July 22, 2008
I have sold annuities for the past 20 years and have found the following to be true:
1.People buy annuities because they are safe investments like a CD not a stock.
2.Fixed indexed annuities are not affected adversely by the stock market performance - seniors understand their investment is like taking stepped growth over the years not affected by steep market declines or rises. They understand they benefit from the market's positive performance and that negative market fluctuations do not affect their principal.
3.Seniors understand that state insurance regulations protect them from fraud or misrepresentation. Suitability forms show seniors that the insurance company is not interested in them investing all their assets in a fixed indexed annuity but is most interested in helping the client determine an appropriate investment along with the need to maintain assets for daily expenses and emergency expenses.
4.Case law, Malone v. Addison Ins. Marketing finds that a fixed indexed annuity was not a security.
5.Addoption of this ruling will harm consumers by reducing competition by forcing people to open a brokerage accountto have access to FIA's. Consumers will fear they will be sold stock by the brokerage firm and return to CD's and lower returns on their investments at a time they need better performance without market risk.
6.The SEC isn't comparing apples to apples, otherwise, they would consider indexed CD's and indexed Universal life insurance in the same way. Fixed indexed annuities are not a security but a secure insurance investment without stock market downside risk.
Why does the SEC want to lower the income of seniors by making fixed indexed annuities less accessable to seniors at a a time they need increased income that is safe.