A fixed annuity may sound confusing at first but if you understand how a CD works at a bank, you have the basic knowledge for fixed annuities. Annuities have other features besides a rate guarantee that make it an interesting choice over a CD. There’s a little more information to look at to see if this type of investment vehicle is right for you.
Fixed annuities are also called immediate or deferred annuities. The difference lies in how you use the product. A person that wants a deferred annuity uses it more like a CD. They don’t take payments from it. The immediate annuity converts to payments over a specific number of years, for a specific amount or payments that you’ll never outlive. Some people like a guarantee that their heirs get any unused principal. That’s available too.
The tax-deferred interest is a real plus for those saving for retirement, but as with any benefit has negatives also. If you put the money into a deferred fixed annuity and suddenly realize that you need funds, you have a ten percent penalty to pay on the growth you remove if you’re not yet 59 . The tax laws do allow you to take substantial periodic payments penalty-free. The payments must last until you’re 59 or at least for 5 years.
Annuities also have penalties imposed by the companies. These are surrender charges. A surrender charge is a percentage that normally decreases the longer you hold the annuity. They often start between ten and four percent with the percentage decreasing over a five to ten year period. However, some contracts may have as high as a fifteen percent surrender charge that never goes away unless you annuitize the payment.
Today many companies offer exemptions from the surrender charge if you only want interest, just like a bank CD, but also allow you to invade the principal for amounts up to ten percent each year. This makes it superior to a CD. If you find yourself in an emergency, you’ll have access to funds without any penalty. It allows you to keep less money in a passbook savings for emergency use.
Even though you may allow your CD to roll over, you still have to pay taxes on any interest you earned. This isn’t true for an annuity. As long as you don’t remove the money from the contract, you don’t have to pay taxes on the interest. Even if you want to take some of the principal and leave the interest in the contract, the IRS looks differently at your distribution. Annuity tax laws use LIFO rules. That means, last in, first out. Interest is always the last thing into the contract so the IRS considers the initial money you take as interest until you reach the amount you originally invested.
Immediate annuities have different tax rules. If you use the fixed annuity as a deferred annuity and then annuitize it later, it follows these rules also. Part of the payment each year is principal and part of it is interest, according to the IRS regulations.
The exclusion ratio, the amount you exclude from taxation on payments from fixed annuities, comes from multiplying the expected payment by your life expectancy and dividing the original premium by that number. A 62-year-old person’s life expectancy is 22.5 years. If they receive an annual amount from a fixed annuity of $9000 and live the 22.5 years, they’ll make $202,500 in payments. Simply divide the $100,000 invested by $202,500 to get an exclusion ratio of 49.4 percent. Therefore, you only pay tax on 50.6 percent of the payment.
Because of the favorable tax treatment, high interest rates and secure feeling of never running out of money, many people choose to take payments from the fixed annuity. Some, divide their funds into several different vehicles but use fixed annuities as their base monthly income in addition to social security. They request the insurance company deposit the funds directly into their account just like their social security. By doing this and keeping other investments for appreciation value and emergencies, they always know they’ll have money for monthly needs such as food, shelter and utilities.
John C. Ryan authors content and advice on how to find the best annuity given your particular situation. Want to learn more?? Come see us, for more advice on fixed annuities .