To think the govt's change to pensions is going to further fuel a boom in BTL housing

[Thatballwasin]

Lots of lump sums will be enough to buy smaller properties or at least provide a good deposit. That's the next injection to house price growth sorted.

Statisically I am not saying it is unregulated but it is confusing.

For instance most pensioners will use the provider who holds their pot, yet we have had quotes for my Dad that will give him between £20 and £60 MORE a week then his current provider.

Some pensioners would like to shop around like we did but do not have the savvy to go onto comparisons sites so have to employ a financial advisor who will charge them.

So that's 2 ways pensioners can be ripped off

The cost for the new provider to administer the pensions vary from £500 to £800 depending on who Dad will choose

Even the ID requirements can vary - some are asking for sight of original documents, some are saying they will accept certified copies signed by a solicitor or GP.

So its so bloody confusing _ I am glad we are able to help my dad through this minefield

It is confusing I agree, but a lot of the bumf that is sent out is actually regulated content. The FSA/FCA are all over that kind of thing :)

In terms of getting a better rate elsewhere, that doesn't really mean that his current provider is ripping him off with their price. There are still a few providers who differentiate their pricing between vesting customers (your dad) and open market (shopping around) but the majority don't anymore - the FCA confirmed this recently. However, every firm will have different subsets of the market which they are most keen to target - no firm could afford to always be offering the best rate across every market subset as then they'd have more business than they could possibly cope with and be exposed to too much longevity risk. Most firms differentiate by pot size, postcode etc. It's very similar to car insurance in that different companies will be best for different people.

Financial advisers have no choice but to charge directly for advice now - charges aren't allowed to be bundled in with products via commission. Again, not the providers fault - the regulators were concerned about IFAs selling the products they got the most commission for rather than those which were the most appropriate. Good in theory but it has caused issues with so called "advice orphans" who can't/won't pay for advice.

Statisically actually my Dad is the 3rd option - didn't need to pay for advice.

He remembered his best mate went through the same but used a FA last month, his pension pot was the same as my Dad 60k and his medical issues are very much the same type 3 diabetes high blood pressure etc, and like him has chosen not to include his wife ( My mum will have her own pension next year) the provider his mate used was second on our list so he will most likely go with them but we are waiting for one more quote.

Yes, of course it will. Like tuition fees and the whole planning system, yet another short sighted policy decision without considering the long term effects on society.

Mind you, nothing to stop people investing their pension pots in property abroad in countries like Germany...

Sorry, I wasn't saying everyone needed advice; more indicating that for every problem regulation solves it creates a new one ;)

If he's going for an enhanced annuity (I'm guessing from what you are saying) then the market is actually VERY competitive just now

Or, it was until this week...god knows what will happen now but most companies have a quote guarantee anyway.

Morebeta if the government wanted everyone's pension pots to be used to buy gilts they'd have done nothing.

The investments the insurance companies buy to back annuities are gilts (and corporate debt). This change will mean far LESS of people's pensions are invested in gilts

As this government is planning on paying every pensioner a much higher flat rate pension (thus abolish the need for pension credit), then blowing your pension pot means living on the state pension only. So perhaps not a huge extra cost to the public purse. Especially as so many people have no pensions saving at all in the first place.

A fuller impact of this will however only become apparent in a couple of generations as the higher numbers of savers (result of auto-enrollement) comes through to retirement age. By which time, no one knows what the economy will be like, and the current Govt will be long gone (that's the trouble with policies with long term effects, and why most Govts don't bother to tackle them - for although you might escape censure ifit all goes wrong, neither do you get the credit if it goes right).

I think it's a good step. Adults should make their own decisions about their own savings.