Annuity income sales receive regulatory protections

Annuity-holders who decide to sell their right to future income must in future be given a series of specific warnings about the risks involved by any firm they contact to make the sale. This is one of the proposals contained in consultation paper ‘CP16/12: Secondary annuity market – proposed rules and guidance’. The strategy and competition division of the Financial Conduct Authority seeks comments by 21 June regarding its plan to regulate three new dedicated activities that have been proposed by HM Treasury. The new activities are: buying annuity incomes; buying back annuity incomes (by the relevant annuity providers); and acting as a market intermediary.