I know this an old chestnut but maybe the landscape is changing.
I'm 59 and plan to begin drawing a pension from a pot forecasted to be worth €540,000, in just over 2 years time. I'll be 61 then and plan to withdraw the 25% TFLS which will leave me with c€400,000 to invest. Any time I've investigated which is the better option between an ARF and an annuity, the former seems always to be the favoured option.
I tend to take a negative view of risk and consider the possibility of serious melt down of stock markets while I'm invested and relying on my ARF for a significant part of my income. To me, its not unreasonable to think that there could be no growth in my fund (fees and successive world crises) and after 25 years or so of 4/5% annual drawdowns, the fund is gone. Not a nice prospect at age 86. Annuities therefore hold a certain appeal, especially as I have no children to inherit any unused ARF. My wife is as well if not better catered for pension pot wise. We also both have some index linked DB plans and (hopefully) two state pensions each and good liquidity so inflation is not such a worry.
I recently had some annuity quotes for my age, single life, no indexing and was surprised to see that I could have well over 4% for the rest of my life. See quotes below. They might even be higher when I'm 61. In my case I see this as a good option with the added benefit of being able to stop focusing on my pension pot value, stock markets, click bait newspaper articles, etc. I'd appreciate any views on this option, especially thoughts on whether annuities might continue to improve over the next 24 months. In the UK stg. market, even better annuity value is available ...and seems to be improving.
Quotations are based on:
Single life
No escalation
Standard Annuity
NEW IRELAND
5 year Guarantee – 4.52% €18141.22
10 Year Guarantee – 4.49% €18020.85
ZURICH
5 year guarantee – 4.43807% €17,807.76 per annum
10 year guarantee – 4.40790% €17,686.70 per annum
AVIVA
5 year guarantee – 4.2561% €17,077.60 per annum
10 year guarantee – 4.2274% €16,962.44 per annum
IRISH LIFE
5 year guarantee – 4.337% €17,347.20 per annum
10 year guarantee - 4.313% €17,245 per annum
I'm 59 and plan to begin drawing a pension from a pot forecasted to be worth €540,000, in just over 2 years time. I'll be 61 then and plan to withdraw the 25% TFLS which will leave me with c€400,000 to invest. Any time I've investigated which is the better option between an ARF and an annuity, the former seems always to be the favoured option.
I tend to take a negative view of risk and consider the possibility of serious melt down of stock markets while I'm invested and relying on my ARF for a significant part of my income. To me, its not unreasonable to think that there could be no growth in my fund (fees and successive world crises) and after 25 years or so of 4/5% annual drawdowns, the fund is gone. Not a nice prospect at age 86. Annuities therefore hold a certain appeal, especially as I have no children to inherit any unused ARF. My wife is as well if not better catered for pension pot wise. We also both have some index linked DB plans and (hopefully) two state pensions each and good liquidity so inflation is not such a worry.
I recently had some annuity quotes for my age, single life, no indexing and was surprised to see that I could have well over 4% for the rest of my life. See quotes below. They might even be higher when I'm 61. In my case I see this as a good option with the added benefit of being able to stop focusing on my pension pot value, stock markets, click bait newspaper articles, etc. I'd appreciate any views on this option, especially thoughts on whether annuities might continue to improve over the next 24 months. In the UK stg. market, even better annuity value is available ...and seems to be improving.
Quotations are based on:
Single life
No escalation
Standard Annuity
NEW IRELAND
5 year Guarantee – 4.52% €18141.22
10 Year Guarantee – 4.49% €18020.85
ZURICH
5 year guarantee – 4.43807% €17,807.76 per annum
10 year guarantee – 4.40790% €17,686.70 per annum
AVIVA
5 year guarantee – 4.2561% €17,077.60 per annum
10 year guarantee – 4.2274% €16,962.44 per annum
IRISH LIFE
5 year guarantee – 4.337% €17,347.20 per annum
10 year guarantee - 4.313% €17,245 per annum
Last edited: