Your age and premium set the budget for a single premium immediate annuity (SPIA). The payout option decides how that budget is spent, and it is the one choice on the application you cannot undo. As of August 2026, the best quote we surveyed for a 65-year-old man with $100,000 is $675/month on a single life with a 5-year period certain. On typical pricing the same premium buys about $682/month life only, ~$656/month with a 10-year certain, ~$608/month with a 20-year certain, ~$625/month with a cash refund, and $587/month as a 100% joint-and-survivor contract for a couple both 65. Below is the full matrix at 65, 70 and 75 for men and women, what each guarantee actually costs per month, and how to decide which one you should pay for.
What Each Payout Option Does
| Option | What you get | What your beneficiary gets if you die early |
|---|---|---|
| Life only | Highest monthly check, for as long as you live | Nothing. Payments stop at death. |
| Life + period certain (5, 10, 15 or 20 years) | Lifetime income, slightly lower | Any payments left in the certain period (60, 120, 180 or 240 in total). Nothing if you outlive the period. |
| Life + cash refund | Lifetime income, lower still | Premium minus all payments already made, as a lump sum. |
| Life + installment refund | Lifetime income, between cash refund and 10-year certain | Monthly payments continue until total payments equal the premium. |
| Joint & survivor (100%, 75% or 50%) | Income for two lives; the lower the survivor percentage, the higher the starting check | The surviving spouse keeps 100%, 75% or 50% of the payment for life. Can be combined with a period certain or refund. |
Every one of these pays for as long as you live. They differ only in what happens if you die sooner than the mortality tables expect, and that is exactly what you pay for.
Payout Option Matrix: What Each Guarantee Costs (August 2026)
The anchor row in each table, life + 5-year certain, is the best actual quote among the 8 A-rated carriers we survey: single life with a 5-year period certain, per $100,000, from actual carrier quote surveys (August 2026). The joint row is likewise surveyed (100% to survivor, both spouses the same age). Rows marked ~ are modeled from that anchor using the ratio each option has priced at relative to a 5-year certain in published multi-carrier tables (note under the tables); they are typical pricing, not quotes. “Cost of guarantee” is how much less you receive each month than life only, in dollars and as a share of the life-only check.
Age 65, $100,000 premium
| Payout option | Male, monthly | Cost of guarantee (male) | Female, monthly | Cost of guarantee (female) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life only Payments stop at death; nothing to heirs | ~$682 | baseline | ~$639 | baseline |
| Life + 5-year certain At least 60 payments guaranteed (our surveyed basis) | $675 | −$7/mo (−1.0%) | $637 | −$2/mo (−0.3%) |
| Life + 10-year certain At least 120 payments guaranteed | ~$656 | −$26/mo (−3.8%) | ~$631 | −$8/mo (−1.3%) |
| Life + 20-year certain At least 240 payments guaranteed | ~$608 | −$74/mo (−10.9%) | ~$602 | −$37/mo (−5.8%) |
| Life + cash refund Unpaid premium returned as a lump sum | ~$625 | −$57/mo (−8.4%) | ~$611 | −$28/mo (−4.4%) |
| Life + installment refund Payments continue until premium is repaid | ~$638 | −$44/mo (−6.5%) | ~$623 | −$16/mo (−2.5%) |
| 100% joint & survivor (couple, same age) Full payment for both lifetimes | $587 | −$95/mo (−13.9%) | $587 | −$52/mo (−8.1%) |
Age 70, $100,000 premium
| Payout option | Male, monthly | Cost of guarantee (male) | Female, monthly | Cost of guarantee (female) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life only Payments stop at death; nothing to heirs | ~$766 | baseline | ~$703 | baseline |
