Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
An income rider is a category of rider attached to a deferred annuity that provides a contractually guaranteed lifetime income stream — through guaranteed annual withdrawals or guaranteed annuitization rates applied to a defined benefit base — in exchange for a separately disclosed rider charge.
Independent distribution is the annuity sales structure in which contracts are placed through independent intermediaries that hold appointments with multiple carriers and represent products from across the market rather than from a single carrier.
An independent marketing organization (IMO) is a wholesale-level distribution firm that contracts with insurance carriers to aggregate independent agents, provide back-office and sales-support services, and channel annuity and life insurance premium volume from those agents to the carriers.
An index crediting strategy is the complete specification of how an indexed annuity calculates the credit for a crediting period, including the underlying index, the calculation method, and the parameter terms that govern how index movement translates into the credit applied to the contract.
Inflation-adjusted income is lifetime income whose payment amount increases over time according to a specified inflation index or fixed escalation rate, designed to maintain purchasing power as prices rise.
