According to a recent study conducted in the fourth quarter of 2012, the annuity industry is losing affluent investors.  Based on findings from the study conducted by Spectrem’s Millionaire Corner, the share of millionaire investors who own fixed annuities fell from 23% at the end of 2010 to 20% at the end of 2012.  The [...]

A growing concern facing baby-boomers and retirees today is the possibility of outliving their retirement assets and income.  To address this concern, insurance carriers have made it a key focus to develop client-friendly products that provide a guaranteed lifetime income stream that does not require the client to give up control of their assets (annuitize).  [...]

As the financial industry evolves to today’s changing demographics, we’re seeing more innovative and consumer-friendly products being created.  In an effort to deliver financial solutions that offer a level of predictability with death benefits and/or living benefits, insurance carriers are developing more and more life combination products.  It is expected that close to 70% of [...]

There is a term in the annuity industry called “Annual Reset”.  It is a term referring to some Index Annuity products.  Not every annuity or even index annuity offers Annual Reset.  However, it is the single biggest advantage that the Index annuity product offers.   Here’s how it works:   Whenever the index your performance [...]

The Stock Market closed recently at an inflation-adjusted all-time high according to CrossingWallStreet.com.  The last time this happened was January of 2000.  Many stock brokers will tell you that the new high and the good performance over the last few years are reasons to ride the stock market wave.  Market’s up, why would you sell? [...]

I get asked this question constantly, if an annuity has a 7% guarantee, can I just sweep off the gains and not touch my account principle? If the particular product in question had an account guarantee of 7%, the then answer would be yes.  However, in today’s interest rate environment, the highest guaranteed annuity rate that [...]

So what happens to my benefit value when I take a “free withdrawal” from my annuity?   Great Question. With so many annuities offering additional living benefits like income riders, Long Term Care and nursing home benefits or death benefits, it’s important to know how withdrawals whether free or not will affect your annuity.  Most [...]