Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
Beneficiary designation is the contract owner's formal specification of who is to receive the death benefit or remaining contract value on the death of the owner or annuitant, recorded with the carrier and controlling regardless of what the owner's will or trust documents provide.
A benefit base is the contractually defined value that a rider attached to a deferred annuity uses to calculate guaranteed benefits, operating separately from the contract's account value and following its own contractually specified rules for growth, step-ups, ratchets, and withdrawal effects.
