Pensions and Isas sliced by market turmoil

The pension income bought from retirement savings has fallen by 14% compared with the start of the year owing to market turmoil, experts say.The effect of falling share prices and annuity rates means that a 65-year-old's £100,000 pension pot would buy a retirement income that was £926 lower.The figure, from Hargreaves Lansdown, shows the effect of market turmoil on those with personal pensions in the UK.Meanwhile, separate figures show how popular shares Isas have also been hit.A shares Individual Savings Account of £10,000 at the start of the year would now be worth £8,778, a 12.2% fall in value, according to financial information service Moneyfacts.This would only directly affect people who chose to cash in this investment.The turmoil on the financial markets, especially falling shares values, has particularly affected people who have had money saved in personal pension plans and who are now cashing them in to buy an annual pension, known as an annuity.Not only have some seen their pots shrink, but the annuity rate - the amount of annual pension they can obtain for any set sum of money - has also fallen too.John Frary from Bedfordshire, a company director in the motor racing industry, had £108,500 saved in his private pension fund.But between 6 July and 15 August this year that dropped in value by £7,471 to £101,047.He particularly wanted to use the pension rules to get 25% of that in tax-fee cash for the benefit of his daughters, while buying a pension with the rest.The fall in his fund values meant that instead of a lump sum of £29,000 he only got £26,500, with a monthly pension of £420."That money had just gone in two or three weeks due to a very sharp downturn in a very short period of time," he said."That affected me very badly in just a few weeks. I did not want to lose any more so it was time to cash in."The most recent falls show that waiting another month or so could have pushed down his retirement income even more.The experience has made him question the whole idea of pension saving."I really would be quite cautious about pensions," he said."I mainly put money in bricks and mortar and have done better than many friends who ploughed money into pensions over the years - they have been turned over," he said. From / BBC