Trying to plan for your retirement needs can be a daunting task. There are many factors that make it difficult to define exactly what your income needs will be. In the bigger picture, factors such as potential changes in income tax rates and inflation can have a major impact on whether your dollar will go as far as it once did. Additionally, personal issues such as declining spending as you get older, chronic illness or family emergencies can have just as great an impact. So, what do you do? How do you achieve the comfort of knowing you're taking positive steps towards a stable and secure retirement, while retaining the flexibility necessary to respond to inevitable change?

In recent years, it has become quite popular to utilize mutual funds during your accumulation years, then turn to a more conservative alternative such as an annuity to provide stability and income at retirement. While we agree that appropriate annuities can be a sound choice, we find one annuity normally is not the answer. Alternatively, we find a strategic combination of annuities can provide the same benefits as one, yet also allow for greater flexibility to respond to potential changing needs, if they occur*.

Our annuity-based retirement income strategy was designed to help people provide both income AND flexibility during their retirement years.

* While annuities provide many benefits consistent with retirement needs, they may not be appropriate for everyone. In many cases, we believe other alternatives including, but not limited to, mutual funds and Certificates of Deposit (CD's) are appropriate for some portion of retirement funds.