I paid Standard Life £82,000 to set up an annuity... then it said it had never heard of me: CRANE ON THE CASE

I decided to cash in some of my investments and buy an annuity. At the start of June, I accepted a quote from Standard Life. I would pay £80,191 for a 15-year income of £5,787. My wife would also receive a payment of 50 per cent of that sum each year if I died during the annuity period.My investments were transferred to cash with my pension provider ready to be transferred to Standard Life. I submitted the annuity application on June 9 via my financial adviser.On July 31, Standard Life confirmed it had received the money and said the annuity would 'go live' on August 10.But on August 11, I was contacted to say the first quote was out of date as rates had changed. I was given an updated one for £80,196 for an income of £5,812 which I accepted immediately. I was told the new 'go live' date was August 18. I hadn't heard anything by August 31 so filed an official complaint, as did my financial adviser. I have now been told by multiple Standard Life teams that there is no record of me or of the annuity application, despite having parted with my £80,000.At 67, this was the final piece of my retirement planning and I'm anxious about where the money has gone. Can you help? J S, Gloucestershire Standard Life took £82,000 to set up an annuity, but later couldn't find any record of J.S.Helen Crane, This is Money's consumer champion, replies: An annuity is when someone decides to cash in their pension pot, investments or savings in exchange for a guaranteed income each month for an agreed amount of time. Buying one used to be compulsory for those with defined contribution pensions, but then-chancellor George Osborne scrapped this requirement back in 2014, allowing people more control over how they managed their retirement funds. Annuities fell out of favour when interest rates were low, as annuity rates – the percentage of your pot they pay out each year – also fell. However, the prospect of an inheritance tax raid on pension pots combined with better returns linked to higher gilt yields have led to a surge in interest recently. CRANE ON THE CASE Our weekly column sees This is Money consumer expert Helen Crane tackle reader problems and shine the light on companies doing both good and bad.Want her to investigate a problem, or do you want to praise a firm for going that extra mile? Get in touch:helen.crane@thisismoney.co.ukStandard Life's own figures show the proportion of people aged over 75 getting an annuity quote has quadrupled in the last two years. You spotted an opportunity to cash in – but sadly it led to lots of unnecessary stress. You contacted me in early September, about five weeks after Standard Life said it received your £82,000 pension cash. Understandably, you were distressed to be told on the phone by several Standard Life staff members that the firm had no idea who you were, and no record of the money being sent. You told me you suffer from high blood pressure, and the uncertainty was having an impact on both you and your wife. You were also undergoing tests for a potentially much more serious medical condition, though the outcome was thankfully less severe than feared. 'Standard Life are holding £80,000 of my pension money with no functioning plan, no communication, and no explanation,' you said. But as well as working out where your own money had gone, you wanted to raise questions about Standard Life's processes and how this had been able to happen. I contacted the company to ask. Standard Life confirmed that it received your cash in July and said it was held securely throughout the process. It said there were delays processing your application. These were largely caused by the fact your financial adviser had changed. Aviva flagged this with Standard Life at the start of the process and it carried out vetting checks, but these took longer than they should have. It also appears Standard Life failed to update your advisers' details on some of its systems. This meant that, when they contacted Standard Life for updates on your behalf throughout July and August, they were wrongly told Standard Life did not have the authority to speak to them. Your financial adviser received a letter explaining this and a copy was sent to you. However, you remain irked that no one from Standard Life has called or written to you directly to apologise and that you have not been given a detailed timeline of events.You have also not received a response to the formal complaints you lodged personally, or an explanation of how Standard Life will stop mistakes like this happening again. For these reasons, you are considering making a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service which I encourage you to do. Standard Life calculated the annuity payments you would have received between July 1 and August 9 and paid you £620.98 so that you did not lose out financially due to the delays. It added £9.69 in interest and also paid £350 in compensation for a total of £980.67. You have also received £968.62 to cover the payments due on August 9 and September 9. A Standard Life spokesman said: 'We are sorry for the delays and poor communication J.S. experienced while his annuity was being set up.'We have upheld his complaint, offered compensation and taken steps to ensure he was not financially disadvantaged by the delays he experienced.'The annuity was backdated to his requested set up date and is now in payment. We are reviewing the issues identified in this case to help prevent similar problems happening in future.'I'm glad you are no longer out of pocket and can now ready yourself for a relaxing retirement. CRANE ON THE CASE