Holders of fixed-annuity contracts agree to make regular payments to
the insurance company for a period of years. The insurance company
accumulates these payments, which is why this time period is called the
accumulation phase of the contract. The company credits the holder with
interest, at a fixed rate stipulated in the contract. (That is where
the “fixed” part of “fixed annuity” comes from.)
The company
needs to estimate the benefits it will have to pay in the future and
the money it has available for investment to fund those benefits.
Withdrawals of money will worsen the accuracy of its estimates, so it
needs to create disincentives for the annuity holder to withdraw their
money. Surrender charges are that disincentive. They penalize a
withdrawal by charging the holder a percentage of the money withdrawn.
The duration of the surrender charges varies by company and by
contract, ranging approximately from 4-15 years. The percentage amount
might be close to 10 percent in the first year of the contract, falling
drastically in subsequent years.
The annuity holder still has
some scope for taking money out. Annuity contracts allow as much as 10%
of the principal value to be withdrawn penalty-free, and sometimes
annual interest credited can be withdrawn without penalty as well.
The
general idea behind annuities is to time the accumulation period to end
about the time that retirement begins. At that point, earned employment
income isn’t coming in anymore, so it is time to stop saving and
accumulating money and to start distributing the money that you have
accumulated. Not surprisingly, this is called the distribution phase.
The classical game plan is to distribute it in the form of regular,
level payments that last for the remainder of the annuity holder’s
life. The holder can also arrange to have distributions go to a
surviving spouse for the rest of his or her life as well. Annuities
that possess both an accumulation phase and a distribution phase are
called deferred annuities because the payment stream is deferred until
the sum of money necessary to support it accumulates.
The rate of
return on the fixed annuity depends on the size of the regular payments
that are made and on how long the annuity holder lives. The size of
payment is agreed-upon in advance and specified in the contract, but
nobody can predict exactly how long the holder will live. The insurance
company will profit from holders who fail to reach their statistical
life expectancy and lose from those who exceed it. On average, invested
funds will be just sufficient to compensate annuity holders with money
left over to pay the costs of administration and management.
Fixed
annuities are conservative investments, like government bonds. They are
suitable for older investors nearing or recently entered into
retirement. They are not suitable for young investors because their
surrender charges make them relatively illiquid, yet their conservative
rate of return makes them ill-suited to a growth-oriented portfolio.
Young people need growth in investments and liquidity in their
non-investment wealth holdings. Fixed annuities are not suitable for
purchase by the truly elderly because surrender charges will penalize
withdrawals for daily expenses or emergency purposes and because the
holder may not outlive the duration of the surrender charges.
The
annuity contract contains additional important information about the
credited rate of interest, which may fall after the first year or two,
and about the circumstances under which the annuity holder may cash out
the annuity without penalty. It’s a good idea to ask the insurance
company representative to answer any questions that arise and seek help
from a qualified financial planner if help is needed in fitting
annuities into a coherent financial plan.