[grania]

As soon as I see the word "annuity" in the same paragraph as "retirement savings" I have a vision of where this is going. The feds will encourage people to save, maybe even adding a little to their savings. Then when one retires, they'll get their retirement check back, but as an annuity. That means that when one dies, that asset is gone.

I live in an area where these are a lot of older retirees who've been comfortable up until now. A lot of them have gone in to annuities with decent payments to keep the money coming in, as interest rates on their savings are near zero. Their kids and grandkids are in for a surprise when the old folks pass on...that annuity means the life savings are gone.

This all seems like a not to subtle maneuver to stop all but the most wealthy from transfering wealth to the next generation.

[21twelve]

My dad got an annuity for my mom, to have as a source of funds for charities when my mom passed away. Except my mom lived too long - and the annuity expired before she did - but only by a year or two. I don’t know that much about it, but it sounded like it was a huge payment up front. And then no payments for 20+ years, and then once it reached maturity, in order to keep it at 80% of the original value my mom would have put a fairly big payment in again, but that would have only lasted for a year or something.

Sounded like a scam to me.

[UnRuley1]

Annuities that are set up right are great for people who do not want to hassle with stocks, bonds etc. IRAs are just that, INDIVIDUAL, they were not meant to be passed on to your beneficiaries. If someone wants to leave some of their wealth to their children, the best way to do that is to purchase whole life insurance before you retire. When you pass away, the beneficiaries get the money TAX FREE. With an IRA, the beneficiaries have to pay tax and a good portion of what is left gets swiped by the government.
However, those who are informed (most are not) will know they can "rollover" an inherited IRA to your own account. The IRS recalculates the annual required distribution based on the new owners age. Effectively managed inherited IRAs can last several generations, that is if they don't get stolen by the regime.