If you are retiring in Central Florida, you have almost certainly heard annuities mentioned somewhere. Maybe at a steak-dinner seminar in Orlando, maybe from a neighbor in a Lake Mary community, maybe in an ad promising income you can never outlive.
Annuities are one of the most talked-about and most misunderstood products in retirement planning. For some Florida retirees they solve a real problem. For others they are expensive, illiquid, and completely unnecessary. The honest answer to “are annuities a good idea” is that it depends entirely on your income gap, your health, your other assets, and what you are actually trying to fix.
Most of what you will read about annuities online is written by someone trying to sell you one, which is why it reads like a brochure: guaranteed income, no state tax, call now. This guide is different. It gives you the straight version, including the parts a salesperson tends to skip. What an annuity is, the types that exist, the specific reasons Florida changes the math, when they genuinely make sense, when to walk away, what the fees really cost, how they are taxed, how to vet the insurance company, and the exact questions to ask before you sign anything.
Nothing here is personalized advice, and I am not going to tell you to buy one. I am going to give you enough to decide whether the conversation is even worth having.
Want the condensed version to keep and review at your own pace? Download our free Annuities Guide, a plain-English breakdown of the types, the tradeoffs, and the questions to ask before you buy.
What an Annuity Actually Is
An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company. You hand over money, either as a lump sum or a series of payments, and in return the company promises to pay you income, either starting now or at some point in the future, for a set number of years or for the rest of your life.
That is the whole idea. You are buying a stream of guaranteed income, and the specific risk you are buying protection against is outliving your savings. In an era when very few private-sector workers have a pension and Social Security replaces only a fraction of pre-retirement income, an annuity is essentially a way to build your own pension.
There are two phases. During the accumulation phase, common in deferred annuities, your money grows on a tax-deferred basis. During the payout phase, the contract converts your balance into income payments. Some annuities skip the first phase entirely and start paying almost immediately.
Two features are common to nearly all of them. Growth inside the contract is tax-deferred, meaning you do not pay tax on the earnings until you take them out. And there is generally no annual contribution limit the way there is with an IRA or 401(k), which is part of why they appeal to people who have already maxed out their other retirement accounts.
The word that matters most in that whole description is “insurance company.” An annuity is not a bank product and not a market investment. It is an insurance contract, and every guarantee in it rests on the financial strength of the company that issued it. Hold onto that, because it comes back later when we talk about how to vet a carrier.
The Types of Annuities, Explained Plainly
Not all annuities are the same, and the differences are where most of the confusion and most of the bad purchases happen. Here are the categories that matter.
Fixed annuities. A guaranteed interest rate for a set period, conceptually similar to a bank CD. Your principal is protected, the growth rate is predictable, and there is no stock market exposure. Simple, and the right starting point for anyone who values certainty over upside. A multi-year guaranteed annuity, or MYGA, is the version that locks a rate for a specific number of years, and it is the most direct annuity-versus-CD comparison.
Fixed indexed annuities. Your return is linked to a market index such as the S&P 500, but with a floor that protects your principal from market losses. When the index rises, you are credited interest, usually up to a cap or limited by a participation rate. When the index falls, you do not lose principal. You are trading some of the market’s upside for protection against its downside. These have grown popular with Florida retirees looking for a middle ground, and they are also the type most aggressively marketed, so they deserve the closest reading of the caps and participation rates.
Variable annuities. Your money goes into investment subaccounts that behave like mutual funds. More upside potential, but real downside risk, because the account can lose value. These often carry optional income riders at additional cost and tend to have the highest fees of any annuity type, sometimes two to three percent or more per year once you total the mortality and expense charges, administrative fees, and rider costs. Read these especially carefully.
Immediate annuities, or SPIAs. A Single Premium Immediate Annuity converts a lump sum into income that begins right away, typically within a year. This is the purest form of “buy a pension.” If you have a gap between your essential expenses and your guaranteed income, a SPIA is the most direct tool to close it, and because it is simple, it is one of the hardest for a salesperson to load with hidden fees.
Deferred income annuities and QLACs. A deferred income annuity delays payments until a future date, sometimes decades out. A Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract, or QLAC, is a specific version you can hold inside an IRA with special tax treatment, designed to start payments late, often in your 80s, purely as insurance against a very long life. This is longevity planning rather than income planning, and it can also reduce required minimum distributions on the money used to fund it, a wrinkle we cover in the RMD guide for Orlando retirees.
