They are 63/65 the plan would be to start taking income when they retire and to delay the larger social security benefit until 70 (5 years from now). My understanding is that the annuities will continue to pay regardless of the balance and if they were to die with a balance the remainder would be passed on to the beneficiary (each other).It sounds to me like you’re looking at the annuities in the right way. That is, looking to exercise the guaranteed withdrawal benefit option to generate monthly income. And the relative numbers ($24k per year income vs $225k surrender value) probably lean in favor of keeping the annuities.They are variable annuities with a guaranteed minimum I believe. One has a surrender value of around $75,000 and the other $150,000. The first has an income base that increases 6% yearly and the other has an income base that is guaranteed to be double after 12 years (which will be in 2 years), they are IRA annuities. $24,000 a year seems much better than anything you could do with $225,000.
Just a few additional due diligence questions -
—- What are their current ages, and when do they expect to start taking income? (Unless they’re age 70 or more, this likely leans in favor of the variable annuity)
—- Do the withdrawal benefit riders guarantee that they will get the $24k per year, every year that they’re alive, even if the account value is drained, with a death benefit of the positive account value if any? (Most guaranteed withdrawal benefit riders provide all of that)
It sounds like it’s likely a good choice to keep the annuities and activate the withdrawal benefit as you’ve suggested, depending on the answers to the two questions above.
Statistics: Posted by diversifire — Tue Jun 11, 2024 5:17 am — Replies 4 — Views 290