"[At] the most basic level, using income guarantees is a 'floor with upside' approach to investing for retirement income.... Yet in today's environment, the combination of lower prospective returns and higher annuity costs is presenting a troubling new alternative: that guaranteed income riders no longer [represent] a 'floor with upside' but instead are a floor that will be almost impossible not to fall down to and hit.... [If] there really is little upside to the income guarantee, then it may be more appealing to skip the guaranteed living benefit rider altogether and instead just buy a single premium immediate annuity for a comparable guarantee and invest the rest, or just invest and spend conservatively using a safe withdrawal rate approach and simply ride out any intervening market volatility!"  MORE >>