There are lots of different types of annuity. The most common type pays an income for the rest of your life. You can also get annuities that pay an income for an agreed number of years, or that pay an income to your husband, wife or partner if you die before them.
Log in to now:u and go to Retirement.
Guidance and advice
You’ll be asked whether you’ve taken the free guidance that’s available from the government’s Pension Wise service. We recommend you take the Pension Wise guidance. If you haven’t, we can help you book an appointment with Pension Wise now.
You’ll also be asked if you’ve taken advice from a regulated financial adviser who’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
If you haven’t taken regulated advice, but you would like to, the government-backed MoneyHelper website has a guide to choosing a financial adviser and a directory of advisers who can give regulated financial advice on pensions.
Use the radio buttons to choose yes or no. If you choose no you’ll see another box saying I don’t want Pension Wise guidance. Before you can continue, you must tick this box to confirm you don’t want advice or guidance about buying your annuity.
Then choose Next.
How to buy your annuity
You’ll see Buying an income for life (annuity).
Put in your annuity provider’s name, the customer reference number they’ve given you, and their address. Your annuity provider must be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). If they aren’t, now:pensions won’t be able to transfer the money to buy your annuity.
Put in the date you want to buy your retirement income. Read the information in the box headed Buying your income for life (annuity). Then choose Next.
You’ll see a screen showing the current value of your now:pensions savings.
Do you want any tax-free cash?
You can choose whether or not to take tax-free cash before buying your annuity.
If you choose Yes, a screen will drop down asking how much you want to take. You can choose up to a quarter (25%) of the value of your now:pensions account.
Then you’ll need to tell us where to pay the cash. The screen will show your current bank details if you’ve added them. You can use these, or add a new bank account. If you add a new account we’ll need to check your bank details before we can pay the cash to your account. We can only pay money into a bank account in your name.
Read and agree to the risk warnings
You’ll be taken to a page with risk warnings. Please read the risk warnings and tick the four boxes below if you agree with them.
Once you’ve done this, choose Send me a ‘buying an income for life’ form.
Fill in and return your form
We’ll send a form to your now:u mailbox. Please read the form carefully, fill it in, sign it and send it back to us at the address on the form.
Once we’ve transferred your now:pensions savings out to your annuity provider, we’ll email you and your provider to confirm this.
You’ll continue to have access to your now:u mailbox for six months after you’ve moved all your pension savings out of now:pensions. Please remember to download any documents you want to keep before the six months is up.
Once the six months is up we’ll close your now:pensions account and you’ll no longer have access to now:u.
