Walker Crips Financial Planning has appointed Matthew Crawshaw and Kaz Dev to its financial planning team, with the business aiming to fulfil its ambition to become a national financial planning practice. Crawshaw joins Walker Crips from abrdn, where he worked as regional director for the north and midlands. He joins the firm as regional director for the midlands, where he will focus on developing practices in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham. Dev will join Walker Crips as associate director in the south west region, which includes offices in Bristol and Truro. He joins from Francis Clark Financial Planning, where he served as head of professional services and chartered financial planner.

One Mortgage System (OMS) has appointed Melanie Spencer as its business partnership and growth director. The appointment adds to OMS’ senior management team and will further enhance the lender origination operation as well as help to break into new markets. Spencer has over 20 years’ experience in financial services, having played a leading role in both lending and intermediary firms. She joins OMS from finova where she was a director of the business, having previously serviced as group business development director and head of the MCI Mortgage Club. She has also held roles at Twenty7tec and Personal Touch Financial Services.

Standard Life has launched its new individual annuity to meet increasing desire for a guaranteed income in retirement. Available on the open market to both new and existing Standard Life customers, the Standard Life pension annuity is aimed at customers between 55 and 75 who are looking for a guaranteed income for life from the pension savings. It is available through both advised and non-advised routes including industry quote comparison portals and leading specialist annuity brokers. The launch comes as Standard Life finds that over threequarters (78%) of people say that certainty of income in retirement is important, with over half (58%) worrying about running out of money in the future.

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