In the United States, an annuity is a financial product which offers tax-deferred growth and which usually offers benefits such as an income for life. Typically these are offered as structured (insurance) products that each state approves and regulates in which case they are designed using a mortality table and mainly guaranteed by a life insurer. There are many different varieties of annuities sold by carriers. In a typical scenario, an investor (usually the annuitant) will make a single cash premium to own an annuity. After the policy is issued the owner may elect to annuitize the contract (start receiving payments) for a chosen period of time (e.g., 5, 10, 20 years, a lifetime). This process is called annuitization and can also provide a predictable, guaranteed stream of future income during retirement until the death of the annuitant (or joint annuitants). Alternatively, an investor can defer annuitizing their contract to get larger payments later, hedge long-term care cost increases, or maximize a lump sum death benefit for a named beneficiary. History Although annuities have existed in their present form only for a few decades, the idea of paying out a stream of income to an individual or family dates back to the Roman Empire. The Latin word annua meant annual stipends, and during the reign of the emperors, the word signified a contract that made annual payments. Individuals would make a single large payment into the annua and then receive an annual payment each year until death, or for a specified period of time. The Roman speculator and jurist Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus is cited as one of the earliest dealers of these annuities, and he is also credited with creating the first actuarial life table. Roman soldiers were paid annuities as a form of compensation for military service. During the Middle Ages, annuities were used by feudal lords and kings to help raise capital to cover the heavy costs of their constant wars and conflicts with each other. At this time, the most popular form of annuities were those offered in the form of a tontine, where the fixed annual payments were shared amongst a dwindling number of surviving members leading to ever increasing payments to the longest lived investors. One of the early recorded uses of annuities in the United States was by the Presbyterian Church in 1720. The purpose was to provide a secure retirement to aging