Best Annuities for Retirement in 2026: 5 Picks by Goal

"Best annuity" is the wrong question. The right one is best annuity for what. Someone retiring at 62 who wants to delay Social Security to 70 needs a completely different contract than someone in their early 70s trying to push off required minimum distributions, and both need something different still from a couple who wants lifetime income that keeps paying even after one of them is gone.

This guide breaks that decision into five real retirement goals and names the type of annuity built for each one, with the math worked out using a $100,000 example so you can see how the numbers actually move.

How we picked these

Tax Free Wealth Plan is a licensed independent insurance agency, appointed with 25 companies and serving all 50 states. For a guide like this, three filters matter more than anything else: a financial strength rating of A- or better from AM Best, contract terms that hold up when you run the actual math yourself, and features built for the specific goal rather than a marketing headline. We are not a registered investment adviser and our licensed strategists are not fiduciaries, but the filter is one a fiduciary would recognize: does the guarantee actually solve the problem in front of you. Pricing on any annuity changes often, sometimes week to week, so treat every dollar figure below as an illustration of how the math works rather than a live quote, and get current numbers before you commit to anything.

Annuities for retirement at a glance

Best annuity for a Social Security bridge

If you retire at 62 but plan to wait until 67 or 70 to file for Social Security, you have a real gap to close. Every year you hold off past Full Retirement Age adds roughly 8% to your eventual check, but you still need money to live on in the meantime. That gap is exactly the problem a Social Security bridge annuity solves.

The strongest tool for this job is usually a five-year period-certain SPIA, sometimes called a five-year fixed-period income annuity. You hand an insurer a lump sum, and it pays you a level check every month for exactly 60 months, then stops entirely. By the time the checks end, your Social Security benefit has grown to whatever age you chose to file at, and it takes over from there.

As a hypothetical illustration only, not a live quote, say a five-year period-certain SPIA on a $100,000 premium pays $1,800 a month. Over 60 months that comes to $108,000, more than the original premium, because each check returns a slice of your own principal along with interest. A CD ladder holding the same $100,000 would only pay out interest as income and return the principal separately at the end, so the SPIA's monthly income is typically several times higher than the CD's interest alone, at the cost of giving up that principal entirely once the term ends.

Here is the trade being made: once the five years pass, the SPIA has paid out everything and has nothing left, while a CD ladder still holds its original balance. Either way, your Social Security has finished growing by that point and takes over as the ongoing paycheck, at a level well above what the CD's interest alone was ever going to provide. Work through the fuller math in our annuity bridge strategy guide and our picks for bridging to Social Security, or run your own numbers in the immediate annuity calculator.

Best annuity for joint lifetime income (couples)

For a married couple, the number that matters most is not the account balance at 80. It is what the surviving spouse has to live on at 90, alone, after years of a shared household budget shrinking down to one Social Security check. A joint lifetime income annuity closes that particular risk by guaranteeing income for as long as either spouse is still living.

A well-known example of this structure is the Athene Ascent Pro 10 Bonus, a fixed index annuity from Athene, one of the larger fixed annuity carriers in the country and rated A+ by AM Best, with its income rider configured for joint payouts.

On a $100,000 premium, this type of rider can add an upfront bonus to the income base, plus an annual simple-interest roll-up for as long as 20 years, provided you have not yet started income. Deferring five years, from 65 to 70, is how an income base like this can grow to roughly $170,000. At age 70, with a joint lifetime withdrawal rate of 6.90% for that age band, guaranteed joint income comes out to $170,000 multiplied by 6.90%, or $11,730 a year, for as long as either spouse is alive. That is meaningfully more than the roughly $7,380 a year the same income base might pay if withdrawals had started immediately at issue, when the withdrawal percentage is lower.

The payment does not shrink when the first spouse dies, and it does not stop until both have passed. A couple who together live to, say, 95 and 93 would collect $11,730 a year for the 25 years between age 70 and 95, or $293,250 in lifetime income on a $100,000 deposit, with any remaining account value still passing to their heirs.

Riders like this typically charge around 1% of the benefit base annually, allow a 10% free withdrawal each year on top of the guaranteed income, and often add an enhanced payout, commonly 1.5 times the normal amount for a set benefit period, if either spouse cannot perform a couple of daily living activities. The index strategy inside a rider like this usually tracks the S&P 500 within a cap that resets periodically and a 0% floor, so a flat or negative index year credits nothing rather than a loss. Confirm the current cap, bonus and withdrawal percentages directly with a licensed strategist, since insurers adjust these terms over time, and see our income rider guide for how riders like this compare more broadly.

Best annuity if you don't want to spend your principal

Plenty of retirees are not short on income. They might have $500,000 to $1.5 million saved, Social Security already covers the fixed bills, and what they actually want is somewhere to park money that pays a guaranteed rate, throws off interest they can spend, and leaves the original balance for heirs. That is exactly what a MYGA is built for.

A MYGA behaves like a bank CD with three real advantages: rates have historically run somewhat higher than a comparable CD, growth compounds tax-deferred until you withdraw it, and the principal is backed by both the issuing insurer and your state's guaranty association.

