The Prudential has found that new pensioners are not budgeting effectively for retirement, spending more in the first year and then finding it harder to manage.
Almost thirty percent of newly retired people spent much more in their first year of retirement compared with others, averaging an extra GBP8,000 more. Of the people that did spend more the Prudential found that nearly one in five of them regretted doing it.
Interestingly less than a third of newly retired people actually set a budget for spending, which is curious since having a fixed income, usually smaller than that they have just left, would make a budget pretty much essential thought a Prudential representative.
LV=, also known as Liverpool Victoria, has committed to get tax free cash to their Annuity Pension holders within five days of receiving all relevant funds and documentation. If this is not achieved they have promised GBP1000 compensation.
Earlier this year Liverpool Victoria unsecured pension holders were told that they would get a similar deal so this step is a continuation of LV=s steps to put the customer needs first. Lump sum payments from pensions are a vital aspect of the whole retirement package, so receiving the funds promptly takes a great deal of stress out of the process.
A spokesman from the organisation said that Liverpool Victoria was well aware of their customers needs and was doing all it could to streamline the process for customer benefit.
The investment management team at Legal and General is currently looking at the future of pension schemes, concerned by the many different rules and regulations that are being placed on them.
Since 2001 there have been over 400 different pension regulations said a Legal and General spokesman, and there is concern that they are making it more difficult to attract people into company pension schemes because of all the red tape that now seems to surround them.
What a Legal and General pension customer wants is to understand the basics of how it works and have a pretty good idea of the final return when it comes to retirement. The many different regulations are moving further away from this basic concept and are making things much harder to explain in laymans terms.
