Annuities have been a vital part of the pension system for millions of people, but the chancellor has announced plans that ride a coach and horses through the industry.
Not everyone needs to buy an annuity, but those who do so only have one shot - as they are buying a retirement income for the rest of their lives.
The system has been described as "disorderly" by the City watchdog, and now Chancellor George Osborne has said that many people will no longer need to buy one.
So, what are annuities and how do they work?
What is an annuity?
Individuals save into a pension during their working life and so build up a pension pot.
At some point during the first years of retirement, they will usually use the money that they have saved to buy an annuity from an insurance company.
This is a transaction that occurs once, and only once.
An annuity is an annual retirement income that is paid to them for the rest of their life.
Does everyone need to buy one?
No. Those with final-salary pensions will be awarded a pension pot linked to their salary when they finish work, so will not need an annuity.
The state pension is also unconnected to annuities.
But, for those who save into a defined contribution pension, there was a requirement to buy an annuity or face a hefty penalty.
The latest estimate is that 420,000 annuities are sold every year. As more and more people are enrolled automatically into a workplace pension, these annuities were expected to become even more common.
But in the 2014 Budget, the chancellor said he planned to scrap the requirement for those with defined contribution pensions to buy an annuity. Instead they will get free advice to decide what is best for them with regards to their pension pot.
This could mean people taking a big chunk of their savings pot to spend early in the retirement, although they will have to pay income tax on that.
What choices will I have?
Essentially, if you have saved for a pension, you will have a pot of money and you can decide what to do with it.
You may invest it yourself, you may spend it on a property, or - unsustainably - have a very good holiday.
But many people may still think that an annuity remains the best option, although the chancellor's changes may affect the competitiveness of deals.
Does everyone get the same deal with annuities?
Absolutely not.
First, there are standard annuities - available to all. Then there are enhanced annuities that can be bought by people with a lower life expectancy, generally smokers or those with a medical condition.
The latter are more generous because the insurance company is betting that they will not have to make the annual payment for very long.
When it comes to buying an annuity, retirees need to look at the rates on offer.
A bit like finding a good savings rate?
Yes, a little like that.
Just like savings, the financial crisis has had a big effect on the rates on offer. For many years rates were falling, but they did start to recover last year.
Ultimately, retirees need to shop around for a good rate, and often take a guess on the best timing. If they think the annuity rate might rise, then they might delay buying an annuity.
Do I need to buy the annuity from the same company I saved with?
A new 12-sided British pound coin is to replace the round one after 30 years. With very different edges to other coins, it'll make it easier to identify if you're blind, writes Ouch's Damon Rose.
I must be one of the most trusting souls in the UK. When I buy a pint, a packet of mints or anything really, I am often to be seen holding up a note and asking the seller: "Is this a fiver or a tenner?" Being blind it's hard to distinguish which note is which.
They're a little different in size but if you really want to know what paper money you're holding, blind people will either use a keyring note measuring gauge or a little electronic device that vibrates once if it's a £5, twice if it's a £10, three times if it's £20 and so on. Phone apps also exist. But it's a faff.
Coins are much easier to distinguish by touch because, unlike notes, they don't bend or get soggy with age. Fifty pence pieces are a particularly feelable delight, closely followed by 20 pence pieces which can feel a bit like the other round coins in your pocket because you always find yourself sorting money at speed at point of purchase.
Presently, the big, chunky £2 pound coins are the most distinguishable. The milling on the edge of a £1 coin for some reason can get rubbed away so you have to bear this in mind. I've found myself trying to buy a coffee with a couple of two pence pieces and being told quizzically: "The coffee is two pounds, not 4p," by a barista who thought I was trying to con him.
But a unique, hefty 12-sided coin is an accessibility masterstroke - it won't be mistaken for either a 50 or 20 pence piece. The Royal Mint consults with interested parties such as Age Concern and the RNIB when designing new currency.
I'm hoping the new plastic notes, due out in 2016, are either robust enough to judge without a gauge or will have Braille. Current notes aren't suitable as the dots get squashed.
In March 1974, Jim Beaton, a royalty protection officer, helped prevent the kidnapping of Princess Anne as she was returning to Buckingham Palace in a chauffeur-driven limousine.
A white car swerved in front of the limousine as it drove along the Mall. A man, Ian Ball, jumped out and went round to the side where Princess Anne was sitting.
Jim Beaton attempted to intervene but was shot. He fired his weapon but missed on account of his injuries and then the gun jammed. Another attempt to knock over Ball failed and Beaton was shot a third time.
Ball was later grappled to the ground by a policeman. In all, four people were wounded.
Ball, 26 at the time, was prosecuted for the attempted murder of Jim Beaton and various other offences.
His attempt to kidnap the princess remains the closest anyone has come to abducting a member of the Royal Family.
