The 3 Phases of Income Rider Taxation: Shootin’ It Straight With Stan

September 6, 2026
9 min
The 3 Phases of Income Rider Taxation: Shootin’ It Straight With Stan
The Annuity Man®
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Tired of annuity hype, bonuses, and rosy projections? In this episode, Stan The Annuity Man breaks down the three phases of income rider taxation and shows why the real value of annuities doesn’t show up until your account hits zero.

In this episode, The Annuity Man discussed:
- Contractual guarantees vs. hypothetical projections
- What income riders are and how they work
- The three phases of income rider taxation
- Solving for longevity risk and building an income floor
- How to evaluate annuities and run income rider quotes

Key Takeaways:
- Annuities should be purchased for their contractual guarantees, not for hypothetical growth stories or back-tested projections.
- Income riders attached to indexed annuities are designed to deliver lifetime income, and the focus should remain on the income rider, not the index side.
- The taxation of income riders moves through three stages—gains, principal, then the insurer’s money—each with different tax implications.
- The true power of lifetime income products only appears after the account value hits zero, when the insurance company is still obligated to keep paying.
- Using annuities to create an income floor can reduce the fear of outliving your money and help you invest more confidently with the rest of your portfolio.

"When you buy an annuity, you're going to get a policy. That policy is a contract from a life insurance company that issues the annuity. So buy it for the contractual guarantees. Don't buy it for the dream." — Stan The Annuity Man

Watch and Enjoy,
Stan The Annuity Man

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0:00
Welcome to Shooting it Straight with

0:01
Stan. I'm your host Stan the Annuity

0:03
Man, America's annuity agent, licensed

0:05
in all 50 states and Ptoica,

0:08
founder of Contractual Guarantees Only,

0:10
which means that when you look at

0:12
annuities, you own them for what they

0:14
will do, not what they might do. Do not

0:16
buy hypotheticals, theoreticals,

0:19
projections, back tested, unicorn

0:21
chasing the butterfly, too good to be

0:23
true nonsense.

0:25
Because when you buy an annuity, you're

0:27
going to get a policy. See, that policy

0:29
is a contract from a life insurance

0:31
company that issues the annuities. So,

0:33
buy it for the contractual guarantees.

0:35
Don't buy it for the dream. You're going

0:37
to own the contractual [clears throat]

0:40
realities.

0:42
This is water. Hold on.

0:47
Topic of the day. The three phases of

0:49
income writer taxation.

0:52
Stan, what's an income writer? It's not

0:54
somebody that's on the bus. You know

0:56
what I'm saying? Income writer is a

0:58
contractual guarantee, lifetime income

1:01
attachment to a policy. We use indexed

1:04
annuities, fixed index annuities to

1:06
deliver that income writers um

1:08
guarantee. Draw a line down a blank

1:10
sheet of paper visually. This side's the

1:12
indexed annuity. We could care less

1:15
about that side. We don't care. We won't

1:17
talk to you about it. We won't talk

1:19
about it in caps and spreads and

1:21
participation rates. Nonsense. It's a

1:23
bad CD product. But it delivers

1:25
efficiently and cost-effectively that

1:28
income writer guarantee. So again, index

1:31
annuity la

1:33
income writer income writer income

1:35
writer.

1:37
So for lifetime income, we're quoting

1:39
all carriers A+ or better. Income

1:41
writers and then looking for the highest

1:44
number. A+ or better highest number. A+

1:47
or better highest number. Ignore A+ or

1:50
better highest number. Ignore. Ignore

1:52
the index annuity side.

1:54
That's it. That's how easy it is. If you

1:57
asked the two questions we asked, what

1:58
do you want the money to contractually

2:00
do? When do you want those contractual

2:01
guarantees to start?

2:04
From those two answers, we can determine

2:06
what product type or strategy is going

2:08
to provide the highest contractual

2:09
guaranteed income.

2:12
But there's three phases of taxation on

2:15
this side.

