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Annuities |
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Top 5 Facts About Annuities And Taxes
There are often questions about annuities and taxes. This brief guide will walk through a few of the top questions we receive. Be sure to consult your own tax advisor for specific issues and clarifications.
Q: How Are Annuity Payments...2013-03-15 17:19:25
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Why SMA’s Are Hard To Beat
While we work with a variety of annuities, we frequently gravitate to Secondary Market Annuities. For investors specifically seeking a lifetime income stream that can not be outlived, SMA’s are not appropriate. But for many, a fixed...
2013-03-13 20:35:25
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Annuity Benefits
When writing and speaking about annuities, I sometimes get caught up in products and contract specifics and need to zoom out to the big picture now and again.
Lets take a moment to look at the highest level view of annuities, where you...
2013-03-04 19:50:45
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Want a Guaranteed Loser? Try TIPS
Bond yields are at all time lows, and with Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS, you can go even lower. You can buy now for a guaranteed loss.
What a world we’re living in!
The issue with TIPS is that the yield is...
2013-02-03 16:09:08
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Should Retirement Age Be 70?
A group of CEO’s recently called for a raise in the retirement age to 70- what do you think?
Read The Post Here: Should Retirement Age Be...
2013-02-01 22:11:55
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Americans Rip Up Retirement Plans
New news from Conference board reported in the Wall Street Journal shows that nearly 2/3’rds of Americans are now planning to delay retirement.
Financial losses, a sluggish economy, and stubborn unemployment contribute to the delay in...
2013-02-01 20:13:10
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Why Are Annuities Safe?
Its all about the money. Annuities are safe because the insurance company issuing the annuity contract- obligating themselves to whatever specific guarantee you are buying- is in the business of making money and having money available at all...
2013-01-29 14:36:07
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
4% Rule Under Fire- Again
The often-quoted ‘4% withdrawal rule’ that mainstream investment managers use as a guideline ‘safe’ withdrawal rate for a portfolio has come under fresh fire.
The volatility of the last few years should have already given most...
2013-01-21 18:40:53
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Junk Bonds’ Fire Is Poised To Fade
Is this a sign of peak low rates? Junk Bonds, the highest risk/ highest yield segment of the bond market, has been on a tear over the last year, and those gains (price increase/ yield decrease) roared on in the first days of 2013.
Bond...
2013-01-07 22:17:01
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
A Happy New Year? Not For Bonds
A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the Russian Roulette investors are playing in the bond markets. The slightest upward tweaks in interest rates sends bond prices falling… and when prices fall, you lose money if you have to...
2013-01-05 13:17:23
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Why Take 1.15% When You Can Get 4.5%?
New York Life announced earlier this year it’s short and mid term, guaranteed fixed annuity rate of 1.15%. Citing a continued flat-line market, NYLife is offering rates little better than a CD as a guaranteed floor rate.
There is a...
2013-01-03 00:02:00
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
For Many Financial Advisers, Stocks Become A Hard Sell
This post’s title is taken directly from a Wall Street Journal cover story that left me smiling today.
Stocks hold no allure for me anymore… Since the first day I worked with annuities, I’ve been free of the roller coaster...
2012-12-16 21:34:03
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Muni Bond Tax Breaks On The Table In Cliff Talks
In a stunning turn of tables, even the tax-free nature of muni-bonds are on the chopping block in our current buget turmoil.
Many of our readers are heavily invested in Munis so this article wil lsurely be important,...
2012-12-12 21:08:59
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Annuities Allow For Higher Yields- Moshe Milevsky In The News Again
For once, the Wall Street journal has published an article that I agree with on the topic of annuities!
For years I’ve cringed as their “Buy and Hold Stocks and Bonds” tunnel vision routinely ignored or bashed...
2012-12-10 22:56:51
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Hartford Follow Up- Don’t Leap at Annuity Buyback Offers….Yet….
As a follow up to last week’s article about Hartford offering buybacks on some of its annuity contracts as part of its portfolio cleansing, I thought I’d point you to a WSJournal piece in today’s paper. It may yet be premature...
2012-12-03 23:50:46
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
No Easy Money in Muni Bonds
Jason Zweig is usually a surly and negative financial commentator. I can’t recall the last time one of his columns said much positive about any financial marketplace. This week is no exception as he takes aim at Muni bonds, which many...
2012-12-02 22:50:12
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Perfect IRA Deal- A Nice Deferred Lump Sum
Today I want to feature a deferred, lump sum investment that is just hard to beat. We have two similar lump sums, from two different top rated carriers, AIG and Prudential. Each have the same payment stream.
The AIG deal is this...
2012-11-23 22:33:10
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Longevity Insurance In The News
Longevity Insurance is one of the best ways to guarantee lifetime income AND take advantage of the higher yields offered by Secondary Market Annuities. It works like this:
Assume we are talking about a 65 year old California man with $1M...
2012-11-23 19:06:38
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Hartford Heads for The Exits In Variable Annuities
The Hartford insurance company is making strategic decisions to exit the annuity business, especially variable annuities. Industry watchers have long known that variable annuity guarantees made several years ago exceed return expectations, so...
2012-11-04 16:55:14
Posted an entry on Annuity Straight Talk
Substantial Immediate Income & 5.5% Rate
Today I want to highlight two large immediate income deals. It’s not often that we have substantial cases, because most settlements are smaller in nature. However today we have a Genworth and a John Hancock case each nearly $2 million in...
2012-10-23 16:07:34
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