Important Parties to an Annuity
There are, at least, 5 major parties involved in annuities: 1) the owner, 2) the annuitant, 3) the beneficiary, 4) the insurance company and 5) the advisor.
Let’s now discuss each.

Owner
The owner can be an individual, individuals, a trust, or partnership (a corporation does not receive tax-deferred accumulation.) The owner pays the premiums. The owner decides when to add more premium, withdraw, surrender, or annuitize. The owner even decides who the annuitant and beneficiary will be, however, the owner and annuitant are often the same party.

Annuitant
The annuitant is a person and cannot be a trust. The genesis of the annuitant designation is the annuitant’s life is the yardstick used for determining whose life will be used when and if annuitization takes place. Often the owner is also the annuitant, however, joint annuitants are possible with the owner and the spouse being joint annuitants. Naturally, an annuitant 65 years of age will receive less money per month than an annuitant 85 years of age assuming the same settlement rate since the 65 year old will have a longer life expectancy.

The Beneficiary
The beneficiary can be an individual, individuals, trust, or a corporation. The beneficiary receives the death benefit. What is interesting to note is that some annuity contracts pay the death benefit to the beneficiary if the owner of the contract dies while other annuity contracts pays the death benefit to the beneficiary if the annuitant dies.