2:18
So the first phase when you start your

2:20
lifetime income stream will be the gains

2:22
coming out last in first out. Gains

2:24
first coming out. That's the first stage

2:27
of taxation with income writers. So it's

2:30
let's just say you bought it for seven

2:31
years it deferred for seven years. It's

2:33
gains first coming out. [clears throat]

2:35
The second stage of taxation is when you

2:39
get to the principal amount. Okay? and

2:43
that's not going to be taxed at all

2:45
because you're in the principal amount.

2:49
Now, when you're in the principal,

2:50
you're also in into the index side and

2:53
that's going to be either zero or one or

2:55
two. So, you got to factor that in. But

2:56
in essence, there's not going to be

2:58
taxes because you're just taking down

3:00
the principal. The third phase of the

3:02
taxation is when you draw the account

3:04
down to zero, then all of it's tax.

3:08
All of it's taxable because you're in

3:10
the annuity company's pocket.

3:13
The true value proposition of a lifetime

3:16
stream annuity, lifetime income stream

3:17
annuity, and that's SPSDS QAX income

3:20
writers, which we're talking about, is

3:22
when you draw the account down to zero

3:25
and the annuity company's still on the

3:27
hook to pay. There's no ROI, return on

3:30
investment. There's no ROI until you

3:32
die. Up until that point, it's a pure

3:34
transfer of risk for as long as you're

3:37
breathing or on a respirator. Well, S,

3:40
how about if you're on a coma, one of

3:41
those those iron lung things, but you're

3:43
still breathing. Annuity is still going

3:45
to pay.

3:48
Well, I don't know if that's a good

3:49
investment. First of all, annuities

3:50
aren't investment. They're contracts.

3:52
Lifetime income, which annuities can the

3:56
only product that can provide lifetime

3:58
income. Please don't say 30-year bond.

4:00
What if you live 31 years, Chester? Slow

4:02
it down. It's the only product category

4:05
that can pro provide a lifetime income

4:06
for as long as you're breathing. And if

4:08
you set it up joint with your spouse, as

4:10
long as one of you is breathing, and we

4:12
can set it up contractually so that when

4:14
the second spouse dies, whatever's left

4:16
in the account goes to the family, not

4:18
the annuity company.

4:21
We can customize the structure,

4:27
but I wanted to cover the taxation of of

4:30
income writers because there's three

4:31
levels. The goal is with all lifetime

4:34
income products is get to level three.

4:36
Level three is the accounts at zero and

4:38
they are on the hook to pay. They

4:40
meaning the annuity company.

4:43
That's the value proposition.

4:46
There's no ROI until you die.

4:51
Just like social security, it's the best

4:53
inflation annuity on the planet, but

4:55
it's a lifetime income annuity. It's

4:56
going to pay as long as you are

4:58
breathing, right? Same thing. Lifetime

5:02
income with with annuities.

5:07
and annuitities. We have a monopoly on

5:09
life income. I'm the only one out here

5:11
that blows the horn for that and pounds

5:13
the table for that. Everyone else is

5:15
trying to sell growth and potential and

5:17
hypothetical and upfront bonuses. No,

5:22
we're solving for longevity risk. What's

5:24
that mean, Stan? I hear that all the

5:25
time from the financial journalist.

5:27
What's solving for longevity risk mean?

5:29
It means the fear of outliving your

5:31
money. And in chapter two of your life,

5:34
you better put an income floor in place

5:36
that's going to be there as long as you

5:38
are breathing.

5:41
And if you do that, you'll also be a

5:43
better investor if you stay in the

5:44
markets with the other part of your

5:46
money. Never ever buy an annuity for

5:48
market growth ever. There's three types.

5:51
Don't do it. We use index annuities as a

5:53
delivery system for the income writers.

5:56
Now, you can go to my site. I've written

5:58
a owner's manual on income writers also

6:01
on other products. You can download them

6:03
all for free. You can run income writer

6:06
quotes 247 365 without putting in your

6:10
name, your email, or your phone. You can

6:13
get real quotes. I'm the only person

6:15
doing that. Everyone else has sign up.

