They have set maturities ranging from one to ten or fifteen years, a declining surrender charge schedule and tax-deferred growth. They also provide the same exemptions from probate and creditors. But unlike regular fixed annuities, most equity-indexed contracts do not pay a set rate of interest.
By investing your money in stock market indexes, an index annuity can have a decent long-term return, potentially better than what'd you receive through a bank certificate of deposit (CD), fixed annuities and savings accounts.
Cons of a Fixed Indexed Annuity
A fixed indexed annuity's trade-off for being low-risk is fairly mediocre growth potential. That's because even if an index performs exceptionally well, you'll likely miss out on some of those returns due to rate caps or participation rates.
Can you lose money? The answer, in some cases, is "yes." If the market index linked to your annuity goes down and you receive no or minimal index-linked return, you could lose money on your initial investment if you withdraw assets before the surrender period is up.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of an indexed annuity? The advantages of indexed annuities include the potential to earn more interest and the premium protection they offer. The disadvantages include higher fees and commissions and caps on gains.
Many financial advisors dislike variable annuities due to their high management fees. Notably, Suze Orman believes that “variable annuities were created for one reason and one reason only—to make the advisor selling those variable annuities money.”
A $100,000 Annuity would pay you $472 per month for the rest of your life if you purchased the annuity at age 65 and began taking your monthly payments in 30 days.
Suze: I'm not a fan of index annuities. These financial instruments, which are sold by insurance companies, are typically held for a set number of years and pay out based on the performance of an index like the S&P 500.
With traditional fixed annuities (sometimes also referred to as fixed rate annuities or MYGAs), you never lose money if you hold the policy to maturity and don't withdraw early (thereby potentially incurring early withdrawal penalties).
2019 U.S. Individual Fixed Index Annuity Sales
Rank | Company name | Indexed |
---|---|---|
1 | Allianz Life | $8,358,718 |
2 | Athene | $6,122,393 |
3 | AIG Companies | $6,026,956 |
4 | Nationwide | $5,455,800 |
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