Annuities
Fixed annuities only. Six contracts and riders that do genuinely different jobs — and one of them is routinely sold as something it is not.
Every product in this section is a fixed annuity: a state-regulated insurance contract. We do not offer variable annuities, registered index-linked or “buffer” annuities, or securities of any kind. Those are registered products sold by prospectus and they require a registration this agency does not hold.
Annuities attract more sales pressure than anything else we handle, and most of the damage comes from two specific confusions: treating a benefit base as if it were money, and treating an income doubler as if it were long-term care insurance. Both have their own page here, and both pages lead with the correction rather than burying it.
The four products
Fixed Annuities
A contract that credits a stated interest rate for a stated period. A multi-year guaranteed annuity locks the rate for the whole term; a declared-rate contract resets periodically above a contractual minimum.
Worth a look if you have money you will not touch for a set number of years and want the rate in writing.
Fixed Indexed Annuities
A fixed annuity whose interest credit is calculated from the movement of a market index, limited by a cap, participation rate or spread, and floored so that a falling index credits zero rather than a loss.
Worth a look if you want more than a fixed rate but will not risk principal to market movement.
Immediate Annuities
You hand over a single premium and income starts almost straight away, for life or for a chosen period. The simplest annuity there is, and the one with the least to go wrong.
Worth a look if you want a guaranteed income floor under your essential expenses for life.
Deferred Income Annuities and QLACs
You buy the income now and it starts on a date you choose years later. Bought inside a qualified account and meeting the Treasury rules, the same contract is a QLAC.
Worth a look if you want to solve the last decade of retirement now, or are considering a QLAC.
Lifetime Income Riders (GLWB)
An optional rider that guarantees a withdrawal amount for life even if the account runs to zero, while you keep ownership of the account. It runs on a second number that is not your money.
Worth a look if you want lifetime income but will not give up access to the principal.
Enhanced Income Riders (Income Doublers)
An optional rider that increases your guaranteed withdrawal, often doubling it, for a limited period if you cannot perform activities of daily living or are confined to a qualifying facility. It is often mistaken for long-term care insurance. It is not.
Worth understanding before anyone sells it to you as care coverage, because it is not.
Work out what you need
What Is My Retirement Income Gap?
The monthly shortfall between what you must spend and the income that arrives whatever happens. If it is zero, the case for buying guaranteed income is weak.
Three questions that decide it
Answer these and the product chooses itself. Almost every expensive mistake in this category is a mismatch between how long the need lasts and how long the policy lasts.
Do you want income, or growth with a floor?
Income now is an immediate annuity; income later is a deferred income annuity or a QLAC. Accumulation with protection is a fixed annuity or a fixed indexed annuity.
Do you need to keep access to the money?
Immediate and deferred income annuities take the lump sum permanently and pay the most income for it. A lifetime income rider lets you keep the account and its liquidity, for an annual charge and less income per dollar.
What are you being told about the second number?
If anyone shows you a large figure growing at a roll-up rate, ask whether it is the account value or the benefit base. Only one of them is money you can take.
Who we are appointed with
We are independent and appointed with the annuity companies below. Which of them we would approach for you depends on the product, your age, your state and what the contract has to do — rates, caps and payout amounts move constantly and differ sharply between companies, which is the practical reason for working with someone who can approach more than one. They are quoted for you directly rather than published here, where they would be stale within days.
- Allianz Life
- American Equity
- American National
- Americo
- Ameritas
- ASPIDA
- Athene
- Atlantic Coast Life
- AuguStar Financial
- Brighthouse Financial
- CL Life and Annuity
- Clear Spring Life and Annuity
- Columbus Life
- Corebridge Financial
- Delaware Life
- ELCO Mutual Life & Annuity
- EquiTrust Life
- F&G Annuities
- Fidelity Security Life
- Global Atlantic (Forethought Life)
- Guaranty Income Life (GILICO)
- Ibexis
- Knighthead Life
- Lafayette Life
- Liberty Bankers Life
- Lincoln Financial Group
- MassMutual Ascend
- Midland National
- Mutual of Omaha (United of Omaha)
- Nassau (Phoenix Life)
- National Integrity Life
- National Life Group (Life Insurance Company of the Southwest)
- National Western Life
- Nationwide
- New York Life
- North American Company for Life and Health
- Oceanview
- Oxford Life
- Pacific Life
- Penn Mutual
- Principal
- Protective Life
- Prudential
- Puritan Life
- Reliance Standard
- Revol One Financial
- Royal Neighbors of America
- S.USA Life / SBLI USA
- Sagicor
- Securian Financial (Minnesota Life)
- Sentinel Security Life
- SILAC
- Symetra
- Talcott Financial Group
- The Standard
- Upstream Life
Being appointed with a company does not mean that company offers every product on this page, and we do not represent every insurer. Which company suits you depends on the product, your age, your state and your health history. We publish no benefit, rate or feature for any company here until we can cite it to that company's own current material.
Servicing only — not available for new business
We can help with an existing contract from these companies — reviewing it, taking income from it, or understanding what you already own. We are not appointed to write new business with them, so if a new contract is what you need, it would be placed with one of the companies above.
- Genworth
- Security Benefit
- Transamerica
- Venerable (formerly Voya annuities)
Not sure which of these applies to you?
Tell us how to reach you and roughly what you are trying to do. A licensed agent calls back, usually the same business day.