Annuities prevent you from outliving your investments: Jonathan Kestle CFP, CLU, H.B.Com

The higher interest rates of the mid-2020s are making people revisit an old retirement planning friend, the annuity.

An annuity is a financial product that you can buy which then pays you a specified amount each month for the rest of your life. While you no longer have control over the money you used to pay for the annuity, your monthly income payments from it are guaranteed to last your lifetime.

Save with SPP reached out to Jonathan Kestle of Ian C. Moyer Insurance Agency to find out more about annuities.

Q. We’ve not seen anyone comment on how choosing an annuity takes away the headache of having to make withdrawals from a registered retirement income fund (RRIF) or similar vehicle (a minimum amount that must come out, taxation, perhaps increased income and further taxation, etc.) Does having an annuity for some or all of one’s retirement income simplify their taxes?

A. An annuity will not necessarily simplify taxes unless it is a “non-registered” annuity, meaning the funds used to purchase the annuity are regular taxable savings and not from registered savings (Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), a Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA), etc.)

What an annuity does simplify, is the task of making a savings account last. Annuities eliminate the risk of outliving your investment and pay a pretty good payout rate in comparison to what would be prudent with a normal investment account.

Q. Similarly, when you choose an annuity you can pick one that can provide a spouse with a pension, or beneficiaries with a lump sum amount. If you have a lump sum, isn’t it possible that you’ll spend it all before you die and leave little or nothing to beneficiaries?

A. Not really, an annuity typically makes it harder to leave funds to beneficiaries. The guarantee periods are often limited to 10 or 15 years, at which point no money will pay to a beneficiary upon the death of the owner.

I would look at it this way… if you aim for a retirement income of $60,000, you could use an annuity to supplement your social benefits (such as CPP and OAS) to reach that amount. This way, you secure a steady income and preserve other investments, which can then be left to your beneficiaries.

Q. Interest rates have been persistently higher – are we seeing more annuities being chosen?

A. Yes. Now is a great time to consider an annuity. I checked today, and payout rates are up about 19% from 2021.

Q. Any other observations on the topic?

A. The payout ratio of an annuity is often overlooked. The “payout ratio” of an annuity is simply the amount of annual income received divided by the lump sum used to purchase the annuity. The concept is that those who unfortunately pass away early have their contributions support those who live longer. This mechanism is known as “mortality credits.”

Mortality credits are a unique feature of annuities. Essentially, the contributions from those who pass away earlier than expected are pooled and used to provide higher payouts to those who live longer. Because of this, annuities can safely sustain a higher withdrawal rate than a traditional investment portfolio. Achieving the same withdrawal rate from a traditional savings account would be too risky for many investors. This system allows annuities to offer more stable and predictable income throughout retirement, providing peace of mind for retirees.

We thank Jonathan Kestle for taking the time to answer our questions. Here’s a link to an earlier interview SPP did with him on annuities.

The Saskatchewan Pension Plan offers its retiring members a variety of annuity options. There’s the Life Only Annuity, which pays you and you alone a monthly income for life. There’s also the Refund Life Annuity, which can provide a lump sum benefit for your beneficiaries, and the Joint and Last Survivor Annuity, where your surviving spouse can continue to receive annuity payments after your death. Full details can be found here: retirement_guide.pdf.

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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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