If you own a variable annuity — a favorite investment recommendation of financial advisers — should you drop it and buy one with “new features” that didn’t exist before? Usually not. Yet that’s what The Hartford Financial Services group recently suggested to its customers, in a letter than enraged its agents.
As it turns out, the [...]
What Jane Says: Retirement
Let me get this straight. Conservative budget balancers say that we can’t afford Social Security. This weekend marks the program’s 75th anniversary. The “anti’s” say it’s past time to phase it out. End socialism in the U.S.! If you’re old and poor, your kids should take you in. Harumph.
The same conservative budget balancers say [...]
- The worst deal in America: “Free Lunch” senior seminars
- POSTED 07.8.10
You say you’re too smart to get trapped by a free-lunch “senior seminar?” Guess again. Older people with good incomes and business or professional backgrounds are the tactic’s red meat.
You’re invited by a prominent financial firm (or what sounds like one) for an “educational” session on, say, estate planning or improving your [...]
You can’t turn your back on Congress for a minute. Just when you think an issue will be settled in favor of investors, a Senator oozes under the door and slides a quick pro-business, anti-investor change into a bill.
That’s how the equity-indexed annuity — a costly product with a woeful past — slipped out of the [...]
- Set Up a Future Retirement Income with New-Style Annuities
- POSTED 06.4.10
If you’re saving for retirement and want to lock in a future income on favorable terms, consider buying a tax deferred variable annuity with lifetime guarantees. The prices being offered now are probably too good to last.
Note that this deal might not be best choice for people who need income now. It’s for people looking [...]
