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Ininvestment, anannuity is a series of payments of the same kind made at equal time intervals, usually over a finite term.[1] Annuities are commonly issued bylife insurance companies, where an individual pays a lump sum or a series of premiums in return for regular income payments, often to provideretirement or survivor benefits.[2]
Typical examples include regular deposits to a savings account, monthly homemortgage payments, monthlyinsurance premiums andpension payments.[1] The value of an annuity is usually expressed as apresent value orfuture value, calculated by discounting or accumulating the payments at a specifiedinterest rate.
Annuities can be classified by the timing of payments, for example annuity-immediate and annuity-due, by whether the term is fixed or contingent on survival, and by whether the amounts are fixed, variable or linked to an index. Contracts may start paying immediately or after a deferral period, and a contract that continues indefinitely is aperpetuity.
Annuities may be classified in several ways.
Payments in anannuity-immediate are made at the end of each payment period, so interest accrues during the period before each payment. By contrast, payments in anannuity-due are made at the beginning of each period, so each payment is made in advance.[3][1]
Typical examples of annuity-immediate payment streams include homemortgage and other loan repayments, where each instalment covers interest that has accrued during the preceding period. Rent, leases and manyinsurance premiums are usually paid in advance and are therefore examples of annuity-due payments.[4][5]
An annuity that pays over a fixed period, regardless of the survival of any individual, is an annuity certain. In this case the number of payments is known in advance and specified in the contract.[6]
Alife annuity pays while one or more specified lives survive, so the number of payments is uncertain.[6][7] Pensions that pay a regular income for life are examples of life annuities.
A certain-and-life annuity, also called a life annuity with period certain, combines these features. Payments continue for at least a guaranteed minimum term and thereafter for as long as the annuitant is alive.[8][9]
A deferred annuity starts income payments after a deferral or accumulation period. During the deferral period the contract typically credits interest or investment returns to the account value.[16][17] Aimmediate annuity starts payments shortly after the contract is purchased, often within one year.[17][18]
Fixed, variable and indexed annuities can each be written as immediate or deferred contracts.[10][11]
Valuation of an annuity treats the stream of payments ascash flows and summarises them by apresent value or afuture value at a giveninterest rate.[1][19] For a level annuity certain, the formulas depend on whether payments are made at the end or at the beginning of each period.
If the number of payments is known in advance, the contract is an annuity certain (also called a guaranteed annuity).[1] Valuation uses the formulas below, which depend on the timing of payments.
If payments are made at the end of each period, so interest accrues during the period before each payment, the annuity is an annuity-immediate (ordinary annuity).[19] Mortgage payments are a typical example, since interest is charged between payments and then repaid at each due date.[5]
| ↓ | ↓ | ... | ↓ | payments | |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | — | |
| 0 | 1 | 2 | ... | n | periods |
Let denote the effective interest rate per period and the number of payments. The present value factor for a level annuity-immediate with unit payments is:and the present value of payments of amount is:
In practice, interest is often quoted as a nominal annual rate convertible monthly or some other frequency. If payments are monthly and the nominal annual rate is, then the rate per month is and the number of payments over years is.[19]
The future value of a level annuity-immediate with unit payments isand the accumulated value immediately after the last payment is:
Example: The present value of a 5 year annuity with a nominal annual interest rate of 12% and monthly payments of $100 isso the series of payments is equivalent to a single amount of about $4,496 at time zero.
Future and present values for an annuity-immediate are related byand
To obtain the present value factor, consider a level annuity-immediate with unit payments. The payment at the end of period is discounted by the factor, so the present value factor isLet be the discount factor for one period. ThenUsing the standard formula for the sum of a finite geometric series gives
An annuity due is a series of equal payments made at the same interval at the beginning of each period.[5] Periods can be monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually or any other defined period. Examples include rentals, leases and many insurance payments, which are made to cover services provided in the period following the payment.[4]
| ↓ | ↓ | ... | ↓ | payments | |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | — | |
| 0 | 1 | ... | n − 1 | n | periods |
For an annuity-due with unit payments the present value factor isand the future value factor is
The present and future values for an annuity-due satisfyandwhere is the effective rate of discount.[20]
Example: The future value of a 7 year annuity-due with a nominal annual interest rate of 9% and monthly payments of $100 is
Aperpetuity is an annuity for which the payments continue indefinitely.[19] For a level perpetuity with payment each period and per period interest rate, the present value can be obtained as the limit of the level annuity-immediate present value as the term tends to infinity:so the closed form isprovided is positive.[20] In actuarial notation the present value factors for level perpetuities areandwhere is the effective discount rate.[1]
Valuation oflife annuities extends the level annuity formulas by taking into account mortality as well as interest. For a life aged with annual payments of amount payable while the life survives, the actuarial present value is the expected value of the discounted payment stream,where is the discount factor per period and is the probability that a life aged survives at least periods.[21][22]
In actuarial notation the present value of a whole life annuity-immediate of 1 per year on a life aged is written and can be expressed aswhile the corresponding whole life annuity-due has present value factor
If an annuity is used to repay a loan with level payments at the end of each period, the payment stream is an annuity-immediate. Let be the initial loan principal, the regular payment, the effective interest rate per period and the total number of payments. Then the present value of the payment stream isso the level payment that amortises the loan is
The outstanding balance after payments can be obtained in two equivalent ways. Under the retrospective method, the balance is the original principal accumulated with interest for periods minus the accumulated value of the payments already made:
Under the prospective method, the outstanding balance is the present value of the remaining payments:
For an annuity due with payments at the beginning of each period, the same ideas apply but annuity-due factors are used. If is the level payment and there are payments in total, the outstanding balance after payments is
Example. Let,,. ThenAfter one payment the retrospective and prospective balances coincide:and
See alsoFixed rate mortgage.
This section gives worked examples for finding the periodic payment for an annuity due from a givenpresent value or accumulated value. Throughout, denotes a nominal annual interest rate convertible times per year, is the effectiveinterest rate per payment period and is the total number of payments.
For an annuity-due with present value, level payment and payments, the present value factor isso the level payment is
Suppose the present value of an annuity-due is, the effective interest rate per period is and there are annual payments. The annuity-due factor isso the level payment is
Suppose is the present value of an annuity-due with quarterly payments for 8 years at a nominal annual interest rate of compounded quarterly. Then and. The annuity-due factor isso the level payment is
For an annuity-due with accumulated value at time, level payment and payments, the accumulated value factor isso the level payment can be written as
Suppose the accumulated value of an annuity-due is, with monthly payments for 3 years at a nominal annual interest rate of compounded monthly. Then and. The annuity-due accumulated value factor isand the level payment is