Equitable may offload non-profit annuity book

gar deficits

despite stable year, with-profit annuitants to see less of improved policy values

Equitable Life will withhold 0.5% per annum for the next six years from payments to with-profits annuitants in order to recover outstanding guaranteed annuity rate (GAR) deficits. With the group announcing improved policy values after a stabilising year, such policyholders will therefore see less of this uplift. Elsewhere in the troubled mutual's 2005 results, the society said it is looking at the possibility of transferring the bulk of its non-profit annuities to another provider to limit longevity risk. Acknowledging a limited outlook for policy returns with the fund remaining primar...