How retirement income is adapting to change

I first got involved with retirement options in around 1995. Back then it was generally felt that the requirement for everyone to buy an annuity was inflexible, and that a new way of providing a retirement income was required. A catalyst for change was the launch, by one of the large life offices, of a ‘flexible annuity', which allowed a range of more flexible benefits. The company I was with at the time had such a product on the stocks, and was in consultation with the Inland Revenue before launch. They advised us not to launch, and then published the rules for income drawdown. At...