I'm so sorry for your loss.
Please stay far, far, FAR away from Ameriprise. They are not a company that puts their customers first, and their annuities are high-load, high-fee.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/ameriprise.htmlThe basics of an annuity is that you give them a chunk of money, and they'll pay you back under set conditions. For example, you might buy an annuity that will pay you $1,000 per month for the rest of your life as a way to ensure that you'll always have money to meet your expenses. The financial services company will demand a price for this annuity based on your life expectancy, the interest rate they can expect to earn from investing that money and money to cover the expenses they have from administering the annuity, plus a healthy chunk of profit on top.
Unless you know something fundamentally different from the insurance company (like, their actuarial tables predict you'll die at 75 while everyone in your family has lived until 110), you will virtually never come out ahead on a transaction like that compared to investing the money yourself.
The biggest problem with annuities is that the advisers selling these things aren't fiduciaries; they are not required to put your interests ahead of theirs. So they will sell you on the annuity that pays the biggest commission rather than the one that best fits your situation (if your situation really does call for an annuity.)
The second biggest problem is that typically, once you sign up, you're locked in and can't change anything.
Can you share more about the situation and why you think an annuity is needed?