Or “burying your head in the sand is no way to pan for retirement “

Sorry to hear about the death of Alan Steel I got to know him well when we were both being sued by Equitable in 1997 His comments about EL were proven to be right and I admired the good work he did. I am sure his eponymous business will continue to reflect his values AlanSteelAssetManagement

Attended a really good Personal Finance Society (PFS) regional meeting Well done to all the presenters - lots of good good information and useful ideas It seems the future is all about ESG investments

Good story from Josephine Cumbo - Pension death benefits ‘indefensibly generous’ ft.com/content/cc496d… I have been warning for several years that advice should factor in a possible change to pension death benefit rules

Brilliant article from CNBC in US cnbc.com/2021/10/22/lon… Gives some examples of annuity pricing - 65-year-old man in New York who buys a no-frills annuity with a $100,000 lump sum would get about $500 a month ($6,000 a year) In UK, £100K buys £5,000 p.a. Retire in NY I say!!

If anyone is wondering what is the outlook for annuities, just look at the yields A few weeks back was there hope and expectation that interest rates would increase and so would annuities but annuities are still stuck in the doldrums

Brilliant article in the Telegraph last Saturday telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retir…

Back in July I predicted the benchmark annuity would increase to £ 5,444. Much to my surprise, this turned out to be spot on as the rate today is £ 5476 See July story in Telegraph with graph telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retir…

Brilliant article in Telegraph by Jessica Beard telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retir…

This is what has happened to yields on 10 year UK gilts today. This scale of movement so fast is highly unusual. Looks like markets are a little spooked by scale of fiscal giveaway

Just look at gilt yields The 15 year gilt has jumped by over 300 basis points over the last year and yields are at the highest since the credit crunch in 2008 Annuities are priced in relation to yields so the higher yields, the higher annuity rates

Just look at the gilt yields The 15 year yield is 4.8% which is the highest for many years expect another spike in annuity rates

I have been saying for a few weeks that I thought annuity rates had peaked and the 15 year gilt would end up around 4% seems like I am right!!

I was on the msn home page reading an article about staycations and I saw a US 401K egg on an advert for a UK non-advised annuity site!!

As you know, annuity rates are priced in relation to bond yields - the benchmark 15 year gilt is now over 4% so expect annuity rates to improve

I thought annuities had peaked a few weeks ago when the 15 year gilt yield was about 4% but look now it is 4.5% so expect more rate increases

Just posted my latest article - 2024 was a good year for retirement but 2025 looks more uncertain annuityproject.co.uk/blog/2024-was-…

2024 was a good year for retirement but 2025 looks more uncertain My latest blog at annuityproject.co.uk

Wow - look at how gilt yields have shot up shouldn't be a surprise as inflation is up watch out for annuity increases