Legal & General has responded quickly to resolve complaints from a sole trader over what he described as a "double whammy" of issues.
The first complaint involved a client, known to FT Adviser, waiting almost a month for her "sizeable" annuity to be invested.
The second complaint was around a small payment due to the adviser, which Legal & General said it could not pay because the adviser was using a personal bank account, instead of a business bank account.
According to the adviser, Wolverhampton-based Julian Pruggmayer of Financial Risk Management, he had first applied for 'Ms K's' annuity on July 3.
He chased Legal & General as to its progress; two weeks later he was told it had been approved.
However, as of July 29, the client's annuity still had not been invested, but the money transferred across was sitting in a cash account. Pruggmayer said he went back to the provider to query this.
The annuity application was approved, and documentation reached the adviser the evening of July 30.
Pruggmayer told FT Adviser he was pleased that he could now send the documentation onto the client, but urged providers to tackle "a lack of communication around the process", as advisers are left managing the client's expectations during the waiting period.
It is understood that L&G and other providers usually require between 15 to 20 business days to take an annuity application from start to authorisation.
However, there is no definitive turnaround time, as the wait for funds is in the hands of the ceding scheme - as with all providers.
It is understood Ms K's case was loaded to L&G's systems and authorised within schedule.
A spokesperson for L&G said: "This case took three weeks start to finish and we remained within our expected service time throughout. We are ahead of schedule on both."
The company's quote guarantee period is 45 days, so assuming the application goes into payment within 45 days of the initial quote, the provider will hold the rate given.
Sole trader query
The other issue - that of the company telling him he could not use his personal bank account - "was particularly problematic", according to Pruggmayer.
He said that, as part of his long-term exit planning, he had closed his business bank accounts last year and informed all the relevant providers - including Legal & General, that he had closed his business account.
He sent all the providers the documents to show his status as a sole trader, and submitted his personal bank account details to them.
Pruggmayer said: "On 24 December 2023 I wrote to those insurance companies we do business with telling them that, as we were starting to wind down the business, we had closed the business trading account and being a sole trader all future FAF / Comms should be paid there.
