In the UK, life annuities have a wider reach than this side of the pond in Canada and the US.
It appears the 2 major differences are the impaired or enhanced annuity which deals with your state of health. And the second type of UK life annuity which is not available here is a lifestyle annuity which takes your personal, habits such as smoking, into consideration.
The impaired or enhanced life annuity will pay more as it calculates that your longevity will be shortened due to a serious health problem. Apparently in the UK life annuities are issued for health problems not which would not be considered in Canada or the US . In any event, the UK life insurance companies have more experience than we do.
The second type of life annuity issued in the UK has to do with lifestyle habits such as smoking. As a smoker is prejudged to have a lower life expectancy than a non smoker, a smoker can obtain a better income. And this gives rise to the question of how long do you have to be a smoker to qualify? Or if a non smoker should you take up the habit?
In Canada and the US, smokers are heavily penalized when buying life insurance, so this type of UK life annuity is the other side of the coin.
Canadian expats living in the UK can get a free annuity quote here.
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