Finding alternative annuity providers

[tony79]

I am currently researching options for a retirement fund that has recently matured in relation to buying either an annuity, AMRF or ARF.

The current pension provider has offered various annuity options however one of my next steps is to find out what is the best annuity that can be bought on the market. I have listed below the companies I will be contacting to compare (taken from SPC100's thread http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=15981&page=1). Are there any that should be added to this ?

So far I have contacted Eagle Star and Hibernian who both said that they don't do annuity quotes for people unless they have their original pension with them. They both stated that they were 'not very competitive' and Eagle Star said they did not want the business. This raises 2 questions; how much competition is there in the annuity market ? and if i had my pension with either of these and accepted the annuity they offered me upon retirement it would appear to be, by their own admission, an inferior product ?

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The Standard Life Assurance Co. [broken link removed]

Hibernian Life & Pensions Ltd. www.hibernian.ie

Eagle Star Life Assurance Co. of Ireland Ltd. [broken link removed]

EBS Building Society [broken link removed]

Irish Life Assurance plc www.irishlife.ie

Canada Life Assurance (Ireland) Ltd. [broken link removed]

Friends First Life Assurance Co. Ltd. www.friendsfirst.ie

Ark Life Assurance Co. Ltd. www.aib.ie / www.arklife.ie

New Ireland Assurance Co. plc/Bank of Ireland Life www.newireland.ie

 

[LDFerguson]

You can take off EBS Building Society as they don't offer annuities themselves.

Once you decide what features you want on an annuity (minimum guaranteed payment period, spouse's annuity percentage, escalation in payment) the rest is pretty much rate driven. So the best product is the one that offers the best rate. Some companies just aren't competitive in this market. Ones that tend to compete are Irish Life, New Ireland and Friends First but the exercise in shopping around is worth while.

Annuity rates contain provision for sales commission within the standard rate. Depending on the details of the transaction, a broker may be in a position to improve upon a company's standard rate by reducing the standard commission.