A joint life annuity pays you an income for life, then carries on paying a set share to a partner if you die first, at the cost of a lower starting income.
This guide covers the three questions that decide one, for the UK: who the second person can be, how much of the income they would keep, and what that protection takes off the income while both are alive.
Pension Wise, from MoneyHelper, is free, impartial guidance backed by government, open to anyone aged 50 or over with a UK-based defined contribution pension. Where a joined-up view of ages, health and other pensions is wanted, a short form on this page collects a few details and an FCA-authorised adviser phones afterwards, free.
One income, two lives: what the contract promises
A joint life annuity is a lifetime annuity with a second person written into it. While you are alive it pays you. If you die first, it pays that person a set proportion of your income, usually for the rest of their life. Canada Life notes it is also called "spouse benefit" or a "joint life option".
- The cover is bought at the start. HMRC's Pensions Tax Manual says a survivor's annuity is bought either under the same contract, "written on a 'joint life' basis", or under a separate contract within 7 days either side of the member's own annuity. One bought later in the member's lifetime is not a dependants' or nominees' annuity.
- It pays only if the second person is the one left. If they die first, the survivor's share is never paid, but the lower starting income has already been accepted.
- Both ages and both health records count. Aviva's key features say that where an income is to go to a dependant, the income you receive takes their health into account as well as your own.
The wider picture is in what a pension annuity is, and everything an annuity can leave behind, including guarantees and lump sums, is in what happens to an annuity when you die.
Who can be the second person on the annuity
Two layers of rules decide this: the tax law on who counts as a dependant, and the provider's own terms. Schemes may have their own definition, HMRC's manual notes, so the contract has the last word.
Paragraph 15 of Schedule 28 to the Finance Act 2004 defines "dependant" for registered pensions, and paragraph 17 sets the conditions for a dependants' annuity. In summary, a dependant is:
- a person married to, or the civil partner of, the member on the date of the member's death;
- a child of the member who is under 23, or who is older and was dependent on the member because of physical or mental impairment; or
- anyone else who, in the scheme administrator's opinion, was financially dependent on the member, in a relationship of mutual dependence with them, or dependent on them because of physical or mental impairment.
For people who are not married or civil partners, the scheme's rules set the test, and mutual dependence needs "some element of reliance on each other financially". From 6 April 2015 an annuity can also go to a nominee as well as a dependant; whether a provider offers that on its joint life option is for its documents. An annuity for a child must stop when the child ceases to be a dependant.
Providers word it differently. Legal & General's key features (print code Q0056658 07/26) offer two routes: a named spouse, the person the buyer is currently married to or in a registered civil partnership with; or a partner who, in L&G's opinion, is financially dependent on the buyer at the time of death, and who has to prove it. Aviva's key features (AN15036) speak of "a dependant", and Canada Life of adding "a spouse or partner" to the plan.
So a joint life annuity is not limited to marriage. A partner you are not married to, or an adult who depends on you, can be covered where the provider's terms and the tax test both allow it.
How much of the income the survivor keeps
The survivor's share is a percentage of the income being paid at the first death, picked when the annuity is bought. Providers set out the menu differently:
- Legal & General says the buyer "can choose to pay 50%, 67% or 100% of your annuity income to a named dependant for the rest of their life if you die first". The cover is not automatic; it has to be chosen.
- Canada Life describes the survivor's income as "usually between 50% and 100% of what you were receiving", at the same amount or a percentage of it.
- Aviva's key features describe taking a smaller starting income so that a dependant is paid if the buyer dies first, without listing percentages, and offer illustrations with different options.
Those are three firms' wordings, not a market-wide list, so ask each provider for its options in writing. Where an annuity is set to rise each year, Aviva says a dependant's income will normally rise in the same way.
A joint life annuity can also be combined with a guarantee period. In L&G's version the dependant's income then starts only when the guarantee period ends; MoneyHelper says buyers can normally choose whether the two run at the same time, which it calls overlap, or one after the other. That choice is covered in annuity overlap explained and joint life annuity guarantee periods.
What choosing joint life does to the starting income
Adding a survivor's income lowers the income paid from day one. L&G's key features say that selecting a death benefit reduces the income, and Canada Life says that because a joint life annuity "covers two lives instead of one, it generally provides a smaller income than a single lifetime annuity".
The size of the drop depends on both people's ages and health, the survivor's share and the day of the quote. One dated illustration shows the shape. Hargreaves Lansdown's best-buy table, dated 15 October 2026, lists the annual income from a £100,000 pension for a single life and a joint life 50% annuity, both level with no guarantee; its joint life quotes assume the spouse is three years younger than the buyer.
| Age when bought | Single life, level | Joint life 50%, level | Gap a year | Gap as a share of the single life figure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | £7,078 | £6,696 | £382 | 5.4% |
| 60 | £7,476 | £7,144 | £332 | 4.4% |
| 65 | £8,211 | £7,658 | £553 | 6.7% |
| 70 | £9,002 | £8,361 | £641 | 7.1% |
| 75 | £10,212 | £9,146 | £1,066 | 10.4% |
Hargreaves Lansdown's table, 15 October 2026; the last two columns are our subtraction and division, rounded, shown in the sources file. Quotes are for an average postcode, paid monthly in advance, and the table's own note says rates could be higher or lower in future.
