Grow and Protect Your Retirement Savings
Annuities, by textbook definition, are a contract between an insurance company and a policy owner in which the policy owner deposits a sum of money (either in one deposit or over time) for a specified period of time, at which point the insurance company guarantees that the policy owner will be able to receive a lump sum, or payments over time (for a specified period up to the lifetime of the policy owner).
That being said, Next Step Financial specializes in annuities that are not your grandfather’s annuity. Modern annuities have many options and benefits that make annuities an attractive, and often necessary part of retirement planning.
Many modern annuities have:
- Guaranteed protection from market loss
- Significant growth potential: whether you like the market or hate it, annuities can be tied to powerful indices that return very well without any potential of loss
- Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits: Annual income that you cannot outlive
- Income that grows over time: if the account value grows, so does your income
- Wellness Withdrawal Benefits: if you require home care for a chronic or terminal illness, the income increases for a specified period of time to assist with those costs
- Flexible access to account value: you have liquid access to the account value, and can still have an annual income
- Limited, or no fees
- Legacy benefits: remaining account value passes to designated beneficiaries upon the death of the policy owner
Why you would want an annuity:
Let’s say you are 45 years old, and you just got a new job. The last company you worked for offered a 401k plan that you participated in, and now you have $100,000 in that account. Now, being separated from that company, you need to move that 401k somewhere else. You want to make sure that it retains its tax-deferred status, and you don’t want to get a 10% penalty, so you are going to keep it as qualified money until you are ready to retire, so you roll it over to a Traditional IRA.
Being 45, you are starting to think about retiring in another 15 years, and your risk tolerance is not as high as it used to be, and a traditional IRA is still subject to market fluctuations. What happens if the market loses 40% right before you retire? This is where an annuity comes in. Rolling your traditional IRA over to an annuity, it will continue to grow, but isn’t subject to market loss. It will retain its tax deferred status, and not incur any penalties. It will be available to you when you are ready to retire and may have some additional benefits depending on the annuity you choose.
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