Just Retirement announced today (5 November) that it has seen record quarterly group total sales in the three months to the end of September of £455.5m, up 36.6 per cent.
It also reported record annuity sales in this period of £387.9m, an increase of 44.6 per cent; and strong equity release mortgage advances of £67.6m for the three months to the end of September, an increase of 3.8 per cent.
Rodney Cook, chief executive of Just Retirement, said: “We have witnessed strong growth in each of our core markets during this period. We expect sales in the annuity market will continue to be strong in the second quarter as advisers seek to close client contracts ahead of the Gender Directive and the Retail Distribution Review coming into force.”
He cited recent data published by the Equity Release Council indicated a positive outlook for the equity release market as increasing numbers of customers are choosing to use some of the equity in their homes as a solution to top-up their monthly retirement income.
Mr Cook said: “The final quarter of 2012 will be a challenging time for the industry as a result of the introduction of gender neutral annuity pricing and the RDR before the end of the year. Just Retirement’s plans are well progressed to support advisers through this period.”
