Annuities That Help You Qualify for Medicaid and Protect Your Assets
Long term health care costs remain high and growing. Because of this retirees with significant assets should plan for their potential Medicaid eligibility. A Medicaid qualified annuity can play a part in this planning when one spouse has to enter a nursing home leaving the other one at home. Medicaid picks up the long term care cost of elderly who are impoverished. Long term care is very expensive and can eat up savings fast. The elder may not be able to leave a legacy to their children. Medicaid is a federal program but handled at the local level by your State. State restrictions and regulations on Medicaid vary so you always need to be aware of your own states’ Medicaid policies. Nevertheless, simply giving your assets away and then immediately applying for Medicaid is unacceptable under federal rules . To be safe you need to irrevocably transfer assets 60 months prior to applying. Anything shorter will prompt your state Medicaid office to attribute those assets to you and require you to pay your Medicaid monthly rate (state dependent) until all those assets have been exhausted. Only then will Medicaid foot the bill. If you still have substantial assets, you can [...]
Categories: fixed annnuities, Medicaid annuity Tags: Medicaid annuity
CD versus Fixed Annuity Comparison
CD versus Deferred Annuity Comparison Safety, Return, and Investment Time Retirees with cash often seek an investment with a lot of safety. Holding a certificate of deposit (CD) gives you that safety but sacrifices investment return. Let’s compare a CD to a deferred fixed annuity for safety, return and investment time. Then you can choose what’s best for you. The Safety Issue Banks offer CDs. The Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) guarantees any investment in a bank up to $250,000 (through 2009) against the bank’s failure. If you plan to invest more than that, spread it between different banks – not different accounts in the same bank – so all your holdings are FDIC guaranteed. Bank failures are not all that uncommon. A deferred fixed annuity hasn’t any FDIC protection. But it’s still considered a conservative investment. First it’s backed by the financial strength of the company that issues the annuity. So, before buying a deferred fixed annuity, check the insurance company’s financial rating. Independent rating companies such as Moody’s, A.M. Best, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch provide this information to you. As a safety backup in case of failure, many insurance companies are affiliated with a guaranty association in [...]
Categories: CD, fixed annnuities Tags: cd vs fixed annuity comparison
Pros and Cons of Fixed Annuities
For retirees, the most attractive feature of fixed annuities is the assurance that it’ll provide a fixed income for life. But all investments have their good and bad points; and fixed annuities are no different. Let’s overview some of their advantages and disadvantages summarized in the table. Advantages The three important features of an annuity are tax-deferred accumulation, guarantee of principal, and guaranteed life income. The tax-deferred accumulation – in comparison to a similar taxable investment – allows for greater accumulation since earnings are not taxed away annually. Annuities have been conservative vehicles for investment. Of course you should always check out the strength of any insurance company you’re considering buying from. A good source is to get the Comdex rating of 80 or better from Vital Signs (see a financial professional) or a Weiss rating of B or better. With the guaranteed life income payout option, you don’t have to worry about market downturns that could rob you of income. Also if you can put off your payout until later, you’re monthly payout will increase not only from increased earnings but from your reduced life expectancy. Disadvantages Because an annuity is a long-term investment with tax-deferred status, the IRS [...]
Categories: fixed annnuities Tags: fixed annuities
Fixed Immediate Annuity Can Eliminate the Required Minimum Distribution Calculation
Do you own an IRA, hold a Keogh, or still have assets in a qualified retirement plan that was offered by a previous employer? Then perhaps now you have to think about the best way to withdraw the funds, as the IRS requires at age 70½, while making sure that you don’t outlive your income. One choice is to remove the money all at once and pay the tax. That step, however, may put you in a higher tax bracket is is usually not wise. Another option is to go along with the government’s guidelines and calculate the Required Minimum Distribution that you must withdraw each year after you turn 70½. But what if there was a way to not have to do those calculations and also not worry about tax law changes and market fluctuations that could affect retirement accounts every year? A tax-qualified, fixed immediate annuity will spread the tax liability over your projected lifetime and automatically satisfies the IRS requirements, so you will never have to calculate the required minimum distribution. A check will arrive every month, or whichever schedule you select, for the rest of your life—no matter how many years that might be (guarantee [...]
