what is the surrender period 
the surrender period is the amount of time an investor must wait before they can withdraw funds from an annuity without facing a penalty withdrawals made before the end of the surrender period can result in a surrender charge which is essentially a deferred sales fee this period generally spans several years the bottom linean annuity is a financial contract between an annuity purchaser and an insurance company the purchaser pays either a lump sum or regular payments over a period of time in return the insurance company makes regular payments to the annuity owner either immediately or beginning at some point in the future an annuity can be fixed variable or indexed to an equity index such as the s p 500 index 