Lifetime Income Annuity Income Options

Lifetime Income Annuity Income Options

The Lifetime Income Annuity's three income or payment options enable you to provide income for yourself, for you and a partner, and to leave your heirs a legacy. The single life option provides payments for the remainder of your life. The option provides the highest income for any given premium.

Let's look at an example. If at age 65 you purchase a Lifetime Income annuity with a premium of $100,000 at a fixed interest rate of 3.5%, you would probably receive payments of $586 per month or $7,036 per year. Only $2,036 of that annual income would be taxable. The remaining $5,000 would be treated as a return of your principal.

Under this arrangement, however, payments cease upon your death and any money left in the annuity reverts to New York Life.

If you are interested in passing your savings along to your spouse/heirs, the Lifetime Income Annuity offers two other options. A joint life policy pays an income for as long as you or one other person, usually your spouse, continues to live. When one of you dies, payments will continue to the survivor for the rest of his or her lifetime. The monthly payment will be less than under the single life option. You also have the option to choose whether the survivor will continue to receive the same income that was paid to both of you or only a portion (40% to 99%) of that amount.

There is also a Single or Joint Life with Cash Refund , which will enable your beneficiaries to receive the difference between the premium you've paid and the sum of payments you received from the policy.(The Life with Cash Refund option is not available on Joint Life Plans where the survivor benefit is less than 100%. If the total payments you receive prior to your death equal or exceed the initial premium you paid for your policy, then no further payments will be made to beneficiaries upon your death.)

Other ways to ensure a legacy are with the Percent of Premium Death Benefit, that lets you provide that a percentage of your premium payment — either 25% or 50%— is paid to your beneficiaries in a single sum.(Not available for tax qualified plans and in New York or Washington)

You can also select a Period Certain option that enables you to ensure that even in the event of your premature death, your beneficiaries would receive payments for a specified number of years (5, 10, 15 or 20).

Overall, no matter which option you select, there are several key factors that determine the amount of payment you receive. Among them are:

• The amount of your premium and the current interest rate environment when you purchase the policy
• The number of lives (1 or 2) covered
• Your age and gender

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