annuity is an insurance company contract that can be used for accumulating assets for retirement or as a method of providing an income stream at some future date. Fixed annuities guarantee your principal(based on the claim paying ability of the issuing company) and a fixed rate of return and they are generally considered conservative and stable. A variable annuity's value will fluctuate because it is dependent upon the performance of the underlying sub-accounts managed in the separate account.

In general, an annuity is a contract by which an insurance company agrees to make regular payments. A fixed annuity guarantees principal and a specified interest rate, and may also offer additional amounts based on the claims-paying ability of the issuing company. A variable annuity does not make any guarantees. The returns and value of a variable annuity account will fluctuate based on the investment performance of the underlying securities in its portfolio.

Mutual funds are measured on relative performance ? compared to a benchmark index. Hedge funds are expected to deliver absolute returns ? under all circumstances, even if the indices are down. Mutual funds are not able to effectively protect portfolios against declining markets other than by going into cash or by shorting a limited amount of stock index futures.

If you currently have an outstanding or defaulted loan, you must pay off the loan prior to surrendering your annuity account. Once your annuity loan is paid in full, the entire annuity value will be available for conversion to mutual funds.

Yes. You can obtain the required paperwork from the information packets provided at the employee meetings. You may also access the Annuity Conversion Form from the ePrint section on the home page.

Both Mutual Funds and Unit Investment Trust Funds are fundamentally similar in the sense that they are both pooled funds wherein a group of investors entrust the management of said fund to a fund manager. The fund manager must then manage the funds among certain asset classes usually indicated in the name of the fund such as stocks, bonds or balanced. Thus, the decision of the investor should ultimately be based on the skill and reputation of the fund manager.

The securities in a UIT are professionally selected to meet a stated investment objective, such as growth, income, or capital appreciation. UITs employ a "buy-and-hold" investment strategy: once the trust's portfolio is selected, its securities typically will not be sold or new ones bought, unlike mutual funds.

There are no guarantees for investors. No matter how you buy a fund—through a brokerage firm, a bank, an insurance agency, a financial planning firm, or directly through the mail, bond funds, unlike bank deposits, are not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Nor are they guaranteed by the bank or other financial institution through which you make your investment.

The biggest difference between an individual bond and a bond mutual fund is this: Because the bond fund contains many different bonds, neither the dividend payments you receive nor the maturity date is fixed. So you cannot "lock in" your principal or your payment rate. A bond mutual fund is an investment company of which the sole business is managing a portfolio of individual bonds.

A mutual fund is a trust that pools the money of several investors and manages investments on their behalf. Legally it is like any other company you know of. Hence, the fund is also called a mutual fund company. The fund company takes your money and like you from other new investors. This is added to the money that's already invested with the fund. Some investors see asset size as an indicator of popularity. A scheme with large assets could be subscribed to by large number of unitholders.