With the lowest annuity rates for a generation, it is more important than ever to shop around for the best annuity, and to be aware of all the options available. 

Enhanced Advantages

For those with unhealthy lifestyles or certain medical conditions, the good news is that smoking, being overweight or having a serious illness can actually improve your retirement income. Some providers take your main occupation and even your postcode into consideration.

This is because life insurance companies calculate that if you smoke or have below average health, your life expectancy may be less than that of someone who enjoys normal health, so they're happy to pay you more each year in the form of an "enhanced annuity" because they won't have to pay you for as long as someone with a normal life expectancy.

To take advantage of these better rates, you will need to provide the total value of your pension funds to an annuity specalist along with the relevant details of your health and lifestyle. They should be able to give some indication as to whether or not you would be likely to qualify for enhanced rates.

The actual increase you receive over the standard rate will depend on the details on your medical questionnaire, and in some cases providers will also request further information from your medical practicioner. However the extra effort can be well rewarded as it is not uncommon for increases of up to 30% more to be achieved, depending on the severity of the conditions.

Enhanced Annuity Providers

Companies from which we are currently able to request enhanced, impaired or smoker rates for pension annuities are Aviva (formerly Norwich Union), Canada Life, Just Retirement, Legal and General, LV= (formerly known as Liverpool Victoria), MGM Advantage, Partnership Assurance, Prudential and Reliance Mutual. Some of these do not deal direct with the public, only accepting business through independant financial advisers, so it is important to speak to a specalist adviser to ensure that you are getting the best possible rate.

We are appointed introducers to UK IFA NET Ltd, which is one of the leading pension and annuity advisers and specialises in increasing the pension income of people with an adverse medical history and health impairments. They are able to provide you with a medical questionnaire which, when completed gives sufficient information to request enhanced annuity quotations from up to six providers. As you would expect, this information remains strictly confidential.

Enhanced annuity rates may be available for all of the following

• Open market option Annuities.
• Compulsory Purchase Annuities
• Purchased Life Annuities
• Purchased Life Immediate Needs Annuities
• Long Term Care Annuities

With only a fraction of the population understanding what the specialist terms used mean - such as impaired life annuity, unit linked annuity, long term care annuity,flexible growth annuity, with profits annuityor standard annuity - it pays to take professional advice from an independent financial adviser.

Please visit our Annuity Rates page for a general guide to annuity rates.

You might also like to look at our FAQ page which may answer any initial questions you might have.

You may already know that a pension annuity is also known as a compulsory purchase annuity, and a purchased life annuity is also called a life insurance annuity. Our partners for providing advice are UK IFA NET. They have specialists in the field of annuities and generating income from capital.

Whether you are looking for a pension annuity (compulsory purchase annuity) or a purchased life annuity (life insurance annuity), UK IFA NET can help you to obtain the best income in retirement. They have independent advisers available who specialise in retirement annuities as well as Long Term Care Annuities.

Call  0845 123 5590  or  01325 487192