Annuity providers may be forced to publish the rates their products offer as a result of a reform of the sector that is currently being worked on by the Association of British Insurers.
According to a report by the Guardian, the body appears to be on the brink of approving a new mandatory code of conduct for pension companies in a bid to ensure individuals are able to receive the highest possible income in return for their pension pot.
Providers would be made to ask their potential clients a series of questions in order to find out what type of product would be the most suited to their particular circumstances.
Enhanced annuities
This part of the code would mean those who may be able to benefit from enhanced annuities due to the state of their health would be told about the product, while the company would be forced to alert the consumer if they did not offer this type of product.
"There have been calls for the new code to require all annuity providers to publish their annuity rates, showing the amount of income a person will get in return for their pension savings," it was noted by the news provider, which also pointed out companies selling annuities on the open market are already required to publish their rates, while those which sell annuities to their own pension customers are not.
Retirement income
Oxford Economics was previously commissioned by the Pension Income Choice Association, which represents product providers, independent financial advisers and employee benefit consultants, to research the impact of shopping around for retirement income.
It found people who exercised their "open market option" to shop for the highest paying annuity or alternative product, they would be able to collectively benefit from between £3 billion and £7 billion extra pension income.
One of the advantages of annuities is that they allow individuals to earn more money from the pension pot they have been building up throughout their life.
Using the annuities service from Key Retirement Solutions could allow people to see how much cash they could be in line to receive through the use of the product.
