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Overview

Many people spend an entire career working at building up a pension pot to fund a comfortable retirement. Some will rely on an annuity to provide a regular income during that retirement. With so much riding on your choice of annuity, it’s important that the advice given takes all your circumstances into account. But what happens if you get inappropriate advice and are left with an unsuitable annuity? Realising your annuity may not provide for your circumstances into retirement can cause significant worry and concern.

The Hugh James Financial Mis-selling team works tirelessly to help clients recover compensation when they have been mis-sold financial products. We will do all we can to put you back in the financial position you would have been had you not been mis-sold the annuity.

Key contact

Neil Stockdale

Partner

Neil is head of the firm’s group actions and financial mis-selling teams, specialising in handling claims for financial mis-selling relating to energy contracts, pensions, investments and timeshares.

Your questions answered

An annuity is an income based financial product which has been purchased with an individual’s accumulated pension monies. The aim of an annuity is to provide a retirement income for either the rest of the individual’s life or, in the alternative, a defined set period.

Annuities broadly fit into two different types:

  • Fixed period annuities – This type of annuity will pay for a set period. At the end of the defined period, you will receive a lump sum payment
  • Lifetime annuities – This type of annuity will pay an income to you for life. In some instances, you may be allowed to nominate a beneficiary to continue to receive payments after your death.

When approaching retirement, it is your right to have the opportunity to consider various types of annuity product, in order to obtain the best deal and a product which is most suitable for you.

Problems can arise, when the existing pension company you are involved with fails to advise you of your available options and automatically sells you one of its own products and/or fails to consider whether you might qualify for an enhanced annuity – payment of a higher income amount because of lifestyle or health conditions.

Examples of the potential mis-sale of an annuity

As with the advice and sale of many financial products, the mis-sale of annuity products will stem from the failure of the advising company in taking into account your personal circumstances. Examples of a mis-sale might include the following:

  • Failure to consider the available market of annuity products in order to assess whether better products were available
  • Not considering the pre-existing medical conditions at the time the product was purchased, which either the company, or adviser failed to take into account

If you believe you may have been mis-sold an annuity, it is important that you gather all documentation concerning the advice you were given in order to evidence any potential mis-sale.

Please contact Hugh James for free and confidential initial advice with regard to your annuity product.

Next steps

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