Annuities

In these times of market uncertainty, what do you do? Should you continue with a strategy that works great in a bull market, but not in a bear market? Should the 'Sequence of Returns' come into play? Do past 'Average Rates of Return' really mean anything when the boom market of the 80's and 90's was 162% above the norm?

I believe these are times to build a great defensive strategy, and not the time to go for a touchdown on a long pass. If you look at the history of 'Secular Bear Markets', recovering from further losses may be impossible.

A CD is available from your bank and pays you a specific interest rate over a certain number of years. A Fixed Annuity is a contract with an insurance company and it too pays a specific interest rate over a certain number of years. For the purposes of direct comparison our example will deposit a single lump sum of $50,000 into both a Fixed Annuity and a bank CD, for a 5 year period, with both the Annuity and the CD paying an annual 3% interest rate.

Many times our clients will want to know who is most popular company that offers fixed index annuities. Of course we are glad to share that information. An independent third party report from annuityspecs.com Indexed Sales & Market Report 1st Quarter, 2010 shows that there were 6.8 billion dollars of index annuities purchased in 3 months from January-March of 2010.

Long term care is the type of care you may need if you have a prolonged physical illness, disability or severe cognitive impairment (such as Alzheimer’s disease) that keeps you from living independently.

Here are some very important things to consider when meeting with your financial advisor and planning you long term care:

• Two-thirds of people over age 65 will need long term care in their lifetime.
  

A local insurance agent has lost his license after failing to respond to an administrative complaint filed against him. James R. Fogle, 3108 S. Atlantic, lost his license after failing to respond to an Aug 23 complaint that he was misappropriating premiums, according to Mitchel McLawhorn, a spokeswoman in the office of State Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter.
Fogle does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the company he worked for, Security Life Insurance Co. Said he was not connected to the Daytona Beach office.

Sleep Insurance

I’ve noticed as I’ve aged that getting a good nights sleep is not always easy. Now just imagine if I was worried about my retirement funds how I would be tossing and turning!

Through the last 9 years we have had two cycles where the stock market dropped as much as 50%. Some people had accounts drop even more and of course if you had your money in Enron at the beginning of the decade or with Bernie Madoff or any number of others you were completely wiped out.

Whether you read this article in the beginning of the year or later in 2010 a great question to ask yourself is “What are my financial goals this year”?

The most valuable asset you have is your IRA. In 1975 the government established individual retirement accounts, aka IRA’s, to be held at a custodial institution - a bank or brokerage firm – which can be invested in anything the custodian allows including Annuities, Stocks, Bonds and Gold. Transactions in the account including interest, dividends and capital gains are not subject to taxes while still in the account .You deposit money free of any tax until you decide to withdraw it.

Financial magazines, newspapers, TV programs, and local communities have battered the reputation of a very strong and useful financial product, the annuity. In many cases, the most outspoken opponents of annuities are those who are not licensed to offer them or don’t really understand them.

ANNUITIES MAY BE THE ONLY SAFE HAVEN

A Change in My Position