Articles >> Variable Annuities

Much time and effort has been spent comparing variable annuities with other financial instruments - particularly mutual funds, which they closely resemble. Much less time has been devoted to comparing variable annuities with each other. Presumably, this is because the mistake of choosing the ...

Variable annuities have much in common with mutual funds. In many respects, variable annuities can be described as mutual funds wrapped up inside an annuity contract. Since variable annuities and mutual funds are popular investment vehicles chosen by millions of people, both their similarities ...

Variable annuities are currently riding a wave of popularity, notwithstanding that variable annuity investment is reputedly complicated and difficult. Fortunately, the principles of efficient shopping can also apply to variable annuity investment. If there is one thing that Americans know how ...

No investment product has created as much controversy or spawned so much division as the variable annuity. Since its introduction in the early 1980s, it has gone through periods of tremendous popularity and relative neglect. A sizable body of literature, both technical and popular, has ...

All large insurance firms provide their own brand of variable annuities, and plans labeled “best variable annuities” by one insurer can differ significantly from another. In part, this is because variable annuity plans are brought to market in order to keep up with the rate of inflation. ...

Annuities are insurance products in which the annuity-holder makes a payment or a number of payments to the company offering the annuities, in exchange for a guaranteed stream of income for the rest of the his or her life or up to a pre-agreed expiry date of the annuity. Based on their ...