Annuities are gaining popularity day by day. Annuities are the best retirement tools that offer guaranteed income for golden days of your life. Annuities are brilliant plans for those who are interested to keep sufficient funds for their old age. Among the various annuities, fixed annuities are progressively attracting large number of people. Fixed annuity investments grow gradually without any affect of breakdowns in the stock market.

Fixed annuities can be defined as- “An investment vehicle offered by an insurance company, that guarantees a stream of fixed payments over the life of the annuity. The insurer, not the insured, takes the investment risk, also called fixed dollar annuity.”

Simply fixed annuity is an agreement that connect two parties- annuitant and insurance company where insurance company issue this financial product to annuitant to reduce his/her tax liability and allow tax-deferred growth of investment. On the other hand annuitant makes the contributions either with a lump sum or with a series of payments over a specified period of time.

Fixed annuities are the best investment tools for conservative investors. They offer steady return on investments along with safety of principal. Annuitants are free from the risk of loss of principal even when there is severe downfall in market. Fixed annuities are very akin to bank CDs but holder of fixed rate annuity get higher rate of interest and secured principal as compared to a bank CD.

Generally fixed annuity can be classified into two categories- fixed deferred annuity and immediate fixed annuity. In fixed deferred annuity funds can be invested via a single payment or periodic payments and it offers assured interest rate for a certain period normally 1, 2 or 5 years. Immediate fixed annuities are contributed by lump sum or at near the retirement age. The immediate annuity is converted instantaneously into series of income payments. These periodic payments are made monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

Fixed annuities offer various benefits such as guaranteed income payment, assured return of principal, easy withdrawal of funds in an urgent situation, probate generality, easy access to account information etc. to their holders. Now if you want to shun the risks and ambiguity of stock market based investments fixed annuities are best products to choose.

For more information regarding annuities please call the AnnuityForLife.com experts toll-free at 1-888-261-6237