Monday, November 19, 2012

Variable Annuities

I have been saying variable annuities are probably the world's worst investments for a long time.  Here is an article from Smart Money Magazine that says basically the same thing:
http://www.smartmoney.com/retirement/planning/whats-wrong-with-variable-annuities-9512/

And the Securities and Exchange Commission has various articles on variable annuities too.
http://www.sec.gov/answers/varann.htm
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/varannty.htm

This Forbes article gives nine reasons why you need to avoid variable annuities:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/feeonlyplanner/2012/07/02/9-reasons-you-need-to-avoid-variable-annuities/

MetLife has scaled back the sale of these policies, read this November 19, 2012 article from the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Variable-Annuity-Sales-Fall-Most-Since-2009-as-4050978.php

And the Wall Street Journal chimed in with this May14, 2012 article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303916904577376193314287640.html