What is a life or period certain annuity?
When it s time for payouts to begin from an annuity, one way to receive the money is called life or period certain. This guarantees that you will receive monthly payments for the rest of your life or a specified period of time, whichever is longest. You get to pick the “period certain” — it could be 10, 15 or even more than 20 years. Say you choose the common life or 10 years certain schedule. The company guarantees a minimum of 10 years payments. All the payments will go to you for as long as you are alive. If you die after just six years, payments would go to your beneficiary for the final four years and then cease. If you lived beyond 10 years, you would still collect payments. But when you die, your beneficiary would collect nothing.
