Savers who change their final salary pensions for cash could get a third less than they would last December, experts say.
Retirees with final salary pensions, known as Defined Benefit (DB) pensions, get a guaranteed payout for life - based on the salary they have when they retire.
However, many pension owners transfer these DB pensions into Defined Contribution (DC) pensions - often because a DC pension can be accessed from the age of 55 as cash.
Retirement income market figures show that the number of pensions accessed for the first time in 2021/22 increased by 18% to 705,666 compared to 2020/21 (596,080).
Swapping cash from a DB to a DC pension means running the gauntlet of something called "transfer values" - and this is where big losses are currently coming in.
When you do this sort of swap, the value of your new pension is worked out by the new pension provider using transfer values, which change over time.
These transfer values have now fallen to record lows, according to pension firm XPS.
An XPS statement said: "Transfer values have now fallen by almost a third this year with their largest monthly fall in September."
A 64-year-old swapping a DB pension of £30,00 a year could get £758,374 for it in December. That has fallen to £447,175 now - £311,199 less.
This fall is due to turmoil in the pension market, partly because of fallout from former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's Mini-Budget last month.
This Mini-Budget sparked a mass sell-off of gilts, or Government bonds, by pension funds.
Pension funds are the firms that invest our money to give us a retirement pot.
The gilt sell-off took place because international markets believed there would be an increase in UK national debt to fund the Government's tax-cutting plans.
The price of gilts fell, which led pension funds - which own lots of them - selling them off to raise money.
But that was still not enough to keep many of them stable, and many faced collapse.
However, transfer value losses may be avoided by buying an annuity with the pension cash - which also pays a guaranteed amount for life.
XPS head of member options Mark Barlow said that "those using their transfer to secure benefits in alternative arrangements, for example annuities, will see marked improvements which may offset some or all of the fall”.
Annuity rates have been low for years.
But these rates have now risen by 44% in just a year, and are at their highest level since 2009.
A 64-year-old with a pension pot worth £100,000 could buy an annuity and get yearly income of £7,191 a year.
One year ago that same annuity would be worth just £4,989, according to investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown.
