Because of the advances in annuity engineering over the past five years, the demand for a newer form of annuity has steadily risen. No longer an afterthought, specific types of annuities have taken center stage for smart investors looking to nail down preservation and income. Why? Because pensions are being phased out, and interest rates on bonds are stuck near two hundred year lows. Once upon a time, a million dollars in treasury bonds would pay a retiree seventy thousand dollars a year or more, guaranteed. Today, that same ten year treasury bond is yielding less than one-and-a-half percent, meaning you’d be tying up your money for ten years– getting less than FIFTEEN thousand dollars a year. That’s why bonds, not annuities, are suddenly the afterthought. Who could think of building their retirement around one percent bonds?