I agree with the many people who point out the real benefit of annuities to the large sales commission the salesperson receives. We do have two annuities that we purchased in December 2004 form a company that was bought out by Athene. My personal experience and opinion is that it was a bad investment and that we still have not totally escaped it since the early termination fees, which go on for 15 years (tapering off). Although the annuity did not loses money in 2008, I would have been much better of with it invested in my mutual funds.
I do have on friend who has annuities who claims they have a guaranteed return of 7% a year, but I have not seen same.
My best advice before investing any serious money to any investment is to go to paulmerriman.com and read his 3 free ebooks.
|