Benefits of Life Annuities

Why consider a life annuity? Below are some benefits:

• Simple

In return for a lump-sum premium, you can choose to receive a stream of payments to suit your needs. It’s ideal if you’re not able to or don't want to actively manage your money or pay fees for someone else to do it for you.

• Avoid outliving your money

Not knowing how long you'll live is a retirement income planning issue. Life annuities provide payments for life and can form the cornerstone of an effective retirement plan.

• Easily customized

There are many plans, terms and variations available, depending on your unique situation and circumstances. Annuities can be combined with growth-oriented products to form part of a diversified investment plan to mitigate risk.

• Your choice of payments

The income stream for an annuity can start immediately or be deferred to a pre-determined date, depending on your needs and preferences.

• Speedy estate settlement

You can appoint a beneficiary to avoid probate and undue delays in settling your estate and benefit from potential creditor protection.

• A stable income stream

If you don't like the turbulence and volatility of stock markets, annuities can provide regular income to fund a major expense (e.g., mortgage, education, vacation, or other ongoing expenses like property taxes, utility bills, etc.).

• Minimize effects of inflation

Indexed income payments help offset inflation (maximum of 4% for registered assets and 6% for non-registered assets).

• More favourable taxation

Non-registered annuity payments are a blend of interest and return of capital. A prescribed annuity is taxed more favourably than a non-registered fixed-income product. These payments can help minimize claw back of applicable government benefits since only part of the annuity payment is considered net income for tax purposes. Non-registered annuities also help level out tax charges and yield more after-tax income up front.

• Longevity insurance and market risk

An annuity can guarantee a stable and predictable income for life regardless of market conditions or interest rate fluctuations.

• Inflation protection

An annuity can be indexed so the income increases by a set amount each year to help a client’s income keep up with inflation. The downside to this, however, is that the annuity will not qualify for prescribed taxation.

• Guaranteeing income for a spouse

A Joint and Survivor annuity is designed to cover the lives of two individuals – a primary annuitant and secondary annuitant (usually spouses). Income is generally paid to the primary annuitant and, upon his or her death; the secondary annuitant continues to receive the income for the rest of their lifetime.

• Tax reduction

For those age 65 and over, taxable income from an annuity generally qualifies for the annual $2,000 Pension Income Tax Credit

For non-registered annuities, the payments are comprised of interest and a return of capital, but only the interest income is taxable Interest income from a Prescribed Annuity is spread evenly over the life of the contract (unlike a Non-prescribed Annuity where the interest income is higher in the early years and decreases over the life of the contract)