Employee Benefits > Retirement Investments

Retirement Investments

Investments

Brokerage Accounts
Managed Accounts
Traditional IRA
Roth IRA
SEP IRA
SIMPLE IRA
Annuities

Brokerage Accounts
Is an account with a brokerage firm that holds your investments, which allows you to buy and sell securities.
Managed Accounts
Is a portfolio of investments owned by an individual investor. The account has a professional investment manager who makes buy and sell recommendations. Each managed account has an investment objective, and each manager oversees multiple individual accounts invested to meet the same investment policy statement objectives.
Traditional IRA
Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are self-directed investment accounts that provide the incentive of tax-deferred (in the case of traditional IRAs) or tax-free (in the case of Roth IRAs) earnings on assets in the account.
Roth IRA
An individual retirement account from which you can withdraw your earnings completely tax free any time after you reach age 59 1/2, provided your account has been open at least five years. However, to qualify to contribute to a Roth IRA, your income must be less than the level set by Congress.
SEP IRA
Are designed for the self-employed and small business owners. Like a traditional IRA, all SEP earnings are tax deferred until withdrawal. A SEP IRA allows higher contributions than a traditional or Roth IRA, and therefore is potentially more beneficial for small business owners or the self-employed funding their own retirement.
SIMPLE IRA
Like the SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRAs are intended for the self-employed and small business owners who are not contributing to any other retirement plan. Contributions are made by both the employer and account owner and earnings grow tax deferred until withdrawn.
Annuities
A contract that provides income payments at regular intervals, usually for a specified period or for the lifetime of the annuitant. An annuity contract is created when an individual gives a life insurance company money which may grow on a tax-deferred basis and then can be distributed back to the owner in several ways. The defining characteristic of all annuity contracts is the option for a guaranteed distribution of income until the death of the person or persons named in the contract. Perhaps confusingly, the majority of modern annuity customers use annuities only to accumulate funds and to take lump-sum withdrawals without using the guaranteed-income-for-life feature.