Consider using non-qualified annuities for your personal retirement portfolio.

Ways They Can Be Used
An excellent way to supplement the amount you’re putting into an employer-sponsored plan is to purchase non-qualified annuities or, if you’re self-employed, use non-qualified annuities as a secondary source of retirement income. We highly recommend that you make the maximum contribution allowed to your employer sponsored plan before contributing to non-qualified annuities.

Many non-qualified annuities offer greater variety and flexibility than investments you can make in some employer plans; therefore using them is a way to diversify your portfolio that can be very advantageous. For example, if you’re part of an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) that puts your pension money into company stock, you might use non-qualified annuities to put money into other types of equity portfolios. Or if your defined benefit plan will pay you a fixed amount after you retire, you might put money into a variable non-qualified annuity that provides an opportunity for your annuity income to do better than inflation.

More Versatility
The federal government doesn’t require you to begin withdrawing from your non-qualified annuities when you turn 70½, as you must with a traditional IRA and many qualified retirement annuity plans. Some states have no age requirement either, while others impose mandatory withdrawals at some point, generally much later than 70½.