What if? Answering important questions during National Retirement Security Month

October brings changing leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, and National Retirement Security Month—an ideal time to ask whether your savings are ready for the uncertainties ahead. If the answers make you uneasy, you’re not alone: Retirement confidence has declined in recent years.¹

The good news? You don’t have to leave retirement’s biggest financial risks to chance. Annuities are designed to help. They can do things a standard investment portfolio of stocks and bonds can't: provide guaranteed income for life, protect your principal, grow your money tax-deferred, and give you peace of mind your savings will last.

Yet for years, annuities had a reputation problem. They were viewed as expensive, complex products that locked up your money, and weren’t always sold with the investor’s best interests in mind.

A newer generation of annuities has changed in a fundamental way: they are built without embedded sales commissions. These commission-free solutions offer lower costs, greater transparency, and more flexibility.

What could commission-free annuities mean for your retirement? Let’s explore four common “what if” scenarios—and how these solutions can help address each one.

1. What if your retirement lasts as long as your career did?

Many people spend decades saving for retirement with discipline and intention. Now comes the trickier part: turning your nest egg into income that lasts as long as you do. Retirement can stretch 30 years or longer, so the real measure of success isn't the balance on your statement. It's whether your savings can produce income you can count on, year after year, for life.

Just as your paycheck covered the bills during your working years, an annuity can cover your basic expenses in retirement, like supplemental healthcare, housing and utilities, food, and insurance. This “retirement paycheck” delivers reliable income regardless of what the markets do. As a bonus, with essential expenses covered, discretionary spending on travel, hobbies or grandkids feels like a choice rather than a risk.

Remember that reputation for locking up your money? It stems from a common misconception: that buying an annuity means giving up control of your savings. That’s true of one option, called annuitization, where you exchange a lump sum for guaranteed lifetime payments and no longer have access to the money itself. But that choice is less common than many people assume, especially with commission-free annuities offering consumers more flexibility.

Instead, annuity owners can add an income rider, an optional feature attached to the contract (similar to adding coverage to an insurance policy), usually for a fee. The rider lets you keep access to your cash value while creating a guaranteed income stream. Withdrawals may gradually reduce that cash value, but the income can continue for life—even if the account balance eventually reaches zero. Lifetime income doesn’t have to mean giving up every other option.

2. What if the market falls sharply around the time you retire?

The five years before and after retirement are often called the “fragile decade.” During this period, decisions about income, investments, and risk protection have an outsized impact on long-term retirement success.

Commission-free annuities can help protect your principal as retirement approaches. For example, a registered index-linked annuity (RILA) can help protect your retirement portfolio from market downturns with a "buffer," while still allowing participation in market gains when the economy performs well. A buffer is the portion of a loss the insurance company absorbs for you. Say you have a 10% buffer. If the market index drops 15% in a year, the insurer covers the first 10% and your account declines by 5%. If the index drops 8%, your account doesn’t lose value at all. In exchange for this protection, your share of market gains is typically limited.

Multi-year guaranteed annuities (MYGAs) represent an even more secure tool for protecting against a market downturn during the fragile decade. They provide a fixed, guaranteed interest rate for a specific period. Your earnings grow tax-deferred, so you owe no taxes until you withdraw money. If your goal is to protect what you have, a MYGA can add a layer of certainty that stocks and bonds can’t offer.

Learn more about these solutions. Download our free Protected Growth Guide

3. What if your savings need to grow, but you don’t want to lose money?

You want your savings to keep growing in retirement, especially with inflation, but you also want to avoid a market downturn that shrinks your savings. The good news is that you can pursue both goals at the same time.

A commission-free fixed index annuity (FIA) offers growth potential tied to a market index while protecting your principal from market losses, subject to contract terms. When the index rises, you earn interest up to a cap or participation rate. When the index falls, your account doesn’t lose value. That’s more downside protection than the RILA buffer described earlier, which absorbs only part of a loss. The trade-off is a lower cap on gains.

4. What if you retire earlier than expected and receive lower Social Security benefits?

Plenty of people stop working sooner than planned for reasons ranging from poor health to career changes. In the 2026 EBRI Survey, 60% of retirees said they retired before age 65,² which is before the full retirement age at 67 for Social Security.³ If you retire early and claim Social Security right away, you lock in a permanently smaller benefit. Choosing to take benefits at age 62 can shrink your monthly benefit by up to 30% compared with waiting until full retirement age.

An annuity can help bridge the income gap between retirement and claiming Social Security. It can provide income during that period, allowing you to delay benefits and receive larger monthly payments for life.

What’s next?

Retirement comes with important questions about income, risk, and financial security. Understanding how different types of annuities work can help you build a more resilient retirement plan and gain confidence in the years ahead.

Ask your advisor whether a commission-free annuity could help you answer any of these questions. DPL Financial Partners helps fiduciary advisors evaluate and implement commission-free annuity solutions from the nation's top carriers. Using DPL's discovery and integration technology, your advisor can identify opportunities where modern annuities may strengthen your plan and support your long-term retirement goals.

Annuities are insurance products issued by insurance companies. Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability and financial strength of the issuing insurer. Product features, limitations, fees, surrender charges, and availability vary by contract and carrier.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. No investment strategy can guarantee profit, achieve its objectives, or protect against loss in all market conditions.

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Disclosures:

1 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). “2026 Retirement Confidence Survey,” April 2026.

2 EBRI. “2026 Retirement Confidence Survey,” April 2026.

3 Social Security Administration. “What is full retirement age?” Jan. 2, 2026

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Withdrawals may reduce contract value and benefits and may be subject to surrender charges and taxes. Withdrawals of taxable amounts before age 59½ may be subject to a 10% additional federal tax. Optional riders may be available for an additional charge.

RILAs involve investment risk and may lose value; buffers provide limited downside protection. FIAs are not direct investments in an index or the stock market. MYGAs are not FDIC insured or bank deposits. DPL Financial Partners does not provide tax or legal advice.