Some insurance companies offer "crisis waivers," which allow annuity owners access to their annuity proceeds without the usual surrender charges under certain conditions. These include:
- Nursing Home or Hospital Confinement: Under a nursing home waiver, an owner who is confined to a nursing home or hospital may make full or partial withdrawals from the contract without incurring surrender fees. Confinement periods, such as 90 or 180 days, or certain types of care may be required before the withdrawals are allowed.
- Terminal Illness: Under this waiver, if the owner has a terminal or chronic illness expected to result in death within six months (that period varies among insurers) annuity payments may begin before the contract's payment start date without the usual surrender charge.
- Unemployment: Though highly unusual, unemployment waivers allow owners who are unemployed for 30 days to make withdrawals from the contract without the usual surrender charge.
- Disability: When available, disability waivers allow owners to access their account values without the usual surrender charges. Because of the high risk of disability, however, insurers issuing these waivers may use strict definitions of disability, such as the inability to perform any work or earn income, and require a doctor to validate the disability claim.
Charges, fees, and availability vary. Not all companies offering crisis waivers cover all of those contingencies, however, nor is there uniformity in available ages, waiting periods and costs for this feature. Some companies offer withdrawals from proceeds with no surrender charges or fees; others offer decreasing surrender charges for full or partial crisis withdrawals. Crisis waivers are not available in all states.
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