What are the primary advantages and disadvantages to using an annuity to invest for retirement?

What will be an ideal response?


Since annuities are issued by insurance companies and come with high fees, it is best to first maximize all of your other retirement options (such as a 401(k) and IRA) before purchasing an annuity. Most 401(k)s and IRAs also allow an immediate tax benefit from your contributions (except Roth IRAs), while annuities do not. However, annuities do provide the same deferred tax benefit that other retirement investments provide, where you will not have to pay taxes on any earnings while those earnings are growing inside of the annuity. You only pay taxes on the money as it is paid out. Another advantage of an annuity is that there is no limit to how much you can put into one. If you had $10 million from lottery winnings, you could put the whole amount into annuities and let the money grow tax-deferred. Only the amount paid out each year from the annuity would be taxable. Annuities also charge annual maintenance fees, similar to those for mutual funds, only higher. In addition, the investor may have to pay a surrender fee if the money is withdrawn before a specified period of time, such as eight years. Finally, there are often commissions, particularly on the insurance portion of the annuity. This is the most frequently cited reason for not purchasing an annuity. High fees along with commissions can make an annuity one of the most expensive investments in an investor's portfolio. By researching, you can find some no-load annuities that have low annual fees as well, which may be worth taking a look. As discussed with other investment types, you have to account for fees when determining the real return on your investment.

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Martin works as a pizza delivery person. He parks his bike outside Regalia Inc. to deliver an order. Meanwhile, a damaged book rack in Regalia, which is situated on the first floor of the building, falls down through an open window and crashes on his bike. However, no one admits to having seen the rack fall. Can Martin recover against Regalia for negligence?

A. Martin will be unable to recover because parking under an open floor window amounts to contributory negligence and he is therefore liable for the accident too. B. Martin can recover if he can prove that book racks do not fall out of windows in the absence of negligence and that Regalia Inc. had exclusive control of the rack prior to the fall. C. Martin can recover only if he finds a witness who saw the book rack crashing on the bike. D. Martin will be unable to recover because parking under an open window amounts to assumption of risk.

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MLA and ______ styles are the most popular referencing styles.

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

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When budgeting for discretionary costs, less is always better

Indicate whether the statement is true or false

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The formula for calculating the average number of jobs in the system is ______.

A. total processing time/makespan B. total setup time/makespan C. total flow time/makespan D. makespan/total processing time

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