FIRST CHOICE — A Variable Deferred Annuity
It's All About Choice
Variable annuities are financial products designed to help you build retirement assets over a long period of time. The purchase of a variable annuity does, however, involve investment risk, including the possible loss of principal. In addition, variable annuities have certain fees and charges, which will reduce their accumulation value. Therefore, a variable annuity when redeemed may be worth more or less than the total of all the purchase payments you have made. Also, all guarantees in this variable annuity are subject to the financial strength and claims-paying ability of First Investors Life Insurance Company. Variable annuities do offer benefits that may help you manage risk in your retirement portfolio. And when you are ready to start receiving income, annuities are the only financial products that can guarantee income payments for the rest of your life. If you are like millions of Americans, you may find that a variable annuity can help you reach your retirement goals.
Tax Advantages
-
Tax Deferred Growth — You pay no income tax on the earnings in the annuity contract until they are withdrawn from the annuity. This is an advantage annuities have when compared to currently taxable investments, as tax deferral may help the value of your annuity grow faster through the power of tax deferral and compounding.
-
No Annual Contribution Limit — The money invested in a variable annuity is not subject to annual contribution limits, such as those that exist on IRAs, 401(k)s or other qualified plans. You alone choose how much and when you want to invest.
-
No Mandatory Distributions at Age 70½ — There is no requirement for beginning annual distributions from a variable annuity at age 70 1/2 as there is with IRAs, 401(k)s and other qualified plans. Earnings on your contributions to an annuity can accumulate tax deferred to age 90.
Under current federal tax law, the portion of each annuity payment that represents earnings is taxed as ordinary income.
Investment Opportunities in the Accumulation Phase
The Accumulation Phase is the period during which you are making contributions to the annuity.
-
A Variety of Investment Subaccounts — First Choice offers professionally managed subaccounts, each with its own investment objective and degree of risk. Each subaccount invests in a portfolio of stocks and/or bonds. The value of the annuity will vary with the performance of the subaccounts you select.
First Investors Life makes no guarantees with respect to the investment return or principal value of the underlying subaccounts.
-
Allocating Your Purchase Payments — You can allocate funds to all of the subaccounts as long as each subaccount has a minimum of 1% of each purchase payment. Moreover, you can change your allocations up to six times every 12 months or you can authorize automatic re-allocations.
-
The Fixed Account — If you want to allocate a portion of your funds to an interest-bearing account, First Choice has such an option. The interest-bearing or fixed account has a current interest rate periodically declared by First Investors Life as well as a minimum guaranteed interest rate that is established by a regulated formula. The value of your allocations in the fixed account can never decrease.
Annuity Options in the Payout Phase
The Payout Phase is the period during which you receive income payments from the annuity.
-
Annuitization — You can annuitize your contract at maturity, which will convert your Accumulation Value into an income that you cannot outlive. The amount of the annuity payment will depend upon the payment option you choose, your gender and age at the time you annuitize your contract. The portion of the annuity payment that represents earnings will be taxable.
Annuitized contracts are not subject to surrender charges.
First Choice provides you with a variety of annuity payment options, such as:
- Single and Joint Life annuities
- Single and Joint Life annuities with 10 or 20 year guarantee periods
- Refund Life Annuity
-
Systematic Withdrawals — Another option is taking systematic withdrawals, which are a series of partial surrenders that you can use to receive income when you need it. The payments you receive from systematic withdrawals will be taxed on an “earnings first” basis. Each payment will be considered as taxable earnings until such time as all the actual earnings have been distributed. Payments after this point will be a tax-free return of investment.
-
Surrenders — Annuities are designed to be part of a long-term retirement investment plan. If you take partial surrenders during the accumulation phase or fully surrender the annuity before maturity, you may be subject to a surrender charge. If you surrender a part of or the entire annuity before age 59½, you may be subject to a 10% IRS penalty on the taxable portion of the surrendered amount.
Each year, however, you can surrender up to 10% of your purchase payments without incurring a surrender charge, but the amount of the surrender may still be taxable.
Death Benefit Protection
If you are the annuitant under a First Choice annuity contract and die before annuity payments begin, your beneficiary will receive a death benefit equal to the greater of:
- The annuity's Accumulation Value, or
- The total of all purchase payments contributed to the annuity (less any surrenders and surrender charges)
When a death benefit is paid to the beneficiary it is taxable as ordinary income to that beneficiary to the extent that earnings exceed the purchase payments.
Death benefit payments are not subject to surrender charges.
The death benefit should not be the primary reason for purchasing an annuity. If you are interested in providing a death benefit for your beneficiary you should explore your life insurance options.
Fees and Expenses
As with all variable annuities, First Choice has certain fees and expenses that you should be aware of and understand before purchasing the annuity. First Choice is a back-loaded annuity, which means that if you cash in or surrender your annuity within the first eight years, you will pay a surrender charge that begins at 8.00% and scales down 1.00% each year. Also, First Choice has an annual mortality and expense charge of 1.00% of the accumulation value and an annual contract fee of $35.00. The Life Series Funds charge an annual maximum fund operating expense of 0.99% of the annuity's accumulation value. See your First Choice prospectus for more information on these fees.
Is First Choice Right for You?
- Do you have money you can invest for at least 10 years and until you are at least 59½ years of age?
- Do you need to supplement your retirement savings?
- If you are already retired, are you concerned about outliving your savings?
- Are you in a tax bracket that would benefit from tax deferral?
If so, you should consider a First Choice variable annuity. Your representative can help you decide if First Choice is right for you. Generally, if you have the ability to contribute to an IRA or a qualified plan such as a 401(k), you should probably maximize those contributions before contributing to a deferred annuity since the contributions to First Choice are not tax deductible and the tax deferral benefits are the same.
How to Obtain a Prospectus: Download or
For more complete information, including charges and expenses, please download a free prospectus for the First Investors Life Insurance Company First Choice Variable Annuity. You may also obtain a free prospectus by contacting your financial services representative, calling (800) 832-7783, or writing to our administrative office at the following address: First Investors Life Insurance Company, Raritan Plaza 1, PO Box 7836, Edison, NJ 08818. You should consider the subaccounts' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before you purchase an annuity or send money. The prospectus contains this and other information about the product, and should be read carefully before purchasing. Contract availability and provisions may vary by state.
The First Choice variable deferred annuity is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency.
First Choice is approved in these states with the form number listed below:
| FPVA-1 (08-09)(AL) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(AR) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(AZ) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(CT) |
| FPVA-1 (08-09)(DC) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(DE) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(FL) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(IL) |
| FPVA-1 (08-09)(ND) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(NJ) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(NV) | FPVA-1 (08-09)(OR) |
In addition, the following states are approved as form ICC09-FPVA-1 (08/09):
| CO | GA | IA | ID | IN |
| KS | KY | LA | MA | MD |
| ME | MI | MN | MO | MS |
| NC | NE | NH | NM | OH |
| OK | PA | RI | SC | TN |
| TX | UT | VA | VT | WA |
| WI | WV | WY |
