What is this costing me — as one number?

Mortality and expense charges, rider fees, fund expenses, and surrender penalties are quoted separately, in different sections, in different units. Added together, variable annuity costs commonly land between two and three percent a year. Most owners have simply never seen the total written on one line. We put it on one line.

What does the guarantee actually guarantee?

The "income base" growing at seven percent is not money — it's a bookkeeping figure used to calculate a future payout, and it can't be withdrawn or inherited as a lump sum. Whether the rider is genuinely valuable depends on your age, the payout rate, and what the same dollars could produce elsewhere. Sometimes it's excellent. It's rarely what the illustration implied.

If I wanted out, what would it cost me — today?

The surrender schedule, the taxable gain, the ten-percent penalty before 59½, and the 1035 exchange rules each change the answer. An exit that costs thousands this year can be nearly free in eighteen months. Sequencing is most of the game, and nobody selling a replacement is paid to mention it.

Second opinion

Annuity Review

You own it. Someone else sold it. A straight second opinion on what it costs, what it guarantees, and whether it still fits.

Request a review or call (813) 725-4202

Annuities are some of the most complicated products sold to individual investors, and most owners can't say precisely what theirs costs, what it guarantees, or why they own it. That's not a character flaw — the contracts are long, the riders are dense, and the person who explained yours may have been the person selling it.

A review is simple: we read the contract, do the math, and hand you the answers in plain English. We earn nothing on the outcome — keep, exchange, and surrender all pay us the same — which is rather the point of a second opinion.

The review always ends at one of two doors

And we have no stake in which — that's the point of a second opinion.

Keep it

The guarantees genuinely fit your income plan
Surrender costs outweigh what a change would gain
Sometimes the honest answer is that it's a good contract

Change it

Costs quietly exceed what the guarantees deliver
The surrender window has opened and options with it
Exit routes have different tax treatment — sequencing matters

What never changes: you'll know what you own, what it costs, and why the recommendation is what it is.

Illustrative structure only. Figures shown are not typical or predictive.

Three questions your contract should be able to answer

What is this costing me — as one number?

Mortality and expense charges, rider fees, fund expenses, and surrender penalties are quoted separately, in different sections, in different units. Added together, variable annuity costs commonly land between two and three percent a year. Most owners have simply never seen the total written on one line. We put it on one line.
What does the guarantee actually guarantee?

The "income base" growing at seven percent is not money — it's a bookkeeping figure used to calculate a future payout, and it can't be withdrawn or inherited as a lump sum. Whether the rider is genuinely valuable depends on your age, the payout rate, and what the same dollars could produce elsewhere. Sometimes it's excellent. It's rarely what the illustration implied.
If I wanted out, what would it cost me — today?

The surrender schedule, the taxable gain, the ten-percent penalty before 59½, and the 1035 exchange rules each change the answer. An exit that costs thousands this year can be nearly free in eighteen months. Sequencing is most of the game, and nobody selling a replacement is paid to mention it.

Three answers, one meeting. We'll do the reading.

Request your review

Bring us three things

Your most recent statement
The original contract, if you can find it
Any rider pages or amendment letters

Can't find them? Sign an authorization and we'll request them from the carrier ourselves.

You leave with

Your all-in annual cost, as one number
The guarantee explained in one paragraph of plain English
A keep-or-change recommendation in writing, with the reasoning shown

Sometimes the verdict is: keep it.

A good rider bought in a better market can be worth far more than anything sold today, and we'll say so when that's what the math shows. A second opinion isn't a sales pitch in disguise — there is nothing here to switch you into.

Ask about yours

Hypothetical

A retiree brought in a variable annuity bought eight years earlier, mostly because a friend had just been pitched a "much better" replacement by the same advisor who sold the original. The review found total annual costs near three percent — but also an income rider, purchased in a better market, that would cost far more to replicate today. Keeping the contract and simply reallocating inside it beat both the replacement and a surrender.

Hypothetical scenario for illustration. Not an actual client. Individual circumstances and results differ.