Understanding Fixed Annuities

Fixed annuities can help you grow your savings, protect your lifestyle, and avoid the risk of outliving your retirement income.

• Many people buy fixed annuities to obtain an income stream, usually in retirement. In fact, only an annuity can guarantee income payments the contract holder won’t outlive.*
  
  
• Some people buy them to help diversify their retirement portfolio and to help maximize their savings.
  
  
• Others may buy them to help manage their taxes or even to help bridge their retirement income gap.
  
  

What Can You Expect When You Purchase a Fixed Annuity?

Deciding to purchase a fixed annuity reflects a conservative and thoughtful approach to meeting your long-term financial goals.

• You’ll get benefits such as safety of principal, tax deferral, competitive interest rates, and the opportunity to select the "income for life" payout option.
  
  
• You can leave your annuity to a beneficiary, making it a valuable estate-planning tool.
  
  

When the financial markets zig and the economy zags, it’s also important to have some protection from financial risks.

Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of American General Life Insurance Company.

* Annuitization required (the process of converting the fixed annuity into a series of periodic income payments).

Tax-qualified contracts such as IRAs, 401(k)s, etc., are tax deferred regardless of whether or not they are funded with an annuity. If you are considering funding a tax-qualified retirement plan with an annuity, you should know that an annuity does not provide any additional tax-deferred treatment of earnings beyond the treatment by the tax-qualified retirement plan itself. However, annuities do provide other features and benefits such as income options.

Neither American General Life Insurance Company nor its agents or representatives are authorized to give legal, tax or accounting advice. Please consult your attorney, accountant, or tax advisor on specific points of interest. 

The Western National series of annuities is issued and underwritten in New York by The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York and in all other states by American General Life Insurance Company.