Annuities used to be the only game in town. When you came to take benefits from your pension, you’d take out your 25% tax-free cash and trade the balance for a guaranteed income for life, or for your and your better-half’s lives. If you lived long and prospered, you were the winner, if you keel over sooner rather than later, the insurance company providing the annuity won, such is life and death. Then the rules changed, flexible pensions were invented by G Osborne, interest rates fell to 1% or less and annuities suddenly seemed a bad idea. And now interest rates have made the amount of income available rather more attractive, stock markets have moved up and down quite a bit and, for many, they seem, again, rather more attractive. However, as an adviser, I’d say for some, rather than many, as having that pot of money still there to use (flexibly) is, for most, still the better bet. I’d say.
“2024 a mixed year for sustainable investing, report finds”
lthough in theory the environment (pardon the) for sustainable/ethical/responsible funds improved significantly last year, the performance of many did not. Excluding oil/mining/guns/fags all hampered their performance in the aftermath of Ukraine.