Witness is a World Service radio programme of the stories of our times told by the people who were there.
Produced by Mike Lanchin and Directed by Claire Tailyour
By Vincent DowdArts Correspondent, BBC World Service
Yves St Laurent was the original superstar designer
Yves Saint Laurent became head of one of the world's great fashion houses aged 21. Until his death half a century later in 2008, he was one of fashion's dominant figures. This year sees the release of two feature films about his tumultuous professional and private life. The first opens this week in the UK.
Earlier masters of Parisian couture such as Christian Dior or Cristobal Balenciaga shaped fashion around the world. But until Yves Saint Laurent, no designer found such personal fame with the public.
In the 1960s and 1970s he was a regular in gossip columns, photographed endlessly with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Andy Warhol and the most gorgeous models of the day.
Born in colonial Algeria in 1936, Saint Laurent became an extraordinary prodigy.
Always obsessed with fashion, as a painfully shy teenager he moved to Paris to work for Dior. Three years later, Christian Dior died and Saint Laurent took over as artistic director at just 21. Many in the fashion world were astounded but it was clear a star had arrived.
Pierre Niney takes the title role in the first of two rival biopics out this year. At 25, he is well-known in France, with an obvious talent for comedy. He's also a good physical match for Saint Laurent in his younger and more handsome days.
"I did five months of preparation on his life and character," Niney says.
"I met many of the people Yves knew. The centre of the film is his relationship with Pierre Berge, who was Yves' partner in business and in his private life.
French actor Pierre Niney (right) has a strong physical likeness to the young Yves Saint Laurent - seen here (left) in his Paris studio in 1965
"I was lucky to sit down with Berge - who's now 83 - and discuss their life together. It was a privilege and a big help because mainly the film is their love story."
The director of the film, simply titled Yves Saint Laurent, is Jalil Lespert, previously an actor in the likes of Tell No-One. He, too, was fascinated by the men's long friendship.
"Saint Laurent always had a revolutionary vision for women's fashion - but fate gave him his moment very early and without Berge perhaps he would never have achieved so much.
"To give a purpose to life there has to be someone you love and who loves you back - otherwise what in life makes sense? Yves needed Berge emotionally, although our screenplay is honest about the problems they had later on," he explains.
"YSL's best designs had a purity to them: he was a sort of poet of fashion. But I also wanted people to see he was funny, at least with his intimate circle when I think his diffidence disappeared a little.
"Of course it's good that Pierre Niney resembles Yves but the casting is also because I knew he would bring out that humour."
Pierre Berge let the filmmakers have access to original Yves Saint Laurent Designs
Lisa Armstrong, fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph, says Yves Saint Laurent remains a major figure.
"He had an innate talent but he was also very quick to grasp that in the 1960s, the so-called 'youthquake' was changing all kinds of culture - not just clothes. The French worried the centre of fashion was drifting north to London: YSL was vital in pulling it back to Paris.
"And his partner, Pierre Berge, combined aesthetic insight with business sense - that's very rare."
Armstrong says the film shows how they complemented one another, without quite finding a way to dramatise how Saint Laurent totally changed female fashion.
"He gave us individual pieces like the famous 'smoking' tuxedo in 1966 and the safari look. After he split with the House of Dior, he and Berge moved fashion away from haute couture towards pret-a-porter.
Armstrong says the designer "gave us the concept of cool on the catwalk, leaving behind the elegant but slightly old-fashioned look which dominated for years. His big idea was that women could be sexy, modern and emancipated by looking slightly androgynous.
"Women don't think twice today about slinging on a boyfriend shirt or even boyfriend trousers - but we've forgotten that that Left Bank insouciance was basically down to Yves Saint Laurent. Putting a woman into an elegant trouser suit was a revolution. "
The film centres on the love story between Yves Saint Laurent and his business partner Pierre Berge
The French actor Guillaume Gallienne plays Pierre Berge in the film.
"He's much better known now than in the early years. Even in France, few people in the 1960s and 1970s would have known what he looked like, which obviously wasn't true with Yves."
Berge has actively assisted in the making of Lespert's film - providing access to locations and designs - whereas he had no involvement with the other imminent biopic, starring Gaspard Ulliel and Jeremie Renier.
Gallienne insists they didn't trade independence for cooperation.
"Pierre Berge has always known how to recognise an artist. He saw it in Yves, in the fabulous artists they collected together and he saw it with Jalil as a filmmaker.
"That's why he said yes to the project. But as an actor I didn't set out to please Pierre Berge with my performance.
Yves Saint-Laurent (right) talks to Pierre Berge (left) in Paris, during the preview of the fashion house's autumn-winter 92-93 haute couture collections
"And he didn't interfere with the script at all: There was nothing we didn't allow ourselves to think or do. And I'm very proud of the film which emerged. It's a love-story between two men but no one is labelling it as a gay movie.
