The Financial Services Authority (FSA), the industry regulator, has issued a warning to pension providers who offer annuities to be aware of the risk of pricing their contracts correctly.
What's an annuity? When you retire, a lump sum of money from your pension fund is paid to a pensions company who exchange it for an income for life to be paid to you.
More on "at retirement" types of policies
In simple terms, they are saying that people are living longer so pension companies should be careful about the rate of interest (annuity) they pay out for a lump sum received.
Providers have reacted by saying that they are well aware that people are living longer and their is a likelihood that they will pay out income for longer. This has been factored into their rates.
Our view
The FSA should stick to regulation and concentrate on it - there are already enough problems still to be resolved with Equitable Life before they start warning others.