Receiving annuity is a comforting idea. For the years that the annuity will be paid, you and your family will be ensured of a steady cash flow. It’s cash that you can use for anything you desire. But more often than not, annuity is normally used as retirement money.

Before, people don’t have much choice but to wait for their annuity payments. However, things have changed for the better these days. Now, you can sell your annuity payments in exchange to cold cash. That’s how flexible today’s financial institutions are.

There are a lot of financial agents that handles annuity sales. The whole process is getting faster and easier as days go by. You don’t have to wait years anymore to get the full amount. Just submit your annuity papers to the agents. They’ll draw up the necessary documents and you should receive your money very soon. And it’s the full amount – not the partial payment you get every year.

However, there are a lot of things to consider when selling annuities. The biggest question is whether or not to sell it at all. That decision is going to be major one, especially if you are taking about your retirement money. Retirement money is supposed to help you during your senior years, where a steady income is not ensured and your need for health care product rises.

There are many reasons why you should sell your annuity though. For starters, you can use it as an investment in a more profitable endeavor. There are some sound business portfolios that you may come across. If you need money for that business, then you are free to sell your annuity to get the necessary funds. Just make sure that your business is really a profitable one and that it would last you throughout retirement.

Some people sell their annuities to pay off their mortgage. This is another good reason to cash in an annuity. Your house is a valuable investment. If you can buy it off right now, then you don’t have to pay for rising interest rates in the future. You will not only have a secured investment. But you can definitely use your house as a protection in the future, if in case you get in dire need of money during retirement.

The answer to the question whether or not you should sell your annuity depends upon you. Is trading the regular stream of money feasible? Would the money be used in more important things? These questions are yours to answer. You have to keep in mind that money can easily be spent on unnecessary things. Getting a lump sum for your annuity is not a good idea if you don’t have the immediate need for it.

Bottom line is, sell your annuity if you have the need for it. Otherwise, it is better off as it is so your future as a retired citizen is secured. Selling annuities is very easy these days. You just have to go to the right places and you would have the check after a short while.

When selling annuities, think about what lies ahead. The future is unpredictable and it holds too many surprises. If you can plan the future, then you will definitely arrive at the best decision.

What is an annuity?

An annuity is a regular income flowing monthly that a person receives through an investment. You can get this series of payments after your initial investment of money. Annuities are usually related to a contract between you and a life insurance company, but a charity or a trust can also be contracted for this same purpose.

Why would you want to sell annuities?

You are probably wondering what possible reason you can get from selling annuities. Here is a reason why. Annuities are, in general, highly safe investments. But considering the long run, they have relatively low returns compared to some other alternatives. So what you can do is to make it a short-term investment.

Selling an annuity will give you a lump-sum payment. Doing this is a way of spreading your assets around, reducing financial risks and increasing your potential of getting good profits from these assets. This can be especially useful if you are in need of money for a large purchase such as purchasing a property or settling a loan.

What are the ways that you can sell annuities?

Annuities come in many forms such as a single-premium or flexible-premium annuities, immediate or deferred-payment annuities, qualified or nonqualified annuities and fixed-interest, indexed, or variable deferred annuities. It is important that you learn everything you can about these before purchasing and selling annuities of your own. Research on annuities can favor you the most. Pick out the ones which you think you can manage and you will be confident enough to sell to get optimum results.

When you have already learned a lot about the different annuities, you are now ready to sell them. Here are a few ways to do it:

Find a reliable selling company to do it for you. The easiest and most convenient way of selling annuities is to find a reputable company that will do the selling for you. Hiring a reliable third party can assure you that your annuities will reap maximum benefits when sold because they have the sources and experiences to do so. But of course, you will not get the whole profit for the sale. You will have to pay them fees.

Directly sell your annuities. You can also sell your annuities directly to someone who wants to buy them. This is not a popular choice of selling annuities because of all the legalities involved. You can research on what it takes to sell your annuities personally or online annuity selling opportunities that will help you to sell your annuity plans easily.

Exchange annuities for other annuities. Another way to sell your annuities is through exchange. You can exchange, for example, your annuity that pays-off a smaller monthly income in a long period of time and another persons annuity that pays-off a larger income in a shorter amount of time or vice versa. This will benefit you if you can not sell your annuity in a single lump-sum payment because of the terms of your annuity. You can, in effect, have a better chance of selling your newly acquired annuity in the market.

Using annuities as collateral for loans. This works like the exchange of annuities for other annuities only that it serves as a security for your loan. It is an option you can take that may give you a higher yield on your annuity.

What are annuity payments?

In order to understand the benefits of selling annuity payments, it is first essential to discuss what annuity payments actually are. Basically, annuity payment is defined as time value of money wherein a formula of evenly-spaced flow of cash annuity is used. These may include payments for mortgage or monthly recipes from your retirement account.

The payment for your annuity should always be the same amount during each period and it should occur at even intervals. Payments should also be made exactly at the start or at the end of each period. It should include all inflow as well as outflow and represent the payment during the compounding period.

How to receive annuity payments

When you decide to purchase annuity, an important factor you need to consider is the method on how you want to be paid. You have the option to select payouts for a set period or it can be continued throughout your lifetime. There are also options wherein the beneficiary can choose to receive the annuity payment upon your death.

There are several choices namely the straight life option, the joint or survivor option, and the refund annuity. The straight life annuity enables you to derive income throughout your lifetime even after the money you had put into annuity has already been used up. However, if you die even before the account has been used up, nobody can collect the payouts. The straight life annuity is perfect for someone who don’t have any dependents or for a person who needs to maximize his income.

