Did you know that among the tools that is being promoted as trying to give Americans a better shot at a more secure retirement are Fixed Index Annuities. At its simplest, an annuity is something you buy with a sum of money in exchange for a monthly check for the rest of your life. “If the biggest risk in retirement is running out of money, an annuity can help guarantee that you won’t. In effect, it allows you to buy the pension that your employer has probably stopped offering, and it can help pick up where Social Security leaves off.”