What is an Annuity?
An annuity is a unique financial vehicle designed to help people
accumulate money for their retirement and/or turn a lump sum of money
into a guaranteed stream of income payments.
Deferred annuities offer the advantage of tax deferral* and are used to
accumulate money for retirement. There are two types of deferred
annuities: fixed and variable.
Fixed deferred annuities pay a fixed rate of interest. Variable
annuities usually offer investment divisions such as stock, bond, money
market, and specialty investment divisions, and fluctuate in value with
market conditions. There are fees and expenses associated with variable
annuities.
An Income annuity is used to generate a stream of income payments that
is guaranteed to last for as long as you need it to - even for the rest
of your life.
Income annuities can be used by a business to pay pension benefits to
retired employees. Or they can be used to provide for a spouse as in
the case of a Joint and Survivor Annuity.
*Annuities are known for offering a variety of attractive features.
With money that is not tax-qualified, one of the attractive features is
tax deferral. However, tax-qualified retirement plans (like IRAs, TSAs
and SEPs) already provide tax deferral under the Internal Revenue code,
so the tax deferral of an annuity does not provide any additional
benefits.
Annuity Products
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