Annuities Can Provide Tax Bracket Cushions

Conversation October 09, 2024 at 03:44 PM
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Piggy bank on a money cushion

Ordinary annuities convert the premiums into vehicles with distribution that are set to be taxed, eventually.

Traditionally, many wealth managers have scoffed at the idea of using annuities for that reason and focused instead on careful efforts to use whole life insurance and other forms of cash-value life insurance.

But Justin Haywood, a certified financial planner based in Houston, believes that annuities can play a role in wealth management, not just in retirement income planning for middle-income people.

Using annuities may not help much for clients with income that will stay very high throughout their retirement years, but it could help some who are likely to fall into a lower tax bracket later, Haywood said in an email interview.

Using annuities' tax-deferral power might also serve as a cushion for some clients who are about to bump up against a tax bracket ceiling, Haywood said.

The net investment income tax, for example, is a 3.8% tax that begins to apply for clients with as little as $200,000 in income for single filers, $250,000 for married joint filers and $125,000 for married filers who are filing separately.

Keeping income below a set threshold may also affect eligibility for programs such as Affordable Care Act public exchange premium tax credit subsidies or some Medicare or Medicaid programs if the client later ends up facing financial problems.

Haywood suggested that financial professionals who are not tax specialists themselves should work with tax specialists when talking to clients about topics such as tax bracket cutoffs.

"It would be prudent to involve a financial planner or tax accountant to ensure the client fully understands the tax implications," Haywood said.

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