Annuities sometimes get a bad rap. The distaste people have for annuities may be based on a bad experience with a salesperson, the fear of “the insurance company getting all your money when you die”, or just plain misinformation. Annuities can be a great choice for your retirement. That is, after annuitization an annuity provides a guaranteed income stream to you and or your spouse for the rest of your lives. Think of this as your own defined benefit pension. In fact, if you don’t have a defined benefit pension, you may consider the guaranteed income a private annuity provides. The guarantee comes from the insurance company providing the annuity. To date, no insurance company as ever defaulted on its annuity obligations. So why can annuitization be a good thing for you? Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you’ve determined when you retire that your annual expenses are $115,000. […]
annuities
What is a QLAC?
In July of 2014 the IRS issued final regulations regarding the allowance of qualified longevity annuity contracts in employer sponsored plans such as 401ks, 403bs and 457b plans as well as IRAs. What it Means and What it Means to You QLAC stands for qualified longevity annuity contract. This means that a person is allowed to take up to 25% of their overall account balance but not more than $125,000 in their retirement plan and use that money as premium to fund a longevity annuity contract. Additionally, the annuitant must start the annuity by no later than the first day of the month following the attainment of age 85. They can however, start earlier. In a 401k, 403b or 457b plan a QLAC can be purchased up to the maximum of $125,000 across all accounts (IRAs included), but not more than 25% of the account balance per plan.
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Annuity in an IRA? Maybe, now
Forever and a day, the rule of thumb has been that you should not use IRA funds to purchase an annuity – primarily because traditional annuities had the primary feature of tax deferral. Since an IRA is already tax-deferred, it’s duplication of effort plus a not insignificant additional cost to include an annuity in an IRA. This hasn’t stopped enthusiastic sales approaches by annuity companies – plus new features may make it a more realistic approach. Changes in the annuity landscape have made some inroads against this rule of thumb – including guaranteed living benefit riders, death benefits, and other options. Recently the IRS made a change to its rules regarding IRAs and annuities that will likely make the use of annuities even more popular in IRAs: The use of the lesser of 25% or $125,000 of the IRA balance (also applies to 401(k) and other qualified retirement plans) for […]
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The Designation Everybody Should Be Aware Of
At some point in your life you have probably started a new job, applied for life insurance, started an IRA or retirement account, or opened a bank account. You may remember when filling out the paperwork that the form asked for a beneficiary – both primary and contingent. This is simply telling the account’s custodian to whom you want your account to go to should you pass away. Your primary beneficiary is the first (hence the name primary) that receives account balance or death benefit. The contingent is who receives the account balance in the event your primary beneficiary predeceases you. When choosing beneficiaries you had the choice of allocating a certain percentage to the primary and some to the contingent if needed. You may have even had two or more primary beneficiaries that you allocated a certain percent of your account to totaling 100% Then you may have forgotten […]
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Annuities – Fees, Expenses, and Taxes
Last week we covered some of the differences in annuities and the various types of annuities someone can purchase. In our final annuity installment (no pun intended) I want to explain some of the fees and expenses that some annuities and annuity providers employ. As mentioned in my first annuity article annuities are an insurance product – insuring against living too long. Most companies that offer annuities will charge for this insurance by means of what are called mortality and expense charges. M&E charges can be as low as .25% to as high as over 2%. These charges are the expenses the annuity company charges to the entire risk pool of policyholders in order to pay for the few that will outlive their life expectancy. Most policyholders and annuitant will not outlive their life expectancy and thus pay for those that do. M&E charges will also help the annuity company […]
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Types of Annuities
Last week I explained a bit about annuities and am following up this week on the different types of annuities and way to contribute. When a person is contributing to an annuity they are building or increasing the number of accumulation units they buy. As the money in the account builds so does the number of accumulation units. During the payout phase the accumulation units convert into annuity units. The number of annuity units remains the same for the remainder of the annuitant’s lifetime. When it comes to annuities there are a few different kinds that are available. Potential buyers can choose from variable annuities and fixed annuities. Variable annuities allow the policy holder to contribute premiums and then have those premiums allocated to different sub-accounts that invest in various stock and bond mutual funds. The value of the annuity goes up and down with the general fluctuations of […]
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The Other Life Insurance – Annuities
The last few weeks I have been writing about the more conventional form of life insurance that most people are familiar with when I say ‘life insurance’ – which is protection against a premature death. The other life insurance is that which protects your from living too long – and that insurance is the annuity. Over the years annuities have gotten a bad rap – and rightfully so. Like life insurance, annuities are generally sold to the public via a sales force of licensed agents. In most cases, they are not the right vehicle for the individual (I know I am setting the blog up to receive the thunderous rebuttals) but there may be cases where an annuity makes sense. The other reason annuities get a bad rap is because of the pure insurance (longevity) feature that they provide – especially pure life annuities. A pure life annuity is simply […]
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