Basically, annuities have two phases everyone needs to be aware namely the accumulation phase and payout phase. When you are still at the accumulation stage, you need to make payments for the annuity either through lump sum payments or through an on-going basis. And depending on the type of annuity you decide to take advantage of, your annuity will grow in value based upon the rates that was set by the insurance company (known as the fixed annuity) or the rates can also be dependent upon the sub accounts (known as variable annuity).
If you need to sell tax deferred annuity, try to compute the amount of money you can potentially have before you decide. It would be difficult to have regrets later on. In both the fixed and variable case, your annuity will grow during the accumulation stage and its taxes are deferred. But you should realize that “tax-deferred” does not translate to tax-free because you do need to pay taxes later on.
There are tax free investments available on the market such as municipal bonds but annuities are different because any gain you derive from this will be taxed. However, take note that you will only need to pay these taxes...