5 Reasons Why Annuities Without Cash Value Is Best

• Annuities without cash value provide more guaranteed income for the same premium as annuities with cash value
• An income annuity should only be a piece of your retirement strategy; the money you need to access for emergencies should be kept elsewhere

To provide retirement security — which is quite hard to achieve since employers got rid of pensions — we use annuities. These are insurance contracts offering lifelong retirement income, also known as income annuities. Annuities without cash value. And they’re the best way to get what you need from an annuity: protection from running out of money. Here are 5 reasons why an annuity without cash value is best.

1. You Get More Income

If you’re looking for guaranteed retirement income, then you should choose the annuity that gives you the most income. And, because all they do is offer income, income annuities will give you more income than their counterparts with cash value, namely fixed indexed and variable annuities. To cite a specific example, let’s look at Wesley, a 45-year-old preparing for retirement. He recently received a bequest of $100,000 that he wants to put towards a retirement annuity. If he chooses a plain-vanilla income annuity, that’ll get him $19,557 per year starting at age 70. But, if he chooses a fixed indexed annuity from the same insurer, he’ll get 44% less, or $10,995 per year.

2. It’s Fully Guaranteed

Insurance is for guarantees. And, that works best if you know exactly what you’re going to get out of it the moment you put something in. With cash value annuities, you don't know for sure what you're going to get, leaving you wondering whether you made the right choice for decades.

At Blueprint Income, we only work with annuities that are fully guaranteed. This, of course, is subject to the claims-paying ability of the insurer, which is why we only work with income annuities that providing ratings of B+ or better. And it also means there are no complicated formulas, participation fees, caps, spreads, maintenance & expense charges, etc. There’s just the amount you put in, and the amount the insurer promises on the other end. With contracts like this, you don’t have buyer’s remorse or spend the rest of your life wondering whether you made the right choice.

3. It Should Only Be a Piece of Your Retirement

Other types of annuities exist to provide not just income, but also cash liquidity (the ability to surrender or withdraw) and upside potential (ability to benefit if the market does well). These are known as fixed indexed and variable annuities. But, as we know from 2-in-1 shampoo+conditioner, all-in-one solutions rarely work. Instead of going for an all-in-one, define your goals for retirement and choose the approaches that do the best job meeting that goal. For all of the following goals, the cash value + income annuities are an inferior solution:

1. Generating Income — You need some income in retirement that’s dependable. And, you can get the most guaranteed income with a standard income annuity.
2. Market Upside — You want to grow your assets. With the money you’re okay taking risk with, a low cost index fund should give you the best access to upside.
3. Maintaining Some Liquidity — You need access to your funds in case of emergency. That money should be easy to access and stable, such as in a money market fund.

4. It Prevents You from Making Bad Decisions

Did you know that more than 25% of people take early withdrawals from their 401(k)s, paying a 10% IRS penalty? Having access to your retirement savings like that often causes us to make bad decisions. And, having an annuity with cash value is no different. If we have the ability to withdraw from our retirement savings, then we might actually do it. But if this money is for retirement, then you shouldn’t. So, an annuity without cash value saves you from yourself.

5. It Does What No Market-Based Investment Can

Neither stocks or bonds prevent you from outliving your money because they provide no promises of the money lasting as long as you’re alive. In addition, pure income annuities without cash value are fully protected from market risk. In a choppy market or recession, you’ll feel more secure (and be less likely to make rash decisions) knowing that the amount you’ve been promised is exactly what you’ll get.

The Three-Legged Stool

There’s an old retirement adage about the three-legged stool. The first leg is Social Security, the second is pensions, and the third is personal savings. Today, the second leg of the stool is broken, and thus all of our retirements are wobbly and unstable.

It’s this leg of the stool that we’re trying to repair at Blueprint Income. Using the simplest, lowest cost, most guaranteed annuities in our easy-to-use income annuities online marketplace. And the annuities we’ve chosen — namely those without cash value — provide something that looks the most like a pension. It’s all about the income, it’s guaranteed, it is a piece of your retirement, and it prevents you from making bad decisions.

How Can I Get Started?

An income annuity is a contract between you and top rated insurance companies. Our online annuity marketplace is made up of the top insurance companies offering income and fixed annuities. If you're ready to start exploring your options for guaranteed income in retirement, check out our offerings in the income annuity marketplace.

If you're just starting to consider your annuity options, we can help get your annuity journey started today:

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