Which type fits depends on whether your goal is guaranteed income now, protected growth, or insurance against outliving your money at extreme age. Getting the type wrong is the most common and most expensive mistake in this whole area. Someone who wanted simple guaranteed income and was sold a complex variable annuity with three riders has the wrong product, no matter how well it was explained.
If keeping these types straight feels like a lot, our free Annuities Guide lays them out side by side in a format you can print and reference. Grab your copy here.
Annuities vs. the Alternatives: CDs, Bonds, and Staying Invested
One of the most useful things you can do before considering an annuity is understand what you are giving up by choosing one. Here is how an annuity stacks against the other places a cautious retiree parks money.
Annuity vs. CD. A multi-year fixed annuity and a bank CD are close cousins. Both lock a rate for a term. The differences: the annuity grows tax-deferred while a CD’s interest is taxed every year, the annuity often pays a somewhat higher rate, and the annuity is not FDIC insured but is instead backed by the insurer and the state guaranty association. The CD is more liquid, since breaking it usually costs only a few months of interest, while an annuity’s surrender charges are steeper and last longer. For money you truly will not touch for several years, the annuity’s tax deferral and higher rate can win. For money you might need, the CD’s liquidity matters more.
Annuity vs. bonds or a bond ladder. This is the comparison that matters most for retirees building an income floor, and it deserves its own treatment, which we gave it in Annuity vs. Bond Ladder for Guaranteed Retirement Income. The short version: a bond ladder gives you control, liquidity, and access to your principal, but it does not protect against outliving your money, because when the ladder is spent, it is gone. A lifetime annuity keeps paying no matter how long you live, but you generally give up access to the principal. The right answer depends on whether your bigger fear is losing control of your money or running out of it.
Annuity vs. staying invested in the market. Keeping your money in a diversified portfolio offers the highest long-term growth potential and full liquidity, but it exposes you to sequence-of-returns risk, the danger that a downturn early in retirement forces you to sell assets while they are down and permanently damages the portfolio. An annuity removes that risk for the portion of money inside it, in exchange for lower growth potential. Many good plans use both: keep the growth engine invested, and use an annuity to guarantee the floor so you are never forced to sell into a crash.
The honest framing is that an annuity is rarely the best tool for growth and rarely the worst tool for guaranteed income. It occupies a specific job. If you do not need that job done, you do not need the annuity.
Why Florida Specifically Changes the Calculation
Annuities are sold in all fifty states, but several Florida realities genuinely shift the math for retirees here. This is the part national articles miss.
No state income tax. Florida does not tax income at the state level, and that includes annuity distributions, Social Security, and pension income. You still owe federal tax, but a retiree in a state with a five percent income tax would pay five thousand dollars on one hundred thousand dollars of retirement income where a Florida retiree pays zero. Every dollar of guaranteed income stretches further here. If you are a snowbird who has not formally cut ties with a high-tax state, that benefit is not automatic, and our guide on establishing Florida domicile covers how to secure it.
Unusually strong creditor protection. Under Florida Statute 222.14, the cash value and proceeds of annuity contracts are generally exempt from most creditors and civil judgments. There are exceptions, including federal and IRS claims and cases involving fraud, but Florida offers among the strongest annuity asset protection in the country. For business owners, physicians, and anyone concerned about future liability, this turns an annuity into an asset-protection tool on top of an income tool. It is one of the few genuinely Florida-specific reasons an annuity can make sense here that it would not elsewhere.
A 30-day free look period. Florida gives annuity buyers 30 days to review the contract and cancel for a full refund of premium, longer than the 10 or 15 days many states allow. That is real breathing room to have a contract reviewed by someone who is not the person who sold it. If you take one piece of protection from this entire guide, it is this: use the free look period to get a second opinion before it closes.
No state estate or inheritance tax. Florida imposes neither, so an annuity’s remaining value passes to your named beneficiaries without a state-level death tax, and because annuities name beneficiaries directly, that value generally avoids probate.
Rising local costs and property insurance. Orlando is no longer the bargain it once was. Housing, healthcare, and especially property insurance have climbed sharply, the last driven by hurricane risk and a strained insurance market. For a retiree on a fixed income, a guaranteed income floor that does not move with the markets can be a genuine buffer against costs that increasingly do. We laid out the broader numbers in The Florida Retirement Cost Breakdown and The $3,000 vs. $5,000 Florida Retirement.
Longevity. Florida’s climate and active retirement culture correlate with long lifespans, which is wonderful and also means your savings may need to last 30 years or more. Annuities are one of the few products built specifically to address the risk of outliving your money.
