Articles Index

Annuities Overview
An annuity is a contract between the buyer and an insurance company. In general, the insurance company promises to do something with the buyer’s money. This page should serve as a general overview of annuities. After you understand the concept you can look into the various annuity types.

Annuitize - What it Means to Annuitize
When you annuitize, you "flip the switch" and and start taking income from an annuity. Annuitizing is a serious decision, but it's not required. This page covers what happens when you annuitize, and whether or not you should do so.

Annuity Premiums
Annuity premiums are the dollars paid into an annuity. In many cases, you can think of annuity premiums as if they were account deposits. It’s a confusing word that gets used because an annuity is technically an insurance contract.

Annuitant
The annuitant is a person who’s lifespan will affect the annuity. The annuitant is important because of...

Annuity Contract Owner
From the annuity information glossary -- Contract Owner. Covers who a contract owner is and what a contract owner can do.

The Variable Annuity
A variable annuity is an annuity with exposure to investments. If a fixed annuity pays a fixed rate of return, a variable annuity pays a variable rate of return. Before making a final decision for or against a variable annuity, you should understand how they work.

Don't Always Bank on Annuities
Banks sell a lot of annuities. To be more precise, a person at the bank acts as an agent and sells an annuity issued by an insurance company. Sometimes the annuity is exactly what the customer needed. However, there are too many stories about consumers walking out of the bank with a product they didn’t need. This page offers a few bits of information to help consumers make better decisions.

Beneficiary
A beneficiary is a person who receives assets at a contract owner’s death. The contract owner picks the beneficiary at opening the account, or later. There are two basic types of beneficiaries: primary beneficiaries and contingent beneficiaries.