Financial planner Jonathan Kestle of the Ian C. Moyer Insurance Agency in Ingersoll, Ont. sees annuities as a great way to strengthen the core of your retirement income strategy.

Talking to Save with SPP by phone, Kestle says he sees annuities as “one of our core planning philosophies.” He notes that while the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) may provide a “foundation for retirement,” people should look at their fixed expenses in retirement.

If CPP and OAS don’t cover off those month-to-month expenses like housing, heat, telephone, and utilities, then a good strategy would be to annuitize some of your personal savings to top that up.  CPP, OAS and an annuity will offer a “cash for life” core income amount that will cover off your basic expenses, he explains. Your other savings provide you with liquidity for “non-core” expenses.

Asked if an annuity offers any tax advantages over withdrawing money from a registered retirement income fund (RRIF), Kestle said not really, since both will have tax withheld at source. On the other hand, a non-registered annuity (an annuity purchased with non-registered funds) can offer significant tax advantages, since tax is set at a fixed rate over many years, he says.

The advantages of an annuity include the fact that “longevity risk,” or the fear of outliving your savings in retirement, is covered off, since an annuity is a “cash for life” product.

Put in perspective, Kestle explains that with a RRIF, you can arrange to have a set amount of money withdrawn each month, like an annuity. The difference is that with the RRIF, if investment returns don’t support the rate of withdrawal over time, you can run out of money while you are still alive. With an annuity, you can’t outlive your savings, he explains.

It’s important to realize, he says, that once you purchase an annuity, you lose control over that money in exchange for receiving guaranteed monthly payments. If you die at an early age, and don’t select an annuity that offers a survivor benefit, your “foregone” payments are used to help provide payments to other annuitants by the insurer via a “pooled risk” approach, he says.

This fear of dying early keeps some people on the sidelines with annuities, but statistically it is quite a rare thing, with most people living into their 80s and beyond, he says.

But if you are concerned about leaving benefits to your survivors, Kestle says, annuities offer a lot of options. You can choose one that offers a joint and survivor pension to your spouse, some will offer a guaranteed payment for a number of years, others will offer a return of premium if you die at a young age. “The more bells and whistles, the less the monthly payment is,” Kestle explains.

Kestle does not believe people should annuitize all their retirement savings. He reiterates that his firm advises reviewing core expenses, seeing if there is a shortfall between what your government benefits provide and what you need for core, fixed expenses, and then annuitizing some of your savings to cover the shortfall.

“You should consider annuitizing a portion of your savings; it shouldn’t be an `all or none’ decision,” he explains. You will need “pools of liquidity” in your savings for emergencies, such as having to put on a new roof. Kestle concludes by saying annuities “play a very important role” in a diversified retirement income portfolio.

We thank Jonathan Kestle for taking the time to talk with us.

Did you know that the Saskatchewan Pension Plan offers a number of annuity options? According to the SPP Retirement Guide, members can choose from these options – a life only annuity, which offers no survivor benefits; a refund life annuity which guarantees a refund to your beneficiary if you have not received the full balance of your SPP account as retirement income; and a joint and last survivor annuity where your beneficiary gets a lifetime pension upon your death equal to 60, 75 or 100 per cent of what you were receiving. Check out SPP, celebrating 35 years of delivering retirement security, today!

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