Can you take a loan from an annuity? - Answers

Yes, but not directly. An annuity is a stream of payments paid to some entity for some limited period of time (there are lifetime annuities which are known as perpetuities). One has the following two options for unlocking the value of an annuity: * Sell the annuity - receive the present value of all future payments right now in a single lump-sum - you will NOT have to pay it back, however, you will not receive any more annuity payments * Get a loan - offer the payments as security on a personal loan - the bank will ask you to redirect the payments of the annuity to their bank and either (1) directly use future payments to pay the loan payments or (2) keep future payments accumulated in a trust to guarantee that the loan gets fully paid.