"I love showing a younger generation how in the 1950s these two very different men were so strong and audacious together."
The film grows darker as it records Saint Laurent's acknowledged dependence on drink and drugs as he struggled against depression and the pressure of producing two collections a year.
The young Saint Laurent - timid but possessed of a sly charm and huge energy - became heavy and lethargic. At times he seemed barely to know where he was.
Lespert says that part of the problem was that Saint Laurent and Berge found success very quickly. The move into ready-to-wear fashions supplied vast amounts of money.
"Often when you reach the top, things change and you lose the taste for life. Things become less interesting. Yves wasn't the first person to discover that.
"But despite the problems and the pressures, Yves and Pierre succeeded in passing through life together for many years. And that is the story we are telling."
Yves Saint Laurent is released in the UK on 21 March.
Events in Crimea are back on front pages, with the Times reporting the shooting of a Ukrainian soldier. It suggests the situation is "in danger of spiralling out of control" and says Ukraine is on a war footing.
The Metro describes tensions in the territory, where people voted on Sunday to leave Ukraine, as having "boiled over into bloody violence". It quotes Ukraine's interim prime minister calling the soldier's shooting a "war crime".
The Guardian focuses on the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin who, it says, delivered a "searing speech" in which he denounced "Western hypocrisy". He'd earlier signed a bill to absorb Crimea into Russia, it says.
The i says Mr Putin has pledged retaliation after the US and EU froze assets and imposed travel bans on several Russian and Ukrainian individuals. It quotes Mr Putin saying he will "bring glory back to Russia".
The Independent uses an image of an elderly Crimean woman watching Mr Putin on TV. Its lead story says Dungeness nuclear power station, in Kent, was shut for five months last year amid fears of a "Fukushima-style disaster".
Mick Jagger's reaction to the death of his partner, the fashion designer L'Wren Scott, leads the Daily Mirror. The paper quotes him as saying he is "struggling to understand" how she could end her life.
The Sun has spoken to "pals" of Jagger, who say he was "totally devoted" to the 6ft 4in model and designer, whom he'd been with for 13 years. The paper publishes what it calls the "last picture" of the pair, taken in London last month.
The Daily Mail also quotes the Rolling Stones frontman on its front page. The paper's lead story says the £1 coin is to be scrapped in favour of a new design "shaped like an old threepenny bit".
The Daily Star has the news of a man named Trotter who won £108m on the lottery. Twisting the catchphrase of his Only Fools and Horses namesake, Del Boy, Neil Trotter had told friends: "This time tomorrow, I'll be a millionaire."
The Daily Telegraph follows up its claims about payments made to a Fifa official ahead of the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar by saying MPs are demanding a re-run of the bidding process. Qatar insists it followed all rules.
The Daily Express quotes researchers as saying that a very low calorie diet could be the key to a long and healthy life. It protects the body's cells from harmful deterioration and the risk of cancer, the paper reports.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney's "shake-up" of management and operations leads the Financial Times. It comes after the Bank was criticised for its response to foreign exchange rate manipulation claims, the paper notes.
Several front pages feature the latest events in Crimea, where a Ukrainian soldier was shot dead on the day Moscow signed a treaty to absorb the region.
The Times says Ukraine is on a war footing, a situation the Sun describes as "Dad's Army v Vlad's Army" - a reference to Kiev's relatively weak military in comparison with that of its neighbour, led by Vladimir Putin.
Roland Oliphant, in the Daily Telegraph, describes how "the tiniest flash of a smirk slipped through the passive visage" of the Russian president as he joined hands with the three Crimean leaders who had "formalised the annexation". Mr Putin referred to the process as a "reunification", notes Mary Dejevsky in the Independent. She describes Mr Putin's "sense of vindication for Crimea's Russians, who had, as he said referring to 1991, gone to bed one night in one country and awoke, as a minority, in another".
Giles Whittell, in the Times, translates what Mr Putin said in his speech to "what he meant" and suggests what was left "unsaid".
In the speech, the writer finds a threat to make life hard for Western interests in Russia, along with a statement that Russia does not want to partition Ukraine which fails to rule out using force there. He suggests that while Mr Putin declares that Russia never aims for confrontation with the West, the hidden implication of his statement is: "If our 'partners' want to start a fight, we say bring it on."
And many papers doubt Mr Putin's motives. The Daily Mail hears in Mr Putin's address "echoes of Hitler's 1938 speech on the seizure of the Sudetenland", the German-speaking area of Czechoslovakia.
The Daily Star's cartoon imagines Mr Putin devouring Crimea as he carves up Ukraine on a plate, while its leader column says: "Politicians in Moscow want their leader to invade more former Soviet states. Oil and gas-rich Kazakhstan... is top of the list."
