the contractholder generally cannot time, living benefits pose significant risk for insurance companies as contractholders will likely exercise these benefits when they are worth the most. Annuities with guaranteed living benefits (GLBs) tend to have high fees commensurate with the additional risks underwritten by the issuing insurer. Some GLB examples, in no particular order: Guaranteed minimum income benefit (GMIB, a guarantee that one will get a minimum income stream upon annuitization at a particular point in the future) Guaranteed minimum accumulation lbenefit (GMAB, a guarantee that the account value will be at a certain amount at a certain point in the future) Guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit (GMWB, a guarantee similar to the income benefit, but one that doesn't require annuitizing) Guaranteed-for-life income benefit (a guarantee similar to a withdrawal benefit, where withdrawals begin and continue until cash value becomes zero, withdrawals stop when cash value is zero and then annuitization occurs on the guaranteed benefit amount for a payment amount that is not determined until annuitization date.) Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWB, a guarantee similar to the income benefit, but one that doesn't require annuitizing, payments continue for life regardless if the cash value goes to zero.) Recently, insurance companies developed asset-transfer programs that operate at the contract level or the fund level. In the former, a percentage of client's account value will be transferred to a designated low-risk fund when the contract has poor investment performance. On the fund level, certain investment options have a target volatility built within the fund (usually about 10%) and will re-balance to maintain that target. In both cases, they are stated to help buffer poor investment performance until markets perform better (where they will transition back to normal allocations to catch an upswing). However, there are criticisms of these programs including, but not limited to, often mandating these programs on clients, restricting flexibility of investing, and not catching the upswing of markets fast enough due to the underlying design of such programs. Be careful in regard to using GLB riders in non-qualified contracts as most of the products in the annuity marketplace today create a 100% taxable income benefit whereas income generated from an immediate annuity in a non-qualified contract would partially be a return of principal and therefore non-taxable. Criticisms of deferred annuities Some annuities do not have any deferred surrender charges and do not pay the financial professional a commission, although