Brexit could be the death of the second hand annuity market, a pensions expert believes.

As new Prime Minister Theresa May gets set to take charge, following the referendum and David Cameron’s resignation, the UK’s new relationship with the EU will be central to her priorities.

The EU negotiations are likely to swallow up vast amounts of time and resources and there are fears that planned reforms in other areas, such as pensions, could be derailed.

Claire Trott, head of pensions technical at Talbot Muir, told sister publication Sipps Professional: “I feel that with the bigger issues we are currently facing, there will be a period of rest before any Government can spend the time it needs to review what the impact of the pensions freedoms has been and make any further sweeping changes.

“Brexit could also be the death of the second hand annuity market, although this may never have got off the ground in the first place. It is such a short term and high risk market that it seems unlikely many would want to get involved in it in the first place. Again, there is likely to be more pressing issues in April 2017. This may protect some annuitants from themselves, at least in the short term.”

See Claire’s column in full here: http://www.sippsprofessional.co.uk/comment-and-blogs/item/3024-claire-trott-something-good-must-come-out-of-brexit-mess#.V4O72Ve984k

Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: “We’d urge the Government to give an early indication of its plans to take forward initiatives such as the Lifetime ISA and the secondary annuity market.

“Unless we get more detail very soon, the April 2017 introduction looks very challenging. There could also be a question mark over the Pensions Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech to review master trust rules.”

Tom McPhail from Hargreaves Lansdown suggested pensions tax relief could be an early casualty of Brexit.