subject: The Annual Reset Method For Stock Based Annuities [print this page] Investing in stock-based annuities (or equity-indexed annuities) is becoming a popular investment options for many seniors today. The EIA has become an integral part of many elderly investors' retirement portfolios because of the relatively low risk associated with these tools. If you're in the market for an EIA, you'll need to familiarize yourself with terms and concepts like these:
The annual reset is one way to calculate the possible returns you'll get from your equity-based annuity. The annual reset comes after either an averaging or point-to-point method, with the main difference being that it doesn't result in profit losses if there are low-performing years in the annuity's lifespan.
Typically, the gains from a single year establish a new limit for the account, and any losses that come after won't bring the value of the account below that specific limit. For example, if you place $100,000 into this type of investment and accumulate an extra $50,000 in value after eight years, an index decline of 10% in the next year will still see that account's value at $150,000 at year's end.
Annuity holders may have the option of choosing the period wherein the reset happens. The annual reset may prove to be beneficial to the investor, although it usually comes with lower yearly limits on returns, as well as lower rates of participation.
There are a couple of other points to consider in the formulas for calculating EIA profits. For one thing, some policies don't reinvest stock dividends when returns are calculated - only shifts in the value of the index are used. The figure that's published in EIA performance reports isn't what is used when calculating. Lastly, when credited rates of return are applied to accounts after its initial year, the annuity provider may opt to use basic interest as opposed to compound interest in calculating the returns from stock-based annuities.
