PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Using Fixed Annuities to Meet Your Clients’ Investment Goals

structured to meet a client’s needs. While immediate annuities will provide payments upon purchase, deferred annuities allow clients to “flip the switch” and convert funds from an accumulation vehicle to an income stream at any time. Perhaps your client determines he or she needs income to supplement Social Security or another source of retirement income, such as a 401(k) or pension. This means your client has control over when, or if, they turn on an income stream.

• Investment goal # 5: Controlling access to beneficiaries. Your clients may want to control how the proceeds from an annuity are disbursed to loved ones after they pass away. Perhaps there are multiple beneficiaries, or a situation where at least one beneficiary isn’t good at managing money, or the purchaser wants to know the beneficiaries will receive a guaranteed income stream for their lives or for a designated period of time.

Fixed annuities can help clients allocate money to a single or multiple beneficiaries through setting up a restrictive beneficiary endorsement. A restrictive beneficiary designation endorsement gives your client the ability to structure how annuity proceeds are distributed to one or more beneficiaries. This takes the decision-making out of the hands of beneficiaries, who might not be ready for the responsibility, and into the hands of your client.

Tailoring the purchase to your client’s needs

Regardless of the intent for how the money is used, a fixed annuity can ensure a client’s principal investment is protected and available when they need it. In addition, since a fixed annuity will help your client’s funds to remain truly safe, the purchase of a fixed annuity may even allow them to take risks in other aspects of their portfolio.

Whether your client is conservative, financially aggressive, young, or in a post-retirement phase of life, a fixed annuity can help make sure he meets his financial goals and is a sustainable aspect of his overall investment plan.

1. Fixed Annuity Sales Propel Growth in the First Quarter 2016, LIMRA, May 2016, http:// www.limra.com/Posts/PR/News_Releases/ Fixed_Annuity_Sales_Propel_Growth_in_the_ First_Quarter_2016.aspx?LangType=1033.

Rich Lane is the director of individual annuity sales and marketing for Standard Insurance Company. He has been in the fixed annuities industry for almost 20 years, with an emphasis on product and distribution development for brokerages, banks and broker/dealers.

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