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- Phone : 1-800-241-4565
- URL :
- Global Rating
- Good
User Rating
- 1 Reviews
Annuity Alliance is one of the leading annuities companies in America and has been since its inception.
The organization does a great job educating investors using beginner, intermediate and advanced content as well as an extensive library of answers to frequently asked questions.
Find out if Annuity Alliance is the right annuities provider for you.
Pros:
- Great educational content
- Long-standing reputation
- Clear value proposition
Cons:
- Lacks customer review ratings
HaveryAnnuity Alliance is simply not like the other annuities providers we reviewed here at Sophisticated Investor. The company doesn’t promote a CEO or Director, it doesn’t boast a collection of customer reviews on any notable websites, but what it does do well is produce Evergreen, organic content that generates leads for the business.
In this review we quickly go over what Annuity Alliance has to offer and help you make an informed decision as to whether or not you should work with Annuity Alliance as your annuities provider.
As you go through this review, keep in mind that it’s not like the others and that we strongly recommend DCF Annuities as your first choice for the best annuities products in America.
Ultimately investing in the right annuities could be the difference between enjoying the retirement you really want or having to settle for a little bit less than that. Either way, you owe it to yourself to try your best, and this page is a good primer for helping you take the next step along your annuity investing journey.
Before proceeding, note that there are some irregularities associated with this company that you should be warned about. For instance, Annuity Alliance has been exposed for misleading advertising and potentially falsified testimonials. Since Annuity Alliance offers third-party annuity products, they can technically get away with making claims that they themselves cannot fulfill. Exercise caution before doing business with this company.
Table of Contents
Annuity Alliance Founder and Management Team
Admittedly there isn’t a ton of information online about the founders or management team at Annuity Alliance. We searched for that information using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which allows users to filter search results by company, industry, seniority level and many other filters. All we came up with was a very similar company that doesn’t exactly sell annuities. It’s an alliance for annuities agents.
Annuity Alliance appears to be more of a lead generation website, a review site if you will. It could just be run by an Internet marketer or team of marketers, not a group of financial planners or executives.
Still the information provided on the website is relevant and the company is clearly in the business of promoting annuities as retirement investment vehicles.
Types of Annuity Investments Offered by Annuity Alliance
Annuity Alliance promotes two different types of annuities: deferred and immediate. Within those two types are three subtypes of annuities:
- Fixed Annuities
- Fixed Indexed Annuities
- Variable Annuities
The concept of a deferred annuity and immediate annuity is easy to explain. An immediate annuity starts paying out within the first 30 days of you deciding to pay premiums. You benefit from capitalizing off of your income right away. That’s the positive. The drawback of choosing an immediate annuity is that you’re not really benefiting from compound interest over a period of years, because you’re not willing to wait. A deferred annuity then allows you to benefit off of that waiting period. If you’re still 10 years away from retirement and you don’t need your money to pay your bills right away, it would make sense to benefit from compound interest. That’s something a deferred annuity allows you to take greater advantage of versus and immediate annuity.
Now let’s break down how both immediate and deferred annuities fit into the categories above.
Fixed Annuities
Fixed annuities payout the same rate year-over-year. It continues to pay out until you reach the end of the term at which point the insurance company facilitating the annuity will declare a new rate that you will be subject to earning should you renew that annuity for another term. Fixed annuities are best for a retiree who wants the comfort of knowing that their money is earning some interest without having to take on any true downside risk.
Fixed Indexed Annuity
A fixed indexed annuity still prevents you from having to take on the possibility of losing money, but you get access to the potential of more gains. That being said, most insurers facilitating this kind of annuity will cap he interest you can earn on the upside as a way of keeping more interest for the insurance company and keeping this product profitable for them. It’s still a good option for you though if you’re looking to earn something extra and stay in the market for a while.
Variable Annuities
A variable annuity allows you greater control over your money so you get to determine how your annuity funds are allocated across a variety of investment options. You can basically put your investments into sub-accounts and your overall rate of return is determined by how you divide that money in those sub-accounts. Choose from more conservative sub-accounts and earn a lesser return. Take more of a risk and gain the potential upside of a greater return. It’s as simple as that!
