Annuities Funding Retirement Benefits with Annuities Life spans in the United States have been increasing for over a hundred years. It is now common for people who reach retirement age to live 20 or 30 years or more in retirement, most of those years in good health. It’s good to live a long and full life, but you want to be sure that your income lasts as long as you do, and its purchasing power is as strong as you are. How can you manage the risk of “outliving your assets”? Annuities are a unique financial product that, along with Social Security, employer pensions, your 401(k) plan, IRA and other assets, can enhance your retirement security. Discuss this option with your FSC financial advisor when mapping out your retirement strategy. In general, annuities have some very attractive features: Tax deferral on investment earnings Many investments are taxed year by year, but the investment earnings—capital gains and investment income—in annuities aren’t taxable until you withdraw money. This tax deferral is also true of 401(k)s and IRAs; however, unlike these products, there are no limits on the amount you can put into an annuity. Moreover, the minimum withdrawal requirements for annuities are much more liberal than they are for 401(k)'s and IRAs. Protection from creditors If you own an immediate annuity (that is, you are receiving money from an insurance company), generally the most that creditors can access is the payments as they’re made, since the money you gave the insurance company now belongs to the company. Some state statutes and court decisions also protect some or all of the payments from those annuities. And your money in tax-favored retirement plans, such as IRAs and 401(k)s, are generally protected, whether invested in an annuity or not. Guaranteed Lifetime income A lifetime immediate annuity converts an investment into a stream of payments that last as long as you do. In concept, the payments come from three “pockets”: Your investment, investment earnings and money from a pool of people in your group who do not live as long as actuarial tables forecast. It’s the pooling that’s unique to annuities, and it’s what enables annuity companies to be able to guarantee you a lifetime income. To arrange for an initial complimentary meeting with one of our advisors, please call us at (845) 876-1919. MLevy@FinSerCtr.com Ph.  845 - 876 - 1919 Fax: 845 - 876 - 0651 3944 Rte. 9G, Red Hook, NY 12571