A large senior population and a crowded sales market. The flip side of Florida being a retirement haven is that it is also a target-rich environment for annuity sales. Central Florida is saturated with seminars, free-dinner pitches, and advisors who lead with annuities because the commissions are attractive. That is not a reason to avoid annuities. It is a reason to be the most informed person in the room.
How Annuity Income Is Taxed
This trips up almost everyone, so here is the plain version.
If you bought the annuity with after-tax money, called a non-qualified annuity, only the earnings portion of each payment is taxable at the federal level. The rest is treated as a return of your own principal and comes back tax-free. The formula that splits each payment is called the exclusion ratio.
If the annuity is held inside a traditional IRA or 401(k), called a qualified annuity, the entire distribution is taxed as ordinary income, because the money going in was never taxed.
A few more things worth knowing. Annuity earnings are taxed as ordinary income, not at the lower long-term capital gains rates you would get on stocks in a taxable account. There is no step-up in cost basis at death, so heirs can owe income tax on the gains, which makes annuities a relatively tax-inefficient asset to leave behind. Withdrawals before age fifty-nine and a half can trigger a ten percent federal penalty on top of ordinary income tax, similar to other retirement accounts. And pulling large amounts out in a single year can push you into a higher bracket and raise your Medicare premiums two years later through the IRMAA surcharge, which we broke down in IRMAA: The Hidden Medicare Surcharge.
This is why annuity decisions should never be made in isolation from the rest of your tax picture, a theme we return to in Managing 401(k) Taxes and The Silent Tax Bomb Hidden Inside Most 401(k)s.
Annuity Rates and What Drives Your Payment
People shopping annuities usually want to know one thing first: what rate or what monthly payment will I get. The honest answer is that it depends on several moving parts, and anyone quoting you a single number without knowing your details is guessing.
For a fixed or multi-year guaranteed annuity, the rate is driven largely by prevailing interest rates. When rates are higher, annuity rates are higher, which is why the environment you buy in matters. Locking a multi-year rate when rates are elevated can be attractive. Locking one when rates are low means living with that lower rate for the full term.
For an income annuity, meaning a SPIA or a deferred income annuity, your monthly payment is driven by four things: the amount you put in, your age, your gender, and the payout option you choose. Older buyers get higher monthly payments because the expected payout period is shorter. A joint payout covering both you and a spouse pays less per month than a single-life payout, because the insurer expects to pay for two lifetimes. Adding a guarantee that your heirs receive something if you die early also lowers the payment.
The tradeoff to understand is between payment size and protection. The highest possible monthly check comes from a single-life annuity with no death benefit, which pays the most but leaves nothing to anyone if you die the next year. Every feature you add to protect a spouse or heirs reduces the monthly number. There is no free option here, only choices about what you are optimizing for.
One practical note: rates and payout factors vary meaningfully between insurers for the exact same product type. Shopping multiple carriers rather than accepting the first quote can change your income by a noticeable margin, which is one reason working with someone who represents multiple carriers beats buying from a single-company agent.
When an Annuity Tends to Make Sense
No product is right for everyone, and only a look at your full situation can answer this for you. That said, here are the circumstances where an annuity is most often a reasonable fit.
You have an income gap. If your essential monthly expenses, meaning housing, groceries, healthcare, and utilities, exceed what Social Security and any pension provide, an annuity can fill that gap with predictable income. This is the single most common good reason to own one. Consider a simplified example: a Winter Garden couple needs five thousand dollars a month for essentials, receives thirty-two hundred from combined Social Security, and wants that eighteen-hundred-dollar gap covered by something that does not depend on the market. A SPIA sized to produce roughly eighteen hundred dollars a month closes the gap, and everything else in their portfolio can then be invested for growth without the pressure of funding the mortgage payment. Our overview of turning retirement savings into monthly income walks through this kind of construction.
You are genuinely worried about outliving your money. If you are in good health, longevity runs in your family, or you simply do not want to risk running dry in your 90s, a lifetime income annuity addresses that fear directly and is one of the only products that can.
You want to reduce sequence-of-returns risk. Retirees who draw income from an investment portfolio are exposed to the danger that a market crash early in retirement permanently damages the portfolio, because you are selling assets while they are down. A guaranteed income floor means you are not forced to sell into a downturn.
You value simplicity over control. Some retirees do not want to manage a portfolio into their 80s. Knowing exactly what arrives each month, without decisions or market-watching, has real psychological value, a point we touched on in The Psychological Effects of Retirement.