Options in selling annuity payments

Many people want to sell their annuity payments because they want to get their money now instead of waiting for years. So it is a welcome development that there are many annuity buyers who legally buy your annuity payments so you can take advantage of lump sum payments today. However, you should choose the annuity buyer you will do business with carefully because you certainly don’t want to get involved with a company that is not really trustworthy. In addition, some buyers offer greater amount compared to others.

You should also take note that most annuity buyers also offer you flexible deferred payment schemes wherein you can choose a comfortable size of payments that is perfect for you. Most of the time, people just want to become free of the restrictions that has been imposed upon them by the settlement. Another option is to sell just a small portion of your annuity payments so that you will have the comfort of knowing you will still have annuity payments in the future.

As you can see, the advantages of selling annuity payments are undeniable. You will get the money you need in case of an emergency or if you need a significant amount of cash as capitalization for your business. Meanwhile, some people decide to sell their annuities to fund their children’s education or even to help a relative who needs money.

But whatever the case may be, it is a good thing that there are annuity buyers in the market so you will be able to sell annuity payments when you want to. And knowing that you have something to fall back on during extreme circumstances is enough comfort for a lot of people.

Annuities are fast becoming a big part of a person’s retirement program. While a lot of people are actually using them for the future, there are also others that avails of an annuity plan and then sell it off to others. These individuals have two ways to sell it. They can sell the product by themselves or they can ask a financial agent to do the job for them.

Retirement annuities can be obtained also in two ways. It can come in the form of your employer’s 401(k) or it could come from your own Individual Retirement Account or IRA. Generally speaking, retirement annuities can’t be withdrawn until after the owner reaches 60 years of age. While it is possible to get all your money before such time, the proceeds are subject to a penalty of ten percent.

For people who know how to handle their money and resources, they would avail of multiple retirement annuities for themselves with the sole purpose of selling the others to other parties. They would just leave a good portion for their own use. Selling annuities connection is a good way to ensure yourself that you have enough money for your own retirement and still earn a good amount from some of it as well.

Selling retirement annuities by your lonesome sounds like a good idea. For starters, you would be getting all the proceeds by yourself. You can also increase or decrease the asking price of your annuity. The last call is on you and you’ll be solely calling the shots. The final decision whether you will sell your annuity or just let is stand for your own use depends up to you.

However, selling annuities through a respectable financial company has its advantages as well. First and foremost, it would relieve you of all the legalities and paper work associated with the transfer. Your chosen financial company would be preparing all of them for you. They would assume all the legwork and you’ll just sit in your corner and wait for the sale to materialize.

Furthermore, the burden of looking for buyers is on them. Financial companies who are an expert in selling retirement annuities have a long list of interested clients that they can call anytime. The whole transaction would be much faster with them on the helms primarily because they have the right connections. If you try to sell your annuity on your own, you might have to wait several months before a genuinely interested buyer would come by and seal the whole deal.

If you choose to sell your annuity through a financial company, there will be no effort or worry exerted on your part. On your perspective, everything would go smoothly because somebody else is doing all the hard work for you. You will be notified right away if a sale would transpire. All you need to do is to sign a few papers and you will receive the check real soon.

However, you can’t really increase or decrease the total sale amount of your annuity if it is sold through an agent. The annuity will be sold according to it current market value. And you’d pay a certain percentage of the sale to your chosen financial agent as commission.

You might end up with lesser amount than you have expected, but it still is way above what you have initially invested.

Sometimes we are beset with monetary problems that we get desperate and sell our annuity settlements, thinking it would immediately and ultimately solve our liquidity problem. In our desperation, we grab the very first opportunity that lands on us and think it the best solution for our problems.

However, it is at these times that we should be careful in making huge decisions because it is at these times we are most vulnerable to predator individuals or companies that take advantage of our immediate need. So before handing out your rights and start the process of selling your annuity settlement, ask yourself first if it is really the only and the ultimate solution.

If your liquidity problem is a bit very urgent and needs immediate solution, selling your annuity settlement would not be of much help so think again before selling it. Companies that buy these plans tend to lure you with attractive, but not so comprehensive packages as they do not lay all their cards on the table. At the end, it would only leave you baffled and perplexed without money.

What these companies are not telling you is that selling or transferring an annuity is a long process. There are legal obstacles on the way, which you bothseller and buyerhave to face and deal with first. You would need to file an application in a court as all transactions should be recognized as legitimate by the court. That is just the beginning. The procedures happen in a succession that you couldnt complete them simultaneously.

They are to be completed one after the other and the whole process may take you two months to finish. The companies do not tell you this until you are already caught in the middle of the process and theres no turning back anymore because it already cost you money or maybe turning back would cost you even more money. The companies do not tell you this, of course, because they would not want to lose your annuity.

They would do everything to get your annuity and at the least cost as possible. That is what they dothat is their business. So as an investor, you have to be careful and protect your investment against such predators.

So, if your monetary need is immediate in nature, selling your annuity settlement is not the best solution. Try to find some other solution if you dont want to add more to your problems and stress.

Now if your liquidity problem is not of urgent need, like if you are only anticipating for a huge expenditure in the future, you could time the selling of your annuity. In every buy and sell business, may it be shares of stocks, housing and other properties, or annuities, timing is everything. Watch the market performance and its trends closely. Dont sell your annuity if the market is not doing good or performing well.

It is at these times that your annuity would value less than your initial investment or your rate of return would be very minimal. And holding to it much longer would prove beneficial for times of unexpected disasters or illness and serve you more effectively. In this case again, finding other solution to afford you the anticipated huge expense is a better option than selling your annuity.

Always remember that keeping your annuity for the rest of its term is a guaranteed income in your late years, whereas selling it is only a short-term lump sum payment, which could be gone before you know it.