What is a CD with a Death Benefit you might ask? It sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Does it offer a higher interest rate for the beneficiaries? Does it defer the interest of the CD? How is it better or different than a regular CD?  Well, basically, it’s a normal CD that has the benefit of [...]

 A recent article from US & World Report discusses the way to plan for income in retirement.  Once you have properly prepared for your retirement, meaning you have evaluated your savings, your expenses, and your needed income you are ready to get your plan on track.  The key is to align your guaranteed income level [...]

With the current low CD rates and the extremely low rates on other savings tools, many retirees could find themselves running out of money before they run out of time.  The fear of running out of money in retirement is the number 1 fear of most retirees.     Recent studies have found that the [...]

I hear from advisors all of the time that if only annuity rates were higher, they would be selling more of them.  I mean, let’s face it.  Treasury rates are still at near all-time lows, and Fed Chairman Bernanke has publicly said that the Fed will keep rates low until the economy and employment show [...]

They say that bankruptcy is when you go from a credit rating to a credit rotting. So it is with the city of Stockton in California which is headed to bankruptcy court. I recently helped an advisor in Santa Monica with a portfolio of Municipal Bonds that included several California General Obligation Bonds. She had [...]

We are all Keynesians now is a phrase attributed to Richard Nixon as he embarked on a massive increase in public spending prior to being shamed out of office in 1974.  Nixon is more remembered for the travesty of Watergate, ending the Vietnam War, and opening the door to China (which will probably surpass the [...]

During this past Easter weekend, I was reminded of the old Proverb “Half a loaf is better than none”. That was first said by a federal employee going out to play golf at noon. It is hard to believe that less than a decade ago, we were talking about partial privatization of the Social Security [...]

Will Rogers once said that the income taxes has made more liars out of Americans than golf so as we wrap up the tax season and look at the summary of results from the Variable and Fixed Indexed Annuity arena in 2012,  it looks as if Variable Annuities continue to slide after three straight years [...]

With 10,000 baby boomers hitting retirement age every day, financial  planners are hearing a lot of questions about how to convert savings  into income while interest rates are at rock-bottom lows.   We  asked eight advisers the same simple question: What would you advise  someone who wants to turn $250,000 from their retirement savings into [...]

Bill Gross and Mohammed El-Erian, co- managers of the World’s largest Mutual Fund at Pimco said the stock market is running out of gas and to buy 5 year Treasuries today, which are one of the major investment vehicles purchased by life carriers that sell indexed and income annuities that feature income riders.   Both [...]