The concept of diversification is especially critical to the retiree, or the person who's nearing retirement.

"It's an important theme when you're looking at the different segments in asset allocation," Hueler said.  "You don't just buy one stock – you buy a diversified portfolio of stocks. You buy a diversified portfolio of bonds – or you 'ladder' your bonds.

"And it's the same thing with an annuity: If you're looking for 'guaranteed income,' you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. One of the big hurdles is the fear of putting your money in one place. And that's a good thing to be concerned about.

"You should diversify by provider – you shouldn't have all your money with one provider."

The idea of saving and planning for the future – and not relying on Social Security, which has never been intended to be an individual's sole retirement vehicle but, rather, a safety net – is easy to contemplate, harder to make concrete decisions.

 "People don't really know what it means to make their money last a lifetime," said Hueler.  "If they did have a pension, it usually came from their employer. They do, of course, have Social Security. But most folks looking at retiring today don't have the benefit of pensions as the generation before had.

"Many, many, many fewer people are covered under a full-pension sort of arrangement, and the statistics have told us that for quite a while.  The decline of the defined-benefits plan has been upon us for some time.

"Most often, what we see is that folks haven't been given the information about how to make their money last.  There's never been a conversation about when you retire, how to create a paycheck for the rest of your life. That's just been absent."

Retiring well doesn't happen without good strategy. And good strategy usually involves an individually devised mix of savings and investments, among which it's a good idea to consider annuities.

But one of the obstacles to proper approaches and understanding of annuities is the way the vehicle has been pitched over the years.

"People think they have to make one single decision," Hueler said.  "And part of that has been perpetuated by the way employers have offered annuities – which is when you're leaving the 'active' plan, you can either take a lump sum, which is more money than you'll probably ever have access to again, or you can have this annuity.

"If you take the annuity, the employer essentially says, 'We take all your money and you don't get any choice,' and you basically get put on a budget.  It's this single-point-in-time decision that takes away all their control and flexibility.  And people – naturally, rightfully so – shy away from that, because the idea being presented has been this all-or-nothing, one-time decision.

"So the first thing is to change that.  Change the framework, and think about this as a process, and an annuity is only part of a really well-planned retirement."

Fundamentally speaking, no investment is a single entity – it has to be considered as part of a variety of investments and savings vehicles, which must each be evaluated on its own merits.

Again, the goal of successful retirement is lifetime income adequate to meet one's needs – plus desires, once needs are covered – and that's generally not achievable without a combination of investment modes.

"Think about annuities as just one piece of your overall retirement plan," Hueler said.  "It's not an all-or-nothing decision.  This isn't, 'You can't have mutual funds and you can't have these other products.'  It's, 'How do I meet my baseline income needs,' and what are my sources going to be?"

Once one decides on a retirement strategy, carry it forward with purpose and discipline.  And an annuity may well be an important element in that strategy.

"For most Americans – most Americans – an annuity which gives them a form of paycheck for the rest of their life is going to be an important part of ensuring that they have income sufficiency in retirement," said Hueler.  "Most of us are not going to be in a position where we're going to self-fund our retirement with no help, and be assured that we're not going to run out of money.

"It's just beyond the scope of what we do, and it's likely beyond the scope of our asset base.  But annuities are just, from my perspective, a piece of the puzzle.  They're not the whole story, but they're an important piece."