Best Guaranteed Lifetime Income Annuities

What are the best guaranteed lifetime income annuities?

That’s a good question.

And I get it all the time.

“What’s the best one you’ve got?”

Here’s the answer.

There is no single best annuity.

It depends on two things.

What do you want the money to contractually do?

When do you want those contractual guarantees to start?

Key Takeaways

• There is no single best lifetime income annuity
• There are four types that provide lifetime income
• The best choice depends on when you want income to start
• Single Premium Immediate Annuities provide income within one year
• Deferred Income Annuities, QLACs, and Income Riders provide future income
• Lifetime income can be structured so 100 percent goes to beneficiaries
• Annuities should be chosen based on contractual guarantees, not opinions

The Four Types of Lifetime Income Annuities

If your goal is lifetime income, there are four types of annuities that can provide it:

• Single Premium Immediate Annuities
• Deferred Income Annuities
• Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts
• Income Riders

All four will pay you income for as long as you are breathing.

And if you’re married, they can be structured for joint lifetime income.

If You Need Income Now

If you want income to start soon, the answer is simple.

Single Premium Immediate Annuities.

If the income start date is between:

• 30 days
• Up to one year

That’s the product.

End of story.

If You Need Income Later

If you want income to start beyond one year, then we’re looking at:

• Deferred Income Annuities
• Income Riders
• Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts

This is where planning comes in.

Because now you’re choosing:

• When income starts
• How much income you want
• How the contract is structured

How QLACs Fit In

A Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract is a unique type of annuity.

It can only be used inside an IRA.

And the amount you allocate to it is excluded from Required Minimum Distribution calculations.

That can potentially help from a tax standpoint.

You Can Protect Your Beneficiaries

Let’s clear something up.

A lot of people say:

“I don’t want an annuity because if I die, the company keeps the money.”

That’s not true.

These contracts can be structured so that:

100 percent of any unused money goes to your beneficiaries.

You control that.

There Is No “Best” Company Either

People always ask:

“What’s the best annuity company?”

There isn’t one.

Annuities are commodity products.

Carriers compete for your business.

They adjust their pricing based on:

• Age brackets
• Life expectancy
• Internal needs

They are bidding for your business.

Stop Trying to Time It

Another mistake people make is trying to time annuity purchases.

Watching interest rates.

Trying to predict the Fed.

Trying to find the perfect moment.

Stop.

Interest rates play a secondary role in pricing.

Life expectancy and carrier competition drive the guarantees.

Focus on the Contractual Guarantee

This is where everything comes together.

The only thing that matters is:

What is contractually guaranteed?

Not projections.

Not hypotheticals.

Not opinions.

What the contract says will happen.

How to Find the Best Lifetime Income

So how do you actually find the best option?

You answer two questions:

What do you want the money to do?
In this case, lifetime income.

When do you want it to start?

From there, you compare all carriers for the highest contractual guarantee.

That’s the process.

If you want to see what those guarantees actually look like and compare options across all carriers, you can run real quotes here: https://www.stantheannuityman.com/ annuity-calculator/

The Bottom Line

There is no single best guaranteed lifetime income annuity.

There are four types.

The best one depends on:

• Your timeline
• Your goals
• Your situation

If you start with those two questions and focus on contractual guarantees, the right answer becomes clear.