r/annuity_org

I put $10,000 into an Individual Retirement Annuity (IRA) about 8 years ago and I'm now past the surrender penalty period. When I signed up I added a rider called Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB). The description of the rider says: Income Pay 7% for 10 years with automatic reset option.

The statement inception summary I got recently says:

Premium: $10,000

Premium Bonus: $500

Rider Cost: $1,460

Interest & Index Credits: $1,700

Surrender Value: $10,740

Death Benefit Amount: $10,740

Accumulation Value: $10,740

Below that it lists the details for the GMWB rider:

GMWB Value: $20,650

Income Payment Percentage: 4.75%

Annual Lifetime Payment Amount: $980

Can someone explain what all of this actually means? When I signed up I think I understood it as the rider giving me a guaranteed 7% income every year for 10 years, but that clearly isn't what's happening.

I read through how GMWB riders work here https://www.annuity.org/annuities/riders/gmwb/ but I’m not sure I understood how it all applies to my situation. If I decided to pull all my money out right now, would I be able to withdraw $10,740 or $20,650?

I’ve been weighing a 3 year MYGA against a 3 year fixed index annuity and I keep going back and forth, so I wanted to hear how other people think through this. The MYGA is a bit easy to understand. You get a guaranteed rate for the full three years, you know the exact number upfront, and there’s no guessing. The FIA is more interesting to me though because your return is tied to an index, so there’s a floor that protects you in a down year but also more upside if the market does well. The tradeoff is that the upside gets capped, and comparing those caps across products is where I start to get confused. For anyone who’s compared these two, what ended up tipping your decision? Is a 3-year window even long enough for an FIA to be worth it over the simpler guaranteed route? And where do you go for honest reviews of specific products or providers, since most of what I find is often a sales page?

Help me understand an Annuity rider called Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB)

Comparing a 3-year MYGA with a 3-year Fixed index annuity. Which is the better choice?