My dad is a retired 15 -10 EPA. Has a life time stream of income so you might be in a similiar situation. Lot of posters here showing bias agains the annuities but I would give them some thought. WHile the expenses are high ther are some benefits to sonsider aswell.
1) You usually have a numbe of accounts inside the annuity you can chhose from. This allows you to avoid taxable gains and change funds as your risk changes.
2) You obviously feel like a hero if the market collapses and you have a 7% gaurantee
3) you might have some exeptional fund choices inside the anbnuity that have been closed off.
This is not to say that I disagree with the other posters. Annuity have high expenses adn if you are a retired govt guy you should have the gauranted income comeing in from the government but you shoul,d always be aware of your option. For your specific siuation Who Knows?
Perhaps a more formidable question is whthe you take out a life insurance policy now and elect the full payout on the pension or if you take the reduced payout and and cover your spouse. My father might have reconsidered his option to reduce the payout in hindsight,