Citibank

 

Investing Products

Citi Personal Wealth Management can help provide the advice and support to help you make better choices for your investment plan. 

Annuities.

Looking to save even more for retirement each year? An annuity can offer tax-deferred growth coupled with insurance features that you may find attractive. In addition, once you reach retirement age, you can turn your tax-deferred annuity into a guaranteed income stream that's backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. 

Still have questions? Call us at 1-877-462-2484

Tax-Deferred Annuities

Tax-deferred annuities come in two main flavors. Fixed annuities pay a rate of interest for a specified period of time. Variable annuities, meanwhile, allow you to select from a collection of professionally managed investment choices, known as subaccounts, which can fluctuate in value along with the stock and bond markets.
For instance, you might opt to invest your variable annuity in a mix of stock-market subaccounts in the hope of earning long-term growth.

No investment product is right for everyone-and that includes tax-deferred annuities. As with other retirement accounts, you may face taxes and penalties if you make a withdrawal before age 59½. Also, overall annuity costs are often higher than for other investments and many annuities impose a fee if you withdraw before the end of the surrender-charge period. Indeed, before investing in an annuity, you should consider contributing the maximum allowable to your employer's 401(k) or similar plan and to your Individual Retirement Account (IRA). But if you have maxed out on those opportunities and you are looking for additional tax-deferral, an annuity may make sense.

Intrigued? After discussing the pros and cons with your Financial Advisor, if you decide to add a tax-deferred annuity to your portfolio, you could potentially get these benefits:

• No contribution limits. In 2011, if you're under age 50, your 401(k) contributions are capped at $16,500 and your IRA investments are limited to $5,000. If you are age 50 or older, your 401(k) and IRA contributions are limited to $22,000 and $6,000, respectively. By contrast, there are no IRS-imposed limits on how much you can contribute to an annuity each year.
• Tax-deferred compounding. You won't owe income taxes on any growth inside your annuity until you make withdrawals. In fact, as long as money stays within the variable annuity, you can transfer money from one subaccount to another without triggering taxes.
• Living benefits. This variable-annuity feature, which is available for an additional fee, is intended to guarantee the benefits provided. It can protect your accumulated assets during your lifetime and can provide a regular stream of income during retirement. The guarantees involved are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. It's possible to choose from a variety of riders that protect your principal, your withdrawal amounts during the payout phase or the income base that determines the size of your lifetime-income stream. Living benefits can be complicated, so ask your Financial Advisor to explain how they work and what additional costs are involved.
• Guaranteed lifetime income. While a variable annuity with living benefits has become a popular choice with annuity investors, this isn't your only option for guaranteed retirement income. You could also convert your tax-deferred annuity into an immediate annuity that gives you a stream of regular income either for a specified number of years or for life. Again, this income stream will depend on the claims-paying ability of the insurance company.
• No required minimum distributions. Unlike many other retirement accounts, there's no requirement to start drawing down your annuity once you reach age 70½, unless the annuity is held inside, say, a traditional IRA. An annuity should not be held inside a traditional IRA if the sole purpose is for the tax deferral benefit because annuities are tax deferred vehicles without having to be held in a traditional IRA.
• Death benefit protection. If you die before receiving income from your annuity, your beneficiaries will receive a guaranteed benefit amount, backed by the financial strength of the insurance company. Some contracts also offer "enhanced" or "stepped-up" death benefits. These types of death benefit are designed to "lock in" your investment performance for your beneficiaries. The cost will vary depending on the benefit.
• Avoid probate. Annuities are insurance products. That means they don't have to go through the time-consuming probate process, as long as there is a named beneficiary. Instead, the insurance company pays death benefits directly to the policy's named beneficiaries.

Immediate Annuities

If you want guaranteed retirement income, either for life or for a fixed number of years, you might consider an immediate annuity. With these annuities, you hand over a chunk of money to an insurer and, in return, get regular income. This comes at a potentially steep cost: If you die relatively early in retirement, you may not receive much income from your big annuity investment?and your beneficiaries may get little or nothing, depending on the annuity you purchased. Moreover, keep in mind that all guarantees are based on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

Still, an immediate annuity that pays lifetime income may be a good choice if you are concerned about outliving your other savings. An immediate annuity may also be a good choice if you are struggling to generate enough income with your other investments, and you don't mind sacrificing part of your savings to earn a higher level of income.

Immediate annuities come in two types, fixed and variable. Payments from an immediate-fixed annuity won't change from year to year, unless you opt for an annuity where payments escalate along with the inflation rate or by a fixed percentage each year. Meanwhile, payments from an immediate-variable annuity will fluctuate based on the performance of the annuity sub-accounts you select.

