LV= has branched out into the 'third way' market with the launch of Protected Retirement Plan, its first fixed-term retirement product.

The product is designed to offer customers the security of a fixed income over a fixed period, and flexibility for them to review their options at the end of the plan.

"The launch of the PRP is the latest addition to the growing 'third way' annuity market, which had sales of over £1bn in 2008," commented Mark Trott, head of annuities at LV=. "As a responsible provider of flexible retirement solutions, this was the natural progression in our product development and something we feel early-retirees will appreciate hugely. Giving people the ability to reassess their retirement income needs after set periods, means that they can benefit from a product that suits their individual requirements at a particular time."

Trott added that retirement needs to be flexible and fluid to reflect the pensions landscape and the demographic of today's retirees.

The launch has been welcomed by Living Time, which launched a fixed-term annuity in 2006 in the UK. The firm said that the new LV= product "reinforces evolution of the retirement income market".

Kim Lerche-Thomsen, founder of Living Time and chief executive, said: "We always believed that it would only be when new entrants followed our lead that people would really start to sit up and take notice of the acceleration of change now underway."

LV= is also offering a Trustee Investment Plan (TIP) version to allow independent financial advisers (IFAs) to combine the PRP security with the full investment options that are available under a SSIPP. This, LV= said, allows IFAs to design an income and investment solution that is suited to the risk appetite of an individual.

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