Annuities are crap financial products. So easy to do better with a conservative portfolio of stock / bond based ETF's. There's so many commission hungry annuity salesmen out there saying good things about them that people start believing that they're "an important part of a portfolio". Nonfiduciary "advisers" typically earn between 5 and 10% when selling annuities. With index annuities and SPIA's the insurance company compensates for that commission by reducing what they pay you. All annuities are also a tax nightmare. With SPIA's and other annuities that have an "income phase" you cannot get out of the contract for life. Kiss your principal goodbye if you ever need it.