Wieben Insurance Services

Annuities......

As people are living longer the fear of outliving your assets becomes very real. The uncertainty with corporate pensions, the Social Security system and a volatile stock market do little to calm the fears of running out of money. One answer could lie with a little-known insurance product "Annuities". At Wieben Insurance Services we can offer a broad array of annuities to fit your personal needs.

An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company that is designed to meet retirement and other long-range goals, under which you make a lump-sum payment or series of payments. In return, the insurer agrees to make periodic payments to you beginning immediately or at some future date.

Annuities typically offer tax-deferred growth of earnings and may include a death benefit that will pay your beneficiary a specified minimum amount, such as your total purchase payments. While tax is deferred on earnings growth, when withdrawals are taken from the annuity, gains are taxed at ordinary income rates, and not capital gains rates. If you withdraw your money early from an annuity, you may pay substantial surrender charges to the insurance company, as well as tax penalties.

Fixed Annuity

In a fixed annuity, the insurance company agrees to pay you no less than a specified rate of interest during the time that your account is growing. The insurance company also agrees that the periodic payments will be a specified amount per dollar in your account. These periodic payments may last for a definite period, such as 20 years, or an indefinite period, such as your lifetime or the lifetime of you and your spouse.

Immediate Annuity

An immediate annuity provides protection against outliving your assets. Advances in technology and healthier lifestyles are allowing Americans to live longer than ever.

Choice (s)

You can choose from several different income payment options for your immediate annuity. Some of the most common include:

Fixed period - You decide how many years you want to receive income payments and the amount of each income payment is reported to you.

Fixed amount - You decide how much you want your income payment to be and the calculation of how long the payments last will be done for you.

Life - With a life payout option, you will receive payments for the remainder of your life. The risk with this option is that if you die before receiving the full-accumulated value of your investment, you could lose some of the value of your investment.

Life with period certain - With this option, equal payments are made to you throughout your lifetime or to your beneficiary for a guaranteed minimum period of time.

Life with refund - Under this option you elect to receive a life income; but if you don't live long enough to receive all your premiums back, it will be refunded to your named beneficiary.

Joint and survivorship - This payout option provides for payments over the lives of two individuals and can also be combined with period certain options.