Annuity vs Perpetuity: Key Differences Explained

July 27, 2025
7 min
Annuity vs Perpetuity: Key Differences Explained
The Annuity Man®
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What’s the difference between an annuity and a perpetuity? In this episode, Stan The Annuity Man breaks down these two income strategies, explaining how they work, when they apply, and why annuities are the practical choice for most retirees.

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0:00
Hi there, Stan the Annuity Man,

0:01
America's annuity agent, licensed in all

0:03
50 states. Today's topic might be my

0:05
favorite topic ever. So, you know, I

0:08
have a team of people that put these

0:09
topics together for me and we go over

0:11
them in a in a big meeting room and

0:13
we're drinking the sodas and things like

0:15
that and they're like, "We need to talk

0:17
about annuities and perpetuities and the

0:20
difference between the two." And I I did

0:22
a Scooby-Doo. I'm like

0:25
I was like, "What are you talking

0:26
about?" I'll tell you what we're talking

0:28
about after this.

0:31
[Music]

0:38
So, we're sitting at the at this table

0:40
and my CEO very very smart and I'm like

0:42
southern Stan, right? You know, I'm from

0:44
the South originally. Sometimes you hear

0:45
that twang coming out, right? And if

0:47
anyone else wants to send me peach

0:48
cobbler, go ahead and do that. That's my

0:50
favorite dessert. So, of course, I'm

0:52
sitting there going, "What's a

0:54
perpetuity?" Because for me, perpetuity

0:56
is my wa my wife loves me in perpetuity.

0:59
You know, politicians are stupid in

1:01
perpetuity. It means forever. It's it's

1:04
just never going to stop, right? My

1:06
wife's in the background going

1:08
force vomit. But, you know what I'm

1:10
saying? That's that's what we're

1:11
thinking as perpetuities. And so, I said

1:12
to my CEO, very smart person. I said,

1:15
"What are you talking about?" And she

1:18
said, "Oh, by the way, in a long time

1:21
ago in England, there were perpetuity

1:24
bonds that went forever and paid a

1:28
coupon forever. There was no maturity

1:30
date. There was no end date. It was a

1:32
perpetuity bond." I'm like, "Huh?"

1:35
Again, I did a Scooby-Doo. Like, that's

1:38
pretty interesting. Now, to me, having

1:40
worked for Dean Whit, Payne Weber,

1:42
Morgan Stanley, UBS, and the big

1:44
buildings, the marble buildings, man, I

1:46
looked good in the suit. had the tie and

1:47
the whole thing and the whole briefcase.

1:49
Um I guess a perpetuity type bond in

1:54
today's world would be a dividend stock,

1:56
right? Uh to me that's a perpetuity

1:59
yield that you as long as you own the

2:01
stock, it's going to pay the yield

2:02
unless I guess the company decides not

2:04
to pay that dividend. But there's a lot

2:06
of legacy stocks out there, big ones

2:08
that that are going to pay that dividend

2:09
and they're known for dividend uh

2:11
payments if you buy the stock. So

2:13
that's, you know, a perpetuity type

2:16
investment. Now with annuities, and

2:19
there's many different types of

2:20
annuities. You can't just say annuities.

2:22
Uh I love that when people say, "What's

2:24
the best annuity, Stan?" I don't know.

2:26
Tell me what you're trying to achieve.

2:27
There's no best annuity. If anyone says

2:29
that that they have it, then they're

2:31
just trying to sell you something.

2:32
They've or as my CEO says, they've only

2:34
learned one product, and that's the

2:35
product they're going to sell you

2:36
regardless of what you need or if you

2:37
need it. All right. So with annuities,

2:40
let's take an example of like a deferred

2:42
annuity. a deferred type annuity,

2:43
multi-year guarantee annuities, fixed

2:45
index annuities, multi-year guarantee

2:47
annuity, for example, you could buy a

2:48
three-year maturity or a five-year

2:50
maturity. You know, after that, it's

2:53
matured. Okay? And by the way, spoiler

2:56
alert, all annuities have what we call

2:58
an end date to the policy. A lot of

3:00
times people get the policy, they bought

3:01
a 5-year MA, but and they see in that

3:03
contract somewhere where the end date

3:05
is, you know, decades down the road.

3:07
What that means is we can get out of it

3:09
five years without penalty. You can get

3:10
your money back. But if no one contacts

3:13
you and no one ever calls you and you

3:14
forget you had the policy which will

3:16
never happen at theanuityman.com

3:18
that policy is going to end. It's not an

3:19
in perpetuity policy. Annuities are not

3:22
in perpetuity. Now asterisk to that if

3:26
you buy a lifetime income product SPIA

3:28
DIA QAC and income writer SPIA is single

3:31
premium immediate annuity. D is deferred

3:33
income annuity. Ulac is qualified

3:35
longevity annuity contract and then

3:37
income writers that can be attached to

3:38
say index annuities. the income

3:41
guarantee is in perpetuity. As long as

3:45
you are breathing, the annuity company

3:47
is on the hook to pay. So, I think that

3:51
the unique topic of the difference

3:53
between annuities and perpetuities.

