Annuity Types

One reason annuities come in so many different varieties is they are actually contracts between an annuity holder — also known as an annuitant — and an insurance company. Contracts can carry different provisions, different costs, different payouts, etc. The upside is an annuity can be personalized to fit your needs. The downside is the vast array of possibilities can seem overwhelming to potential annuitants.

The wide menu of annuity products can seem daunting to investors who are considering whether annuities make sense for their portfolios. Making things even more confusing is that a particular annuity can have a mixture of provisions, meaning it will fit into different types and classifications. And virtually every possible provision comes with different costs and benefits.

Understanding different types of annuities and how they work is crucial for investors to make the right decisions for their needs. This holds true whether you have an annuity and are considering selling the payments or if you are thinking about buying an annuity.

What level of risk are you comfortable with? The answer will help guide you through your annuity choices. Interest-rate risk is a factor in determining the calculation of your payments. Low risk yields predictable payment amounts. Higher risk could boost your expectations. The main types of annuities in this area are fixed, variable and indexed.

This is the option with the least risk and the most predictability. Fixed annuities come with a guaranteed, set interest rate that doesn’t vary beyond the terms of the contract. While other investments might soar or dive, the fixed annuity is steady. Sometimes, however, the interest rate will reset after a predetermined number of years.

A variable annuity comes with more risks and potentially higher rewards. The interest rate of variable annuities is tied to an investment portfolio. This kind of annuity carries the potential for a higher payout if the portfolio does well, but also can take a hit if your investment portfolio doesn’t do well.

Indexed annuities, also known as equity-indexed annuities and fixed-indexed insurance products, have characteristics of both fixed and variable annuities. It’s a way to balance the risks and rewards, carrying lower risks than variable annuities and higher income potential than fixed annuities. So the interest rate won’t sink below a preset amount. But the rate is also tied to a specified index, such as a stock market index, and can rise higher than a fixed annuity. The tradeoff is this kind of annuity also comes with higher costs and fees. And the methods for calculating interest are complex.

Another classification relates to when the annuity holder will start receiving payments.

With an immediate annuity, also known as an income annuity, the annuity holder begins receiving payments within a year after purchasing it. An example of this might be if someone wins a lottery or receives a large inheritance. The person may decide to use part of the money to purchase an annuity so he or she can shield part of the windfall from temptation to spend.

With a deferred annuity, the investor receives payments starting at some point later in the future. Typically, this happens when the investor retires. In the meantime, the investment builds, tax-deferred.

Generally, annuities are considered retirement investments that guarantee the investor won’t outlive his or her funds because they are paid at least until the annuity holder dies. But some annuities are different.

These are annuities that guarantee an income stream for the annuity holder’s lifetime. In some cases, lifetime annuities allow for a beneficiary to receive payments after the annuitant’s death. With these annuities, the amount of the payment will be set depending on the health and age of the annuity holder.

This is because the payments are likely to continue longer for younger, healthier people.

An example of a fixed-period annuity, also known as a term-certain annuity, is a lottery prize. In many cases, lottery winners can elect to receive their windfall as an annuity. Those payments are spread out over a fixed period, typically 20 or 30 years. With these annuities, the age and health of the annuity holder are not relevant to the amount of the payments because the number of payments is unaffected.

There are numerous other possible ways to design annuity contracts to include provisions for the investor. For example, there are qualified and nonqualified annuities. This refers to whether the annuities are held in qualified retirement accounts and covered by the same laws regarding taxation and withdrawal requirements.

When an annuity holder needs access to funds tied up in the annuity, he or she can sell the rights to receive future payments on the secondary market. Often, these sales involve structured settlements. Structured settlements are settlements in legal cases that involve payments over time.

If someone is severely injured, for example, he or she might sue a company that manufactured and sold the product that caused the injury. In a structured settlement, the company would agree to pay a certain amount of money over a period of years.

Those payments are typically from an annuity issued by an insurance company. They are often structured or scheduled to provide a dependable stream of income, along with financial security, to the injured party.

But then, if the injured person encounters expenses that exceed the amount of the payments, he or she might sell the rights to receive the payments to another company — an insurance firm or other entity.

The company would offer a lower amount of money than the total payments are worth.

Most states require factoring companies that purchase structured settlements to disclose this difference between the value of the future payments and the amount of the lump sum being offered to purchase them.

In addition to structured settlements, these transactions may involve other kinds of annuities, such as lottery prizes that winners elected to receive as annuities. When the lottery winner decides to sell a lottery annuity, that is also at a discounted rate.

The company that purchased the structured settlement payments and other annuities may sell them to investors on the secondary market. It’s at this point that the investment is referred to as a secondary market annuity.

Investors buying secondary market annuities may be attracted by the higher rates of return than available on the primary market. These annuities are also said to carry a lower risk that the company selling the annuity will default on payments.

If you buy one of these annuities previously owned by someone else — also known as a factored structured settlement — you may get a better deal and higher interest returns than if you buy an annuity on the primary market.

But the transaction is more complicated, partly because it has to be approved by a judge and clear state regulatory approvals because the original annuity is considered a binding contract. These transactions involve a lot of paperwork.

Also, once you buy an annuity on the secondary market, you won’t be able to sell those payments. The annuity, in other words, cannot be resold. Some critics say these purchases are best left to sophisticated investors.