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 Prudential is heading back to the pensions buy out environment with a deal worth around GBP350 million to pick up some of the Rank pension scheme.
The deal is expected to be confirmed next week when the interim results of the Prudential will be announced. Under the terms of the agreement the Prudential will take on the duty of paying the pensions of existing recipients of pensions through Rank.
There are around 10,000 people currently on the books,all of whom will in future receive their pension payments from the Prudential. This is a market that they used to be strong in but moved away from a couple of years ago to focus on their core business.
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.
