Everything we've published, organised by the decision you're making.

Before product names and rates, the question is whether an annuity solves a problem you actually have. These pages are written to talk you out of it as readily as into it.

• Are annuities a good investment?
  The honest answer depends on what you're measuring against — and “investment” may be the wrong word entirely.
• What are the pros and cons?
  Every guarantee has a price. This is the price list, including the items agents skip.
• Can I actually lose money?
  Seven ways, and only one is the market. What your specific product can and cannot lose.
• Why do people hate annuities?
  The complaints are mostly earned. Which ones apply to which products, and which are myths.
• How much guaranteed income do I need?Pillar
  The income-floor framework: cover essentials with income that cannot fail, invest the rest.
• Does Florida tax retirement income?Florida
  No, on every category — and the federal bill that follows you south anyway.
• Planning a move to FloridaFlorida
  Sequencing income events around domicile, and surviving a departure-state residency audit.
• Am I the right age for this?
  Why payout rates rise with age, and why waiting for a better one usually loses.
• Why does the order of returns matter?Pillar
  The risk the income-floor framework exists to solve.
• How much, and from which account?
  The 4% rule's real limits, and the sequencing that decides what you keep.
• Do annuities affect Social Security?
  Delaying benefits is often the cheaper guarantee. How the two interact, before you buy either.
• How do agents get paid?
  Commission structures, how they vary by product, and why that shapes what you get shown.
• What do annuity scams look like?
  The pressure patterns, the free-lunch seminar, and the red flags from complaint files.

There is no single product called “an annuity.” These are the categories, what each one actually guarantees, and the trade you make to get it.

• What are the main annuity types?Start
  Fixed, indexed, variable, immediate, deferred — the map, in plain language.
• What is a fixed indexed annuity?Key
  The options budget behind the caps, and the guaranteed minimums the illustration omits.
• What is a buffer annuity?
  RILAs explained. A buffer is not a floor, and the difference shows up in a crash.
• What is a MYGA?
  Multi-year guaranteed annuities: a fixed rate for a fixed term, the CD's insurance cousin.
• What is an immediate annuity (SPIA)?
  Lump sum in, income out within a month. No accumulation, and no reversing it.
• What is a single premium deferred annuity?
  One premium, a growth period, then a decision — plus single versus flexible premium.
• What is a deferred income annuity or QLAC?
  Income starting at 80 or 85, and the one structure that reduces IRA required distributions.
• Are variable annuities worth the fees?
  Subaccounts, mortality and expense charges, and the fee stack itemized.
• What is a long-term care annuity?
  Hybrid contracts that multiply money for care costs under the 2006 Pension Protection Act.
• What is a Medicaid-compliant annuity?
  The five federal rules, the community spouse strategy, and the state payback nobody mentions.
• What is a private annuity?
  A family transfer with no insurance company — and what Treasury took away in 2006.
• What is a group annuity contract?
  When your pension becomes an insurance policy, and the safety net that swaps underneath.
• What is a split annuity strategy?
  Income now while the rest regrows to your full principal. The exact math on $500,000.

Most people arrive holding something else. These are the head-to-head comparisons, run on the same terms.

• Fixed vs. variable annuityCompare
  Guarantees, the all-in cost stack nobody publishes, and when to buy neither.
• Are CDs a good investment?
  Real return after inflation and tax, and where a MYGA differs on insurance.
• CD vs annuity
  Where each one wins, and how bank penalties differ structurally from surrender charges.
• Annuity vs mutual fund
  Guarantee versus expected return — two products answering different questions.
• Annuity vs Roth IRA
  Wrapper versus product, and why the comparison is usually framed wrong.
• Annuity vs IUL
  Two insurance products sold interchangeably that solve opposite problems.
• Pension lump sum or monthly?
  The implied payout rate, the survivor election, and the PBGC question.
• What does a $1 million annuity pay?
  Real payout math at a size where guaranty limits stop being theoretical.
• Lottery annuity vs lump sum
  The same present-value decision, on 30 payments rising 5% a year.

This is where money is won and lost. Every term below appears in contracts people sign without reading, and each one has a number attached.

