November 17, 2008
Indexed annuities are not a securities product because of their innate guarantees. Only insurance companies and banks offer guarantees. The sale of stocks and mutual funds involve many more nuances than the sale of indexed annuities. Indexed annuity products do not need to be regulated by the SEC but rather by the insurance commissioners in the individual states.
This issue by the SEC is one of the stockbrokers and mutual fund brokers losing money those selling guaranteed products. In these troubled economic times of people losing their confidence in the stock market, insurance agents are helping their clients to hold on to their principal. Stockbrokers and mutual funds brokers still want their "piece of the pie" that they are losing.
Insurance is the most regulated industry in the United States. Adding more bureaucracy to the FEderal government will not help a single client. I urge the SEC to say no to regulating the sale of Indexed Annuities. Leave them in the hands of the state insurance departments.