Frequently Asked Questions
In considering working with Annuity Alliance for your next annuity investment, you’re probably coming up with your fair share of questions to ask. Let’s answer some of the questions you’re likely asking yourself right now.
Are Annuities a Good Investment?
It’s impossible to give you personalized advice as to whether or not you yourself should own an annuity as an investment for your retirement. One thing that can help us to do a self-evaluation and answer the following open-ended questions honestly. The more you can look in the mirror and be truthful about what your future goals and plans are, the more you can understand how annuities might fit those plans.
- When do you hope to retire?
- What age will you be when you retire?
- How much longer do you plan to live?
- What are some of the activities and adventures you’d like to pursue while you are retired and how much are those things going to cost you?
- When you leave your wealth behind for your love ones how much will it be worth?
- How are your other investments doing and how much of your money do you think you feel comfortable putting into an annuity?
- On a scale of 1 to 10 how comfortable are you with the idea of losing all of your investment tomorrow?
- What sort of a plan do you have in case of a financial emergency and how does investing in annuity help or hinder that?
Do I Have To Pay Commission Fees on an Annuity?
Annuity Alliance it doesn’t take a commission fee directly from investors. That’s simply not how annuities work. In the annuities world, entering into an agreement on an investment actually involves three parties. First, you the investor. Second, the annuities dealer. Third, the insurance company backing the annuity. In this relationship, it’s the insurance company that pays out a commission to the annuities provider. That commission is only known to the insurer and the annuities provider, not to you. The benefit to you in this scenario is that you don’t pay any commission. You simply get to choose the best terms and annual rate that you think will meet your own personal investing goals. No need to worry about anything else. Just do what’s best for you.
Do I Have to Pay Withdrawal Fees on Annuities?
As with any form of investing, investment companies and insurance companies typically make their money off of premiums, interest rates and fees. Yes there can sometimes be fees charged within an annuity product. Those fees are usually called surrender fees. They are fees that you pay when you decide to opt out of an annuity contract early because you need the money for something.
Usually the way fees work with an annuity is that you pay a percentage-based penalty depending on how much of the time you originally planned to invest within the annuity has passed.
For example, let’s say that you had planned to invest in your annuity for seven years. The insurer or annuities provider will typically charge you a rate of 7% as a penalty if you withdraw from your annuity in the first year. If you withdraw from your annuity in the second year, that penalty drops to 6%. In the third year it moves to 5%, and the penalty keeps declining one percentage point at a time until you get to 0%, which usually means you met your full commitment to the annuity you chose.
Keep in mind that in addition to paying penalties to the insurer or annuities provider, profits from annuities grow tax sheltered but they are not tax-free. This means that when you withdraw, the IRS may also charge you a penalty plus income tax on your withdrawal.
Should You Choose to Invest with Annuity Alliance?
Annuity Alliance does a great job of explaining the basics of annuities for both beginners, intermediate and advanced annuities investors. From that perspective we definitely have to recommend checking out Annuity Alliance as a resource as you continue to do your own research as to which annuities provider you should choose to work with.
That being said as much as the company does a good job of creating evergreen content that readers can benefit from on their website, there isn’t very much in the way of information about the company’s executive team and ultimately there aren’t very many review sites that are taking an interest in talking to customers of Annuity Alliance to figure out whether word-of-mouth actually travels far when it comes to this particular organization.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing Annuity Alliance as your annuities provider, but we do recommend taking a look at other companies like DCF Annuities before you actually take the plunge and make a firm decision.
At least now you know a little bit more about Annuity Alliance and what’s out there for you.
- Phone : 1-800-241-4565
- URL :
- Global Rating
- Good
User Rating
- 1 Reviews
Annuity Alliance is one of the leading annuities companies in America and has been since its inception.
The organization does a great job educating investors using beginner, intermediate and advanced content as well as an extensive library of answers to frequently asked questions.
Find out if Annuity Alliance is the right annuities provider for you.
Havery
