Aetna Annuities (pension plan, friendly, states, retired)

[STH]

I’m seven months away from full retirement. My company offers a sizable Annuity from Aetna. Does anyone have experience with Aetna Annuities?

Steve

[mathjak107]

even if they did it means nothing without knowing the exact plans . asking a vague generl question about annuities is like asking a vague general question about stocks . there are just to many types and plans out there. some range from stay away , to maybe , to yes use them .

[ansible90]

Is it an annuity you have to buy into? Or something the company offers you as a retirement/pension plan. Do they give you an option to take a lump sum payment instead of the annuity? Like MathJak says, we need more detail if you want opinions.

[rjm1cc]

Chances are the cost of the annuity is less than if you went out on your own. You have to post the amount you would receive each month for life and the lump sum for a better answer. If married then the offer for you and your wife.

Without any info do you want a check each month for life or a lump sum you invest and manage. You pick. The downside of the annuity is that it is probably not inflation adjusted but you can over come this with your retirement savings.

Aetna is a good company if that is your question.

[jghorton]

At 7-months away from retirement and an Aetna annuity, it seems a little late to be asking if Aetna is a "good" annuity company. Are you are asking about a lifetime annuity alternative to a lump-sum retirement option?

Aetna is a very large, prominent insurance company that has been around a long time and is not going anywhere -- What is your underlying question?

[STH]

Ok guys, let me be more specific!

Yes, the company offers the annuity as a pension, paying out monthly.

I want to know if the annuity company Aetna is stable, or if Aetna may collapse, taking my annuity down with them.

Steve

[TFW46]

You didnt answer the question of whether you have a choice to take a one-time lump-sum payment in lieu of monthly payments.

My company offered a pension and, when I retired, I opted for monthly payments instead of a lump-sum payment. The company issuing the payments has changed twice in the past few years but it's insured so I'm not concerned.

Had I elected to take the lump-sum payment, my total pension amount would have been reduced to @ 12 years' worth of payments. Perhaps I could have taken that lump sum and invested it but I wasnt willing to take the chance. I'm coming up on 12 years of retirement soon with, hopefully, many more years of monthly payments to go.

[STH]

I am not asking for advice on a lump sum payout, I simply want to know if others have had positive or negative dealings with Aetna.

Thanks

[mathjak107]

You are going to get mixed feelings on a companies service level regardless . I dislike vanguard which has a cult like following so asking acout whether someone likes a company likely will not tell you much.

On the other hand Aetna is financially strong and most states guarantee annuities with some limits

[loves2read]

Aetna is a stable insurance company
Check its rating
Whether or not the annuity that the company is offering in lieu of providing its own company-run pension plan is a good one is unknowable w/o other info
I am sure there have been other people retired with your company who probably have had this option for their retirement
Do you know any other retired employees?
Did they take this retirement payout?

My husband's former employer--smaller, privately-owned by one guy, o/g production company--had a 401K plan that was invested in some company deals and also in stock market based on decisions by the company's CFO--but not PENSION plan--
The company did matching to certain % and my husband always put as much as he legally could into the 401K...

My husband retired from the company about 5 yrs ago and although eligible w/o penalty had not started any withdrawals--waiting until RMD time...the fund did well--the CFO was smart and he had a good rate of return--husband and I were pretty happy with it--
But the CFO is talking about retiring himself--he is close to 65 I think--
Then at the end of 2017 husband got notice from the company (not phone call from CFO who he knows and is friendly with) that all retired members in the 401K were being transferred to a Fidelity product--based on their ages
Think part of the reason is the company was trying to clean up smaller ownership interests by non-current employees and the fact the CFO is thinking of leaving--
Lot of responsibility to manage a private company's 401K plan
Some plans have been sued when those invested were unhappy with the plans for various reasons...

My husband's went into a target date fund but not same one that the woman who retired a couple of years after he did and who is a little younger got--that is really the only retired person he sees/talks to.

Once the money from his 401K was rolled over into an IRA Fidelity account, he of course has the option to change it since it is self-directed w/o ties to the former employer's company 401K.

For right now he is ok with it---
Contrast to how his other IRA is invested w/our financial guy...
We need to talk more about if we want active management going forward

But for your situation, you need to have a serious discussion with someone in your HR Dept about your options re this plan
Annuities/pensions often are not required to have death benefits--
My husband moved his 401K with a former employer that was bought by Koch Industries into a Roth account (paid the tax event) because once he started to draw the benefit, if he died then I got nothing....
so to me, there wasn't even a choice about whether or not to roll the money over into a different IRA even if the growth rate might be less than in that Koch plan--
the only question was whether or not to do the Roth conversion at that time...

I had the option when I took early retirement from my teaching job to just take pension for MYSELF--with little higher rate of income--or to take guaranteed timeline for myself or my heir---or to have pension after my death continue to pay my beneficiary--
I chose that option for couple of reasons but my husband is 6mo younger than I am--
The life expectancy tables weren't that different so the income didn't drop that much for ME currently as it would for him if he outlived me...if I had to take a big drop to ensure that option, we likely would have gone a different route...

You never know when a death benefit might be invoked--

You have some specific questions to ask about this particular annuity you are being offered--
More than just the company it is with--
Aetna wouldn't be the problem for ME---it would be how the annuity was constructed to pay