3:55
First of all, we all learned something

3:57
today. Correct me if I'm wrong. Nod your

3:59
head that you didn't even know there was

4:00
a perpetuity bond. I didn't either. I

4:02
thought that was cool and it was issued

4:03
in England a long time ago. And somehow

4:06
because of the perpetuity bond, my CEO

4:08
says it's no longer available. So, of

4:10
course, I said, "Well, is it still in

4:12
perpetuity?" I mean, I don't know. But

4:14
the point is I had to ask my friend um

4:16
Mosha Mleski because he's so smart and

4:18
he's done all this research on tantines

4:20
and I'm sure he if I brought perpetuity

4:22
bonds to Mosha Mleski, he was recently

4:24
on my podcast. I'd encourage you to view

4:26
that. He'd he'd be like, "Yeah, the

4:28
perpetuity." He'd go down the rabbit

4:30
hole because he's so smart. Every time I

4:32
ask Mosha a question, he goes, "Do you

4:34
want the one minute, 10 minute, or one

4:35
hour version of the answer?" I love

4:37
that. I think if I said, "Hey, Mosha,

4:39
how you feeling? How you doing today?"

4:41
He'd be like, "Do you want the one

4:42
minute, the 10-minute, or the one hour

4:44
version of the answer?" I mean, he's

4:47
that smart. But I think that what you

4:49
need to understand with annuities is

4:52
that lifetime income is as long as

4:54
you're breathing. So, that's in

4:55
perpetuity, right? I mean, as long as

4:56
you're breathing, if you live for people

4:58
say, "What if I live to 150?" They're

4:59
going to pay. Well, what if I lived to

5:01
177? They're going to pay. Well, what if

5:04
I live to 200? Well, they're going to

5:06
pay. they meaning the annuity company.

5:08
That's the transfer of risk. You're

5:09
transferring the risk to the annuity

5:11
company to pay you as for as long as you

5:14
are breathing. And that's what I always

5:16
tell people. There's no ROI, return on

5:19
investment. There's no ROI till you die.

5:20
It's a really neat rhyme, but it's true.

5:23
And we don't know that ROI until you

5:25
die. And I and I make this offer to

5:27
everybody. I will fly to your funeral. I

5:29
will sing ac capella, a song that I've

5:31
made up about ROI, and I will include

5:33
your ROI on that annuity. No one to this

5:35
date has taken me up on that, which is

5:37
sad because my voice remains untapped

5:40
and unknown to the musical public. I

5:43
digress. The point is this. Annuities,

5:46
you have to understand you buy them for

5:47
the contractual guarantees. You own them

5:48
for what they will do, not what they

5:50
might do. Deferred annuities like MAS

5:54
and index annuities, they have they have

5:56
an end date to that annuity. Okay? They

5:59
they just do. Um but immediate

6:02
annuities, deferred income annuities,

6:03
qualified longevity annuity contracts

6:05
and if you buy the and attach the income

6:07
writer for lifetime income to say an

6:08
index annuity, those income guarantees

6:11
are in perpetuity. So the lifetime

6:15
income is in perpetuity. My wife of 34

6:17
years, Christine's love for me is in

6:19
perpetuity, right, Christine? Hope

6:21
you're watching this. My daughters,

6:22
well, forget that. Um and and

6:25
politicians in DC will be crooked and

6:27
stupid in perpetuity. Can we all agree

6:29
that all of those are in perpetuity? So,

6:32
that is my

6:34
I was just rolling on annuities and

6:36
perpetuities. That should be a t-shirt.

6:39
I really believe that. Maybe. I don't

6:42
know. So, when you go to the cocktail

6:44
party next time, walk up to someone you

6:46
really don't like and say, "Hey, do you

6:48
know what a perpetuity is? Do you have a

6:49
perpetuity bond?" And if they go, "No."

6:51
You can say, "I do because I bought a

6:53
SPIA from Stan the Annuity Man for

6:55
lifetime income." And that's lifetime

6:57
income is in perpetuity. Get me a

6:59
scotch, right? Go get me a beer player

7:02
because I just one uped you. All right,

7:04
I'm having fun. Listen, do me a favor.

7:06
Hit the subscribe button and I will see

7:08
you on the next Stan the Annuity Man

7:11
YouTube video and I'm going to shoot

7:13
them in perpetuity.

7:15
[Music]

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