Henry,

This is not the start of the thread I mentioned I am considering initiating but it is related. This deals with a problem running the income projection calculator on the T-C web site to obtain an estimated monthly payout from annuitization of a given amount with a set of constant assumptions when the same run is done for funds in two separate T-C accounts. Please reread the previous sentence so you understand what this is about!

To keep this simple I am not going to specify amounts or assumptions but take my word for it the results are comparable and they should be the same for both calculator runs; they are not and this is the problem. (There is a slight difference in the principal being used as the basis of the annuitization across the two runs but it does not significantly affect the results provided below). I have checked this with a phone call to a WMA a few minutes ago and she obtained exactly the same results I did and she agreed that one estimate is way off base.

I ran the two runs on two different accounts: one from my IRA and one from one of my TPAs. From the former I obtained a monthly payout of $2,604; from the TPA I obtained a monthly payout of $2,981. Note that the return from the TPA account (which actually has a sligtly lower principal than the IRA) is 14.5% greater than that of the IRA. THEY SHOULD BE THE SAME (assuming the principals and assumptions were identical). They are not and the advantage goes to the TPA account with the smaller principal!

This has been reported and a copy of this morning's run will be sent by the WMA to my WMA with whom we meet with on Monday morning.

Obviously, there is a problem with the calculator! The problem lies in the run from my TPA Account. This is unfortunate as it was this account that I have been thinking of annuitizing. Now if it turns out this is wrong and substantially wrong by being too high, it substantially reduces the likelihood I will annuitize at least right now.

A few months ago I had requested two actuarial calculated runs from T-C but what I got was essentially trash. It was that which set up the meeting with our WMA on Monday. 

Bottom line is that currently it is difficult (I could not do it) to obtain accurate estimates of the payout from an annuitization across two account and this makes the decision to annuitize (at least for me) extremely difficult.

Ray