John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” This is certainly true of preparing

Many Americans realize the importance of saving for retirement, but knowing exactly how much they need to save is another issue altogether. With all the information available about retirement, it is sometimes difficult

Many variable annuity contracts offer “living benefit” guarantees. For an additional cost, the contract holder may be able to purchase guarantees regardless of the account value. Adding a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit to a variable

A split-annuity strategy involves purchasing two types of annuity contracts: immediate and deferred. The immediate annuity would provide a current income stream during the early years of retirement, and the deferred annuity would

Annuities are insurance-based financial vehicles that can provide many benefits sought by retirement-minded investors. There are a number of reasons why people buy annuities. Deferral of taxes is a big benefit, and so is the ability to

A money purchase plan is a type of defined-contribution plan that is similar to a profit-sharing plan, except that the contribution amounts are fixed rather than variable. Thus, employers are required to make

The arena of employer-sponsored retirement plans has been dominated by 401(k) plans that are funded with pre-tax contributions, which effectively defers taxes until distributions begin. However, Roth 401(k) is funded with after-tax money

If you leave a job or retire, you might want to transfer the money you’ve invested in one or more employer-sponsored retirement plans to an individual retirement account (IRA). An IRA rollover is

There are many types of employer-sponsored retirement plans. One that may appeal to small businesses and to self-employed individuals is the savings incentive match plan for employees (SIMPLE) because, as the name implies,