Learn what annuities are, how fixed, variable, indexed, immediate, and deferred annuities work, and how they can help provide steady retirement income.

But, I’m not referring to those examples. Instead, I’m referring to the insurance product. Why? Because Annuities are rising in popularity. LIMRA reports that total U.S. annuity sales increased 22% to ...

Annuities date back thousands of years to the Roman Empire. In fact, the word annuity is derived from the Latin annua, meaning “annual payment”, and was used to describe the money paid to soldiers for ...

An annuity is a financial product that provides an income stream to supplement a retiree’s income over time. However, as the financial landscape evolves, so do annuities’ features, benefits, and ...

A variable annuity is an investment product that pays out a stream of payments to the investor, based on the performance of underlying investments. A fixed index annuity is very similar, but instead ...

Andrew Kessel was a breaking news writer for Investopedia until October 2025. He previously covered markets for Proactive Investors, with a focus on small-cap stocks in fintech, healthcare, mining, ...