Annuities are not dangerous, they are just built to be complicated. If what you actually want is retirement income you can explain to your family in one sentence, there is a simpler structure worth understanding before you sign anything else.
Ifyou have ever sat across from an insurance agent with a 40 page annuity contract in front of you, you already know the feeling. Everything sounds reassuring out loud. Guaranteed lifetime income. Principal protection. Steady income stream for life.
Then you get home, start reading the actual pages, and the plain English disappears.
That is the real question underneath "alternatives to annuities." It is not just "what else is out there." It is "did I already sign something I do not fully understand, and is there something simpler I am missing."
If that is where you are, you are not behind. You are asking exactly the right question at exactly the right time.
The Investor Overview
See a simpler way to generate retirement income
A considered look at how Blue Bay Fund I is structured, to review at your leisure.
01 — The Fine Print
What's Actually in the Fine Print
Annuities are marketed as simple. The contracts are not.
Surrender Charges
Most annuities lock your money in for a set number of years. Try to withdraw more than the allowed amount before that window closes, and the insurance company keeps a penalty that starts high and shrinks a little each year you wait it out.
Penalties for early withdrawal can also trigger IRS charges if you access the money before age 59 and a half, stacked on top of whatever the insurer already took.
The Guarantee You're Paying For
Guaranteed lifetime income is not free. That guarantee is a rider, and riders carry annual fees on top of the annuity's built in costs.
Add those layers together and a meaningful share of your return can go toward fees you never see itemized in plain language anywhere in the contract.
The Piece Nobody Mentions at the Kitchen Table
Your guarantee is only as strong as the insurance company backing it. An annuity is a promise from one financial products company, wrapped in the securities and exchange rules that govern how these products can be sold, not a claim on a physical asset you can point to.
If the insurer runs into trouble decades from now, your steady income stream is tied to that company's ability to pay, not to something you actually own.
Insurance companies also invest your premium into their own bond and fixed income portfolios, so your guaranteed rate is tied to interest rates and market risks the company is managing on its own balance sheet, not risks you can see or evaluate yourself. If your risk tolerance is genuinely "I want to understand exactly what my money is doing," that opacity is worth sitting with before you sign.
None of this makes annuities a bad idea for everyone. It makes them complicated, and complicated is exactly what you said you wanted to avoid.
If you already own one, none of this means you did something wrong. It just means the next decision deserves to be easier to understand than the last one.
02 — The Alternative
A Simpler Alternative to Annuities
Here is what a different kind of retirement income can look like.
Blue Bay Fund I is one sentence: you're the bank, and your money is backed by real property. Easy to say, easy for his kids to understand, no fine print to hide behind.
You should not need a financial advisor in the room to explain your own retirement plan to your own family.
There is no surrender schedule buried in an appendix. There is no rider fee.
Your capital funds first-lien mortgages on real property, the fund targets annual yields of 8 to 12 percent, and every loan sits under 70 percent loan-to-value, meaning there is real equity cushion under your position before you would ever be exposed to a loss.
You receive monthly distributions. Returns are paid out monthly. No tenants call you at midnight, no stock market swings move your account balance overnight, and there is no insurance company between you and the collateral backing your investment.
A Private Conversation
Talk to Edwin about how Blue Bay Fund I works
Your questions, answered directly by the manager who funds every loan first.
03 — Your Options
Where This Fits Among Retirement Income Investments
If you're weighing alternatives to annuities, retirement income investments like dividend stocks, bond ladders, and rental property are the usual next stop. Each one asks you to either accept market swings, become a landlord, or manage a portfolio of moving pieces yourself.
Blue Bay Fund I sits outside all of that. It is a single, first-lien position in real property, managed by someone who puts his own money into every loan before yours goes in.
How the Two Actually Compare
| Side by Side | The Familiar ChoiceAnnuity | The AlternativeBlue Bay Fund I |
|---|---|---|
| What backs your money | An insurance company's promise | First-lien real property, under 70% LTV |
| Access to your funds | Surrender charges for years | Two-year lock-up, with no redemption penaltyEarlier redemption may be approved by the Manager, case by case |
| Fee structure | Rider and contract fees, often unclear | Straightforward fund terms |
| Income | Guaranteed lifetime income (contractual, fee based) | Monthly distributions, target 8–12% annually |
| Manager's own money at risk | No | Yes, on every loan |
That last row matters more than it might look. Edwin D. Epperson III, a former U.S. Army Green Beret and Combat Diver who now serves as fund manager of Blue Bay Fund I, has personally originated more than 150 deals.
