Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
The analytical decomposition of the fiduciary duty into two separable components — the care obligation, requiring competent process and diligent execution, and the loyalty obligation, requiring the fiduciary to place the beneficiary's interests ahead of the fiduciary's own.
Carrier renewal rate practices are the patterns by which insurance companies set new crediting rates, cap rates, participation rates, or other renewal parameters on annuity contracts at the end of an initial guarantee period, within the discretion the contract terms preserve for the carrier.
A cash refund annuity is a payout structure in which the insurer makes scheduled income payments for the contract owner's lifetime and, at the annuitant's death, pays any unrecovered portion of the original premium to a designated beneficiary as a single lump sum.
A cash refund option is a payment structure that pays income for the contract owner's lifetime with a guarantee that, if the total payments received before death are less than the premium paid, the difference is paid to a named beneficiary as a lump sum at the contract owner's death.
Cash value in an annuity contract is the accumulated value credited to the contract at a given point in time, representing the contract owner's economic interest in the arrangement before any surrender charges or other contractual deductions that would apply on withdrawal or full surrender.
