One of the options you have when you decide to use your retirement savings to provide a life income is an annuity, more correctly, in this case, referred to as a life annuity.
But strangely, from time to time, we meet people in the market for another life annuity, who are surprised to find out how exactly we get them the highest income. They may have bought their last annuity a year ago or even longer, but accepted the offer from the first company, without comparing the monthly income from other life insurance companies.
We think that this happens because people deal with agents who are restricted by their employer from offering companies which may have better life annuity rates. This to my mind is a restriction of trade which should be outlawed. It is completely unfair to the consumer who is not permitted to make a fair choice of any particular life annuity.
After preliminary quotes and conversations, we arrive at deposit and income dates , length of your guarantee, if any, and whether the amount should be split between a single and a joint annuity to provide the best life annuity income for each annuitant at the correct period.
There are also cash refund annuities and term certain annuities which can be considered to provide a secure lifetime income.