Not exact matches
You can
do this when you retire by buying so - called
immediate annuities, which start paying you a monthly stipend right away.
The premise behind an
immediate annuity is simple: You invest a lump sum of money with an insurance company (although you would actually
do so through an adviser, a broker or insurance agent) and in return you receive a guaranteed monthly payment for life regardless of how the financial markets perform.
Even that $ 575 in monthly income is likely too generous, as a large segment of the public
does not even know such a thing as an
immediate annuity offering joint and survivor benefits exists.
However, income
annuities (sometimes referred to as «
immediate annuities» or «deferred income
annuities,» depending on when income payments begin)
do offer a predictable guaranteed stream of income that you can't outlive.
Michael Kitces @ Nerd's Eye View writes Solving The Annuity Puzzle — Inflexibility For Handling Potential Health Care Shocks In Retirement — Economic theory suggests most retirees should utilize
immediate annuities for lifetime retirement income, yet very few actually
do.
Like an
immediate annuity, a longevity
annuity provides guaranteed income for life, except that while you invest your money now, the payments don't begin until later, typically much later, say, 10 to 20 years in the future.
Of course, despite research showing that
immediate annuities are an excellent way of generating lifetime income, many people want nothing to
do with them.
So
does the example above mean that every retiree should own an
immediate annuity?
«In some ways a plain - vanilla, inflation - adjusted
immediate annuity may be the best thing for people, but they don't like it, so how
do you respond?»
The upshot, though, is Warshawsky concluded that while an
annuity didn't always outperform systematic withdrawal, an
annuity provided more inflation - adjusted income throughout retirement often enough (with little risk of ever running out) so that «it is hard to argue against a significant and widespread role for
immediate life
annuities in the production of retirement income.»
Assuming the idea of getting more assured income with an
immediate annuity appeals to you, you still don't want to put all, or even most, of your savings into one.
As with an
immediate annuity, you turn over a lump sum to an insurer, but you don't actually start collecting income until later in life.
Now,
does this mean all retirees should own an
immediate annuity?
Second, the tax treatment describe here applies only to deferred
annuities (contracts that have an accumulation period, during which your money earns interest;
immediate annuities, which provide an income beginning within one year of purchase, get very different tax treatment and
do not present the issues described here.
An
immediate annuity's ability to transfer money from people who die early to those who die late is largely the reason that a recent study by former U.S. Treasury official Mark Warshawsky concluded that while an
annuity didn't always provide more retirement income than using the 4 % rule or other type of systematic withdrawal, it
did so often enough that «it is hard to argue against a significant and widespread role for
immediate life
annuities in the production of retirement income.»
Given the number of uncertainties involved in trying to estimate a sustainable level of retirement spending — how the markets will perform, how long you'll live, what your actual expenses will be (although on that score,
doing a retirement budget can help)-- you might also consider turning a portion of your nest egg into income assured to last no matter how long you live and regardless of how the markets fare by investing in an
immediate annuity or longevity
annuity.
CD's paying 1 - 3 % just don't make sense when an
immediate annuity will pay 8 % + +.
If you're really worried that you might run through your savings while you've still got a lot of living to
do, you could also think about converting a portion of your nest egg to a guaranteed lifetime income stream via an
immediate annuity or a longevity
annuity.
At first glance, I'd say you probably don't need to put any of your savings into an
immediate annuity, a type of investment that converts a lump sum into guaranteed monthly payments for life.
If you
do decide to put a portion of your savings into an
immediate annuity or a longevity
annuity, you'll want to
do some comparison shopping before you actually invest.
Just because the mere thought of an
immediate annuity makes your eyes glaze over doesn't mean you shouldn't consider one for your post-career portfolio.
Many people are reluctant to invest in an
immediate annuity because they don't want to tie up a big chunk of their savings.
A longevity
annuity is similar to an
immediate annuity in that you hand over a portion of your savings to an insurer for the guarantee of lifetime monthly payments, but there's an important difference: even though you invest your money now, a longevity
annuity doesn't begin making payments until later, often 10, 15 or even 20 years in the future.
Like an
immediate annuity, a longevity
annuity provides income for life, except that you don't start collecting payments until, say, 10 or 20 years down the road.
So if you believe you would feel better having even more income you can rely on regardless of how stocks and bonds are performing, then I don't why you shouldn't get the additional comfort you seek by putting some of your nest egg into an
immediate annuity.
Before I
do that, though, I want to make it clear that while there are many different kinds of
annuities out there, I believe that one type stands out when it comes to delivering retirement income you can count on throughout retirement no matter how long you live:
immediate annuities.
A longevity
annuity is similar to an
immediate annuity in that you give an insurer a lump sum in return for a guaranteed lifetime income stream, except that you don't begin collecting that income until some point in the future, say, 10 or even 20 years later.
If your 401 (k) doesn't offer an
immediate annuity — or it's payment isn't competitive — then you can buy an
annuity from an insurer outside the plan.
With an
immediate need
annuity, you don't have to worry about outliving your money because the monthly payments continue for the length of your life.
Meanwhile, Social Security is like an inflation - indexed
immediate annuity — or, if you aren't yet retired, an inflation - indexed deferred
annuity, meaning payments don't start until some future date.
Dynamic Choice and Optimal Annuitization This study published by Morningstar head of retirement research David Blanchett in the Journal of Retirement examines how much of their retirement savings retirees should convert to
immediate annuities and when they should
do so.
Let's be honest - sometimes the best
immediate annuity calculator is the one that is easy to use and doesn't require us to even know what the
immediate annuity formula is in the first place!
I've given you the broad brushstrokes of
immediate and longevity
annuities, but before you commit you'll want be sure you understand their downsides — the biggest being that if you die soon after investing you may receive few (or in the case of a longevity
annuity, no) payments — plus you'll want to
do some comparison shopping to make sure you're getting a good deal.
But even though you pay the premium now as with an
immediate annuity, you don't receive the payments until some point you designate in the future, say, 10 or 20 years from now.
Because you purchase an
immediate annuity in one initial deposit, you don't have an accumulation phase.
Plan A — Offers the purchase of
immediate annuity from either savings
done earlier or from any Deferred Pension Plans from SUD life.
Also, one can convert his deferred
annuity insurance into an
immediate annuity insurance later, if he needs to
do so.
However, this time limit on withdrawals from a new
annuity contract that results from a partial exchange
does not apply if the withdrawals are from a newly created
immediate annuity contract that was set up for a period of 10 years or more or during one or more lives.
Historically, this could be
done by purchasing a single premium
immediate annuity at retirement, except in practice retirees rarely ever want to lock up so much of their capital — in fact, retirees annuitize so rarely that economists have dubbed it an «
annuity puzzle».
Here, it is important to mention that
immediate annuity plans are non-participating products and thus, they don't earn bonuses.