Annuities
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What are "sub accounts" or "underlying investments"?
These are the investment choices you have in a variable annuity. They’re similar to mutual funds and are
often run by mutual fund families, but the sub-account investments are usually created specifically for the
annuity. Most variable annuities let you diversify across a wide range of options, including aggressive and
conservative stock funds, bond funds, index funds, balanced funds, international funds and money market
funds. You can also usually transfer between sub-accounts, to change your asset allocation when your needs
or time horizon change.
For information on different types of funds, see Mutual Funds. Also see
Diversification and Asset
Allocation.