Annuity, Life, & Retirement Protection Specialist Kirk Kanenbley

With all of the different life insurance and retirement protection options available, it can be time consuming and overwhelming to figure out what to choose. What I do is help you find the solutions that would work best for you.

Annuities

What you need to know to get the most out of your annuity.

You can watch a summary video below, read through a detailed guide, and get questions answered when you've finished.

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For more information...

The Indexed Annuity Guide below contains more detail.

Learn How You Could Protect Your Retirement Accounts From Loss, Create Above Average Growth, & Create a Lifetime Income You Can Depend On.

Why Annuities

Planning for retirement can feel overwhelming. With taxes, inflation, healthcare costs, and stock market ups and downs, many seniors worry about running out of money.

Annuities are designed to combine safety, growth, and guaranteed income—all in one product. This guide will explain how annuities work, their benefits, and why they have become a foundation for retirement planning for millions of Americans.

Here are some specific areas we're going to cover.

  • Why Annuities Are A Smart Safe Choice.

  • Types of Annuities.

  • What can affect your choices such as Surrender Fees & Bonuses.

  • Timing & Planning in Annuities for your income needs.

  • How Indexed Annuities actually work to grow your money.

  • What affects growth in an indexed annuity behind the scenes.

  • Why Index Allocations are critical to growth.

Please do not feel like you have to commit all this to memory. This is just to give you an overview and initial understanding on what will help you, when you consider annuity options. You can always ask me any questions you have via phone, text, or email. I’ll help you get a clear understanding on everything.

What are the Biggest Concerns of Most Retirees?

  • Outliving your money – Will your savings last as long as you do? People are living longer than ever, and retirement may last 20–30 years.

  • Safety – Can you count on your money being there when you need it? Market downturns can quickly wipe out savings, which could take years to rebuild.

  • Taxes – Are you losing too much of your retirement income to the IRS? Many retirees donʼt realize their Social Security benefits can also be taxed.

  • Inflation–How will you keep up with rising costs of food, housing, and health care over time?

Annuities solve problems.

After considering these challenges, many retirees begin searching for solutions that provide both peace of mind and financial security.

People choose annuities because they:

  • Want guaranteed income they cannot outlive.

  • Prefer safety and stability instead of taking risks in the stock market.

  • Need predictable income to cover everyday expenses, healthcare, and housing.

  • Value products that are regulated, time-tested, and backed by insurance companies.

For these reasons, annuities have become a trusted option for those who want to enjoy retirement without constant financial worry.

Types of Annuities

There are 2 main types of Annuities - Fixed Rate and Indexed Annuities.

Fixed rate annuities have a fixed interest rate for growth, often low but guaranteed. It’s pretty basic.

Indexed annuities give you the option to get above average growth and provide a strong choice over lower fixed interest rate annuities.

Indexed annuities were designed to beat other safe fixed-based products like CD’s, Bonds, Straight Up Fixed Rate Annuities and MYGA’s.

The reason they are so popular is you can get market growth without the risk of loss when the market goes down.

You’ll see how these work in another section coming up. As we go forward, we’ll be focusing on indexed annuities, which are the most popular choice.

Choosing Annuities and Timing - Immediate & Deferred Annuities.

This is about when you’lI want to use the money in your annuity.

You typically open an Immediate annuity if you need to start withdrawing income right away.

Otherwise you would choose a Deferred annuity to give your money time to grow, before you have the need for income in the future.

There are some products which are designed for both immediate growth and income. They can be a compromise on the gains you can reach with a standalone deferred or immediate annuity. But they are an excellent choice depending on specific circumstances.

Other components of an annuity.

These are important terms on annuities to understand.

  • Surrender fees

    Annuities are long term financial products, usually for 3 to 10 years. When you choose a product to put your retirement savings into, the guarantees you receive, like safety from loss, comes from making a commitment in time.

    If you cancel your agreement there are costs that have to be paid for. Surrender fees are like temporary penalties you incur in the beginning years of your long term commitment, in case you decide to pull all or too much money out at once, against the terms of our contract.

    Expect surrender fees to start out high the first year and then go down each year until they reach zero.

  • Bonuses

    There are annuity products with bonuses, on your entire balance, when you open your annuity account. We typically see up to 10-20%. Imagine opening an annuity with $100,000 and after it’s opened you all of a sudden have $120,000 you’re earning interest on. You get credited from the start, so you’re earning money on a higher balance immediately.

    The bonus (as cash value) is released in your account over time, so no one can just open an account, get a bonus, and leave with the extra money. There are rules to this just like in everything else.

    Besides using it as a boost for your account, a bonus can also be used to make up for a surrender fee being paid, when someone wants to move from an existing annuity, which may have been purchased during a very low interest rate period.

    This can make it easier to move to an annuity with higher growth potential or another type. You’ll see why soon.

