"Open Market Option" Annuity
Ruth was approaching her chosen retirement age and had been sent various pension quotations by her existing pension providers. Each one had set out the pension available from that provider, but each one also stated that Ruth had the opportunity to exercise the "open market option", which is a way of potentially increasing retirement income by shopping around to find a better annuity rate.
Knowing that we are Independent Financial Advisers and have access to the whole of the market, Ruth contacted us for help. At our subsequent meeting we completed a medical questionnaire on which it was noted that Ruth was taking medication for both high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and she had also recently been diagnosed with age-related diabetes.
By researching the market and amalgamating tne funds, we were able to increase Ruth's lifetime retirement income by over 14%, and this was payable in monthly instalments by the one new provider rather than a number of smaller amounts payable at perhaps different times by the existing providers.
We also took care of all the paperwork, which came as some relief to Ruth who was not looking forward to filling in the myriad of forms!