Annuities from ARS American Retirement Specialists
 

Has anyone dealt with ARS and bought their hybrid annuities?. The say they are fiduciaries and claim they can get you annuities that go up with the market and never lose money.

Never lose money. What might ol P T Barnum say?????

20 years ago, wife & I bought a small annuity with same pitch. It was a loser! While in fact, it never went down, the increase after the first years was capped by the company at 4%, way below long term market performance. Was indexed to S&P growth, capped and excluded dividend returns. Hefty penalty to bail. We took max out without penalty (10%/year) until penalty period was over (15 years I think) then cashed out. BAD INVESTMENT!!!

Typical commission on an annuity to the salesman runs 10%.

My additional advice, take time to read Paul Merriman’s 3 FREE ebooks.
1. First-Time Investor
2. 101 Investment Decisions
3. Get Smart or Get Screwed (read this first!)

Found at paulmerriman.com

Make sure that you fully understand the "never lose money" promise. It is usually worthless. It only means that, if you sell the annuity and the stock market is lower than it was when you purchased the annuity, you will not lose the market value between the initial purchase date and the sale date. If the stock market goes up this year and down next year, they "imply" that your account only goes up. Not true. The "never lose money" calculation is only applied to the cumulative market loss over the entire time that you had the money invested. It does not apply to the annual ups and downs in the stock market. Also, most annuities have a 7-10 year surrender charge, and high annual maintenance fees. But, they define the maintenance fees and the surrender charge as "fees", not as lost money. And, you usually only get about 80 to 85 percent of the market increases, not 100 percent.

You might consider a "Fee only " financial planer, they get their fee up front, no commission ( unless they steer you to somebody else) they can give you an overview of the many financial aspects that can affect your situation as well as specific advise

There is an old saying, annuities are never purchased they are sold.

Think long and hard before buying one.

An annuity the math is deliberately complex an opportunity to SPIN the numbers. The simple math. The commission is like 20%-the reason they are aggressively sold. That means that IF, you invest, COMMIT, say 100,000 it means that 80,000 need to get the return of your original 100,000. How can they do that? Some of the return is you own money being paid out to you.

IF, you need steady income you can go to a brokerage and set up an account in say an index fund and have them send you a check every month. Your returns would be based on ZERO commissions and ZERO fees. You will pay the minimal management fee for an index fund. You will need to consult an accountant to explain advantages and disadvantages TAX WISE.

Run like hell.
They are a money maker for Insurance company's

And of course the guy who sells them.

We have been to several retirement dinners where they pitch annuities. They show a 20 year period where the market only went up 3-4% and see you can do better with our super duper annuities.

They never seem to like it when I ask them to start the 20 years a few years later. Wonder why?

Only vanguard or fidelity if you must. Big commission for the seller

So not true. The adjustment is from year to year. As a retiree who is more interested in the return OF my money than the return ON my money, Indexed Annuities prevents a catastrophic loss when you can least afford it and provides a modest return in an up market with zero downside risk. Not for everyone but definitely has a place in the senior market.

You have no idea what you are talking about. The commission NEVER comes off the principal. Try getting the facts before spouting off nonsense. Simple advice. If you don't like annuities, don't buy them. Just quit spreading misinformation.

Ha! Ha,!! ..what a laugher! A fidouchery!! Everyone is calling themselves a “fiduciary” now. Even my plumber. That’s the FIRST lie they tell you.
Let me open up my raincoat..got a couple watches to sell ya.

You make some good points, and there is some misinformation about annuities. But, most of the misinformation is spread by the people who sell the annuities to make a huge commission. I think it is outrageous that an annuity contract is often more than 150 pages of complicated legalese, and the salesperson will not even provide you with a copy to review before you pay the money and agree to the contract. So, you are at the mercy of the salesperson to get information, which is often slanted, wrong, incomplete, and presented in a way to make the annuity sound like a great investment. Many people, if not most of them, are persuaded to buy an annuity without fully understanding what they are buying.

Hybrid annuities can lose money but there is a fixed % on the down side, Fixed Index Annuities can not lose money