[cybrgeezer]

Two people have mentioned New York Life, so I'll tell you what I have already done and may do later.

About two years ago, I rolled some money out of my 401(k) to buy two NYL annuities. One, bought with qualified funds, has an annual increase of 4% every year on the anniversary date. The other, from an old profit-sharing plan of post-tax money (non-qualified funds when taken out) could be put into an annuity with a 5% annual increase. Because of the different amounts, this works out to an annual "raise" of 4.1%, more than I had gotten from an employer in many years.

While not literally indexed for inflation, they are nice increases. Because of my age (I'll be 65 in November), I've been told if I roll over whatever is in my 401(k) at the time I retire, the maximum annual-increase annuity I can buy is one with a 3% raise. Or, I could go for a fixed annuity with that money, at least the qualified part of it, for even more income immediately but no raises. I plan to take the already-taxed, non-qualified, money, which is held as a Roth IRA by NYL, as cash to be put into a money market account or CDs as an addition to my current savings/emergency fund.

Or, of course, I could leave it alone and entertain other ideas. The bottom line is: there are more varieties among annuities than straight, fixed income and variable and to make any blanket statement that they are all bad or all good is of little use.

Examine, ask questions, get information from plenty of insurance companies and be sure to ask about fees. NYL's fee structure, along with the fixed raises, is what sold me. With the money I have at retirement, I may look at what another company can do for me, just to spread the wealth around a bit. But you can be sure I'll study it thoroughly.