Annuity

An annuity comes in many forms, but a simple definition is that an annuity is a contract that converts a sum of money into a series of periodic payments for an agreed upon period of time. An annuity can be thought of as a financial vehicle that converts a pool of money into a stream of income. Annuities are most useful in addressing the financial planning needs of people in or approaching retirement. Annuities are unique in the financial world because they can provide protection against the risk or outliving one’s assets (longevity risk) by guaranteeing income payments in perpetuity or any other selected amount of time. Annuities can be viewed as a type of personal pension plan. Social Security is similar to an annuity in that money contributed over the course of one’s working years is converted into a series of periodic payments that provide income during retirement.

Variable Annuities without Living Benefits

The popularity of living benefit features is one thing that seems clear when looking at variable annuity sales data. The vast majority of variable annuity sales include one of several living benefit or guaranteed living benefit features. National Underwriter reports that Bellevue, Washington-based Symetra will be selling a line of low cost variable annuities that do not contain any living benefit features. Apparently Symetra considers the GLB -free variable annuity as an underserved niche. The...

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Annuity Sales

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Annuity

Guaranteed Living Benefit

Living Benefits

Variable Annuity

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The Most Popular Annuity List

Annuity Digest publishes a basic reference database that contains over 1,200 different annuity products from over 125 different companies.

The Annuity Digest product database covers the full array of annuity types—variable, fixed, fixed indexed, charitable gift, in-plan, etc.

While the database is basic at the moment, we will be building-out additional fields of information for each of the product records over time. Variable annuities will be the first product type to reflect these additional pieces of information. Keep an eye on the database and additional posts to see which changes are coming online.

We will also be publishing a...

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Annuity

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Alico Powering MetLife's International Sales

MetLife announced second quarter results yesterday that included record revenue of $11.8 billion. Operating earnings totaled $1.3 billion—an increase of 45 percent from the second quarter of 2010. U.S. annuity sales increased 48 percent to $7.3 billion for the second quarter. The Alico acquisition appears to be a factor in international sales. Total reported international sales doubled year-over-year, and were up 25 percent when compared with combined results for the same reporting period...

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The Debate on Equity Indexed Annuity Returns Continues

Two recent articles continue the often contentious debate on...

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Annuity

Equity Indexed Annuity

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Writing the Book on Retirement Portfolios

Anyone thinking about retirement income should pick-up a copy of Retirement Portfolios by Michael Zwecher. This recommendation applies to both financial...