  • Options

    There are also optional riders in some products that offer features like Long Term Care. These have a cost and need to be looked at closely to see if it’s a real value to you or not.

Here are a few things to consider as you start looking at annuities.

These are questions which will help narrow down the annuity products which should best fit your needs.

  • What do you have in place for retirement income besides the money you’ll put into an annuity?

  • Have you looked at how much you’ll get from Social Security depending on when you start drawing on it?

    You may want to use some annuity withdrawals to help you support your income in order to take social security later, when you’ll get a larger monthly check. The difference in the size of your monthly check can be substantial and would be for the rest of your life. If you don’t have a recent social security statement to help you see your options, create an account at ssa.gov

  • Are you looking for lifetime income, occasional withdrawals, money to leave behind for your family, or something else?

  • Is your money considered Qualified or Non Qualified?

    Qualified money is where you put it into savings before paying taxes on it, like a 401k plan.

    Non Qualified is money you’ve already paid taxes on. Like cash you’ve saved in the bank or investments you made from after tax money.

    Qualified money has rules to follow regarding access, taxes, and fees. Also, at a certain age (typically 70 or over). you have to start making Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s) to start paying the taxes on that money.

    If your money is currently in a Qualified account, you can typically move it into a qualified annuity and not have to pay taxes or fees when moving it over, unless you keep some of the money and don’t put it all into the annuity.

    By the way, if you have an old 401k you aren’t contributing to anymore, which could be losing money every time the market goes down, you could move that into an annuity right away and never lose a dime again.

    Plus you can still earn growth on it when the market is going up. It’s a great way to protect and grow that money you’ve already worked to save, rather than leaving it at risk.

  • If you’re currently retired and need income now, you might look at an immediate annuity or a combination Growth & Income annuity.

    Especially one with a bonus, depending on some other factors.

    If you’re not retired yet or have at least a few years to let your money grow, a deferred annuity is a more likely choice for you.

  • Depending on timing and how long you can let your money grow, a bonuses could give you a 10-20% head start on growth, or you may have an opportunity for higher long term growth in a non-bonus product. These are details we go through when you’re ready to start looking at options.

  • There are other things to consider, like liquidity in case of emergency, which we talk about when you’re ready to look at how an indexed annuity could work for you.

How Indexed Annuities Work

Now we’re going to touch on an area most agents don’t understand and cannot easily explain to you.
Usually, they were just not taught about this.


As I mentioned earlier, Indexed Annuities were created to offer safety… and above average growth.


Here’s a quick view of how the indexed annuity keeps your money safe and can create that above average growth for you over time.

  • First, when you put your annuity in place, you deposit your money with the Insurance company.

  • The Insurance company places it into a fixed asset, usually a corporate bond or a treasury... to protect your principle from any losses and have guaranteed interest to work with.

  • This guaranteed interest from the fixed asset, is what gets invested into what we’ll call an Options Budget.

  • The Options Budget pays for the options they purchase to drive growth in your account. An option is like a short term stock trade with limited risk. They buy options for the indexes you choose to allocate your money into (Index Allocations).

  • The profits from these options fuel your growth and pay for all the costs involved.

    You’ll see how important your index allocations are in a minute.

    Remember, while all this is going on, they are working with the options budget money at this point. Your account funds are safe inside the fixed asset!

For these reasons, annuities have become a trusted option for those who want to enjoy retirement without constant financial worry.

Index Allocations & Annual Resets

Unlike in a fixed rate annuity, where you don’t really have any choices to make after opening the account, you have a powerful tool in indexed annuities that can help you protect your growth.

You have the ability to reallocate your funds every year, in case of unexpected index performance or other changes.

When you hear the rare complaint about an indexed annuity not making as much as someone thought it should, you’ll typically find that they didn’t make any allocation changes on their yearly anniversary dates because they didn’t understand it.

That is becuase most agents don't understand it well. so they

It’s important to look at your index allocations once a year, before your anniversary window is over. This is to compare your current index allocation to other options, to see if a change could benefit you over the next year. We make this easy for you and create an analysis for you every year, so you don’t get stuck in an underperforming index and lose out on higher growth. You’ll see an example of this later in the guide.

Just a side note. For those who like to take a little risk to get an even higher return, there are annuity products which will give you a higher share in market growth, if you share in a little of the downside risk.

  • First, when you put your annuity in place, you deposit your money with the Insurance company.

  • The Insurance company places it into a fixed asset, usually a corporate bond or a treasury... to protect your principle from any losses and have guaranteed interest to work with.

  • This guaranteed interest from the fixed asset, is what gets invested into what we’ll call an Options Budget.

  • The Options Budget pays for the options they purchase to drive growth in your account. An option is like a short term stock trade with limited risk. They buy options for the indexes you choose to allocate your money into (Index Allocations).

  • The profits from these options fuel your growth and pay for all the costs involved.

    You’ll see how important your index allocations are in a minute.

