Blog: Is booze the secret factor to enhanced annuities?

Clients can qualify for enhanced annuity rates for a range of conditions these days, including obesity, high blood pressure and previous medical treatment.

However, advisers might not be aware of how low some insurers set the bar when it comes to qualifying for enhanced rates due to alcohol consumption.

The minimum number of units of alcohol consumed per week that will qualify a client for an enhanced annuity is 40 for Partnership, or 50 with Just Retirement.

To put that into context, 1.5 units of alcohol would equate to a small glass of wine or a standard 35ml shot of vodka.

So, if your client drank one bottle of wine every evening (five small glasses or three big ones), or perhaps a few glasses of wine with dinner and later a vodka-tonic nightcap or two, they would qualify immediately for an uprating with some insurers.

According to the NHS' most recent figures, people aged 45-64 were significantly more likely to drink on five or more days per week.

Around a third of men in this age group drank five days a week, along with almost a fifth of women in this cohort.

Katherine Oxenham, client director at Annuity Direct, said clients who would be judged as healthy by most of us can easily rack up enhanced annuity criteria.

"One of our advisers has a real client who takes one tablet for high blood pressure and one for high cholesterol but also drinks 65 units a week; he gets a 7.26% increase in income solely due to alcohol consumption," she said.

"Interestingly you do not get a bigger enhancement the more you drink. We got quotes based on 100 units a week and the income was the same.

"So the moral of the story is just stick to the minimum alcohol consumption requirement, there is no benefit in drinking yourself to death."