Miller - simply put, annuities are not my specialty - mutual funds are - I focus in that area and therefore could not recommend them. The information surrounding annuities about them not being over positive comes from a financial planner friend of mine. I do read the Wall Street Journal - I simply do not focus my attention on annuities.
Sorry to take so long to answer you question Miller but my elderly neighbor is 86 turning 87 in November and he has invested in annuitys that last until 2015-2021. Linkat, we just dumped his old financial planner because we found out that he took out annuities that had both back end fees as well as manangement fees and on top of that he would take out money that he had just invested and place it in another annuity so that he may get a larger commission.
Gosh - I hate financial planners like that. As I used to date a financial planner (and also a stock broker), I am very familar with their tactics. Many are very ethical, others are glorified salesmen.
At my company (and this could be true of some others), there are a group of funds that you can invest in according to age. These funds automatically are invested in others so that they diversify according what is best according to your age - that way it takes the guessing out for you. You could ask about that - there is probably a fee associated with it so you want to ask about that as well. They should not charge you expenses (or they should be extremely low) as these funds invest in other funds - and you could be double charged. There may also be some minimums to invest in these.
Here is a great article about this sort of subject (geared a little more toward some one saving for retirement, but the concepts are there).
http://www.aicpa.org/PUBS/jofa/jan1999/wilson.htm
Thank you so much for the advise and the website. I'll be checking it out. It's just so hard with him being so old and working most of his life then having about more than 3/4 of his investments held up because his investor did not invest it right.
Here is an article explaining why older people should not invest in annuities.
http://www.msfinancialsavvy.com/article.php?aId=28
And here is something that should help out even moreĀ
.
http://www.aarp.org/money/financial_planning/sessionsix/allocating_your_money_to_meet_your_goals.html
There is even a calculator to help determine how to allocate your funds. I figure this site would be very helpful since it is AARP and geared a bit more towards your friend's situation. I would also guess they would be helpful in giving you some one for advice that would be in the best interest of your friend.
I just hate those type of planners - the ones just looking out to make a quick buck. They are supposed to be helping people and doing what is in their best interest.
Linkat wrote:
At my company (and this could be true of some others), there are a group of funds that you can invest in according to age. These funds automatically are invested in others so that they diversify according what is best according to your age - that way it takes the guessing out for you.
Many companies have such plans. Just check out Fidelity and Vanguard among many, many others. Incidentally, I've never invested in Fidelity, never liked them and will never like them. They always had a stink about them.
Fidelity is a highly regarded and well respected mutual fund company - they have extremely high ethics. It is named Fidelity for that reason.
Yes. I have worked in several mutual funds companies as well as dealt with various ones due to client relationships. I have worked over 20 years in the industry.
Of those I have worked or dealt with, Fidelity has the most extensive review of their financial information and required disclosures to shareholders (almost to a fault).
Here is a quote given from at a college during a Q&A..."Fidelity has a code of ethics that covers business practices, but it also covers personal transactions. "We have a value statement and we publish it. The number one value at Fidelity is honesty and integrity in everything we do. And when we hire people, including 160 URI alumni, we do background checks, we fingerprint people because they are handling other people's money. It's easy to figure out what someone's GPA is or what their class rank is. It's a lot harder to really understand if the person walking in the door at Fidelity has integrity. But the first day on the job, every one of our employees goes through an orientation. And we have a senior manager who talks about our values, talks about honesty and makes it relevant to their particular jobs. And every year we have a code of ethics class that all employees are required to go to."
That is not to say that individual employees have not done things that were unethical, however, I have seen this at pretty much every mutual fund company. There are only two other mutual fund companies I have dealt with that I can say have similar policies in regard to ethics as Fidelity.