On every single one, Edwin funds the loan with his own capital first, before a dollar of investor money is deployed. If a loan is not solid enough for him to put his own name on it, it does not go into the fund.
In His Own Words
I don't ask anyone to be in a deal I wouldn't put my own money into first. That's not a slogan. It's how every loan in this fund gets underwritten, one at a time.
Edwin D. Epperson III
Fund Manager · Former U.S. Army Green Beret & Combat Diver
Suppose you were weighing a $250,000 annuity. At 65, a guaranteed lifetime income annuity of that size pays roughly $18,312 to $19,104 a year, depending on whether you are a woman or a man, and less if the income must also cover a spouse. (Source: Annuity.org analysis of Cannex data, September 2026.)
At a targeted 8 to 12 percent annual yield, the same $250,000 in Blue Bay Fund I would target $20,000 to $30,000 a year, distributed monthly. Nothing here is guaranteed, and past performance from Blue Bay’s 150-plus deals does not promise future results.
$250,000 at an 8–12% Target Yield
$20,000–to$30,000
Targeted annual income, distributed monthly. Not guaranteed.
But the structure itself, real property, first-lien position, and a manager who invests alongside you, is built to be understood in one sitting, not decoded over a weekend.
05 — Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a better alternative to an annuity for retirement income?
A first-lien real estate debt fund is one option. Instead of paying an insurance company for a guaranteed lifetime income rider, your capital is secured directly by real property at a conservative loan-to-value, and you receive monthly distributions instead of a single contractual payout structure.
Is Blue Bay Fund I an alternative to an annuity or a pension?
It is structured differently from both. A pension is typically employer funded and tied to years of service. An annuity is an insurance contract. Blue Bay Fund I is a private real estate debt fund available to accredited investors, where your capital funds first-lien mortgage loans and Edwin invests his own money in every loan before investor capital is deployed.
What happens if I need access to my money early?
Annuities charge surrender fees for a set number of years written into the contract, on top of possible IRS penalties for early withdrawal before age 59 and a half. Blue Bay Fund I's redemption terms are laid out clearly in the fund documents before you invest, so you know the access rules upfront instead of discovering them in a penalty schedule later.
How does Blue Bay Fund I compare to certificates of deposit or fixed income like bonds?
Certificates of deposit and traditional fixed income tend to offer lower, more predictable rates with strong liquidity and low risk. Blue Bay Fund I targets a materially higher annual yield of 10 to 15 percent by taking on real estate backed lending risk, offset by the fund's first-lien, sub-70% LTV structure and Edwin's personal co-investment in every loan.
Is my principal protected the way an annuity claims to protect it?
An annuity's guarantee depends on the insurance company's ability to pay. Blue Bay Fund I's protection comes from the collateral itself, first-lien real property purchased at under 70% loan-to-value, which means meaningful equity sits beneath your position before any loss would reach you. No investment eliminates risk entirely, and Blue Bay Fund I targets, rather than guarantees, its stated returns.
The Bottom Line
You do not have to become an expert to make a confident decision here. You just need one sentence you can say without hesitating.
Annuities are not the enemy. They are simply more complicated than the pitch makes them sound, and that complexity is exactly what sends people searching for alternatives in the first place. If what you actually want is retirement income you can explain to your family in one sentence, backed by something real instead of a company's promise, Blue Bay Fund I was built with that person in mind.
An Open Invitation
Request the Investor Overview
Income you can explain in a single sentence, secured by real property rather than a promise. The Investor Overview sets out precisely how Blue Bay Fund I is built, for you to review at your leisure.
Request the Overview →Edwin D. Epperson III
Managing Principal, Blue Bay Fund I
With Honor,
Edwin D. Epperson III,
Manager & CEO
Soli Deo Gloria
