AS life expectancy soars and the annuity rules change, pension investors are being urged to rethink their investment tactics in the run-up to retirement — and beyond.

The traditional advice has always been for people to move out of shares and into lower-risk bonds and cash as they grow older. Switching to “boring” bonds in your fifties and sixties shields your savings against a stock-market shock. Many personal pensions have a “lifestyle” option that does this automatically as you get older.

But some pension advisers believe it is time to throw out the old rules. If growing numbers of people are going to delay turning their pension fund into an annuity, maybe for 20 years or more, they are going to miss out on potential stock-market growth.

Some advisers argue that automatically going into bonds has been the wrong approach all along. Graeme Currie at Alan Steel Asset Management said: “We have always questioned the value of slavishly reducing your equity holdings as you get older. It puts a ceiling on the potential for further growth.”

This argument is winning more support on the back of the A-Day pension changes. From April 6, investors will have more control over their finances in retirement.

Under the current rules, investors in money-purchase pensions are required to buy an annuity, an investment that provides an income for life, by the age of 75. But that requirement will be dropped on A-Day. Investors will be able to leave their pension invested to the grave.

Many savers are expected to jump at this opportunity to carry on playing the market, because annuity rates have plummeted over recent years. Increased life expectancy means that insurers have to pay out for longer and they cover these costs by cutting rates.

Since 1994 rates have fallen 40% for 60-year-old men and 39% for women of the same age, according to Moneyfacts, an independent data analyst.

Many people also resent the fact that once you have bought an annuity you cannot get your hands on that money. Any money that has not been paid out as income when you die usually stays with the annuity company.

But shunning annuities for good requires a rethink of your investment approach.

Jamie Fergusson at Jupiter, a fund manager, said: “The conventional approach of switching out of equities isn’t viable if you have no intention of ever buying an annuity. Retirement could last for 20 years or more.”

Following the conventional wisdom — to switch into cash and bonds — could therefore leave you poorer in retirement. And if you are not careful the money could run out completely.

From A-Day, savers who do not want to purchase an annuity will have the option to move into an “unsecured pension” when they retire. Everyone will be able to do this, but members of company schemes may have to transfer to a personal pension first.

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