When an employee retires, the employer offers monetary retirement benefits, such as a pension or cash balance plan, as a gesture of gratitude for the employees service.

Many people like to invest their retirement packages in insurance companies, on the condition that their money is paid back to them on a regular basis. The investor `buys this arrangement, known as an annuity, from the insurance company. By going in for an annuity, the investor is assured of a regular income through retirement, or thereafter to his heirs.

However, if the individual needs to meet any major financial needs, such as buying a home, the annuity payments that he receives may not be adequate. If he wants to withdraw some amount he can do so by paying some surcharge to the insurance firm. This often turns out to be uneconomical.

Realizing this difficulty, the Federal government introduced some provisions by which the retiree can sell his annuity to a licensed financial organization, who, in return, pays a lump sum amount to the retiree.

The retiree sells his annuities as follows. He approaches the finance organization, fills out a `Form of Request known as an `Annuity Lead, and submits it to the finance organization. Some people make use of the services of a broker or an annuity lead provider to `generate the lead.

An annuity lead is the most important document in a money transfer, and includes details such as date of application, personal information [name, address, city, state, zip code and phone and email address], initial investment, source of funds, payment timeframe [in number of years] and rate of return. It also contains the lead reference number as well as the date and time of lead generation.

It is very important to ensure that the broker, lead providing company and financing organization are licensed.