Annuities come in a variety of styles. They can have fixed or variable payments. Joint Survivor, for a couple, will keep paying until both spouses have died. So-called "period certain" annuities guarantee payments for five or ten years, so if you die one month after buying it your heirs don't lose everything.

Web sites such as immediateannuities.com offer comparison-shopping tools for the curious or the confused.

Here's how they work: Metlife this week said a 67-year-old woman with $1 million could convert that into an income of about $75,500 a year until she dies. For a couple a joint survivor policy would pay about $68,000.

Courtesy of WSJ.com