Drawdown sales shoot up post-Budget as annuity deals drop by a third

Almost 9,500 income drawdown contracts were written in the second quarter of the year, with the mean pot size dropping to just over £50,000, latest figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show.

Some 9,498 new contracts were sold with a total value of £669m. This compares to 5,476 in the same period last year, with a total value of £425m. The mean pot size in Q2 2014 was £50,400 compared to £71,200 in 2013. Sales of traditional annuities fell by more than a third between the first and second quarters, the ABI added. The trade body said the increase in drawdown sales, following the Budget changes, included an increase in fixed-term annuity sales, though its data does not cover the whole drawdown market. It said it was too early to tell "whether these customers will use draw...