Yesterday I wrote a blog in favour of annuities and Britain’s favourite annuity broker – Retirement Line. My argument was that some of the best retirement income ideas and one of our best brokers are unknown.

What a hullaballoo ensued! My blog was unbalanced

1) did you mention their fee?
2) what happens if they go bust?
3) you can buy reviews on trustpilot. Reviews don’t count that much these days
😳🤪

— HZL (@HZL_ww) 30 May 2019

My blog said nothing new

I am amazed you have just found these it’s like someone seeing an iPad and assuming its new, also it’s more of a plug than information

— rob reid (@reidremoney) 30 May 2019

My blog was an advert

Genuine question – is this an advert / tie-up?

— Tom Selby (@thomasselby) 30 May 2019

I was monetising my blog

Did Retirement Line pay for that advert?

— David Penney (@DavidPenneyPRW) 31 May 2019

My blog wasn’t worthy of my blog

Seriously? – by doing what all pension commentators should do, by keeping up with evolution, given your love of innovation eg CDC I found this piece surprising

— rob reid (@reidremoney) 30 May 2019

My blog was deeply misleading

Deeply misleading post as you have now been informed

— Pete Drewienkiewicz (@pdrewienkiewicz) 30 May 2019

Just what is wrong with Retirement Line, Annuity Broking and advertising a service?

I get the feeling that Retirement Line are eating someone’s lunch and that I’ve just walked into an advisory war-zone.

I’ve no idea why my post should be reckoned deeply misleading, I do believe there is a strong case for fixed term annuities as I reckon annuity rates are likely to go up, not just when we see QE unwind but because mortality assumptions are changing in the direction of better annuity rates.

I appreciate that fixed term annuities carry certain risks which are advertised in the link to the MAS guide which you can follow here. If anyone thinks that annuity rates will go down , they can lock into lifetime annuities today. They would do well to use the open market option offered by Retirement Line and to make sure they get any enhancements available to them.

That I didn’t know about Fixed Term Annuities, suggests that most people don’t know about them. Most people don’t know much about annuities at all, which is a shame as they suit a lot of people who want a wage for life.

Research from Aon and from Tilney BestInvest suggests that annuities remain the best way for many people to turn their pension pot into a pension income.

What is wrong with adverts?

My blog is a series of adverts. I advertise Pension PlayPen, AgeWage, First Actuarial , FABI, CDC  and annuities.

Some of these earn me money (AgeWage, First Actuarial) some lose me money (Pension PlayPen) and the remainder are advertised out of my conviction.

People want conviction. If along the way, my conviction gets in the way of your business model then so be it. We are unlikely to work together!

If my blog did not have the courage of my conviction, no one would read it. I will continue to promote ideas and businesses that I support and Retirement Line is a business I support. I may well speak with them about my pension pot if I cannot see a way to exchanging it for a CDC pension.

What is wrong with adverts?

Feeling disrupted?

If you are one of the people who feel angry about my blog, ask yourself why.

If you feel I have been disingenuous, as Brian Gannon did, then you can say so in the comments on my blog. I don’t edit those comments or take them down – unless they are spam

But the passion of your response is probably born out of insecurity with your current views or those of your business and you should ask yourself whether you’re angry about my being misleading – or my being challenging.

CDC and Annuities are linked in several of the responses I’ve got and I suspect that both are seen as a threat to advised drawdown. I don’t think that advised drawdown is under threat, there is high demand for it and low levels of supply. At the moment, advisers can make a good living out of it with relatively little challenge. It is not a particularly competitive market and the FCA knows it.

CDC and Annuities have the potential to challenge advised drawdown and the margins it is paying fund managers, platform providers and advisors.

If annuities  are offered to ordinary people by Retirement Line then that is good. Retirement Line tell me they refer many inquiries on to advisers for help on drawdown , equity release and other advised products.

Rather than feeling angry about Retirement Line and the ideas in my blog, advisers should be beating a path to Fletton and join the increasing number of intermediaries working with David Slater & Co.