A Scottish Widows annuity is priced by a personal quote. Here is who can buy one, how quotes reach customers and non-customers, and what moves the income.

Scottish Widows sells two kinds of annuity, Standard and Enhanced, and its key features say simply that “Your quotation will show you the income you will get.” Free guidance on the wider choice comes from Pension Wise, the impartial, government-backed service from MoneyHelper. Should you want your pot, health and family weighed side by side, leave your details here and an adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority will ring you back without charge. For how annuities work in general, see what a pension annuity is.

Who Scottish Widows sells its annuity to

The route depends on where the money sits. Scottish Widows’ consumer annuity page (read 20 October 2026) says that someone with an existing pension product there can “apply for an annuity directly from us”, and that anyone who is not a customer can buy one “through a financial adviser or intermediary”. Its adviser site, read the same day, says it offers both annuities “to the open market”. Taken together, non-customers can buy, by way of an adviser or intermediary.

  • Pot size: at least £10,000 after tax-free cash. The adviser site adds that this limit “doesn’t apply to existing Scottish Widows pension customers”.
  • Age: 55 to 99 for Standard and 55 to 85 for Enhanced. The minimum moves to 57 from April 2028, with an earlier start possible under a protected pension age, and different upper limits may apply to existing customers. More in what age to buy an annuity.
  • Where you live: the UK or Northern Ireland, not the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

Holders of Ready-Made Pension and SIPP policies whose numbers start EH, EL, EB or ES meet two different wordings. The annuity explainer gives 0330 678 0066, where Scottish Widows says it can “explain your options”; the same page and its Take a guaranteed income page say it “currently don’t offer an annuity” for those policies and suggest shopping around or an adviser. That number is the place to ask how a particular policy is treated. Charges on those products are in Scottish Widows pension fees.

Nobody has to buy from the firm holding their pot: the consumer page says you “don’t need to buy an annuity with us”, even with savings there. Older plans need a check first. Scottish Widows describes a guaranteed annuity rate as an income likely to be higher than one at current rates, says it cannot accept such pensions as a transfer online, and its adviser site warns that guaranteed benefits on a plan transferred in are lost. Whether a given policy has one is for its documents or Scottish Widows to confirm; see what a guaranteed annuity rate is and whether to keep one.

Quotes for customers and for everyone else

If your pension is with Scottish Widows, its consumer page gives 0345 835 6644 for anyone interested in taking an annuity. Scottish Widows will ask existing customers whether to compare its offer with other providers, which means agreeing to share personal and medical details with them. With that consent, a guaranteed quote also tells you whether another provider would pay more.

If it is not, the quote comes through an adviser or intermediary. The adviser site says quotes and applications for both annuities “are only available through quote portals”, naming IRESS, iPipeline, HUB, Annuity Exchange and Retirement Line, with Enhanced quotes underwritten automatically. It also offers advisers a standard quote by phone where the client is already a customer. Sometimes an indicative quote comes back first and more information is needed before it is guaranteed.

A guaranteed quote lasts 30 days from the day it is produced. What sets the figure, according to the key features, is interest rates, age, life expectancy, the type of income, the main residential postcode and, for Enhanced, the health and lifestyle answers. Because rates move with the market (see whether annuity rates are rising), a quote is best read against others taken the same week. Hargreaves Lansdown compiles weekly best rates for a £100,000 pension without naming insurers, which gives a market yardstick but not a Scottish Widows figure. Quotes from Aviva, Legal & General and Standard Life work in similar ways, and free help is listed in free annuity advice.

Standard or Enhanced, and the health check afterwards

The Enhanced annuity “considers health and lifestyle information”, with certain health conditions, being overweight and smoking as Scottish Widows’ examples, and is likely to pay more than the Standard one. It gives no percentage, so none appears here; why the uplift varies is in enhanced annuity rates, and which conditions count in who qualifies.

The answers are tested later. According to the key features, within six months of the application Scottish Widows may check them, perhaps through a report from your doctor, and a declared smoker may be asked to take a simple test. Inaccurate or incorrect answers can lead to a lower income, “backdated to the start of your annuity”. The questionnaire itself is covered in applying for an enhanced annuity.

Choices that lower the starting income

Payments stay level unless something else is chosen at the outset. Scottish Widows lists these options, each of which means a lower starting income:

  • Increases: a fixed yearly rise (its example is 3% a year) or one following the Retail Prices Index, which could fall if the index is negative. See inflation-linked annuity rates.
  • Dependant’s income: up to 100% of the income can continue to a surviving spouse, registered civil partner or another dependant, named at the start and not changeable later. See joint life annuities.
  • Guaranteed period: usually 0 to 30 years, though some Scottish Widows plans may offer less than 30.
  • Value protection: a possible lump sum on an early death, available only through an adviser or intermediary and not alongside a guaranteed period. For deaths after 5 April 2027 the key features say the lump sum falls into the estate for Inheritance Tax; see pension death benefits.

The two forms of death protection are compared in guarantee periods and value protection, and payments after death in annuity death benefits. None of these choices can be altered once the annuity is bought, so a spouse’s income set against a higher starting figure is worth weighing with someone who knows your circumstances; the enquiry form here arranges a free call from an FCA-authorised adviser.

Charges built into the income, and 30 days to cancel

Where no advice was taken, Scottish Widows’ own charges are built into the quoted income; where an adviser is paid from the pot, that cost can come off the purchase price and the quotation shows it. More in annuity fees.

The key features allow 30 days to cancel: from the letter confirming set-up when the annuity is bought from a Scottish Widows plan, or from the policy documents when the money came from another provider or the open market. Income received must be returned, tax-free cash already taken cannot be paid back and any adviser charge paid out is not refunded. After those 30 days the annuity cannot be cancelled or changed, even if circumstances change. The plan is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme; see what happens if a provider goes bust.

Short answers on Scottish Widows annuities

Can a Scottish Widows annuity rise with inflation?

Yes, if chosen at the start: a rise tied to the Retail Prices Index, or a fixed yearly increase. Either starts lower than a level income, and an RPI-linked one could fall in a year when the index is negative.

What if annuity rates change while my quote is open?

The adviser site says that if the money arrives within the 30 days, Scottish Widows applies the higher of the quoted rate and the current one, with no requote. If it arrives later and the Enhanced rate has fallen, a new quote is issued.

Can pots from different schemes buy one Scottish Widows annuity?

Under the open market option they typically cannot, according to the adviser site: each scheme needs its own quote, application and annuity. Uncrystallised pots from different schemes can be combined only through an Immediate Vesting Personal Pension.

Your next step

A Scottish Widows quote is one figure to set beside others. To go through your own pot, health and options with an FCA-authorised adviser, send the free enquiry form and expect a phone call back.

Sources, read 20 October 2026: Scottish Widows, Pension Annuities Explained and Take a guaranteed income (consumer site); Scottish Widows, Individual annuities, How to get a quote and How to apply (adviser site); Scottish Widows Limited, Key Features of the Scottish Widows Annuity (Standard and Enhanced) (53001 02/26; FRN 181655); Scottish Widows, Check if I can transfer my pension; Hargreaves Lansdown, best annuity rates.