When CDA of America was established in 1978, the letters CDA stood for “CD Alternatives.” The “CD” referred to traditional bank certificates of deposit (CDs), which were—and remain—a familiar way for consumers to save money at a fixed interest rate for a specified period of time.
The CDA name reflected an early focus of the company: helping consumers understand annuities and other insurance-based retirement solutions as alternatives to traditional bank CDs for certain long-term financial goals.
Nearly five decades later, the retirement landscape has changed considerably—but the importance of understanding your options hasn’t.
That idea is at the heart of CDA: Worth Knowing, our educational series created to make retirement and insurance topics easier to understand.
And it’s also the inspiration behind something new: The A-B-CDA’s of Retirement.
From annuities and beneficiaries to retirement income, legacy planning, and tax deferral, we’ll break down important retirement concepts in straightforward language—one topic at a time.
Our goal isn’t to make retirement more complicated. It’s to help make the terminology, products, and choices a little easier to understand so you can ask better questions and make more informed decisions about your financial future.
Because sometimes, knowing where to begin starts with understanding the basics.
Retirement, from A to CDA.