Annuities can play a major and very important role in Retirement Planning. In my profession, the main objection from clients and others is the cost. My counter argument is , my two favorite words in retirement are "Guaranteed Income, and I therefore believe a fixed and or variable annuity while more expensive than a traditional investment (individual stock, bonds and mutual funds) is worth the cost. Discuss the merits of this statement and of using annuities in and out of an IRA.