An annuity in its most basic form provides an income stream that lasts a lifetime.  What gets forgotten is how much more to an annuity there is than guaranteed lifetime income.  Safety, protection, tax deferral, legacy, and growth to name a few benefits annuities also provide.

Your grandparents and parents worked in an era when a majority of companies provided pensions to its employees when they retired.  Those guarantees along with social security provided a comfort level for the households that income would never run out.  Individual savings was not relied upon as much.  Now fast forward to 2012 .

Today, many companies have abandoned the traditional pension plan in favor of having the employee self fund their retirement with a 401(k) plan or other types of investments.  These types of investments put all the investment risk on the employee rather than the company.  The individual risk does have its positives and negatives that go along with any investment.  It's these negatives that drive people to look for annuities as another piece of the investment pie.

Fixed annuities take the risk off the individual and put it back on a company, namely an insurance company.  The insurance company will issue you a contract that states the responsibility it has with regards to your investment and payout options.  What are different with today's annuities compared to annuities from the late 20th century are all the benefits and options that are available to make the annuity more flexible.  There are guaranteed interest rates in the form of a rider, Long Term Care provisions, legacy options, and liquidity options to name a few.

Safety and Principle Protection are two of the biggest fears people in retirement have. It can be extremely difficult to re enter the workforce to make up for lost investment value in your elder years.  If the last 12 years has taught us anything, it's that our investments are unpredictable.  Predictability or the more common term "safe money" is one way to guarantee a slow but steady growth of your investment.  It is impossible to predict what will happen in the future, but there are investment options that will protect your principle, even during a recession.  It is this safety that can make annuities extremely attractive to people nearing or in retirement.

503 Annuity will work with you to assess your retirement income needs.  Once your needs are analyzed, we will look at all investment sources that comprise your retirement income to formulate a plan.  This plan will include scenarios for inflation, market corrections, different risk tolerances, and legacy options.  My number one goal is to provide you with options and solutions so that you feel comfortable about having enough income in your retirement years.

I have provided a link to 3 videos from Allianz.  These videos cover Annuity Myths and Truths, Annuity Basics, and Retirement Realities.  This 3 part series should give you a good starting point regarding annuities.  Click Here