Many variable annuity owners with Axa Equitable and Transamerica are receiving a letter they probably had to read over half a dozen times in order to believe it. The companies sent offers to policyholders to remove the guarantees (typically these are the only reasons one would buy a product with the high costs of a variable annuity), in exchange for a lump-sum added to their account values. And while that may be surprising to some, I am more surprised by the feedback I’m read

If you have siblings or are a fan of The Simpsons you are probably familiar with the “it’s their own fault” defense. It works like this – Bart windmills his arms around in the air and hits Lisa. According to Bart, it was her own fault she was struck because he was only swinging his arm and Lisa happened to be in the way. While perhaps in some way from Bart’s perspective this could be technically true, even a parent like Homer will see through this defense. In a recent article

Recently, certain variable annuity customers of insurer The Hartford received correspondence from the company that they may hold an old contract which might benefit from replacement for a newer annuity product. Angry financial advisors have pointed out that the company did not say specifically how customer specifically may benefit from exchanging their current product. Advisors are concerned that the newer products may in fact offer lesser benefits for a higher cost, and rece

This is a part of a series of articles discussing why you should avoid variable annuities for the purposes of retirement income. Congress is meeting with representatives from Prudential Financial Inc. regarding concerns over the company's use of 'retained asset' accounts used for the payout of life insurance proceeds to military spouses and survivors. As Bloomberg Businessweek has recently reported, these accounts keep the policy proceeds with an account with the insurer, tho

This is a series of articles I've labeled 'Variable Annuities are Retirement Snake Oil' on why today’s deferred annuities are not investments to consider for retirement. Over at least ten columns I’ll cover why you should avoid these ‘investment’ pitches and the people that want to put your retirement savings into them like the plague. Reason #1. The cash flow stream for spouses makes little sense. You and your spouse are 60 years old and have entered retirement. What is it y