The government is considering making regulated financial advice a requirement for people looking to sell their annuity contracts, Budget documents reveal.
Chancellor George Osborne earlier announced plans to extend pensions freedom to those already retired, potentially allowing five million annuity contract holders to sell their guaranteed income for cash. The document said: "There is a strong case for requiring annuity holders to take financial advice from an independent financial adviser, with a requirement for annuity providers to check this before they enable the annuity to be assigned. "This mirrors the requirements now in place for when people convert from a defined benefit to a defined contribution based pension during their accu...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
Signup and gain exclusive members-only insights - all free of charge!
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes
