Retirement money totalling around £1.5 billion across the UK market is "in limbo", Hargreaves Lansdown says, as it reported a major fall in annuity business.

The Bristol based company's preliminary results, released this morning, showed a record operating profit before tax of £209.8m, but annuities slumped by 41%.

Annuity income has fallen from £7.7m last year to £4.7m for the year ending on 30 June 2014.
The firm said annuity market sales across UK were down 40% to 50% since the Budget but investors had instead turned to drawdown.

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Tom McPhail, Hargreaves' head of pensions research, said many potential annuity buyers have delayed their purchase to see what details emerge about the pension reforms, leaving huge sums in the market "in limbo".
He said: "Many investors have indicated that they are waiting to see what their options will be from April next year; they have heard about the Budget changes but don't know what they mean in terms of retirement income options.
"In recent research by Hargreaves Lansdown, 80% of prospective annuity purchasers who had now chosen to delay, were simply waiting for more details to emerge.
"Prior to the budget, annuity sales across the UK market were running at around 30,000 a month.
"With an average purchase price of £21,000 and given that sales have nearly halved in the five months since the budget, this means more than £1.5 billion has been left in limbo."
However, the firm believes the demise of the annuity market has been overstated in the long term.
He said: "Many people will still want to buy some secure income. Some investors have been happy to defer drawing on their retirement funds while they wait to see what options emerge."
Hargreaves said whilst in the short term a reduction in annuity business of around 50% has happened, this was "counteracted by a substantial shift to drawdown arrangements".
New assets into pensions drawdown arrangements were up 35% on the year.
Overall, the company's profits before tax stood at £209.8m, up 7% from £195.2m, while total assets under administration rose 29% to £46.9 billion.
Total clients increased by 144,000 to 652,000 since June 2013 and new clients and assets beat any other Q4 on record, it said.