Posted by:
Kestler Financial Group on 3/24/2011
Financial Advisor Magazine describes its audience as financial planners, registered investment advisors, and independent broker/dealers serving affluent, high-net worth clients. As you would expect, this magazine typically focuses on the merits of very complex investment strategies designed to impress wealthy clients. Fixed annuities are rarely mentioned.
Posted by:
Kestler Financial Group on 3/22/2011
Annuities typically have penalties associated with early withdrawal, called surrender charges. You may wonder why these charges are so prevalent on annuities. The reason is that carriers need them in order to provide you with the safety features and attractive interest rates of the annuity.
Posted by:
Kestler Financial Group on 3/17/2011
Annuities offer two key advantages that can come into play as you plan your estate: speed and privacy. Both of these derive from the fact that you can designate one or more beneficiaries for your annuity, rather than having your annuity made payable to your estate.
Posted by:
Kestler Financial Group on 3/15/2011
Fixed indexed annuities base their interest crediting upon the return of a stock market index. Many people wonder why, in a positive stock market year, fixed indexed annuities usually credit considerably less than the index return due to caps, participation rates, spreads, or some other element of the formula used to calculate the index credit. They wonder why the caps or other formula elements are necessary.
Posted by:
Kestler Financial Group on 3/10/2011
A recent study released by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania indicates that fixed indexed annuity returns are not only much more consistent than S&P 500 index returns, but are quite attractive as well.