A paycheck for life —
guaranteed, and yours.

For the right person and the right portion of savings, an annuity can be one of the few ways to guarantee income for life. The key is using them intentionally — protecting principal and covering essential expenses — rather than putting everything into one product. As a fiduciary, I’ll tell you honestly whether an annuity fits your plan, and how much of your savings it should represent.

A fixed annuity pays a set interest rate for a set term. A fixed-indexed annuity credits interest linked to a market index (such as the S&P 500) while protecting your principal from market losses. How much of the index move you actually receive is set by the contract, and there is usually more than one limiter at work: a cap on the maximum credited, a participation rate that gives you only a percentage of the move, and sometimes a spread subtracted before anything is credited. Index crediting also excludes dividends, which are a meaningful part of long-run index returns. Those terms can typically be reset by the insurer at each renewal, so the figure you start with is not necessarily the figure you keep.

Your account value will not drop simply because the market drops — that protection is real. But there are several ways you can end up with less than you expected, and you should know all of them before you sign. If the contract carries an income or enhancement rider, that rider charges a fee every year, including years the index credits you zero — so the account value can decline. Withdrawing more than the contract allows during the surrender period can trigger surrender charges and, on some contracts, a market value adjustment. Caps, participation rates and spreads can be reset at renewal, so future crediting may be less generous than the first year. And every guarantee depends on the financial strength of the issuing insurer. I walk through each of these line by line before you commit.

By adding an income rider or annuitizing, you convert a portion of your savings into a check that arrives every month for as long as you live. It keeps coming even if the account value is eventually exhausted, which is how it protects against outliving your money. Two honest caveats: an income rider generally charges an annual fee for that guarantee, and annuitizing usually means giving up access to the lump sum. People often describe this as building your own pension, and the comparison is useful — but unlike an employer pension it is backed by one insurance company rather than the federal PBGC, and the payment typically does not rise with inflation unless you buy a feature that provides it.

Yes. I regularly help retirees in The Villages, Ocala, Leesburg, Lady Lake, Gainesville and nearby communities evaluate whether an annuity belongs in their plan — and shop across carriers to find competitive terms.