Insured Retirement Institute Updates Annuity Sellers' Handbook

The Insured Retirement Institute has published a new version of a free reference book, the “Retirement Saving and Income Handbook.”

The handbook provides the institute’s views about the value of annuities, along with a glossary that gives plain-English definitions of such terms as “living benefits,” “roll-up” and “step-up.”

In the definition of “step-up,” for example, IRI describes that as “an annuity feature that increases the benefit base to equal the current account value.”

“Step-ups generally occur on contract anniversaries and may be based on the anniversary value or the highest value the contract attained at certain points during the prior year, e.g., the highest value on any day the stock market was in session during the prior year,” according to the handbook. “Step-ups may continue after benefit payments begin, provided there is contract value that has not been paid out.”