| Life + 5-year certain At least 60 payments guaranteed (our surveyed basis) | $751 | −$15/mo (−2.0%) | $699 | −$4/mo (−0.6%) |
| Life + 10-year certain At least 120 payments guaranteed | ~$713 | −$53/mo (−6.9%) | ~$686 | −$17/mo (−2.4%) |
| Life + 20-year certain At least 240 payments guaranteed | ~$636 | −$130/mo (−17.0%) | ~$629 | −$74/mo (−10.5%) |
| Life + cash refund Unpaid premium returned as a lump sum | ~$681 | −$85/mo (−11.1%) | ~$665 | −$38/mo (−5.4%) |
| Life + installment refund Payments continue until premium is repaid | ~$696 | −$70/mo (−9.1%) | ~$678 | −$25/mo (−3.6%) |
| 100% joint & survivor (couple, same age) Full payment for both lifetimes | $640 | −$126/mo (−16.4%) | $640 | −$63/mo (−9.0%) |
Age 75, $100,000 premium
| Payout option | Male, monthly | Cost of guarantee (male) | Female, monthly | Cost of guarantee (female) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life only Payments stop at death; nothing to heirs | ~$904 | baseline | ~$827 | baseline |
| Life + 5-year certain At least 60 payments guaranteed (our surveyed basis) | $873 | −$31/mo (−3.4%) | $810 | −$17/mo (−2.1%) |
| Life + 10-year certain At least 120 payments guaranteed | ~$798 | −$106/mo (−11.7%) | ~$771 | −$56/mo (−6.8%) |
| Life + 20-year certain At least 240 payments guaranteed | ~$669 | −$235/mo (−26.0%) | ~$665 | −$162/mo (−19.6%) |
| Life + cash refund Unpaid premium returned as a lump sum | ~$768 | −$136/mo (−15.0%) | ~$746 | −$81/mo (−9.8%) |
| Life + installment refund Payments continue until premium is repaid | ~$787 | −$117/mo (−12.9%) | ~$762 | −$65/mo (−7.9%) |
| 100% joint & survivor (couple, same age) Full payment for both lifetimes | $722 | −$182/mo (−20.1%) | $722 | −$105/mo (−12.7%) |
Basis: best available monthly income per $100,000 from actual carrier quote surveys (August 2026); single life with a 5-year period certain, income starting one month after purchase. The 100% joint & survivor row is one contract covering both spouses (same age); its “cost” is shown against a man's and a woman's own life-only figure so you can see what the second life costs from either side. ~ Modeled rows: life only, 10- and 20-year certain, cash refund and installment refund are calculated from the surveyed 5-year-certain figure using the option-to-5-year-certain ratios in ImmediateAnnuities.com's payout tables by age (best-carrier columns, as of February 4, 2026), which match the pattern in their 15-carrier Annuity Shopper survey from January 2019. Ratios drift by a point or two between carriers and months, so treat modeled figures as typical pricing and get a real quote before deciding.
Four Things the Matrix Tells You
- A 5-year certain is close to free. At 65 it costs a man about $7/month against life only and a woman about $2/month. That is why we quote and publish on this basis: it removes the “hit by a bus next year” scenario for almost nothing, and most of our single clients keep it or step up to a 10-year.
- The cost of every guarantee rises steeply with age. A 20-year certain costs a 65-year-old man about 10.9% of the life-only check; at 75 it costs about 26.0%. The older you are, the more likely the insurer is to actually pay the beneficiary, so the more they charge for the promise. See best age to buy an annuity for how age changes the whole picture.
- Women pay far less for the same guarantee. A 65-year-old woman gives up about $8/month for a 10-year certain versus about $26/month for a man, and about $37/month for a 20-year certain versus about $74/month, because she is less likely to die inside the window. Compare our male and female rate tables.
- Installment refund consistently prices about 2 points above cash refund. Same promise (your premium comes back), paid as continued monthly checks instead of a lump sum. If your beneficiary is fine waiting, it is the better buy.