You have already maxed out other tax-advantaged accounts. Once your IRA and 401(k) are full, a non-qualified annuity is another vehicle for tax-deferred growth, generally considered after the others are exhausted.
You want a safe place for money and better terms than a CD. For genuinely idle cash you will not need for several years, a multi-year fixed annuity can offer a better rate than a CD with the bonus of tax deferral, provided you are comfortable with the longer surrender period.
When an Annuity Is the Wrong Move
Just as important, and less often said out loud by the person selling them.
When you need liquidity. Annuities carry surrender charges during an initial period that can run from a few years to more than a decade. If you may need a large chunk of your savings for an emergency, long-term care, or anything else, tying it up in an annuity is a poor fit. This matters especially given the cost of care in Florida, which we covered in Long-Term Care Planning in Orlando and Central Florida.
When the fees outweigh the benefit. Variable annuities in particular can carry two to three percent or more in annual costs once every charge is added. Over time that seriously erodes returns. If you cannot get a clear, total cost figure, that is a warning sign.
When you already have substantial guaranteed income. If Social Security and a pension already cover your expenses comfortably, the main thing an annuity offers, guaranteed income, is something you already have. Keeping your assets flexible may serve you better.
When you are in poor health. Lifetime annuities are priced on average life expectancy. If yours is genuinely shorter, you may collect less than you paid in. Specialized rated annuities can pay more for people with qualifying conditions, but that is a specific conversation to have deliberately.
When leaving a large inheritance is your top priority. A life annuity is oriented toward paying you while you are alive, and depending on the option chosen, little or nothing may remain for heirs. There are ways to balance income and legacy, including pairing an annuity with life insurance, which we discuss in Life Insurance in Retirement Planning for Florida Retirees, but if legacy is the goal, an annuity alone is not the tool.
When you do not understand the product. This sounds basic and it is the most important one. Annuities can be complex, with caps, participation rates, riders, and surrender schedules. If you cannot clearly explain how a product works and how you will be paid, that is a strong signal to slow down and ask more questions, not to sign.
The Riders, Explained
Riders are optional add-ons that customize an annuity, and they are where a lot of the cost and complexity hides. Each one generally costs you something, either an explicit annual fee or a reduced payout, so the question for every rider is whether the protection is worth the price for your situation.
Guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit. Lets you take a guaranteed level of income for life without fully annuitizing, meaning you keep some access to the account value. Popular, useful, and a common place for fees to stack up. Read exactly how the guaranteed withdrawal amount is calculated.
Income rider or income account value. Some annuities grow a separate “income base” at a stated rate that is used only to calculate future income, not a number you can walk away with in cash. This distinction confuses buyers constantly. A “seven percent roll-up” on an income base is not a seven percent return on your money.
Inflation or cost-of-living rider. Increases your income over time to help offset inflation. It sounds essential, and it lowers your starting payment meaningfully, so the tradeoff is a smaller check now for a growing check later.
Long-term care or enhanced benefit rider. Increases your payout if you become unable to perform certain daily activities. Given Florida’s care costs, this can be valuable, but compare it against a dedicated long-term care solution rather than assuming the rider is the best route, a comparison we get into in the long-term care planning guide.
Death benefit rider. Ensures a beneficiary receives a defined amount, protecting heirs at the cost of a lower payout to you.
The rule of thumb: every rider is a trade. Buy the ones that solve a problem you actually have, and decline the ones that just sound reassuring. A stack of riders you do not need is the fastest way to turn a reasonable annuity into an expensive one.
The Fees and Fine Print That Trip People Up
A few specifics worth internalizing before any purchase.
Surrender periods and charges determine how locked-in your money is and for how long, commonly five to ten years and sometimes longer. Get the full schedule in writing, including how much you can withdraw penalty-free each year, which is often around ten percent.
Caps and participation rates on indexed annuities limit how much of the market’s gain you actually capture. A great-sounding index link means little if the cap is low, and insurers can often adjust caps over time, so ask whether the cap is guaranteed.
A market value adjustment can increase or decrease your value if you withdraw during the surrender period, depending on how interest rates have moved since you bought. It is a real feature that surprises people.
Rider costs for income guarantees, death benefits, or inflation adjustments are real and reduce your payout or your growth every year.
And the insurer’s financial strength underlies all of it, which is important enough to get its own section.
How to Evaluate the Insurance Company
Because an annuity guarantee is only as good as the company behind it, vetting the carrier is not optional. Here is how.
