Annuities
Business Week, November 8th, 2009Markets may have rebounded in 2009, but individual investors are still edgy and shell-shocked. Even
as the broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index remained up 56%
since March, the U.S. unemployment rate crept above
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Retirement Income Journal, October 29th, 2009The
“mystery shopper” is one of the oldest and most effective research
tools. You can learn a lot simply by having someone pose as a naïve
consumer and catch a seller off-guard.
Journalists use this trick.
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Main Street, October 15th, 2009Supporters of annuity plans, who often bill them as "personal
pensions," are touting their recession era durability and pushing for
federal tax breaks they say will advance their adoption.
The economic downturn seems
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Marketwatch, September 17th, 2009Back in the good old days, before the crisis of 2008-09, many experts
suggested that all you needed to do was withdraw 4% per year, adjusted
for inflation, from your nest egg. That strategy, experts said, was a
near
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Forbes, August 26th, 2009Many variable annuity skeptics are taking a second look at these
complex insurance-investment hybrids that hold your money in a mutual
fund look-alike, have a life insurance death benefit and offer
income-for-life guarantees.
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Times Herald-Record, August 2nd, 2009In my May 31st article, I wrote about the changes by insurance companies that are occurring with annuities today.An
annuity remains a popular vehicle to save for retirement and also has
the ability to provide you
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CNN Money, July 28th, 2009Question: I expect to have about $50,000 in pension and
Social Security benefits when I retire. Do I need to buy an annuity or
should I just keep investing in stock and growth and income funds? --Michael, Columbus, GeorgiaAnswer:
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USA Today, July 20th, 2009Low savings rates and a rotten stock market
sent record numbers of savers to lock in current rates with fixed
annuities — precisely when rates were near rock-bottom.
Fixed annuity sales jumped 74%, to $35.6
billion, the
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CNN, June 30th, 2009With the uncertainty of the market these days, a lot of investors
are running for cover with their retirement funds. No wonder sales of
fixed annuities surged 74% for the first three months of 2009,
according to research association
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Reverse Mortgage Daily, June 19th, 2009California’s Senate Committee on Banking, Finance, and Insurance
passed a new version of AB 329 by a 9-2 vote on Tuesday and is being
referred to the Committee on Judiciary according to the Senate’s website.
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Bloomberg, May 29th, 2009Assets in U.S. variable annuities
declined 5.4 percent in the three months ended March 31 as stock
markets plunged and savers scaled back purchases.
Total assets were $1.07 trillion at the end of the first
quarter
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The Wall Street Journal - October 29, 2008
Many owners of variable annuities have endured a double whammy lately: Their investment-account balances have taken a hit, as have the financial-strength ratings on the insurers that issued their annuities.
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The Wall Street Journal Market Watch - October 3, 2008
When It Comes to Saving for Retirement, Average Americans Are Resigned to Muddling Through...Alone
To Middle-Class, Middle-Aged Americans, Golden Age Looking a Little Tarnished:
-- 59% give themselves
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CNN Money - September 15, 2008
Question: I’m a 50-year-old woman who has yet to set up any retirement fund. I have $5,000 that I can invest now to get started, and I may be able to invest another $1,000 to $2,000 every quarter. But I wonder whether this
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CNN Money - September 10, 2008
Moshe A. Milevsky is a math whiz who trains his brainpower on retirement planning. His view: Success comes to those who hedge their bets.
Money Magazine) -- The classic vision of retirement planning goes something like
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