Six problems the FCA found with providers' annuity sales

Consumer research undertaken by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found 40% of consumers do not exercise their option to switch and instead purchase an annuity from their existing pension provider. The regulator found six key reasons why.

  1) Documentation While some firms have better documentation than others, documentation mostly provides customers with information about shopping around. However, messages are not always consistent, even within an individual firm or throughout the entire customer journey. For example, the FCA saw good practice in one piece of documentation and poor practice in another from the same firm. Some firms need to make significant improvements to their documentation.   2) Telephone calls The FCA also saw good and poor practice across firms in telephone conversations with their custo...