You must pay a “surrender charge” if you sell or remove money from a variable annuity within the “surrender period,” which is normally six to eight years after you purchase the annuity. If you have to pay surrender fees, the value of your investment will decrease and your return will decrease. How do you avoid […]

A rider is a supplement to your annuity contract that can be purchased for an additional fee. Your financial advisor can customize your contract and assist secure your most valuable assets with the help of these provisions. How do annuity income riders work? Retirement income riders are an optional benefit that are similar to pensions

An annuity is a type of financial contract in which a set amount of money is paid to the owner over time. Retirees rely on it primarily as a source of assured monthly income. Investment monies deposited by individuals over time are invested by financial institutions, who subsequently begin to pay out regular payments to

Until the retiree’s death, an annuity guarantees a monthly or annual income for the retiree. A lump amount or regular payments can be used to fund these annuities years in advance, and they can return either fixed or variable cash flows in the future. Annuities, despite their reputation for high upfront prices and early withdrawal

It is the current value of your annuity that is referred to as the Accumulation Value or the Account Value. In order to calculate annuity accumulation, you must subtract any rider fees and withdrawals from your annuity’s reported interest and index participation accounts. In essence, this is the value of your annuity. What is accumulation

When you and an insurance company enter into a contract, the insurer agrees to pay you on a regular basis, either immediately or at a later date, depending on the terms of the contract. If you want to buy a variable annuity, you can either make a one-time payment or a series of payments over

Contracts signed between unions and employers establish pension annuities for workers. Workers’ tax-exempt contributions are made by their employers. Employees don’t contribute anything to the cause. Until they are removed from the plan, contributions and interest accrue tax-free. Workers who reach retirement age get taxable income in the form of a monthly pension payment. To

A fixed annuity known as a multi-year guaranteed annuity, or MYGA, guarantees a set interest rate for a predetermined length of time—typically three to ten years. There are costs called surrender charges that annuity holders must pay if they take money out of their MYGAs before the stated time period is over, like standard fixed-rate