Life Only: Maximum Income, Zero Legacy
Life only is pure longevity insurance and always the highest payment. Every dollar of actuarial value goes toward your own lifetime income; none is held back for a beneficiary. It fits when your spouse and heirs are already provided for through life insurance, their own assets or the rest of your portfolio, and the goal is the most guaranteed income per premium dollar. On our August 2026 figures a 65-year-old man recovers his $100,000 premium in about 12.2 years life only, versus about 13.3 years with a cash refund.
The honest case against it is not the math but the household: if a surviving spouse would need that check, life only is the wrong contract, whatever it pays. Note also how little life only adds over a 5-year certain at 65 (about 1.0%); the gap only widens to about 3.4% by 75, the age where life only starts to look genuinely different.
Period Certain: The Breakeven Math
A period certain guarantees a minimum number of payments, 60, 120 or 240, to you or to your beneficiary. The useful way to price it is to ask what the guarantee costs over its own window, measured in months of the payment it protects, versus the most it could ever return. For a 65-year-old man with $100,000 (August 2026 anchor, modeled option pricing):
| Guarantee | Monthly check | Cost vs. life only | Total cost over the certain period | ...in months of the payment | Most a beneficiary could collect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-year certain | $675 | ~$7/mo | ~$420 | ~0.6 months | $40,500 (60 payments) |
| 10-year certain | ~$656 | ~$26/mo | ~$3,120 | ~4.8 months | ~$78,720 (120 payments) |
| 20-year certain | ~$608 | ~$74/mo | ~$17,760 | ~29.2 months | ~$145,920 (240 payments) |
Read it this way: over ten years, the 10-year certain costs you roughly 4.8 months' worth of income. In exchange, if you die in year two, your beneficiary collects the other eight-plus years of checks. That lopsided trade is why the 10-year certain is the industry's default protection. The 20-year certain is a different animal: at 65 it costs a man about 29 months of income over its window and reaches out to age 85, so it behaves more like a bond ladder with a life tail than like insurance. It makes sense when leaving payments to a specific person is a primary goal, and progressively less sense the older you buy.
Remember that a period certain does nothing for you personally after the window closes: past month 121 on a 10-year certain you simply hold a life annuity that pays a little less than the life-only you could have bought. That is the correct outcome, the same way an unused term-life policy is, but it is worth saying plainly.
Cash Refund and Installment Refund: Your Premium Always Comes Back
A cash refund guarantees that total payments to you plus your beneficiary never fall short of the premium. Die after five years on the modeled 65-year-old male figure and you will have collected about $37,500; your beneficiary receives the remaining ~$62,500 as a lump sum. The cost at 65 is roughly $57/month against life only (~8.4%), and the protection expires naturally at premium recovery, about age 78.3 on these figures. After that the annuity is simply paying you for life. Cash refund is the option that wins over annuity skeptics because it makes “the insurance company keeps my money” impossible.
An installment refund makes the same promise but pays the shortfall as continued monthly checks rather than a lump sum, which is why it prices about 2 percentage points above cash refund at every age in the matrix. Against a period certain, a refund protects a shrinking balance over a lengthening window: at 65 a cash refund lands between the 10- and 20-year certain, and by 75 it sits closer to the 10-year. We price both side by side on every quote.
Joint & Survivor: Built for Couples
A joint-and-survivor SPIA covers two lives. At the 100% survivor level the check never changes while either spouse is alive; a 65-year-old couple currently gets up to $587/month per $100,000 from our surveys, and $640/month at 70. That is about $95/month less than a 65-year-old man's life-only figure and $52/month less than a woman's, which is the price of guaranteeing the second lifetime. Electing 75% or 50% to the survivor raises the starting check, roughly to ~$622 and ~$657/month for a same-age couple at 65 on published pricing, in exchange for a smaller check after the first death (worked survivor-income examples are in our 100% vs. 75% vs. 50% joint & survivor guide).
