Irish Life The largest provider of pension annuities in the State is acknowledged as one of the most professional and accommodating of companies by brokers and independent advisers. Any combination of joint lives will be considered as are specially designed pensions for children. Pension advisers say that "as a company, Irish Life will bend over backwards to accommodate special conditions" which might include requests to consider a special health issue, to design term amounts for a child, to set up any combination of joint lives or to quote the policy backdated. Irish Life's rates are consistently competitive and its administration of the actual pension is regarded as very professional.
Equitable Life A relative newcomer to the Irish life and pensions market, this giant British company is among the most innovative pension annuity providers here and in Britain. The with-profit annuity in which the pension maturity value is invested in the mainly equity-based with-profits fund of the company and not in fixed-rate gilts is the preferred choice of 80 per cent of all its annuity customers. It provides a current return of about 9 per cent. Equitable is the only life company which does not pay annuity commission to intermediaries, but when the commission is factored out of the other products (something a fee-based adviser can arrange), Equitable's rates are not so disproportionately high.
Norwich Union Though it pertains to only a small proportion of new pensioners about 5 per cent the Norwich Union Impaired Life annuity, has been widely welcomed because it has introduced a greater fairness in the way that actuarial risk is calculated.
Someone with a lifethreatening illness can now be assured of a higher pension than a healthy person on the grounds that their life expectancy will be shorter. Based on the Anderton Mortality Tables, a British benchmark, the level of improved annuity rate is based on age, sex, and actual medical files.
For example, in the case of a man aged 57-60 with a heart condition, the value of the annuity will be increased by 60 per cent. A man of 71 with Parkinson's Disease could expect an annuity rate increase of 17 per cent over the rate offered to a healthy man of the same age.
Scottish Provident This company is not a conventional provider of annuities, but it has introduced a unique minimum guaranteed annuity to people who purchase a Scottish Provident with-profits pension contract or in the case of directors transferring their existing pension fund values to the Scottish Provident.
The rates for women aged 60 to 70, range from 9.09 per cent to 11.63 per cent and for men aged 60 to 70 from 9.8 per cent to 12.82 per cent. The company will also quote for special early retirement cases from age 50. These rates are the highest on the market, but are not available unless the person holds a Scottish Provident Classic Executive Retirement contract.
