An addendum: If you're working with a fee-based advisor, they may be able to get you a special class of variable annuity that's recognizable by the presence of terms like "advisor" or "advisory" in the product name. Unlike other annuities, which you get by going through an agent who gets paid a commission for selling you the product, you get an "advisor annuity" by going through a fee-based advisor who doesn't get compensated by the insurance company for selling the product. The advisor gets compensated instead by charging you a fee for their services, which should include managing (or at least advising you on how to manage) your money inside the annuity to maximize the rewards of the living benefit. But this arrangement means the advisor has no incentive to put you into an annuity based on what the insurance company will pay them — an incentive that unfortunately does exist when dealing with a commission-based agent. (Though I can tell you from experience that not all commission-based agents will prioritize that incentive above serving your best interests. It ultimately comes down to trustworthiness.) The advisor annuity offers other advantages as well: lower expenses than a regular variable annuity, and no surrender period (meaning you can cancel at any time without forfeiting some of the money to the insurance company). These are in addition to the other advantages of variable annuities over the fixed kind that we've been over already: the potential for larger income checks and the protection of your money from mismanagement by the insurance company.

Not to sound like a walking infomercial, but Jackson's Perspective series of variable annuities does include an "advisory" version. Again, I'm not telling you definitively to go with Jackson; I'm just suggesting them as a place to start your search.