Two things we tell every couple. First, household expenses rarely fall by half when one spouse dies, but household income often does, because one Social Security check disappears; that asymmetry is why we usually recommend the 100% level (see annuity vs. Social Security). Second, the age gap matters: carriers price the joint contract on both lives, and in the one published joint-life grid we could find (an Equitable guaranteed-payment table filed with the SEC) each five years the younger spouse is below the older cost roughly 4 to 5% of the payment. Our joint rate tables assume both spouses the same age; if yours are not, ask us for an exact quote.
What Your Beneficiary Owes in Tax
The guarantee is only worth what reaches your beneficiary after tax, so a short note. On a SPIA bought with non-qualified (after-tax) money, guaranteed payments that continue to your beneficiary under a period certain or installment refund are tax-free until the beneficiary's payments plus the tax-free portion you already received add up to your investment in the contract; after that they are fully taxable as ordinary income (IRS Publication 575, “Survivors and Beneficiaries — Guaranteed payments”; Treas. Reg. §1.72-11(c)). A surviving spouse on a joint & survivor contract instead keeps applying the same exclusion percentage until the investment is recovered (Publication 939). A cash-refund lump sum is taxable only to the extent it exceeds your unrecovered investment in the contract (IRC §72(e)(5)(E)), which on a plain refund of premium usually means little or nothing. Two subtleties from Publication 939: adding a refund feature slightly reduces the tax-free portion of your own payments (its value is subtracted from your investment when the exclusion ratio is set), and if payments stop at your death before you have recovered your investment, the unrecovered amount is deductible on your final return.
On an IRA or other qualified SPIA every payment, to you and to your beneficiary, is ordinary income, and the certain period has to fit the IRS rules for annuities inside retirement accounts (it cannot exceed the IRS distribution-period limits at purchase, Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-6), which starts to bite on a 20-year certain bought at about 80 or later (the Uniform Lifetime Table period is 20.2 years at 80 and 19.4 at 81). Full detail is in how annuities are taxed.
Which Option Our Clients Actually Pick
After 25 years of writing these contracts, the pattern is consistent. Most single buyers take a period certain, usually 5 or 10 years, because their own quotes show what the matrix shows: the protection costs a few dollars a month and settles the early-death question. That is why our published rate tables use a 5-year certain; it is what we quote by default, and it is the closest thing to life-only pricing that still leaves something for a beneficiary. Married couples overwhelmingly buy 100% joint & survivor, often with a 5- or 10-year certain layered on. Cash refund is the choice of buyers who want it in writing that the premium cannot be lost. Pure life only is the least common election in our practice: usually a single buyer in their late 60s or 70s with no dependents who has run the numbers on the calculator and wants the highest check, full stop.
Decision Checklist
- Does anyone depend on this income after you? A spouse: joint & survivor, normally 100%. No one: single life with a period certain, or life only.
- Would an early death cost your family money, or just feel unfair? Money (heirs need it): cash or installment refund, or a 20-year certain. Feeling: a 5- or 10-year certain removes it for ~1.0–3.8% at 65.
- How old are you? Guarantees are cheap at 60 to 65 and expensive at 75+; the matrix above shows the exact trade at your age.
- Lump sum or income for the beneficiary? Lump sum: cash refund. Income: installment refund or period certain.
- Where is the money coming from? IRA money changes the tax picture and limits the certain period; non-qualified money keeps part of each payment tax-free.
- Are you comparing carriers? The spread between the best and worst of the 8 carriers we survey is usually larger than the cost of the guarantee itself, so choose the option first, then shop it. See best annuity companies and the full rate tables.
Bottom Line
Life only pays the most, but a 5-year certain costs almost nothing, a 10-year certain costs a 65-year-old a few percent, and refunds and 20-year guarantees are where the real trade-offs begin, especially past 70. Couples should default to 100% joint & survivor. Whatever fits, insist on seeing two or three structures side by side on real quotes rather than published tables, including this one. Request a free comparison quote and we will price every option across 8 A-rated carriers for your exact age, state and premium, or start with the calculator and the $100,000 payout guide.
