Let’s face it: Annuities have an image problem.
People talk about “good” vs. “bad” annuities. They read marketing materials from financial advisors who “hate” annuities. And some of the problem is with the industry itself. It hasn’t done a good job of explaining how annuities can supply guaranteed income for life.
There is no denying, though, that income annuities are the only commercially available financial product that can provide pension-like income throughout your retirement. More
It is fashionable in the community of retirement advice-givers to talk about your “magic number” for retirement. That’s the amount of money you should accumulate by the time you retire so that savings last the rest of your life, or some fixed period like your life expectancy.
The magic number is based on your achieving average results over the long term. And perhaps that will work out. You might not live longer than average. The stock market in which your savings are invested might hit the average return of the past several decades.
Or maybe it won’t work. It is disconcerting to plan for “average” when you realize how average might work to your disadvantage.
Take this example: A small pond could average three feet in depth. You might plan to walk from one side to the other. But start at the sandy beach where you enter the water, where the depth averages just a few inches as you take several steps toward the center of the pond. In fact, More
To make money, one must constantly evaluate the state of the economy. It is always changing and when you adapt, you can create advantages for yourself. The latest change in the financial advising industry will benefit you as a consumer, but you will have to take more responsibility for educating yourself.
Instead of depending on an advisor to sell one product or another, consumers will investigate different products, make their decisions, and then rely on their financial counselor to help manage their money after that, perhaps with guidance on the investment markets, tax strategies and similar information.
The cost of services will go down because consumers will be doing more of the work. And confidence in the integrity of the service will increase because consumers will be better-educated and brokers won’t be allowed to advocate only for products on which they make a commission. More
Now is a good time, while tax season is fresh in your mind, to prepare for next year and to make plans to pay as little tax as possible. Here are two goals for everyone:
That income could be from Social Security, income annuities or from interest, dividends and capital gains. It doesn’t matter whether you’re planning for retirement or in retirement, minimizing your tax bill is a worthy objective. More
You might have seen the recent news flurry about rules adopted by the Department of Labor that govern how financial professionals give advice with respect to qualified savings and IRAs. The changes are important because they would benefit everyday investors who are trying to build up and distribute their retirement savings.
I find this development especially satisfying because from the start of my career I have been working to create investments in the retirement and annuity 
space, emphasizing products that are easy to understand and put in place. These new rules would require financial advisers to abide by a “fiduciary” standard that puts their clients’ best interests before their own profits. They would have to disclose all fees and would not be allowed to push products only from companies they represent.
Registered investment advisors are already classified as fiduciaries that must put investors’ interests first. Brokers and insurance agents now fall under that category too, which means individual investors will get more information about the true costs of products, including fees and charges that can be difficult to find and understand. More