Preretiree

You have to save and invest toward your retirement.

You should know when to save and when to invest.

We're happy to explain when (and why).

Watch this Risk-Reward Balance Video to learn more about the importance of balancing risk and reward for your retirement.

Then, return here to read more about your options.

FAQs About Income Annuities

What Is an Income Annuity Used For?

To establish a source of reliable (retirement) income.

Who May Need an Income Annuity?

Anyone approaching retirement age who doesn’t like the nervous anxiety one feels when investment markets are volatile—especially when they may need to rely on those investments soon for retirement income—may find annuities attractive.

Why Use an Income Annuity?

Market losses may delay your retirement or lower your standard of living.  As you approach retirement, shifting investments to an annuity may help secure your retirement income more than if they remained directly invested in more volatile markets.

The more money moved from markets into the annuity, the less direct market volatility affects your retirement income.

Can You Provide an Example of When I Might Need It?

Example:  If you are in you were age 55-70 and were planning to retire in a few years, you may want to move some of your invested assets gradually out of the market and into an income annuity.

Explain How the Annuity Helps to Lower My Risk?

Moving money from being directly invested to an annuity is a transfer of risk.

 Instead of you relying on market performance for income, the life insurance company assumes that risk and is obligated to pay you income.

What Makes Life Insurance Companies Well-Suited to Provide Reliable Retirement Income?

Annuities are offered by life insurance companies.  Insurance companies are designed to help protect against risk.  Many life insurance companies are over 100 years old.

The financial strength of a life insurance company is a result of it being more highly regulated than other types of investments.  They are designed to conservatively manage assets today to fulfill financial promises many years in the future.  An example would be the promise to pay a death benefit perhaps decades after a life insurance policy was purchased.

You’ve probably never heard of a life insurance company failing to pay a death benefit or making an annuity payment.  That’s a result of the conservative, long-term way the life insurance industry operates.

How Do Annuities Fit into My Need for Retirement Income?

What do you seek in retirement income?  Reliability.

Your retirement income must be paid to you every month because how else will you be able to pay your bills?  That’s important because when you retire you have fewer options.

What’s the Downside to an Income Annuity?

You are trading the opportunity for your assets to grow.  You would make that trade because your priorities changed from when you were younger.

You would generally not purchase an annuity at age 25 with so many of your working years ahead of you.  At that young age you would generally seek long-term growth.  You would want to participate in the companies that grow over 10-20-30 years and volatile markets should not bother you because you won’t be using that money for decades.

I’ve Heard About “Making the Transition to Retirement”.  What Does That Mean?

When you check your retirement account what do you look at first?  Your balance.

Retirement is about income, not your balance.

Account balances go up and down with the market.  What you’re looking for in retirement is income you cannot outlive and can depend upon.  Will your investments last your entire life if you keep withdrawing money as income?  That’s a question without an answer because no one knows how long he or she will live.  Buying an annuity helps to answer that question.

Making the “transition to retirement” involves many changes.  One big change is converting your at-risk account balance to reliable income.  Annuities are one very popular way to do this.

To worry less about the market.

Secure your retirement lifestyle more.

Schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation now.

Use the scheduler at the top of this site or the form below.