Targeting the 50-plus

Yesterday I was in a branch of NatWest and spied this brochure. There is nothing like a “you get a special rate because of your age” type offer to get my attention.

What I thought was interesting was the inside cover that made the proposition that “Now you are over 50, your family has probably grown up and, hopefully, you no longer have a mortgage or any other major financial commitments." You will need to click on the image to read the text.

This strikes me as a very stereotypical view of the 50-plus. I wonder how true this is.

The same day I read the astonishing fact that of all the people who bought an annuity last year (I guess that means 2009) 88% had less than £50,000.

That would buy you a pension of around £3,000/year. If this is the total value of the private pension, for nearly 90% of those retiring in the UK then they have something more important to worry about than their life insurance. Dick Stroud