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These Features Will Impact Your Immediate Annuity Quotes
These Features Will Impact Your Immediate Annuity Quotes
Jan 18, 2023
Blueprint Income Team
Your personal attributes and the extra features you choose to customize your immediate annuity with will affect the income you can generate. We’ve broken down how each option will impact your rates.
- There are a lot of factors and features which can change the income your savings generate
- Age, gender, premium size, spousal continuation and optional riders will affect payouts
Insurance companies calculate the size of the immediate annuity income payout they are willing to offer based on how long they expect to pay you. Your personal attributes and the extra features you choose on your immediate annuity will affect the income you can generate. Here’s how to think about these:
Feature | Let's Think About It! |
Age | Buying when older generates a larger monthly income. If you purchase an immediate annuity later, you will generate more income, since the insurance company expects to have to pay you for fewer years. |
Gender | Males will receive larger monthly income than females. Females have longer life expectancies, and therefore longer payout periods, so they receive slightly less income each month. |
Premium Size | Larger premiums generate larger monthly income. While straightforward, there’s another element: larger premiums sometimes receive a discount! A portion of insurance companies’ expenses per contract are fixed, meaning fixed costs are a smaller drag on payouts when premiums are larger. |
Single v. Joint Life | Single policies generate larger incomes than joint-life policies. A joint-life policy will continue as long as both policyholders/annuitants are alive, which will be longer than if only a single person is on the policy. Since insurance companies expect longer payout periods, they provide less income each year. |
Payout Options | Basic plans without extra guarantees generate larger incomes than plans with extra features. There are plan features you can add to your immediate annuity that will make the guarantee more robust. Features like cash and installment refunds will guarantee a minimum cumulative income, while period certain will guarantee a minimum number of payments. These will lower your income payments because the insurance company expects to pay you for longer. |
Riders | Basic plans without riders will generate larger monthly income than plans with riders. Riders, or extra features that offer you increased protection, require that the insurance company take on more risk. Therefore, the income payments will be lower to compensate the insurance companies. |
Last, there’s often an inverse relationship between the credit rating of an insurance company and the income return they’ll offer for your premium. Insurers with higher ratings maintain higher capital reserves and invest more conservatively, which limits their profits and what income they can offer you. Here at Blueprint Income, we only offer insurers who have an A rating or higher, because the guaranteed income you’re promised is only as good as the financial strength and the longevity of the insurer backing it.
Blueprint Income Team
We are a team of finance, insurance, and actuarial professionals working to make it easier for everyone to achieve a steady and comfortable retirement. We write about annuities (the good and the bad) and provide strategies to help Americans prepare for retirement.
