Secure your retirement future with annuities! Make your funds last longer and never worry about running out of money. Explore a variety of annuity options to extend the life of your retirement funds.

The conundrum of retirement finances continues to vex those planning for a future with little steady income. If you draw out too small an amount each year, you’ll have lived more frugally than necessary. If you withdraw too much money, then you may exhaust your funds.

Have you considered securing your retirement future using annuities to make your funds last?

Here are a variety of annuity options that will help you extend the life of your retirement funds:

1. Life income option. The company issuing the annuity guarantees you income for the rest of your life, regardless of how long you live. As long as the company stays in business, it guarantees that you will never run out of money.

• Your income depends on your age when you start the payout phase to receive benefits, and how much you invest into the annuity. Talk with your insurance agent to receive a proposal.
• Although you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing you’ll never run out of money, keep in mind that if you die soon in the payout phase, the issuing company retains the rest of your funds, per your contract.

2. Life option with a guaranteed term. With this annuity option, it is guaranteed that your benefits will be paid for at least a certain amount of time, such as 10 or 15 years. Your beneficiary will continue to receive funds for the remainder of the term if you should die before the term ends.

• The value of the short and long investments should be equal. The investor invests an equal amount of money in short and long positions. There are other types of funds that also utilize a long and short strategy, but the ratios heavily favor long positions.
• The portfolio is regularly adjusted to maintain a one-to-one ratio of long and short investments. These regular adjustments add to the costs of operating the fund.

3. Single premium immediate option. You purchase this type of annuity with a single premium payment and start the payout phase immediately. In other 1words, when you retire, you can withdraw part of your savings and purchase an annuity with one large payment.

• What’s interesting about this single premium option is that if you also select the life income option at the time you paid your single premium, you can begin receiving annuity payments immediately which will continue to pay out for the rest of your life!

4. Return of principal guarantee option. This type of annuity guarantees you or your beneficiary the return of your principal.

• Again, you can combine this type of annuity with a life income option. Then, if you die before receiving back your entire principal, your beneficiary will be paid the balance of your principal.

5. Joint-life option. The annuity takes into account both your and your spouse’s life expectancies. Thus, the amount you’ll receive will be less than what you receive in the regular life option (see #1). However, if you die, your annuity funds would pass directly to your spouse.

• Some annuity policies even allow for the beneficiary to continue placing money into the annuity, thus building the total amount to provide additional retirement funding later. Thus, these annuity funds will last as long as your beneficiary chooses.

6. Term certain options. This type of annuity enables you to specify the term you want to receive funds. Maybe you want to receive your annuity spread over 15 years or even 30 years. Stretching your retirement dollars to last longer is the advantage of selecting a longer payment term.

• Another advantage of term-certain annuities is that if you die early in the payment term (let’s say you die the 5th year of a 20-year payout term), your beneficiary will receive the remaining 15 years of payouts.

With some forethought and planning, you can set up an annuity to aid you in stretching your retirement dollars throughout your lifetime.