Should You Roll Your Retirement Money into an Annuity?

Looking at an annuity? You’re not the only one. Annuities are becoming more popular, according to a new study that looked at how retirees are rolling over retirement plan assets.

When you leave a company or retire, you have the option of rolling over money that’s in your retirement plan, such as a 401(k) plan. But what do you roll it into?

Rollover retirement money is more likely today than it was in 2000 to go into an income arrangement, such as an annuity, according to a new study by Spectrem Group.

In 2000, about 4% of retirement assets that rolled over went into an income strategy. That number is 11% as of 2011. Moreover, of that money in 2011, 30% went into annuities. The rest went into systematic withdrawal plans, structured portfolios or other solutions.

As you may know, an annuity is a contract between an investor and a life insurance company. You give the life insurance company a sum of money, either up front or as a stream of payments, and in exchange the life insurance company guarantees you a stream of payments for a specified time period, sometimes life.

Annuities may appeal to more retirees because they can potentially help protect seniors from the risk of outliving their retirement savings. An annuity can have two potential benefits. It can give retirees an idea how much income they will receive in retirement, and it can help provide a retiree with a measure of protection from investment losses, which are very, very real in today’s volatile markets.