Are annuities ever worth buying—and, if so, which type?

There are those who strongly reject the use of annuities as an integral component of a comprehensive retirement plan, such as Fischer Investments, which may do so for self-serving purposes. Fischer has actually published booklets condemning the use of annuities.
I’d like to share my personal experience to counter such “advice.”
In October 2015, my wife and I purchased a joint variable annuity contract, investing $453,000 and selecting investments from various sub-accounts. We benefitted from a strong market and over 3 1/2 years saw the value of the account grow to $558,000, even with a substantial market decline in 2018. In February 2019, we started taking lifetime income payments. To date, we have received a total of $145,857, which averages to $2472/month for the past 59 months. As of 12/31/2023, the value of our account was $447,120, essentially what we invested back in 2015. We are guaranteed an income of $23,567 annually, or $1965 monthly for the rest of our lives (supplemented, but not guaranteed, by Earnings Sensitive Adjustments, which increase the annual payments based upon market returns). Since we are now beyond the early withdrawal penalty period, we plan to use a 1035 Exchange to withdraw the funds and purchase a Joint Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA) that has an annual payout rate in excess of 7.0%. The annual income will be approximately $10,000 more than the guaranteed income from the variable annuity (around $33,000 per year until the second of us passes away). We are aged 75 and 73. If one of us lives for 20 years longer, using the combine annuities, we will have received approximately $805,857 from our initial premium payment of $453,000. Some might say that we could have done better by investing our money in a balanced portfolio of mutual funds, but we would have been seriously hurt by the sequence of withdrawals in 2022. I have run a calculation, using our original account value of $558,000 from which we started withdrawing income, an annual withdrawal of $26,000, or $2167 monthly, and a conservative annual return of 4%. (I acknowledge that the withdrawal rate is somewhat arbitrary.) Starting withdrawals in 2019 and after 25 years, we would have withdrawn $650,000 from such an account, and the balance in the account would be $220,093. It would continue to pay $26,000 annually for 8.5 more years, when the younger of us would be 101. The Annuity, on the other hand, would continue to pay $33,000/year for as long as either one of us might live. In my opinion, the annuities are a better financial investment. More importantly, they are a much better emotional investment because we sleep much more comfortably knowing that the income from the annuity is guaranteed for the rest of our lives. (One note of caution. Annuities are used primarily to generate guaranteed income. They are not the best vehicle for bequeathing money to others.)