annuity

(Newser) - The government has been paying retirement benefits for a whole lot of dead federal workers, according to a new report from the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general. Over the past five years, the amount accidentally paid to the dearly departed has jumped a whopping 70%, with $601 million...

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors are investigating a Rhode Island lawyer who recruited terminally ill people so he could buy annuities in their names and cash in when they died. The lawyer, noted local philanthropist Joe Caramadre, began taking out ads in 2007 in the local Catholic diocese’s newspaper, proclaiming “Terminal...

(Newser) - Now that the financial crisis has destroyed so many nest eggs, many soon-to-be retirees are buying annuities and leaving their kids to fend for themselves, the Wall Street Journal reports. Annuities turn a lump-sum payment into a guaranteed income for life. That’ll provide more peace of mind than living...

(Newser) - Most financial advisers aren’t big fans of annuities. They don’t offer the prospect of outsized gains, can’t be easily withdrawn from, and often include loads of fees and traps. But now droves of investors, rattled by the stock market’s crash, have turned to the insurance-like vehicles,...