6:18
Sign up or create an account. Give me a

6:20
break. I'm not in the data business. I'm

6:23
in the annuity advice business and the

6:26
annuity recommendation business. We sell

6:28
more annuities than anybody on the

6:30
planet. Why? Because they're contracts.

6:33
Why? Because you own them for what they

6:35
will do, not what they might do. Why?

6:37
Because you make your decision on your

6:39
terms and on your time frame. And now

6:41
you have a place to go. Because I just

6:43
flipped the site. I just redid the site.

6:45
We've been working on it a while. And I

6:46
made the decision. We're not going to

6:48
get any. We're not going to ask for

6:49
anyone's information.

6:51
If you want to deal with us, and you

6:53
should and you should and you should

6:55
consider us because I am going to shoot

6:58
it straight. I'm telling you, I'm going

7:01
to tell you the truth. You can now run

7:04
quotes and get real numbers and not be

7:07
worried about your information on the

7:08
internet. Because other sites, what do

7:11
what do they do? They take your

7:13
information, they sell it for $150 to

7:15
$350 per lead, and they sell it to six

7:18
people at a time. pretty good business

7:20
if you're a misenthrope

7:22
or a sociopath.

7:28
But yeah, there's three levels of income

7:29
writer taxation. You know, I'd like to

7:31
have that conversation with you.

7:33
Schedule a call. You can book a call

7:34
with me. If you don't get me, demand me

7:37
if you want to talk to me. Some people

7:39
don't. That's okay, too. Um, and we'll

7:41
go over everything. We go slow. We go at

7:44
your pace. If you're ready to buy,

7:46
great. We can get the application going.

7:48
And by the way, my staff in the Las

7:51
Vegas office, we have a headquarters in

7:52
Las Vegas. Only office, we call it the

7:54
headquarters. Um, everybody in the

7:56
office is licensed in all 50 states, not

7:59
on commission. Best staff in the

8:01
business. We're triple. Right now, we're

8:03
triple the amount of staff of our

8:04
closest competitor and we're hiring

8:06
every single month.

8:09
Why?

8:11
Because you need to not be worried about

8:14
things. You need to not worry about the

8:15
application. We'll do it from start to

8:17
finish. Fastest, easiest application

8:20
process in the business. We do it

8:22
everything. Soup to nuts, turnkey.

8:26
They're here to help. And and we're open

8:28
12 hours a day. East Coast 8:30 in the

8:31
morning to 8:30 at night, which means

8:32
West Coast 5:30 to 5:30. We're up.

8:34
That's Monday through Friday. 12 hours a

8:36
day, eight hours on Saturday. Nobody's

8:39
even close.

8:40
Why? Because we want to work around your

8:42
schedule.

8:44
and we will right now we're running we

8:47
can do same day applications. Um

8:50
we'll see what happens. You know the new

8:52
site is creating a lot of buzz and

8:53
there's a lot of quotes and there's a

8:55
lot of visitors and there's a lot of

8:56
activity and I'm hiring as fast as I

8:58
can. But I still own the company. My

9:01
wife and I still own the company. It's

9:02
familyowned. We do have a good um

9:04
continuation plan if something happens

9:06
to me. You know, I tell people all the

9:08
time this is like Jimmy Dean sausage.

9:09
Jimmy Dean's been dead for 12 years.

9:11
They sell a crapload of sausage, no pun

9:13
intended. When I when I die and go to

9:15
annuity wherever, heaven or purgatory,

9:18
however you want to look at it, the

9:20
annuity man will be alive and kicking

9:22
from a brand standpoint. So, they'll

9:25
always be here. All right. So, income

9:29
writers, great product, flexible

9:31
product, lifetime income product

9:32
delivered by an index annuity, which we

9:34
hold our nose on and we only look at the

9:36
income writer side. But let's have that

9:38
conversation. Schedule a call call with

9:40
me that is shooting it straight with

9:42
Stan. My name is Stan the annuity man.

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