Most of what people “know” about annuities isn’t wrong. It’s just incomplete.
Take one of the most common objections I hear — the one that gets repeated most often — without the full picture: “Annuities are designed so the insurance company wins. The math is stacked against you.”
That’s half right. And the half that’s wrong is the important part.
Yes, actuarial science favors the insurance company.
Of course it does. The company has to price products so it remains solvent. It may pay out guaranteed income for 30 years. That pricing discipline is exactly what makes the guarantee worth anything. If the math didn’t work in the company’s favor, there would be no guarantee.
But here’s what that objection misses entirely: you’re not trying to beat the insurance company. You’re buying something the market cannot give you.
What mortality credits actually do.
When a group of people pool their longevity risk inside an annuity, something remarkable happens. No individual savings account or investment portfolio can replicate it. The people who die early don’t take their actuarial share with them. Those dollars get redistributed to the people who keep living.
The longer you live, the more you collect. The pool makes this possible. No other financial structure does.
Tom Hegna calls this one of the few mathematical certainties in retirement income planning. Mortality credits are the reason guaranteed lifetime income is possible at all. It isn’t magic. It’s the actuarial engine underneath every legitimate income guarantee.
What about fees?
This one depends entirely on what you’re trying to accomplish — and where you are in the timeline.
If you’re in the accumulation phase, building safe growth before retirement, a fixed indexed annuity with no fees is a straightforward tool. Your money grows tax-deferred with downside protection. You’re not paying for guarantees you don’t need yet.
If you’re in the income phase and activating a lifetime income rider, there is a cost for that guarantee. But what you’re buying in exchange is a check that cannot stop — regardless of what the market does, regardless of how long you live.
Fees without context are just a number. Fees in the context of what they purchase — that’s a real conversation.
The inflation question.
There’s a legitimate version of the annuity objection worth taking seriously: what can a fixed amount of money actually buy 20 years from now?
Fair question. And there are real answers.
Inflation-adjusted payout options exist. Market-linked payout options exist. And the framework Tom Hegna has spent a career building points to something practical. If a portion of your retirement income is guaranteed, the rest of your money doesn’t have to carry that weight. It can stay invested. It can grow. It can outpace inflation over time — precisely because you’ve already solved the income floor problem.
Guaranteed income on a portion of your assets isn’t a retreat from growth. It’s what gives the rest of your portfolio permission to take risk.
The version of this conversation worth having.
The $464 billion in annuity sales recorded in 2025 isn’t explained by ignorant consumers or unethical advisors — though both exist. It’s explained by a value proposition that’s clear to people who actually need it.
If you’re 55 and you’ve watched two market crashes in 15 years, and someone shows you a way to protect what you’ve built while guaranteeing income you cannot outlive — that’s not a hard sell. That’s a solution to a real problem.
The objections are worth taking seriously. The half-truths embedded in them are worth correcting. That’s what we’re here for.
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Kurtz Lytle is the founder of IUL.Solutions and The Mortgage Protection Company, an independent insurance and retirement income planning practice based in Nashville, Tennessee. This content is educational in nature and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Product availability and features vary by state and carrier.