My wife's family is trying to get a better handle on her father's retirement accounts. She has asked me to help understand his TIAA-CREF retirement portfolio. While I understand stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., my understanding of annuities is limited and doesn't really align with what I'm seeing in his portfolio statements. I think of an annuity as a contract you buy with $X and it pays some $Y for Z years, and in the end is done.
He has a TIAA portfolio statement which lists two (Name of Employer) Defined Retirement Contribution Plans with a some balance. Each plan contains two "Annuity Contracts". Each "Annuity Contract" has a breakdown of its holdings, which is a mix of TIAA Traditional and CREF Stock R2. He is taking a minimum distribution from each plan.
There's a note (by him) in which he spoke to a TIAA representative and learned that when he and his wife pass away, the amount in the account will be distributed to his beneficiaries as lump sum or other.
This all looks very much like other retirement accounts that I am familiar with. Am I confusing myself by focusing on the word "annuity"? Can we just conceptualize them like other retirement accounts?
Thanks!
He has a TIAA portfolio statement which lists two (Name of Employer) Defined Retirement Contribution Plans with a some balance. Each plan contains two "Annuity Contracts". Each "Annuity Contract" has a breakdown of its holdings, which is a mix of TIAA Traditional and CREF Stock R2. He is taking a minimum distribution from each plan.
There's a note (by him) in which he spoke to a TIAA representative and learned that when he and his wife pass away, the amount in the account will be distributed to his beneficiaries as lump sum or other.
This all looks very much like other retirement accounts that I am familiar with. Am I confusing myself by focusing on the word "annuity"? Can we just conceptualize them like other retirement accounts?
Thanks!
Statistics: Posted by justkevin — Wed Oct 02, 2024 4:50 pm — Replies 7 — Views 296