Annuity contracts in the United States are defined by the Internal Revenue Code and regulated by the individual states. Variable annuities have features of both life insurance and investment products. In the U.S., annuity insurance may be issued only by life insurance companies, although private annuity contracts may be arranged between donors to non-profits to reduce taxes.
In the UK there are a large market of annuities of different types. The most common are those where the source of the funds required to buy the annuity is from a pension scheme. Examples of these types of annuity, often referred to as a Compulsory Purchase Annuity, are conventional annuities, with profit annuities and unit linked, or "third way" annuities. Annuities purchased from savings (i.e. not from a pension scheme) are referred to as Purchase Life Annuities and Immediate Vesting Annuities. In October 2009, the International Longevity Centre-UK published a report on Purchased Life Annuities (Time to Annuitise). In the UK it has become common for life companies to base their annuity rates on an individual's location. Legal & General were the first company to do this in 2007