The private annuity works to perfection (or near-perfection) in a variety of situations:

? The real estate investor who has done well, but who now wants to retire . . . really retire. No more employees and vendors. No more slip-and-fall lawsuits, or tenants in arrears threatening them in order to get out of paying. No more $20,000 repair bills because of tenants who trash the place before moving out. No more 2 a.m. telephone calls about the plumbing, or the cable, or the party next door. Just a warm beach, trade winds, and a triple margarita.

? The business owner who started with little or nothing, and by dint of hard work and serious risk-taking, built the company into a money machine. But notwithstanding that success, there remain daily annoyances: lazy employees, vendors who over-bill, cheap labor from abroad, and mostly, just having to either be there or on a cell phone tether 24/7. There is never any real relief. He has succeeded in life, but now just wants to get a life.

? Every time the press reports a stock exploding from 50¢ a share to $50, more investors took that ride than hit the lottery that year. And they all face the same question: What do if the stock drops back to the normal range? Should I sell and give up 25% in state and federal capital gain taxes (more, if it’s a short term gain)? Or hire a person of the cloth to bless it daily in an effort to hold the gain?

? Perhaps during a time when the business was generating mucho grande cash flow, the founder bought 200 acres 20 miles outside of town, or perhaps inherited that acreage, and now the town has grown out and around the property. The developers are surrounding his home making higher and higher offers for the land. Same thing: how does a tax-savvy businessperson make the deal without coughing up a large part of the profit to Uncle Sam?

? The high net worth individual told that health prospects are poor, and it is time to get business and tax affairs in order.

? The lawyer who stuck his neck out for a client in signing a bold tax opinion, following which the opinion failed to hold up before the United States Tax Court. The client sued the lawyer for a sum dwarfing his professional liability insurance limits.

? The real estate investor who learned too late that a small commercial building was formerly used to clean and resell oil drums, leaving solvents contaminating the ground. The feds got wind of it and sued him for millions to cover the costs of toxic waste remediation.

? The couple who arrive at retirement age with nothing but a home, modest savings, and little or no debt, all the while longing for the freedom to fly off to Paris on a whim.

? The business owner whose children have no