Things to Think About Before You Sell Your Annuity

you have an annuity and are thinking of cashing it in. Before you do there are a few things you may want to think about before you do that.

• A lot of people run into some sort of financial bind and make hasty decisions about their finances without really thinking things through. Those who have an annuity, whether it be through an insurance company or some other financial service company often look at the amount of money that seems to just be sitting there, maybe gaining a little bit of interest every year, but not seeming to really grow in value all that much as an easy thing to cash out quickly in order to get the funds and alleviate their currently tight financial situation.

While a situation like this might call for immediate action in your own personal case, a lot of the time just taking the time to research and consider all options will have you realizing that selling your annuity is not really in your own best interest. There are other options available to you. Here are just a couple.

• If there truly is a fair amount of cash value in your annuity perhaps you could approach your bank about getting a loan against it. If the yearly interest rate of the loan is only slightly more than what the annuity is paying it may make more economic sense to do something like this.
• If you really do not need all of the cash that you could acquire by cashing it out you could do the above, but take a loan out against some real estate. Perhaps some income producing property? You would not use all of the cash for the real estate, only part of it, keeping the rest to take care of your current bills. Using this type of scenario you will probably find more than one friendly local banker willing to work with you to use your annuity for a loan, so shop around and find the best deal. Bankers like working with annuities.

These are only a couple of ideas to think about when it comes to getting a lump sum for your annuity.