Categories: fixed annnuities, immediate annuities Tags: fixed immediate annuity, required minimum distribution
Seniors Can Protect themselves from Declining Short Term Rates
Fixed annuities can be popular among seniors. They are easy to buy, you know exactly how long you must tie up your money, and the IRS will let you defer the income tax on the earnings. But one point that may have stopped you from investing in an annuity is that some traditional fixed annuities do not lock in the interest rate for the duration of the contract. This means that after the initial period, which is typically one year, the return that the annuity company pays could possibly go higher or lower each year thereafter. However, there is a type of annuity that fixes the return for the entire contract’s term. This way you will know exactly how much you’ll earn while you own the contract–see the fixed annuity calculator for a projection. CD-annuities (also known as multi-year guarantee annuities) provide level interest rates for the entire term so you won’t get any surprise notices during this time. You select the term, which generally ranges from three to ten years when you make the investment. At the end of the term, you will usually have a 30-day window to withdraw all or part of your money, or renew the contract [...]
Categories: annuity rates, fixed annnuities Tags: cd annuity, mutli-year guranatee
Pass-through Annuities Can Offer Competitive Returns
Many seniors purchase fixed annuities for potential safety, tax savings, and asset protection. In some cases, insurance companies will offer a higher interest rate for a limited time period to encourage those investments. But what happens after that time period ends? Other than the minimum rate guarantee, do you have any assurance that you will still get a good return? Pass-through annuities could possibly reduce that concern by limiting the amount of money the company makes on your investment. To achieve a basic understanding about how this works, let’s look at a hypothetical example (please note that this example is for illustration purposes only and is not based upon the performance of any particular annuity product). Say you bought a fixed annuity that had the traditional method of crediting interest. If the first year’s rate included a 5% bonus, plus the 3% minimum, you could be looking at 8%. And you might think that’s pretty good. Then year two rolls around and it’s time for rate renewal. The annuity company might only be contractually required to the minimum interest rate, even if they earned more than that on your premium payments. With a pass-through annuity you can potentially achieve a [...]
Categories: fixed annnuities Tags: pass-through annuity
Fixed Immediate Annuities Can Offer Flexibility for Your Future
Stability and safety are important to many seniors, and these are only two of the reasons why immediate annuities are popular investments. A check arrives every month and part of the income is considered a tax-free return of your principal. As long as the annuity company is financially sound, the payments will continue for the life of the contract (annuities are guaranteed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing company). However, consumers sometimes believe that immediate annuities are illiquid, irreversible investments, and cannot provide for future lifestyle changes. Nonetheless, there are some immediate annuities with options that may add flexibility to your financial plan. Immediate annuities can possibly include an option that would allow you to receive extra cash at specific anniversary dates. For example, this might be at the 5th, 10th, or 15th anniversary of your investment. Exercising this option will reduce your future payments (the distribution may be fully taxable, so consult with your tax professional). Suppose you needed money to cover an emergency, like paying for caregivers or a home repair. Some annuity companies will let you take up to six payments at once. You would not, however, receive checks for the following six months (payments may [...]
Categories: fixed annnuities, immediate annuities Tags: fixed immediate annuities
Fixed Annuities Tailored for Seniors
Retirees want to secure their future financial status. Fixed annuities can play a big part. Let’s consider how fixed annuities can help individuals and families create a future supplemental retirement income. While fixed annuities provide several benefits in the form of increased rate of growth in savings through tax-deferred growth, competitive returns, and security (through various guarantees) they also offer another important benefit– insurance against financial instability. You can invest as much as you want in a fixed annuity, leave it there to grow as per the rate of interest promised to you, and withdraw money when you need it. Lastly, you have several choices about how and when to withdraw your money. Here are several benefits that contribute to stability: 1. A fixed annuity is often an appropriate choice for seniors because it offers the promise of a steady income when annuitized. Buy ‘term certain’ fixed annuities if you want to collect income over a particular time period only. Or buy a life annuity if you want to receive income for your entire life. 2. Several fixed annuities offer special features that can be useful for seniors. You can receive systematic or flexible withdrawals. This gives you the freedom and [...]
Categories: fixed annnuities Tags: fixed annuities, seniors
