Planning for retirement income is an often overlooked but necessary piece of any financial plan. Some retirees rely on stocks and bonds, others opt for annuity accounts, and many use a mixture of both in order to diversify their assets. Annuities have grown in popularity based on their history of safe & reliable returns and the …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Retirement Planning
There are significant differences between joint and linked long term care insurance policies. One type allows for couples to share a policy while the other allows a husband or wife to tap into the benefits of their spouse’s policy. There are certain advantages to each type of LTC policy and through the help of an …
Category: Articles, Long Term Care, Retirement Planning
Compared to what other investments? Is an annuity a good investment if you had invested the majority of your dollars with Bernie Madoff or Alan Stanford? How about if you invested in Countrywide, General Motors, Lehman Brothers, Enron, WorldCom Inc, Citi Group, Fannie Mae or Feddie Mac? Or maybe you were unlucky enough to have saved …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Retirement Planning
Category: Annuities, Articles, Retirement Planning
Conservative investors looking to protect a portion of their individual retirement account will often consider an annuity as a means to establish predictable growth and reliable income now or in the future. IRA annuity investments provide steady growth and are ideally suited for required minimum distributions. There are several types of annuity accounts to choose from, but …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Retirement Planning
There are some common misconceptions concerning who is responsible for long term care expenses. Oftentimes consumers erroneously believe that government run Medicare and private supplemental insurance will pay the costs associated with extended care. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Medicare, when combined with some supplemental Medigap policies, will only cover a maximum of 100 days of …
Category: Articles, Long Term Care, Retirement Planning
Let’s face it, sometimes annuities get a bad rap in the investment world and perhaps some of that is deserved. In fairness, those who are talking down these accounts are usually trying to sell some other financial product. However, the bottom line is investors are usually and understandably concerned about access to their deposited funds. Safe …
There are three types of deferred annuities for investors to choose from in order of least to most risk: fixed, fixed-indexed, and variable. Variable accounts are most risky as they are directly tied to the ups and downs of the overall stock market which is why you you see variable annuity complaints. In an attempt …
Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of misinformation that has spread about annuity investment contracts. What is not clear is whether these untruths are intentional or a general lack of knowledge, but it is beyond time to set the record straight. One of the biggest concerns potential annuity investors have is what happens to their money …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Retirement Planning
As an annuity agent, I am often asked which insurance company offers an indexed annuity with the best returns. And that is not an easy question to answer. There are dozens of companies offering several fixed indexed accounts each. However, I did come across an annual statement recently that even amazed me – and I have …
Indexed annuity accounts credit interest based on the performance of chosen stock and bond market indexes, however they are not variable in nature and have no direct market exposure. This simply means that when the market goes down, there is no risk of losing your invested principal or interest gains from previous years. During the past twelve months, …
It’s April 15th and while many have already filed their tax returns, some are still scrambling to get their documents in on time. Thus, it is an appropriate time of the year to talk about different ways to reduce your income taxes. If you wish to reduce the amount of taxable income on your 1040 or are …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Life Insurance, Wealth Transfer
If you are considering investing in a fixed indexed annuity, you should become familiar with a few terms. Almost all indexed annuities have internal moving parts referred to as spreads, caps, and participation rates. The fluctuations of these moving parts can significantly affect your annuity’s rate of return now and in the future. Insurance companies will adjust their …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Retirement Planning
As the overall markets have swooned and once plush retirement accounts have lost value, you might be interested in a guaranteed lifetime stream of income. Commercials are more prevalent and many financial firms are now advertising the merits of this simple concept. But what are the financial products behind these guarantees and how can you benefit from lifetime …
Category: Annuities, Articles, Ohio Annuity, Retirement Planning