Sep 02

Regular readers of mine know that I am anti-Variable Annuity, one of my first articles on my main site JoeTaxpayer.com was titled “Variable Annuities are sold, not bought“. More recently, I quoted Suze Orman, who “hate[s] them with a passion”. That blog post received much response from readers challenging me to be more open minded. So I invited those readers to offer me a VA that they felt was worth a fresh look. In my August feature article titled “Another Look at Variable Annuities“, I analyzed the Fidelity Growth & Guaranteed Income Annuity. It’s a piece worth reading and as always, I invite any comment. In it, I conclude that the product doesn’t achieve what the typical buyer is seeking, inflation protected growth. I was challenged to suggest an alternate solution and in this month’s feature article, “Creating an Inflation-Adjusted Immediate Annuity“, I offer a strategy to create an inflation-adjusted stream of income from the purchase of a series of standard (non-adjusted) annuities. This is a strategy I am proud to present as I’ve not seen such a strategy presented elsewhere, and it offers both a high starting withdrawal rate (5%) along with conservative assumptions (4% inflation factor, yet just 3% return on savings). Please read it and share your thoughts.

Joe

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Aug 11

Regular readers know how I feel about variable annuities, but have little issue with the immediate annuity. Now, one issue that would hit us if you wished to put an immediate annuity inside an IRA is the calculation of RMDs and taking RMDs that may exceed the cash available within the IRA.

IRS Regulation section 1.401 (a) (9)-6 offers a solution.

If an immediate annuity is qualified and based on a payout scheme that is not intended to exceed your life expectancy the annual payout satisfies the RMD requirement even if it is less than would otherwise
be required. Perhaps a bit of an obscure issue, but one you may run into at retirement.

Joe

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