Enhanced Income Riders
An enhanced income rider — sold by many companies as an income doubler — increases your guaranteed withdrawal, often to twice the normal amount, for a limited period if you cannot perform activities of daily living or are confined to a qualifying facility. It is not long-term care insurance, and the difference is not a technicality.
Read this first
This is a fixed annuity. It is not a variable annuity, not a registered index-linked or “buffer” annuity, and not a security. We do not offer securities.
Guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. They are not insured by the FDIC or any federal agency.
This is not long-term care insurance.
An enhanced income rider is not a qualified long-term care benefit under the Internal Revenue Code. It does not receive the tax treatment of qualified long-term care benefits, and it does not provide health insurance, long-term care insurance or Medicaid benefits. Payments are taxed as annuity distributions.
The enhancement is paid out of your own benefit base. It accelerates money the contract already owed you rather than adding an outside pool of care money, and it stops when the benefit base is exhausted.
The enhancement runs for a limited period set by the contract, and requires a qualifying trigger, a waiting period and ongoing certification. Read those terms before relying on it for care costs.
The problem it solves
Care is the largest unfunded risk most retirees carry, and long-term care insurance is expensive and often declined on health grounds. So a feature that doubles your annuity income when you need care sounds like it solves the problem for nothing, and it is frequently presented that way.
It does help, and it is worth having on a contract you were buying anyway. But what it does is accelerate money the contract already owed you, faster, for a limited time. It is not a pool of care money and it does not behave like one when the care lasts.
Three things happen, in this order
It sits on top of a lifetime income rider
You need the underlying guaranteed withdrawal benefit first. The enhancement multiplies that withdrawal — commonly by two, sometimes more.
A qualifying trigger starts it
Usually an inability to perform two of six activities of daily living, or confinement to a qualifying facility, typically after a waiting period, often with an exclusion in the contract's first years, and with ongoing certification required.
It runs for a limited period, out of your own benefit base
Commonly capped at around five years, and it stops when the benefit base is exhausted. Nothing is added from outside the contract — the enhancement spends your own money sooner.
Who this suits, and who it does not
The second list matters more than the first. An agent who only writes the first one is selling, not advising.
Worth considering if…
- You were buying an annuity with a lifetime income rider anyway, and the enhancement is available at little or no extra cost.
- You understand it as a useful acceleration of your own money rather than as care coverage, and you have thought about what happens when it runs out.
- You could not qualify for or afford long-term care insurance, and you want something rather than nothing while knowing exactly what that something is.
Probably not for you if…
- You need long-term care coverage. This is not it. Buying an annuity because a doubler was described as covering care is the mistake this page exists to prevent — look at real long-term care options first, then decide.
- The care might last. The enhancement is time-limited and ends when the benefit base is exhausted, which in a long care episode is exactly when the need is greatest.
- You are counting on the tax treatment of long-term care benefits. Payments under this rider are taxed as annuity distributions and are not qualified long-term care benefits.
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)
Questions people actually ask
Is an income doubler long-term care insurance?
No. This is the most important answer on the page. It is an enhanced income rider on an annuity: it increases your own guaranteed withdrawal for a limited period when a trigger is met. It is not long-term care insurance, it is not a qualified long-term care benefit under the Internal Revenue Code, it does not receive the tax treatment of qualified long-term care benefits, and it provides no health insurance or Medicaid benefit.
Where does the extra money come from?
Your own benefit base. The rider accelerates payments the contract already owed you rather than adding a separate pool of care money, and it stops when the benefit base is exhausted. That is the structural difference from long-term care insurance, which pays from the insurer's own pool of benefit independent of what you contributed.
How long does the enhancement last?
For a period set by the contract — commonly up to around five years, sometimes until the benefit base is used up, whichever comes first. Since care episodes frequently last longer than that, the question to ask before relying on it is what happens in year six. Usually the answer is that the income reverts to the normal guaranteed amount, or has ended.
What triggers it, and how quickly?
Typically an inability to perform two of six activities of daily living, or confinement to a qualifying nursing home or assisted living facility, often requiring confinement for a set number of days before payment starts. Most contracts also exclude the first one to three years and require periodic recertification. Those terms vary substantially between companies, so read them on the specific contract rather than relying on a summary.
Should I buy an annuity to get this feature?
Buy an annuity because the annuity is right for you. If the enhancement comes with it, treat it as a genuine bonus. Buying a long-term contract with a surrender schedule primarily to obtain a time-limited acceleration of your own money is the wrong reason, and any agent leading with the doubler rather than the annuity is selling it backwards.
Ask for a quote on Enhanced Income Riders (Income Doublers)
Tell us how to reach you and which state you are in. A licensed agent calls back, usually the same business day, and will tell you plainly if a fully underwritten policy would serve you better.
The other three
Same family, different jobs. Match the product to how long the need lasts.
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.