As a hypothetical illustration only, not a current rate, say a $250,000 deposit earns 5.00% for five years. That works out to $12,500 a year in interest, or $62,500 total over the term, while the full $250,000 principal sits untouched and available at maturity. Guaranty coverage on a single contract commonly tops out around $250,000 in most states, so a deposit larger than that with one insurer is usually worth splitting across two carriers to stay under each one's limit.

Most people using a MYGA this way never touch the principal. They take the interest as periodic income and roll the contract into a new term at maturity. Actual rates move with the market, so get a current number through the MYGA calculator or a free annuity quote rather than relying on a figure printed in an article.

Best annuity for market upside with no downside

If 2008 taught you anything, it is that an investment which can capture stock market gains but never lose money to a crash sounds appealing for a reason. That is the pitch behind a fixed index annuity used purely for accumulation, without an income rider attached. The trade-off compared with owning stocks directly is real: you give up dividends and accept a cap or a participation rate on your upside in exchange for a hard 0% floor.

Here is how the mechanic works. If the index gains 20% during a crediting period and your participation rate happens to be 50%, you get a 10% credit. If the index drops 30% instead, you get 0%, not a 30% loss. Credits lock in at the end of each period and are never taken back later, even if the index falls afterward.

Cap and participation rates reset regularly and vary by carrier and by product, so whichever specific contract looked best last quarter may not be the strongest one today. Rather than crown a single product here, compare current participation rates and cap structures across highly rated carriers before choosing. Our FIA pros and cons guide and FIA versus RILA comparison are good places to start, and a licensed strategist can pull current numbers from several A-rated carriers side by side.

Best annuity to defer required minimum distributions (QLAC)

Once you turn 73, the IRS requires you to start taking required minimum distributions from a traditional IRA or 401(k), whether you need the money or not. For anyone with a seven-figure IRA, those forced withdrawals can push you into a higher bracket and trigger Medicare's IRMAA surcharge. A Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract, or QLAC, is the IRS-approved way around part of that problem.

The 2026 ceiling on this move is $210,000 of IRA money redirected into a QLAC, a cap that gets adjusted from time to time. That money is excluded from RMD calculations entirely, and you choose when income begins, as late as age 85. Whenever it starts, the income continues for the rest of your life, and the longer you wait to start it, the larger the eventual check.

As a rough, hypothetical illustration only, not a live quote, a QLAC funded at 60 and deferred 20 years, to age 80, might pay an annual income equal to several times the original premium once payments begin, since the insurer has had two decades to invest the money before paying out a dollar of it. By your mid to late 80s, total payments on a contract like that can add up to well more than the original deposit. Highly rated carriers, including MassMutual at A++, are consistently competitive in this category, but the exact payout depends heavily on your age, sex and the rates available the day you buy, so treat any figure here as a planning estimate rather than a quote. See our full QLAC guide for the rules in detail.

How to decide which annuity fits your retirement

If you are still not sure which type fits, work through these three questions in order:

1. When do you need the income? Right away points toward a SPIA. Five to fifteen years out points toward a MYGA, an FIA, or a QLAC. After 73 with RMD pressure specifically points toward a QLAC.
2. Are you planning for one life or two? Married couples who want both lives covered should look at joint SPIAs, joint income riders on an FIA, or a joint-life QLAC. Single-life versions of the same products pay more per dollar but stop at the first death.
3. Do you need access to your principal? If yes, a MYGA or FIA keeps your money reachable. If you are willing to trade principal for a bigger monthly check, a SPIA usually wins on income per dollar.

Annuities to avoid in 2026

Not every annuity belongs in a retirement plan. Three categories are worth skipping outright:

• Variable annuities stacking heavy fees. Mortality and expense charges above roughly 1.5%, combined with rider charges above 1.25%, can add up to 2.75% to 3.25% a year in total drag. That is a hard number to overcome, and past market downturns have repeatedly exposed how fragile some income-rider guarantees turn out to be under stress.
• Anything from a carrier rated below A- or not rated at all. Chasing a higher number by stepping down the credit-quality ladder is how retirees got burned by weaker carriers in past decades. Stick with A- or better from AM Best.
• Long surrender periods sold to much older buyers. Placing someone in their 80s into a contract with a surrender period longer than five years is a suitability problem, not a good fit. Walk away from that recommendation if you hear it.

Common annuity mistakes retirees make

• Concentrating too much in one contract. A common rule of thumb keeps annuities to somewhere between 30% and 50% of liquid retirement assets, with the rest left in market-based investments for growth and flexibility.
• Annuitizing when it is not necessary. Modern income riders provide guaranteed lifetime income without permanently giving up your account value. True annuitization mostly makes sense for SPIAs, not for FIAs carrying a rider.
• Ignoring where the annuity sits for tax purposes. Holding a tax-deferred annuity inside a traditional IRA adds fees without adding any extra tax benefit, since the IRA is already tax-deferred. Annuities tend to fit best in non-qualified savings or as part of a deliberate QLAC strategy.
• Buying from a single carrier without comparing. Terms and rates vary meaningfully between insurers, and even a small rate difference on a large, long MYGA can be worth thousands of dollars over the term. Compare at least two or three carriers before signing anything.
• Letting beneficiary designations go stale. Update them after every major life event. An annuity passes outside of probate, but only if the beneficiary form on file is current.