FAQs
Q: What is an annuity?
An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company that requires the insurer to make payments to you, either immediately or in the future. You buy an annuity by making either a single payment or a series of payments. Similarly, your payout may come either as one lump-sum payment or as a series of payments over time.--Investor.gov
Q What is a MYGA
A MYGA is a Multi-year Guaranteed Annuity. MYGAs are similar to CDs in that you can put money in a MYGA and get a guaranteed rate of return on your money for a predetermined number of years. Typical holding period for a MYGA is 3-10 years though other lengths may be available.Q Which company is the best?
One of the questions we hear the most here at Utah Annuities is 'Which Annuity Company is the best?' The reality is the best annuity company for you might be different than the best annuity company for someone else. Annuity company products and rates are constantly changing, so there isn't one 'best annuity company." We only work with annuity companies that have the highest ratings, then we search for the products with the best rates and features to meet your goals and desires.Q What annuity companies do you work with?
It would be almost impossible to list all of the annuity companies that we can help you work with. Annuity companies merge and they split. Sometimes they get better and we decide to work with them, sometime they get worse and we decide our clients deserve better. We do a real time search whenever we are searching for an annuity, to ensure that our clients are getting the best product for them TODAY! Some of the companies we can work with include: Pacific Life, Nationwide, AIG, Great American, United Heritage, Lincoln Financial, North American, American Equity, LSW, Allianz, Protective life, Principal Financial, Athene, & Prudential.Q Which Annuity is the best?
It would be easy to answer this question if every company set all their rates at the same time, and then just left them there for years at a time, but fortunately this is not how it works. New products and rates are announced almost every week. Sometimes these new products are considerably better than the products they replace. We make sure you get the best product for you, by comparing the rates of all our top companies after we have learned what features and options are important to you.Q What is a surrender period?
Like CDs and other financial products, Annuities are often designed to last a certain number of years. Annuities are typically designed to provide a safe place to grow and store money, often for retirement. One of the best features of an annuity is that it can provide safe returns that are significantly higher than similar products in the long term. A Surrender period is usually the amount of time that you commit to keep your money in one place. The longer you commit to keep your money with a company the higher the returns they can promise you. Of course even when you commit to a specific time period, a portion of your money may be accessible, for use in unexpected situations or emergencies. Most companies will charge a small fee (a percentage of the account value) for early surrender, though this amount usually goes down each year your policy is in force.Q What are variable annuities and why don't you offer them?
Variable annuities are an investment product that offers some of the benefits of an annuity and some of the benefits of the stock market. A variable annuity can sometimes outperform other types of annuities, but they can also have higher fees, and have to be carefully set up to make sure they are good for the client. We have decided that Variable Annuities are not something that we are interested in offering to our clients at this time.Q How high are the fees on an Annuity?
Most of the annuities that we offer have no fees for our clients. We prefer to offer products that have no origination fees so all of your money is working for you. We also believe that our clients are happier with their results if there are no annual fees, such as mortality and expense fees. We want our clients to know what they can expect, and not be caught off guard by hidden fees that they didn't even know existed.Q Are there any fees that you think are OK?
Yes. There are two types of fees that we think make sense in an annuity.1) A fee that the client knowingly agrees to in order to add some benefit for the client. We will always discuss these possible fees with our clients, and we will always give our clients the opportunity to accept or reject these added benefits or services.
2) The second type of fee we think makes sense is the fee companies add for early termination of a contract. The companies we work with can often provide our clients with better rates by structuring their products for longer periods of time. But even more important than this is the benefit this provides our clients. Annuities are set up to guarantee that money will be available at a specific time in the future. One of the biggest benefits of an early surrender charge is that it helps our clients to ensure that their money is still there when they really need it, at the time they originally planned to use it. Of course we realize that sometimes things don't go as planned so many of our annuities also allow you to access a portion of the money you commit at any future point. If you think you might need to access some of your money before the end of the contract, make sure you discuss your thoughts and concerns with your advisor. We will help make sure things are set up in a way that will work well for you.