In addition to their main features, immediate annuities can offer the benefits listed below. Some of these benefits can increase the cost of the annuity—and that could mean less income for you.

• Tax-advantaged income. If you purchase an annuity with taxable-account money, a portion of each payment is considered a return of your original investment. Result: Only part of your payment will be taxable each year.
• Inflation protection. Many immediate-fixed annuities offer the option to elect an annual payment increase, which can help your annuity income keep pace with inflation.
• Spousal income. You might opt for an annuity that guarantees income for both your lifetime and the life of your spouse.

 

 Advisory accounts.

After the market turmoil of recent years, many investors have come to realize how challenging it is to manage their own portfolios. It can take expertise, significant time and a deep knowledge of how changes in the markets and the economy affect each investment. Because of this, many investors want to delegate the day-to-day monitoring and decision-making to qualified professionals.

Still have questions? Call us at 1-877-462-2484

That's where Citi Personal Wealth Management can help. Our Financial Advisors can define an investment strategy based on your goals, time horizon and comfort level with risk. We offer a variety of investment advisory services accounts and programs that let you tap into Citi's views on asset allocation, our global investment research and the capabilities of professional money managers. You decide how involved you want to be in the management of your portfolio—and then your Financial Advisor can help you select the advisory programs and services best suited to you. Our programs follow a simple 5-step process:

• Understand your needs
• Select an appropriate program for you
• Develop an asset allocation strategy
• Select securities to construct your portfolio
• Monitor, adjust, evaluate, manage

Citi-Managed Mutual Fund and
 

Managed ETF Programs

Our Managed Mutual Fund Program and Managed ETF Program relieve you of the day-to-day investment decisions involved with managing a complex portfolio. You will own mutual funds and exchange-traded index funds (ETFs) that are screened by Citi Investment Manager Research, while your mix of funds will reflect a careful analysis of current market trends by our Global Investment Committee.

These programs help create clearly defined asset allocation strategies, which are designed so that your portfolio is well-diversified and that it's balanced to reduce overall portfolio volatility. And once we've built your portfolio, we continually monitor the changes and trends in the markets, so we can make appropriate adjustments to your holdings.

Citi Separately-Managed Account Program

With Citi Separately-Managed Account (SMA) Program, you get professional money management, while also having the control and visibility of owning individual securities. The professional investment management firms participating in the program are screened by Citi Investment Manager Research using stringent criteria for performance, style consistency and organizational depth and stability. Citi SMA Program also lets you take advantage of:

• Tax management: you can manage your tax liability by instructing your manager to sell certain securities to take gains or losses
• Ability to impose investment restrictions: you can specify individual companies or industries you wish to avoid based on social considerations or because of other holdings you have
• Transparency: you'll always know which securities you own and how much you're paying in money management fees
• Service: your Financial Advisor will monitor your portfolio and your manager's performance, and suggest modifications when appropriate

Citi Unified Managed Account Program

Citi Unified Managed Account (UMA) Program provides asset allocation from our Global Investment Committee coupled with a universe of professional investment managers, mutual funds and ETFs, all carefully screened by Citi Investment Manager Research. With the Citi UMA, you get:

• A diverse, yet complementary, blend of investment managers whom we consider leaders in their respective investment disciplines
• The ability to combine professional investment managers, mutual funds and ETFs in one brokerage account
• The opportunity to customize your portfolio by selecting from a recommended roster of managers, or you can let your Financial Advisor choose on your behalf
• A single quarterly performance report that helps you track your overall investment performance

Citi Portfolio Manager Program

Through the Portfolio Manager program, you allow your Financial Advisor to take on the responsibility for making day-to-day investment decisions. This relieves you of the stress and time-commitment of making these decisions yourself. To serve as your Portfolio Manager, your Financial Advisor must have significant experience as an advisor, as well as advanced training, including passing stringent portfolio management and construction exams. These requirements ensure that your Financial Advisor has the knowledge and experience necessary to make informed decisions about your portfolio.

The benefits include:

• A customized portfolio based on your goals, objectives and risk tolerance
• Personal service and sound advice backed by a wide array of Citi resources
• Performance monitoring to keep you informed
• The convenience of an annualized fee based on the value of your investments

Citi Portfolio Advisor Program

With Portfolio Advisor, your Financial Advisor helps you develop an asset-allocation plan and investment recommendations based on your needs, goals and today's market conditions. As with our other programs, you will have the knowledge that the specific investment decisions you make are based on sound, reliable and unbiased advice. But, ultimately, you make the final investment decisions. You pay just one annualized fee based on the assets held in your account, so you won't have to worry about commissions. The planning process comprises 4 steps:

• Measuring risk tolerance and determining your financial objectives
• Developing your asset-allocation strategy
• Helping you evaluate and select appropriate investments
• Ongoing monitoring and review

 

  Insurance.

