I wonder if someone can advise me with this please?

My parent's have given me a letter to deal with that they received from Abbey Life regarding a Joint Life Annuity policy they have.

It says in it that the FCA recently undertook a review of annuity sales as to whether customers were given adequate information about their options at retirement and in particular regarding 'enhanced annuities'.

It says that enhanced annuities work on the basis that if a customer has a medical condition or lifestyle factor (ie smoking etc) they will probably live a shorter time than someone in a better state of health. Firms expect to pay these customers their retirement for less time so typically provide them a higher income. It says that Abbey Life did not offer EA but one may have been avail to you from another provider if you were eligible and therefore you may be due compensation.

Enclosed is a questionnaire. My dad says he has no recollection at all of Abbey mentioning these EA and as he has a heart condition he would have actually bought one if offered it at the time.

He now has the start of vascular dementia so it's been left to me to deal with this.

Does anyone know much about the FCA review or how to proceed without me messing this up for them?

Thank you Andyorch.

Very interesting.

Is anyone else on here dealing with this at the moment. There are some sheets to complete but my parents don't want to get this wrong.

Upload the documents (redacted ) and we will take a look.....although as there from the Abbey really cant see you completing them incorrectly.

Andy

the letter says all you need to know about the why, it now depends on what an actuary thinks about your dads health and lifestyle. they may well need to access dads madical records (make sure that you werent lying about the 100 a day fag habit) and a charge will be made for this. If there is a difference between his annuity and the average for someone with those problems then they will top up

For what its worth, I know a few guys that worked for Abbey Life and there is a very good chance that they would not have asked about health. As far as I can remember they did not offer an enhanced annuity so would not mention it in case they lost the commission.

I have just joined as we too have this questionnaire from Abbey Life. Have written to them and now they are phoning back tomorrow afternoon.

1. My husband had a Waiver of Contributions implemented as a result of an accident before he reached retirement age. He does not get a huge amount because he only took out what we could afford at the time . We had hoped to increase it over time, because his employer did not offer one, even so we were pleased we did a Waiver of contributions option.

Note: He went onto have a TIA and now has a pacemaker.

2. Looking at the questionnaire in our mind it was not relevant - we thought he was committed to Abbey Life. In fact it starts off with why did you contact Abbey Life.

Hence - we wrote and said that given their letter it looks like he may well have been entitled to claim.

So our question is -

(a) this person from Abbey Life is saying he could help us over the phone to complete the questionnaire. But we are wondering if we should be seeking independent advice now?

(b) being my husband was already on 'Waiver of Contributions' then is he in a different category?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hello and welcome to CAG.

You need to start a new thread of your own please. Also, it would help us to see a redacted pdf of the letter you've had.

Best, HB