[jims69camaro]

a specified income payable at stated intervals for a fixed or a contingent period, often for the recipient's life.

i will have an annuity once the court case settles. it will be a set amount up front and then bi-weekly payments until the money is all paid. in simple terms, they owe me $500. they pay me $250 up front, then $50 every two weeks until they are all paid up, in this case 5 weeks. that's an annuity or structured annuity, or however they want to put it.

if it's in terms of a retirement account, you are paying into it as you work. hopefully, the company is also paying into it and it is an interest bearing account, too. when you retire, you use that account as your income, so the more you have in there, the larger the payments you can take from it and the longer it will last you.

typically when people retire at 65, they are only expected to live until 80 or so, so the payments made to them from their annuity should provide them with a decent income and last until they die. any amount left over typically is paid all at one time to the heir.

you've probably heard the money-grubbers out there saying that they will buy your annuity and pay you a lump sum up front. it's not a scam, but very unscrupulous, if you ask me. they pay you a much smaller amount than you would collect if you left the accoount alone and let it pay you weekly or monthly. i hope you were able to follow all of that.