a specified income payable at stated intervals for a fixed or a contingent period, often for the recipient's life, in consideration of a stipulated premium paid either in prior installment payments or in a single payment.
the right to receive such an income, or the duty to make such a payment or payments.
An investment where the investor provides cash to the vendor, typically an insurance company, in exchange for the promise to pay a series of periodic, usually monthly, payments in return. An immediate annuity begins to pay back right away, other annuities might not pay back for many years. The money invested in an annuity grows tax-deferred.