Annuity continuing after your death?
When choosing your annuity, it is possible to have the annuity payments continue after your death.
Guaranteed payment period
You can choose to have a guaranteed minimum payment period, of either 5 or 10 years.
If you were to die within 5 or 10 years (whichever period you had chosen) of your annuity starting, it will continue to be paid in full for the unexpired portion of the chosen guarantee period.
For example, if you had chosen a 10-year guarantee period, and died 2 years later, the full annuity income would continue to be paid for a further 8 years at which point it would cease, unless you had also chosen a spouse's pension.
Spouse's annuity
You can also arrange for an annuity payment to continue for the lifetime of your spouse.
You can choose a spouse's pension at any percentage of your own annuity, for example, a 100% spouse's annuity, will give your spouse the same annuity as you, after your death, for his or her life.
A 50% spouse's annuity will give your spouse half of your own annuity income for the rest of their life.
Mix and match
You can also 'mix and match' your options, for example, you could choose to have a 10-year guarantee, with a 50% spouse's pension.
If you were to choose this option, and died after say, 3 years; your spouse would continue to be paid 100% of the annuity that was being paid to you for another 7 years, at which point, it would reduce by half, and this reduced income would then be continue to be paid to your spouse for the remainder of his or her life.
For the avoidance of doubt
All of the above options only concern the annuity benefits in the event of your death.
No matter which option you choose, your annuity is guaranteed to be paid to you in full, for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live.
