qualify for an uplift, this is not a bad return and would suggest that savers and advisers are warming to the concept of enhanced annuities. Also encouraging is the growing number of contracts sold and the fact the size of the average purchase has fallen. According to the Association of British Insurers 20,000 contracts were sold in the first half of the year, totalling £780m. The average purch...