No single firm is the best enhanced annuity provider for everyone: each weighs your health answers its own way. Here is what each provider says.

If you searched for the best enhanced annuity providers hoping for a league table, this page has none. An enhanced annuity is priced from your own health and lifestyle answers, so the firm that pays one person most may not pay the next. Instead, it sets out what UK providers say about enhanced annuities on their own pages. Before anything else, there is Pension Wise: free, impartial guidance from MoneyHelper, backed by government. If you would like your health answers weighed up with you by an FCA-authorised adviser, request a free call back; it takes a handful of details, which go in the form on this page.

Which UK providers offer enhanced annuities?

The Retirement Health and Lifestyle form site, run by Retirement Systems Limited for The Annuity Provider Forum (a group of annuity providers), lists six firms under “The providers”: Aviva, Canada Life, Just, Legal & General, Scottish Widows and Standard Life. The site shows no date. It says its form "contains a set of questions agreed by all the major annuity providers". They appear below in alphabetical order, which is not an order of merit.

A name on that list does not mean a product is open to you today. This site has separate pages on annuities from Aviva, Legal & General, Scottish Widows and Standard Life.

What each provider says about enhanced annuities

Aviva

Aviva's guide (published 14 May 2024, last updated 22 Jan 2026) explains that a provider which thinks your health or lifestyle could shorten your life may offer an enhanced annuity paying more than its standard rate. Heavy smoking, now or in the past, and a higher BMI are on its list, along with conditions from high blood pressure and high cholesterol to stroke, cancer and multiple sclerosis. Aviva's own figure is that around 25% of its 2025 customers left out a detail that might have earned them more income, and it suggests having medical letters or hospital reports ready if you have them.

Canada Life

Canada Life's types-of-annuity page (no date shown) calls an enhanced annuity a lifetime annuity that can pay more where health problems may reduce life expectancy. Eligibility, and how much extra you might receive, are worked out from a health questionnaire, and you may be asked about conditions, medication or recent GP reports.

Just

Just's consumer annuities page (no date shown) is about lifetime annuities, and among their benefits it lists: "If you’re in poor health, or lead a lifestyle that could shorten your life expectancy, you could receive a higher income." The same page warns that buying one is "an irreversible decision". Ask an FCA-authorised adviser, by way of this page's short form, which route to a Just quote is open to you; the call costs nothing.

Legal & General

L&G's enhanced annuities guide (21 Apr 2026) says an enhanced annuity "offers you higher regular payments because of your medical history or current state of health." The conditions it names run from diabetes and asthma to cancer and kidney failure, with smoking and obesity included, and it notes that every provider keeps its own list. L&G says the amount depends on your health and lifestyle, and illustrates it alongside its March 2026 rates: "For example, a history of heart attacks could add 10%, while smoking 20 cigarettes a day could add 12%." Its online quote guide (15 Oct 2026) says you do not have to answer its medical questions, but that if you do not, you will not get an enhanced annuity quote.

Scottish Widows

Scottish Widows' guaranteed income page (no date shown) says: "Scottish Widows offers two types of annuities: Standard and Enhanced." The enhanced one takes account of health and lifestyle, such as certain health conditions, being overweight or smoking. You can buy it aged 55 to 85, against 55 to 99 for the standard one; the page says the minimum age for both changes to 57 from April 2028, though a protected pension age may allow earlier.

Standard Life

Standard Life's Key Features of the Standard Life Pension Annuity (SLPA17, print code 0726) says it offers both standard and enhanced annuity rates. Enhanced rates cover common lifestyle health risks, among them high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking, and more serious medical conditions too. Standard Life does not normally require a medical examination; it may send you, or a dependant, a health questionnaire to fill in, ask your doctor for a report and, in some instances, send a nurse to your home.

Why “best” changes from one person to the next

The providers say so themselves. Aviva: "It's important that you do your research and 'shop around' to make sure you get the best deal available to you." Because each provider keeps its own list of conditions, the same answers can bring different offers from different firms. L&G's quote guide shows how briefly a figure holds: its quotes are guaranteed for 15 days, extended by a further 30 days if it receives your completed application within that time. A ranking drawn up on one date for an imagined person would not describe your offer.

That is why this page names no winner. How large an uplift can be is covered in enhanced annuity rates, and whether a condition counts in how to qualify for an enhanced annuity. Before you ask any provider for a quote, your conditions and medication can be talked over with an FCA-authorised adviser: a phone number left in this page's form brings that call, free.

Where the FCA's annuity comparison rules fit in

The FCA's rules also start from your answers rather than from a table. Before a firm gives you a guaranteed annuity quote, COBS 19.9.7 R requires it to produce a market-leading quote from across the pension annuity market, and COBS 19.9.6A R requires that quote to be an enhanced one if you are eligible for an enhanced annuity. COBS 19.9.6 R allows limited exceptions, for example where another firm has already given you the same comparison information for the same quote. The FCA Handbook shows COBS 19.9 as last updated on 02/04/2024; what the comparison must show you is in the best annuity rates guide.

Asking for enhanced quotes on the same footing

It helps to give every provider the same diagnoses, dates, medication and smoking details, and to ask each whether its quote is enhanced or standard. L&G warns that if information is wrong, "your provider might change or withdraw the annuity rate they offer you or you might have to repay any overpayments made that were based on the information you originally provided." The paperwork is covered in the enhanced annuity application guide, and the basics in what a pension annuity is.

Any part of your pot left invested rather than used for an annuity could fall in value as well as grow, and you might be left with less than you paid in. Having an FCA-authorised adviser look over your health details and quotes starts with the short form on this page, which asks only for your name, age band, phone number, email and postcode; health questions wait for the free call.

Choosing between enhanced annuity providers: four quick answers

Is there an official list of UK enhanced annuity providers?

The Retirement Health and Lifestyle form site lists the six providers set out above; it is run for a group of annuity providers, not by a regulator. MoneyHelper says its free annuity calculator compares rates from all providers, and adds that in some cases you may need a financial adviser or annuity broker to get a product.

Which provider pays the highest enhanced annuity?

No provider can be named in advance: your offer rests on your own answers and the date you ask. Each provider keeps its own list of conditions, so the firm that pays most for one diagnosis may not for another.

Can I get an enhanced annuity from my existing pension provider?

L&G's guide says "Your pension provider might have an annuity of their own, though you don’t have to buy it." A firm giving you a guaranteed quote must, apart from the limited exceptions noted above, also produce the market-leading comparison quote.

Does every provider ask the same health questions?

The form site says its questions were agreed by the major providers and that some providers may ask for further information.