“Money in…income out” Annuities offer lots of ways to pay yourself, your spouse, even your heirs. Life insurance companies also tend to give lots of technical terms to these payment options…but don't worry we're going to give it to you in plain English. You can use annuities’ payout options to structure income payments that are best for your situation. For instance, you may only need low monthly income today to supplement your other resources, but want to take care of a spouse or beneficiaries in the future. Perhaps a joint life annuity or one with a death benefit would suit. Or, maybe you want to time payments for when a big yearly bill is due (perhaps property tax). In this case, maybe an annual payment plan would work for you.

Income Options
First, you may select when your payments will be sent - monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually. Secondly, you can decide who will receive your payments--and for how long. Some options are:

• Payouts for as long as you live. (Annuity jargon: single life annuity)
• Payouts for as long as you and your spouse live. (Joint life annuity)
• Payouts for as long as you live, or at least a certain number of years. So if you die before that certain number of years, payments would continue to your beneficiaries. (Life annuity with period certain)
• Payouts for as long as you live, at least up to the amount you paid in. If you die before your payouts equal what you paid in, payments would continue to your beneficiaries. (Refund annuity)
• Payouts for a certain number of years. If you die before that time, payments would continue to your beneficiaries. (Period certain annuity)