Independent means we'll tell you not to buy one.

The disclosure that should come first.

The most important question you can ask anyone in this industry is how they're paid. Ask us — on the call, before anything else, we'll tell you plainly how Palm Wealth is compensated and whether it varies by what you buy. You should hold every firm you talk to, including this one, to that standard.

What "independent research" means here.

The word gets used loosely. Here's ours.

Almost everyone selling annuities calls themselves independent. Usually it means they can sell products from more than one carrier — which is real, but it's a statement about product access, not about whose interest comes first.

Three things we hold ourselves to, and that you should demand from anyone you talk to, including us:

• No carrier pays for coverage. Not for a review, not for a ranking, not for placement. Nobody has bought their way onto this site
• "Don't buy one" is a real outcome. Our own quiz returns it, and a fair share of reviews end there. If that answer weren't available, the rest would be decoration
• You can ask how we're paid, at any point, and get a straight answer. Before anything is recommended, not after

That third point matters most, and it's the question people are least comfortable asking. Ask it anyway — of us and of everyone else. How someone reacts to it tells you more than their answer does.

What actually happens on a review.

1. You bring what you have

   An illustration you've been handed, a statement for a contract you already own, or just a rough picture of your accounts and when you want to stop working. None of it needs to be organised, and you don't need to know the terminology — naming the product correctly is usually the first useful thing we do.

2. We read it against the contract

   Surrender schedule, free-withdrawal allowance, rider fees and what they're charged against, caps or participation rates and whether the carrier can change them. Then the issuer's financial strength, because a long guarantee is only worth the company behind it.

3. You get a straight answer

   Including, often, that the product doesn't fit — or that nothing in this category does, and the money belongs in a retirement account you haven't maxed out yet. That's a common outcome and not a failed meeting.

There's no cost, and nothing to sign. If you'd rather start without talking to anyone, the two-minute quiz gets you most of the way, and asking a question in writing works too.

Annuities are badly served by the internet.

Search almost any annuity product name and you'll get pages that look like reviews but function as lead capture: the brochure restated, benefits listed, drawbacks omitted, a form at the bottom. The genuinely useful information — the surrender schedule, the annual rider cost, who the product is wrong for — is the part that's missing, because it's the part that loses the sale.

The result is a category with a bad reputation, much of it earned. Annuities get sold to people carrying high-interest debt, to people who'll need the money in three years, and to people who haven't filled their 401(k) yet. Each of those is a worse outcome than doing nothing, and each of them makes the whole industry harder to trust.

Some annuities are genuinely useful for some people. Working out which is which requires reading the contract and being willing to say no — which is all this site is trying to do. If you want the uncomfortable version first, start with why people hate annuities; we think most of the criticism holds up.

Want a second opinion on what you've been pitched?

Free, one-on-one, and no obligation. Roughly half of these end with "you don't need this."

How we handle your information is set out in our privacy policy, and the site's terms of use explain what this research is and is not.