Any Financial Experts In The Forum ?

[watchski]

Well there in lies the problem.. You are still talking and thinking about Variable products.. A Fixed index annuity doesn't require a series 63, 65, 6 etc or a broker dealer. I am NOT selling them to you or anyone here, i just think they are killer for older folks especially that want to preserve capital and can't risk what the stock market did from 99 to 2002. (Got crushed and portfolios lost 40% of their value), while FIA's were going up 3% and when the market rebounds, they go up substantially. Just my two cents. I guess if you are 25 years old and have 40 years to ride the up's and down's and general volatility than an index mutual fund is great, have at it. I like a tad bit of saftety. I guess it just depends on the personality of the investor, i suppose. Just my thoughts.

[hu12]

Just a few notes on EIA....

"Market returns with none of the risks" - the issue with this is it costs allot to get out, and has caps on how much you can earn. The better move is to make a diversified portfolio built with stocks and funds will have way more growth potential.

First you do need an insurance license to sell these. They can shield you from adverse market moves, however, the large fees and restrictions largely negate their growth potential. Read the fine print, it's all there. remenber, growth potential is not assured at all with EIA's! An Equity Income Annuity is based on the s&p 500, however you do not earn full market returns. You do not earn any of the dividends, your limited on how much of the index's return you can collect under the EIA, or they also have the "right" to cap or reduce your annual gains.

EIA's have Steep fees to get to you money. Example; it varies but, Amrus levies surrender fees starting at 18% for at least 14 years, which means forget about you r money if you need it for that time period. Class action against Amerus

This is an actual formula to figure out an EIA return..

a x [b x (c-d)/e + (d-e)/e] x g

-------------------------------

			 f

1. participation rate for the term
   
2. years since start of term
   
3. the greater of E and the highest S&P 500 average on any certificate anniversary during the term (including the current certificate anaversary).
   
4. Is "e" on the first cert. anniversary in a termand, on each later cert. anniversary in a term, the value of "c" on the prior cert. anniversary.
   
5. e Is the value of S&P 500 at the start of the term
   
6. length of the term
   
7. Start-of-term indexed value less any adjustments due to partial surrenders durring the term.
   

Barf....... Edited August 29, 2006 by hu12