The research found that 58% of advisers thought post sale administration is the most important factor with point of sale literature (51%) being the next most important.
The importance of a smooth and simple process was also highlighted by the research which suggested that 52% of advisers take less than six hours to deal with standard annuity cases.
With enhanced or impaired annuities more than 70% of respondents spend in excess of six hours per case with almost 40% having said they spend more than nine hours on each enhanced case.
Richard Priestley, executive director for retirement income at Canada Life said: "Canada Life's focus is to keep the client at the heart of everything we do and we recognise the importance of post sale administration for client and adviser alike.
”Our aim is to provide a speedy and efficient service for the parts of the process we control.
"On average through March 2013 the time taken to complete annuity purchase from receipt of application to policy documents issued was 15 working days at Canada Life.
“In 99% of cases we request the annuity fund from the ceding provider the day we receive the application from the client.
“When we receive the funds from the ceding provider we set up the annuity in two days in 98% of cases.
"With annuity rates changing frequently in the market our high service standards gives clients a greater opportunity to secure the income they were initially expecting.”
Mark Wilson, director of marketing and product management at iPipeline, added: "The open market 'OPTIONS' initiative, has made significant progress in driving down the time taken to move money from one office to the other but we need to see continued improvement to match client and adviser expectations.
"iPipeline is committed to effecting positive change within our industry, including the retirement sector.
“We will continue to work closely with product providers to make it easier to process annuities."
