An annuities are contracts between an individual and an insurance company where you agree to give the insurance company money in return for guarantees. Even though these contracts are issued by insurance company it is important to realize that an annuity is not a life insurance policy and carry different benefits. An annuity is a tax deferred investment meaning you will not pay taxes until you take money out of the contract. The tax deferral is structured much like an IRA account, with the exception that there is no tax deduction for making contributions into an annuity, which gives you tax deferred growth until you withdraw your money, but if you withdraw your money before your 59 1/2 birthday you will be subject to an IRS premature distribution penalty of 10% plus you will pay taxes on the withdraw and it is taxed at ordinary income.

All guarantees are backed up by the claims paying ability of the insurance carrier, the paying ability of the insurance carrier is given a ranking system by various rating agencies. These agencies give an insurance company an intensive audit to determine how financially strong the company is they will then issue a rating based on their findings. These ratings are different for every company and will vary widely, but typically an A rating and higher are the better rated companies and considered safer. Below an A rating is considered higher risk and you should evaluate the company further. The bigger ratings companies are Standard and Poor's, Moody's and AM Best, click here for more information on ratings.

Annuities come in different types some carry guarantees of principal and a minimum rate of return while others do not. The two predominant types of annuities are fixed and variable annuities.

Fixed annuities have minimum interest rates and offer the safety of low risk and your money is given an interest rate for a specific time frame. A variable annuity offers the same tax deferred growth without any guaranteed return. With a variable annuity you will assume the risk and invest your money into the stock market. In many cases now a days insurance companies will offer guarantees on variable annuities to eliminate or reduce your risk, this has made variable annuities even more popular than ever in the last few years.

The problem now lies in there are so many annuities in the market place now it is very difficult to find the right annuity for you. This is were we come in, we do the research for you, we are unbiased, we only use facts, we use a completely quantative approach to analyzing annuities meaning we use no emotion in determining the quality of the annuity. Can other agents make these claims? Yes they can, but are their claims true? No, they have an objective sell you the annuity or worse the information you leave on their site which gets sold to hundreds of annuity agents. Even if they offer a wide array of products most annuity agents are more comfortable with one company for many different reasons and because of this comfort level many times that is the only product they sell and that is not necessarily good for you.

We are out to change the way people look and buy annuities, this is my goal. I want agents to know more about all the annuities in the market place and I want the consumer to know what is out there. We want to help the consumer narrow down their search for the right product and we will be able to help with that in the very near future! The annuity world is always changing and we are here to make it easy and hopefully enjoyable for you to do research.

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