Read it as a snapshot, not a price list. It shows the best figure in each row, the rows do not name a provider and may come from different ones, and it is not an offer to anyone. The gap runs from about 4% to about 10% of the single life figure, in one table, on one date, for one set of assumptions; a partner much younger or older, or a different survivor share, would give different figures. How a quote is built from a pot is in how much annuity income a pot gives, comparing like for like in best annuity rates in the UK, and health in enhanced annuity rates.
The way to see the gap for one couple is to ask the same provider for the same quote twice, once single life and once with the survivor's share; L&G says it will provide as many quotes as wanted to compare options. Gathering that pair of quotes from several insurers is something an adviser can do, and the route to one is the form on this page.
When the marriage ends or the survivor remarries
Aviva's key features say that once an annuity is set up it cannot be changed, cashed in or deferred "even if your personal circumstances change". What a divorce or remarriage does to the survivor's income is therefore set by the contract signed on day one.
The wording matters. Under L&G's terms, a named spouse "must still be your spouse when you die for them to receive an income", while its financial dependant route turns on dependence at the date of death. HMRC's manual, for its part, says someone married to the member when the lifetime annuity was bought may be treated as a dependant at the member's death "whether still married to or in a civil partnership with that person at that time or not". Who a particular contract pays after a divorce is a question for the provider, in writing, before buying, along with whether the named person can ever be changed.
Divorce can also reach an annuity already in payment: one that becomes subject to a pension debit under a pension sharing order has to reduce to comply with it, the same manual says. The wider rules are in what happens to your pension if you divorce.
On remarriage, the Finance Act allows a dependants' annuity for someone who is not the member's child to be written so that it is payable "until the dependant's death or until the earliest of the dependant's marrying, entering into a civil partnership or dying". That permits a contract to stop on remarriage; it does not require one to. L&G describes its dependant income as paid for the rest of the dependant's life; for other providers, the terms say.
Tax on the survivor's income
The test turns on the age of the person who died, not the survivor's. For a dependants' or nominees' annuity bought alongside the member's own, HMRC's manual says payments are tax-free where the member died on or after 3 December 2014 aged under 75 and no annuity payment was made under the contract before 6 April 2015. They are taxable where the member was 75 or older at death, died before 3 December 2014, or payments began before 6 April 2015; the survivor then pays at their marginal rate, with the insurer deducting tax under PAYE. Aviva also warns that annuity income could affect means-tested state benefits. Inheritance tax and the other death benefits are on the annuity death benefit page and in pensions and inheritance tax.
Joint life annuity questions
Can I have a joint life annuity if I am not married to my partner?
Often, but the provider's terms say. Under the tax rules a person who was financially dependent on you, or in a relationship of mutual dependence with you, can count as a dependant in the scheme administrator's opinion, and L&G offers a route for a financially dependent partner who can show it. Ask any other provider for its definition before comparing quotes.
What does "joint life 50%" mean?
The survivor would receive half of the income being paid at the time of the first death. It is the share used in the Hargreaves Lansdown row above; other percentages vary by firm.
How does a Canada Life joint life annuity work?
Canada Life describes its Joint Life option as adding a spouse or partner who carries on receiving income after the buyer's death, at the same amount or a percentage of it. It says its death benefits "are available with our Lifetime Annuity and Purchased Life Annuity"; a quote gives the terms for a case.
Can I add a partner to an annuity that has already started?
Aviva's key features say an annuity cannot be changed once set up, and a survivor's annuity bought outside the 7-day window is not a dependants' or nominees' annuity for tax purposes. The provider can say whether anything can be done; annuity transfer rules covers switching.
Your next step
A joint life annuity trades some income now for income that carries on for a partner. Who counts, what share and what it costs are set in the contract and in a quote taken on the day; no rate on this page is on offer to anyone. Pension Wise and each provider's key features cost nothing to read. Both versions of the quote, laid out side by side, are what an FCA-authorised adviser can arrange once the form on this page goes in, free of charge.
Sources, accessed 20 October 2026: Legal & General, Key Features of the Pension Annuity (Q0056658 07/26); Aviva, Pension Annuity key features (AN15036, October 2025); Canada Life, types of annuity and what happens to an annuity when you die; Hargreaves Lansdown, best annuity rates (table dated 15 October 2026); HMRC, Pensions Tax Manual PTM071200, PTM072200, PTM072210 and PTM062400; Finance Act 2004, Schedule 28 paragraph 15 and paragraph 17; MoneyHelper, annuities explained and Pension Wise (read via the Internet Archive).