Guided Annuity Service provided by HUB Financial Solutions

Guided Annuity Journey

Our Non-Advised **Guided Annuity** service

Our guided annuity service is a step-by-step process that will help you find the annuity with the highest income. We’ll be there at each step to make sure you feel comfortable with the choices you make and have the support you need to make an informed decision.

At HUB Financial Solutions, we’re totally focused on finding the right financial solutions for our scheme member approaching, or in-retirement. We don’t do anything else. We've helped over 50,000 people find the right retirement income solution. We are currently one of the largest brokers of guaranteed income for life solutions in the UK.

We have outlined the key parts of the process below over five steps. If you have any queries please contact us on the number below. Our aim is to make this journey as straight forward for you as possible.

Step 1

You can contact our team directly on 0345 863 0495 if an annuity is of interest to you. You will need to get some details in advance of the call including your member number and value of your pension pot. We will explain the process and any applicable charges before commencing any work on your behalf. If you have any other pension pots, we may be able to help you with these too.

There are a number of choices you’ll need to make when setting up annuity. We’ll run through these during the process, and one of those decisions is about how any tax-free cash you take is paid.

There are two options available:

Open Market Option (OMO)

The first option is called an Open Market Option. Once you’ve chosen an annuity provider, USS will disinvest the money saved in your pension pot. They will pay you a tax-free lump sum (if you choose to take one) and they will send the remainder of your funds to an annuity provider of your choice to set up your income.

USS will pay the tax-free cash lump sum once the annuity has been set up and the cancellation period has expired. This is to ensure that USS only pays the tax-free cash once you are sure an annuity is right for you.

It is important to understand that with this option you may have to wait around 4 weeks after your policy has started to receive your tax-free lump sum.

Immediate Vesting Personal Pension (IVPP)

The second option is called an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension. With this option USS will disinvest the money saved in your pension pot and transfer the full amount to the annuity provider of your choice. The annuity provider will take charge of paying any tax-free lump sum required, and they will set up your annuity with the remainder of the funds.

As the provider is paying your tax-free cash, they will usually pay this out before your annuity payments start. In this scenario you won’t have to wait for 4 weeks after the policy has been set up to receive your lump sum payment.

As a result, you are more likely to receive your tax-free cash quicker if you choose the IVPP process over the Open Market option.

Please be aware that with this option, if you change your mind about purchasing an annuity and USS have already sent the funds to the annuity provider, USS is not able to take your pension funds back and reinstate your pension policy. If this happens you would need to source another insurance company who would be willing to take your pension funds.

We’ll discuss this with you in more detail before we go any further in the process.

Your Pre-retirement Report

Once your case handler has explained to you how the journey will work and you have considered the above choices, we will then seek confirmation from you to proceed. Your personalised Pre-retirement Report will be sent to you. This information has all you need to make an informed decision on what annuity best meets your needs, provides quotes on a wide range of annuity shapes, based on the information you have provided. An example of the option form from this report can be viewed below. There are also details on alternatives to lifetime annuities which may be of interest.

Login details to our online annuity tool (ASSIST) are included as well. ASSIST is an educational tool which allows you to model various annuity shapes using real-time annuity rates in a matter of seconds.

Pre-retirement options form

Here are some examples of annuity options and the income
that could be secured. This is where you confirm which basis
best suits your own circumstances and how you want your
annuity to be set up.

View here

Step 2

Your case handler will ensure you fully understand the implications of the options you have selected, and that an annuity is right for you. We may need more health and lifestyle details to get you the highest possible income for your pension pot.

Once you’ve had a call and feel comfortable, we will explain to you how to submit your chosen options and health and lifestyle details online or return the paperwork in the pre-paid envelope supplied with the Pre-retirement Report.

Step 3

When you’re ready to proceed, we will contact USS for an updated fund value before getting annuity quotes from all the providers on the open market. This is to make sure you get the best possible income. We will then send you your At-Retirement Report, which shows all the offers along with all the necessary documents, quotes and application forms to secure the annuity purchase.

At-Retirement Report

This is our At-Retirement Report, which details the outcome of our investigations from the whole-of-market review and the top offers, with the highest income highlighted.

View here

Step 4

Once we receive your paperwork, we will send your application form to the annuity provider and contact your scheme to request that funds are disinvested and sent to them. Your case handler will keep you updated throughout the process.

Step 5

Once the provider receives the funds from the scheme, they will put the policy into force, send you the completion documents and begin payments.

If you wish to use our service and find out more about how we can help you, please contact us on 0345 863 0495 or email annuityadmin@hubfs.co.uk.

Please be aware our products and services are only available to those living in the UK.