Check the financial strength ratings from the major agencies, including AM Best, Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch. These grade an insurer’s ability to pay claims. Favor companies with high ratings across multiple agencies, and be cautious with any carrier carrying low or recently downgraded ratings, no matter how attractive the rate.
Understand the Florida guaranty association backstop. If an insurer fails, the state guaranty association provides a safety net up to certain limits, historically in the range of a few hundred thousand dollars of present value per contract. This is a reason not to load more into a single annuity contract than that protected amount, and to consider splitting a very large purchase across more than one strong carrier.
Prefer working with someone who represents multiple carriers rather than a single-company agent. An independent professional can compare rates and strength across insurers and is not incentivized to steer you to one company’s product regardless of fit.
How to Actually Buy an Annuity in Florida
The mechanics, briefly, so the process holds no surprises.
First, define the job. Decide what specific problem the annuity is solving: closing an income gap, protecting against longevity, or safely growing idle cash. If you cannot name the job, you are not ready to buy.
Second, choose the type that fits the job, using the framework above. Income gap points toward a SPIA. Longevity insurance points toward a deferred income annuity or QLAC. Safe growth points toward a fixed or multi-year guaranteed annuity.
Third, shop multiple carriers for rate and strength. Payout factors vary between insurers for identical products.
Fourth, decide how you are funding it. A qualified annuity uses pre-tax IRA or 401(k) money and can often be funded by a direct rollover to avoid triggering tax. A non-qualified annuity uses after-tax money. If you are moving from one annuity to another, a 1035 exchange can transfer the money without creating a taxable event, which is worth knowing if you already own a contract you have outgrown.
Fifth, read the contract during the 30-day free look period, ideally with a second set of eyes that is not the seller’s. If anything does not match what you were told, you can cancel for a full refund.
Only annuitize or commit money you are genuinely comfortable setting aside for the long term, and keep an emergency fund and other liquid assets outside the annuity.
Annuity Sales Tactics to Watch For
Because Central Florida is a heavily marketed annuity market, a short list of warning signs is worth more than another list of benefits.
Be wary of the free-dinner seminar that pressures you toward a decision that evening or shortly after. Legitimate planning does not require urgency. Be wary of anyone who presents an annuity as having no downside, no fees, or “market upside with no risk,” because every annuity involves tradeoffs and most involve costs. Be wary of a pitch that leads with the product before anyone has asked about your income, expenses, health, and goals, because the product should follow the analysis, not precede it. Be wary of an income-base “roll-up” rate presented as if it were a return on your money. And be wary of a single-company agent who only ever recommends that company’s products.
None of this means annuities are a scam. They are a legitimate tool that is sometimes sold badly. Your defense is understanding the product and insisting the recommendation follow a real look at your situation.
Questions to Ask Before You Buy
If you are seriously considering an annuity as part of your Orlando or Central Florida plan, walk through these with a professional who is willing to answer all of them plainly:
What specific problem is this annuity solving for me? What is the surrender period and the full surrender charge schedule? What are all the fees, including every optional rider? What is the financial strength rating of the issuing insurer, across which agencies? How will the income be taxed at the federal level, given how I am funding it? What happens to any remaining value when I die, and does anything reach my heirs? Is there inflation protection, or does the income stay flat for life? For an indexed product, are the caps and participation rates guaranteed, or can the insurer change them? And the most important one: how does this specific annuity fit alongside my Social Security timing, my investments, and my overall income and tax strategy?
If the person selling cannot or will not answer these clearly, that is your answer.
Where Annuities Fit in the Bigger Plan
Here is the thing to hold onto. An annuity is almost never a standalone solution. The strongest retirement income plans in Florida use several tools together: Social Security timing, tax-efficient withdrawal sequencing, a diversified portfolio, healthcare and long-term care planning, and sometimes an annuity for a guaranteed income floor.
The useful question is not “should I buy an annuity.” It is “given my income needs, my assets, my health, my goals, and my risk tolerance, would allocating some portion of my money to an annuity make my overall plan better.” That is answerable only when someone looks at the whole picture, which is the entire argument of The High Cost of the “Junk Drawer” Retirement. Social Security timing in particular interacts with everything else, and the common errors are in 10 Social Security Mistakes Orlando and Central Florida Retirees Make. For the foundational view of how the income pieces fit, see Understanding Retirement Income Planning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are annuities a good investment for retirees in Florida? An annuity is less an investment than an insurance product that provides guaranteed income. For a Florida retiree with a gap between essential expenses and guaranteed income, or a real concern about outliving savings, it can be a good fit, and Florida’s lack of state income tax and strong creditor protection under Statute 222.14 make it more attractive here than in many states. For someone whose expenses are already covered by Social Security and a pension, it is often unnecessary.
