The Association of British Insurers announced its members will put a new minimum standard for customers in place over the next 18 months.
The changes include:

• A conversation for customers with their pension provider or an impartial advice or guidance service about their retirement options.
• This conversation will include a high-level overview of alternatives to annuities as people approach retirement.
• A comparison of annuity quotes for customers, whereby all providers will offer a comparison, or introduction to an intermediary who will deliver the comparison, early and prominently in their retirement process. The comparison will be offered as an integral part of the process not as an optional extra.
• Ask all customers for information about their health and lifestyle, which they can use to shop around for an enhanced rate.
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Ahead of the budget, the pensions industry is also calling on the Chancellor to relax the rules around small pension pots – currently savers can only take their pot as cash if they have less than £2,000 in it. ABI members would like savers with pots of £10,000 or less to have more flexibility around how they access their money and not be limited to having to buy a lifetime annuity.
This would address a key concern of the FCA.
Otto Thoresen, director general of the Association British Insurers, said: "It is critical to make sure savers have all the appropriate information they need easily to hand to make the best possible choice at retirement.
"This means changing the retirement process so that shopping around and providing medical information is built into it.
"If people have small pension pots, the issue isn't just about choice of annuity but whether they should annuitise at all. The industry is urging the Government to simplify and relax the rules which state how much money people can take in cash when they come to retire with a small savings pot."
The target date for completion for the changes is summer 2015.