Even as you save and invest for the future, it's important to plan for the unexpected. That might mean setting up an emergency fund and drawing up an estate plan. But you will likely also want to consider how life insurance can help protect your family and your investments.

Worried about your financial future? Your Citi Financial Advisor can help you with the following types of insurance.

Still have questions? Call us at 1-800-374-9700.

  

Term-Life Insurance 

This is typically the least expensive way to purchase life-insurance coverage. Term policies often cover a fixed number of years, such as 10 or 20 years. Your annual premium will be based on factors such as your health history, age and gender. Many term policies offer level premium payments for the life of the policy.

If you die before the end of the term, your beneficiaries receive a death benefit. At the end of the term, you may have the option of renewing the policy at a higher premium, reflecting your more advanced age, or converting it to a permanent policy without evidence of insurability. What if you let the policy lapse? The coverage is over—and you get nothing back.

Permanent-Life Insurance

Sometimes also known as cash-value life insurance, these policies provide permanent insurance, rather than insurance for a fixed number of years. They can also allow you to build up cash value, which you can then use during your lifetime or bequeath to your beneficiaries. If you use the cash value during your lifetime, your death benefit will be reduced.

Cash-value policies, which involve higher premiums than term insurance, come in three varieties. Whole-life insurance has fixed premiums and the ability to have your cash value build. Meanwhile, universal-life insurance offers the flexibility to vary the amount of your annual premium and the ability to withdraw cash from the policy. Finally, with variable-life insurance, you can invest the cash value of a variable universal life insurance policy in a variety of investment options.

However with both universal and variable universal life insurance, if the cash value is not sufficient to cover the cost of the insurance, the policy will lapse.

Disability Insurance

If you are still in the work force, your most valuable asset may be your human capital—your ability to pull in a paycheck. What if an accident or illness makes working impossible? To protect yourself, you may want to purchase disability insurance. One rule of thumb suggests buying enough coverage to replace 50% to 70% of your current salary. In fact, you may have a tough time buying insurance that will pay much more than 70%. A policy's premium will be driven by how much income you're looking to protect, how long you want the benefit to last, your age, sex and occupation.

Long-Term Care Insurance

This is a type of health insurance that can help pay medical and other expenses if you have a chronic illness or disability.

Long-term care can be provided at home, in an assisted-living facility or in a nursing home. Long-term care premiums can seem expensive, but your Financial Advisor may be able to help you lower the cost by, say, opting for a longer "elimination period," which is the waiting period before benefits kick in. You can choose an elimination period of 30, 60 or 90 days or even longer, depending on how long you think you can afford to pay health-care costs yourself. You might also ask your advisor about other options, such as a single-premium life-insurance policy that gives you tax-free access to the policy's death benefit to pay long-term care costs.

 

 Banking Products

It’s your financial journey, and we want to make sure you enjoy the ride. With Citibank, we’re on a mission to help you reach your goals, keeping you on track and on schedule…whatever your destination may be.

Checking Accounts

A personal checking account is just that: personal. We've even made picking the right one less of a personal pain.

Right for you if:

• You need direct deposit
• You prefer to pay your bills online
• You want unlimited check writing
• You want to be rewarded for your banking relationship

Savings Accounts

Saving big doesn't have to be a big hassle. We'll help keep you on track...and make your goals more reachable than ever.

Right for you if:

• You're planning for the future
• You want to earn interest
• You can start with a minimum $100 opening deposit

Student Accounts

When life's crammed with exams, who wants to dwell on banking? Get this free account and you won't have to.

Right for you if:

• You're a student at an accredited college
• You don't want to pay monthly fees
• You want fee free use of non Citibank ATMs
• You want to be rewarded for your banking relationship

Certificates of Deposit

You've got to love a sure thing. Like a guaranteed and competitive interest rate, with a wide range of terms. 

Right for you if:

• You want a guaranteed interest rate
• You want to select your term
• You are looking for a safe savings option

IRAs & Rollovers

IRAs are a great, safe way to save for retirement. Plus, tax benefits mean your funds may add up faster.

Right for you if:

• You're saving for your retirement
• You want special tax benefits
• You don't want to pay an annual fee