    Remember, while all this is going on, they are working with the options budget money at this point. Your account funds are safe inside the fixed asset!

For these reasons, annuities have become a trusted option for those who want to enjoy retirement without constant financial worry.

Indexed Annuity Benefits

Indexed annuities are built to address retirement worries.

They offer:

  • Principal protection—you will never lose money when the market goes down.

  • Growth potential—earn interest linked to stock market indexes, like the S&P 500, without risking your principal.

  • Tax deferral—earnings grow tax-deferred until you take them out, which may lower your current taxes.

  • Guaranteed lifetime income—turn your savings into a paycheck for life, with options to cover a spouse as well.

  • Probate protection—your money goes directly to your loved ones, avoiding delays and expenses.

  • Flexibility—many contracts allow access to funds in emergencies, giving peace of mind.

For these reasons, annuities have become a trusted option for those who want to enjoy retirement without constant financial worry.

Lifetime Income Riders: Paychecks for Life

A Lifetime Income rider is an option you can add to many indexed annuities.

It guarantees you a monthly check for as long as you live—even if your account balance runs out.

This removes the fear of outliving your money.

  • A steady monthly income you cannot outlive, no matter how long you live.

  • Payments that can continue for your spouse after your death, providing financial security for both partners.

  • Flexibility to turn on income when you need it most, such as later in retirement when healthcare costs may rise.

  • Protection against longevity risk—even if you live into your 90s or beyond, your income will never stop.

The Long History of Annuities

Annuities are not new. They have been around for centuries. In fact, annuities were used as far back as the Roman Empire to provide lifetime payments to soldiers and their families.

In the United States, annuities have been issued since the early 1800s.

Today, millions of Americans use them as a safe and reliable retirement tool. This long history shows that annuities are a time-tested way to protect savings and provide a guaranteed Lifetime Income.

How Annuities Can Help with Social Security & Taxes

Many retirees are surprised to learn that up to 85% of their Social Security can be taxed. By moving certain assets into a tax-deferred annuity, you can lower the income that triggers those taxes—which means keeping more of your Social Security check in your pocket. This strategy can save thousands of dollars over the course of retirement and provide a more efficient income plan.

A Real-Life Use Story

A retired couple needed more income. By using an indexed annuity, they were able to significantly improve their retirement:

  • Boost their monthly income by 25%.

  • Pay less in taxes every quarter thanks to tax deferral.

  • Lock in a lifetime paycheck with an income rider.

Most importantly, they gained peace of mind knowing they would never outlive their money.

The Power of Indexed Annuities

Below you will see an illustrated example of how an Indexed Annuity works:

  • Your entire principal is safe, and gains are locked in every year.

  • No downside risk, even in down years.

  • Lock in gains safely, without the stress of losing your principal.

Most importantly, clients gain peace of mind knowing they will never lose any of their hard earned money.

The Green Line represents an Indexed Annuity, and the Red Line represents traditional investments, such as a 401k, stocks, mutual funds, etc.

And as illustrated below, the GREEN Line never goes down.

Which line would you rather have your retirement follow?

These are just some of the reasons why so many individuals are choosing Indexed Annuities to safeguard their retirements: Safety • Growth • Income • Guarantees

You can easily see how an Indexed Annuity could work for You

Below you will see a sample page from an Annuity illustration.

Illustrations are used to show you a personalized plan based on the options you choose to take advantage of.

This lets you get an idea of what you might accomplish with safety in growth and longevity.

Your illustration can also be run to show you how much you could receive in a lifetime income stream, that you can count on. This is just one of several pages in an illustration.

Annuities are not just for when you retire. Many take advantage of them today with after tax money they want to save long term.

Annuities are also a great way to stop losing money in a 401k from a previous job.

Some Annuity companies give you a bonus of up to 10-20% when you open your account to accelerate your growth. (This is what we’re currently seeing as of October 2025)

The best way to see what your own annuity could do for you, is to contact us to request an illustration. Our contact information is below.

Final Thoughts

Indexed annuities are simple, safe, and designed for seniors or any individual who wants peace of mind.

They protect your savings, grow your money, reduce taxes, and can give you income for life.

With a long history of providing security and oversight from state-regulated insurance companies, they remain one of the most trusted retirement tools available today.

We Are Here to Help Guide You

We help educate individuals on all the different retirement options, and we can help guide you through the process of maximizing your retirement to its fullest.

Simply reach out to your Retirement Protection Advisor using the information below, for your own personalized review.

Contact Us if you have any questions or you would like to get your own personalized Annuity Illustration.

With all of the different life insurance and retirement protection options available, it can be time consuming and overwhelming to figure out what to choose.

What I do is help you find the solutions that would

work best for you.

We are more than just financial professionals – we are committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of our Clients. With years of experience and a passion for the making a difference in the lives of our clients, our team looks at every new client as a new member of our family.