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. […]
	
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
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And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.