Are annuities safe? Fixed and fixed indexed annuities protect your principal from market losses, and the guarantees are backed by the issuing insurer and, up to limits, the Florida guaranty association. They are not FDIC insured. The main risk is the financial strength of the insurance company, which is why checking ratings matters. Variable annuities can lose value because they are invested in the market.
How are annuities taxed in Florida? Florida imposes no state income tax on annuity income. Federally, a non-qualified annuity taxes only the earnings portion of each payment through the exclusion ratio, while an annuity held in a traditional IRA or 401(k) is fully taxable as ordinary income.
What is the downside of an annuity? The main drawbacks are illiquidity from surrender charges, potentially high fees on variable products, ordinary-income tax treatment on gains, no step-up in basis for heirs, and the fact that lifetime annuities may pay out less than you put in if you die early. They also reduce the assets available to heirs unless you add death-benefit features that lower your income.
What is the difference between an annuity and a CD? Both can lock a rate for a term. An annuity grows tax-deferred, often pays a somewhat higher rate, and is backed by an insurer rather than the FDIC, but has longer and steeper surrender charges. A CD is more liquid and FDIC insured. For money you will not need for years, the annuity’s tax deferral can win. For money you might need, the CD’s liquidity matters more.
What types of annuities are there? The main types are fixed, fixed indexed, variable, immediate (SPIA), and deferred income annuities including QLACs. They differ mainly in how your money grows and when income begins.
How much does a $100,000 annuity pay per month? It depends on your age, the payout option, the annuity type, and interest rates at purchase, so there is no single answer. Older buyers and single-life options produce higher monthly payments, while joint-life and death-benefit options produce lower ones. Anyone quoting a firm number without your details is estimating.
Does Florida protect annuities from creditors? Yes. Under Florida Statute 222.14, annuity cash value and proceeds are generally exempt from most creditors and civil judgments, with exceptions such as federal and IRS claims and fraud.
How long do I have to cancel an annuity in Florida? Florida provides a 30-day free look period, during which you can cancel the contract for a full refund of your premium.
Should I put all my savings into an annuity? Almost never. A common approach is to annuitize only enough to cover essential expenses and keep the rest liquid for growth, emergencies, and potential long-term care costs.
Can I move money from one annuity to another without paying tax? Often yes, through a 1035 exchange, which transfers value between annuity contracts without triggering a taxable event. This is worth exploring if you own an older contract that no longer fits your needs.
How We Help
Before you talk to anyone, arm yourself. Download our free Annuities Guide so you walk into any annuity conversation, with us or anyone else, already knowing the right questions and the tradeoffs to weigh.
We work with retirees and pre-retirees across Central Florida to answer one question honestly: does an annuity serve a specific, valuable purpose in your plan, or not.
That means starting with your income gap rather than a product, identifying whether guaranteed income actually solves a problem you have, comparing an annuity against alternatives like a bond ladder or staying invested before recommending either, shopping multiple strong carriers rather than one company, reviewing any annuity or life insurance you already own for features you may not know exist or a possible 1035 exchange, and coordinating the decision with your Social Security timing, tax strategy, and long-term care picture so it fits the whole plan instead of fighting it.
If an annuity is not right for you, we will tell you that. If it is, we will help you choose a suitable product from a strong carrier and understand exactly what you are buying, before the free look period ever runs out.
We serve clients throughout Orlando, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Lake Nona, Oviedo, Winter Garden, Clermont, Kissimmee, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and across Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake counties, and we work nationwide by video.
Schedule a free consultation at go.rogerfishel.com or call (407) 974-7100.
Roger Fishel is the founder of Roger Fishel Financial, a retirement income planning practice based in Orlando, Florida, serving clients across Central Florida and nationwide.
This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Annuity products vary widely and individual circumstances differ. Annuity guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Annuities are insurance products that may be subject to fees, surrender charges, and holding periods that vary by company, and are not FDIC insured. Product availability and features vary by carrier and by state. Withdrawals of earnings are taxed as ordinary income and may be subject to a federal penalty if taken before age fifty-nine and a half. Always consult a qualified financial professional, and a tax professional regarding tax consequences, before making decisions about your retirement income strategy.
