Blast from the Past
The man who I sit next to on the train (Yes, I am a commuter that always sits in the same seat) is watching “Ashes to Ashes”. It is a blast from my past with the car (Audi Quattro), the big hairspray hair (is she or is she!) and the great 80s fashion. The images trigger memories that are residing in some part of my brain.
I had another blast from the past today when we were discussing feedback on the Mid-life reviews that we are currently piloting. Warren, who does not remember the eighties, talked about the death benefits on Retirement Annuity Contracts. (Being pension geeks, we immediately reverted to the TLAs of RACs). Do you remember,
- policies with special death benefit features?
- policies with death benefits of “return no interest” or “return with interest” (TLAs of RNI and RWI!)?
- policies that are not written under trust?
These features are no longer the norm and all could create issues for the individual if not identified; the first one losing an insurance that you may not be able to replicate and the second and third one resulting in lower payouts on death than expected.
Luckily, even the young members of the TPAS team like Warren are aware of these 80s fashions in pensions. RACk you brain about the pensions that you took out in the 80s and contact TPAS for some specialist pensions guidance.