Annuity owners: Well-informed and secure

The survey results challenge the notion that annuities are sold, not bought. The study asked participants multiple questions to gauge their understanding of the products and more than 80 percent of annuity owners scored well with their responses.

That's encouraging, Iqbal maintains, because an annuity purchase is often a consumer's largest financial transaction. "These customers really put some thought into these things," he says. "They have invested that kind of money into annuities because most of them felt or most of them admitted that the annuity fit into their retirement plan and into their retirement goals. That was very, very satisfying to find."

Another finding: consumers with positive attitudes about annuities are six times more likely to own one versus those who are unfamiliar with or have negative attitudes toward the product. That finding could be expected — a positive attitude toward a product is typically a prerequisite for purchase — but the gap is surprisingly wide.

Among the remaining two-thirds of non-owners, debunking annuity myths and showing how the products fit within the retirement income plan is essential, he says: "Any conversation that advisors have with their clients about annuities, needs to show, how does that fit into the plan? If there's a haphazard way of presenting annuities, [that] probably would not make that client positive about annuities or any of the financial products."