The West's response - in the form of sanctions against a number of Russian individuals - is roundly condemned in the press as "weak", with historian Max Hastings summing up Britain's retaliation in the Mail: "[Foreign Seretary] William Hague's stern remarks about Ukraine impress foes and friends alike no more than the same lines delivered by Winnie the Pooh."
Meanwhile, in the Financial Times, Guy Chazan finds Crimea's "choicest assets" - oil and gas facilities and ministry or union-owned holiday facilities - in the control of pro-Russian forces, with private business expecting a "carve-up" of property and possessions.
Budget demands
The Daily Mail is among papers to report that the £1 coin is to be scrapped, leading on the fact it will be replaced by a coin "shaped like an old threepenny bit".
While any other fresh Budget titbits are seemingly locked away in George Osborne's red despatch box, there's no shortage of advice for the chancellor in the papers.
The Sun visits a Downing Street in both Newport and Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, to hear the demands of residents, which include more support for first-time buyers, help with childcare costs, a cut in petrol prices and a rise in the minimum wage.
Mary Riddell, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says Mr Osborne must show he is "truly on the side of those who suffer" or face handing a decisive victory to Labour, with its repeated claims that the coalition government's policies are "unfair". The Times too, in its editorial column, says the chancellor needs to find a way to "make people feel the recovery".
"The leader of the opposition is required to give a detailed reply... more or less as soon as the [chancellor] sits down," the writer complains. "What makes this task entirely hopeless is that the speech must be prepared without having seen the Budget... how absurd."
T'riffic
One man who presumably won't be too worried about how the Budget affects him is Neil Trotter, who won £108m on the Euromillions lottery and - in the process - provided sub-editors with all manner of fun.
"Del Boy Trotter wins £108m," says the Daily Star, enjoying the fact the mechanic shares a name with the Only Fools and Horses character. It notes he even enjoyed a twist on one of Del's catchphrases before the draw, telling friends: "This time tomorrow, I'll be a millionaire."
According to the Daily Mirror, his win puts him 745th on the UK rich list, above singers David Bowie, George Michael and Robbie Williams. It suggests he could splurge on a fleet of 72 Bugatti Veyron cars, 771 pairs of diamond-encrusted shoes, the rights to the Beatles back catalogue or a set of under-performing Tottenham Hotspur summer signings.
"Lovely bubbly," says the Sun, next to an image of Mr Trotter opening a bottle of champagne with girlfriend Nicky Ottaway. It says he could buy 332 flats in Peckham, 71,955 Reliant Robins, or 19,624,109 pina coladas with his winnings. It was "lucky dipstick" that won him the prize, it adds.
Meanwhile, the Daily Express reports an incident "just like a scene from Only Fools". It says: "Life imitated art when a chandelier being lowered for cleaning at a stately home fell, crashing on to a table, causing nearly £3,000 damage to the light fighting."
The paper says it happened at Towneley Hall in Burnley, where the local council reportedly insisted: "This was an unfortunate accident. It was nothing like the Only Fools and Horses Episode."
Making people click
Daily Telegraph: MH370: Maldives Islanders claim to have spotted 'low flying jet'
Guardian: Lurid coverage of L'Wren Scott's death shows British tabloids at their worst - Joan Smith
The Times: Putin needs to hear a four-letter word: Nato
Daily Express: Malaysian plane: 20 passengers worked for electronic warfare and military radar firm
Malaysia missing plane: Relatives kept away from journalists
19 March 2014 Last updated at 10:30 GMT
Relatives of passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been forcibly removed from a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher faced a wall of police after loved-ones of some of the passengers disrupted a briefing by Malaysian officials.
Over half the 239 people on board were Chinese. Their relatives have criticised the investigation to find the aircraft, which has been missing since 8 March.
Two Egyptian army officers and five jihadist militants have been killed in a gunfight that erupted during a raid north of Cairo, officials say.
The brigadier and colonel, both bomb disposal experts, took part in the raid on a warehouse in Qalyubiya province along with police and special forces.
Bombs were detonated during the ensuing battle, which lasted several hours.
Officials said the militants were from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks.
The al-Qaeda-linked group, which is based in the Sinai peninsula, is believed to have killed more than 200 security forces and government personnel since the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in July.
Wednesday's raid followed an investigation that showed the warehouse, in a village near the Nile Delta town of al-Qanatir al-Khayriya, was being used as a makeshift bomb factory, officials said, adding that a large quantity of explosives was recovered.
The militant cell based there is suspected of involvement in an attack on a military checkpoint in a northern Cairo suburb on Saturday that left six soldiers dead and the killing of a senior interior ministry official in January.
Retirees have an important decision to make when choosing an annuity 