• How do surrender charges work?
  The declining schedule, the free-withdrawal corridor, and what an early exit really costs.
• What is a market value adjustment?
  The second exit charge most buyers never read — and the one that can pay you to leave.
• How do participation rates and caps work?Key
  One index year run through participation, caps, spreads, and triggers, side by side.
• What is a GLWB rider?
  Guaranteed lifetime withdrawals without annuitizing, and what the benefit base is not.
• GMIB vs GLWB
  The predecessor rider, and why an old GMIB may be worth more than your statement suggests.
• What does a cost-of-living rider cost?
  Rising payments bought with a smaller first check. The crossover year, computed.
• Annuitant, owner, or beneficiary — who is who?
  Three names on every application, and the titling mistakes that surface at a funeral.
• How do I read my annuity statement?
  Account value versus benefit base, charges taken, and where you actually stand today.
• What is annuitization?
  Converting a contract into income, permanently — and the quote to get first.

Tax treatment is decided by one line on your paperwork. These pages are written for the person holding the form, not the person studying for an exam.

• The whole tax libraryMap
  Every tax guide, ordered by decision: which wrapper, taking money out, moving it, the forms, and death.
• How are annuities taxed?Start
  The core guide: exclusion ratio, gain-first withdrawals, and the 59½ line.
• Qualified vs non-qualified
  The wrapper distinction that decides how every dollar comes out.
• What is Form 1099-R telling me?
  Box by box, the Box 7 code table, and the checkbox that makes people overpay.
• What is a 1035 exchange?
  Moving contracts without tax — and the surrender schedule it does not waive.
• How does Rule 72(t) work?
  Substantially equal periodic payments, and the schedule you cannot break.
• I inherited an annuity — now what?
  Spousal continuation, the five-year rule, and the elections with deadlines.
• How do annuity death benefits work?
  What passes, to whom, and why there is no step-up in basis.
• Should I roll my 401(k) into one?
  The reason usually given does nothing. The reasons that are real, and what you give up.
• How does a 403(b) annuity work?
  The teacher's plan, the vendor-menu problem, and the fees to check.

An annuity is one company's promise, sometimes for forty years. The product matters less than the balance sheet standing behind it.

• What do AM Best ratings mean?Start
  The 13-point scale, what each grade implies, and why outlook matters as much as letter.
• Is my insurance company in trouble?
  Downgrade signals, guaranty association limits, and what to do if you see one.
• Which are the top annuity companies?
  Our ranking and the reasoning, with the methodology stated openly.
• What if the insurer fails?Directory
  All 52 state guaranty associations, with contact details, and how the limit should size your premium.
• All 38 carriers, by rating tierMap
  The full carrier map — A++ down to B+, with ownership and distribution model.

A different question with different math. If money is the reason, price every door before opening the expensive one.

• How do I get out of this?Start
  Six doors out, ranked by real cost. Most people find the expensive one first.
• What does selling my payments cost?
  How factoring companies price a buyout, in dollars, at each discount rate.
• What are my exit options?
  Free withdrawals, surrender, market value adjustment — ranked by real cost.
• Should I annuitize or exchange?
  Your contract's settlement rates against today's open market. One quote decides it.

Relocation is where one-time income events get expensive or cheap depending purely on sequence. These pages cover the ordering, because the products matter less than the calendar.

• Does Florida tax retirement income?
  No, on every category — and the federal bill that follows you south anyway.
• Planning the move itself
  Year before, year of, years after. The domicile checklist and the audit risk.
• Leaving California specificallyCA
  No day-count safe harbour — the closest-connections test and what the FTB weighs.
• Leaving New York specificallyNY
  Two residency tests, and how people pass one while failing the other.
• When to convert to Roth
  The gap years, bracket filling, and the two-year IRMAA lag nobody models.
• What are the IRMAA brackets?2026
  Thresholds, surcharges, the two-year lookback, and the SSA-44 appeal.
• What happens to a surviving spouse?
  Lower income, narrower brackets. Most of the planning happens beforehand.
• Giving from an IRA instead
  A QCD excludes the money from income entirely — better than a deduction, and no itemising needed.

Calculators and reference tables. Free, no email gate, and honest about what they cannot compute.

• All calculators and tablesMap
  The calculator, every payout table, and the reference math — in one index.
• Present value of an annuityTable
  The formula and full factor table, 1 to 30 periods at 2% to 8%.
• $100,000 payout tablesTable
  Exact amortization at every rate and term.
• $200k, $300k, $500k payoutsTable
  The same exact math at larger premiums.
• Where to verify everythingMap
  AM Best, NOLHGA, NAIC, SEC, FINRA, IRS — each mapped to the question it answers.
• Annuity exam concepts
  The concepts licensing exams test, explained for understanding rather than recall.