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Apr 1, 2023 by |

San Francisco Bay Area Financial Elder Abuse And Annuity Attorney: Why Older Consumers Should Be Wary Of Deferred Annuities

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER

Expensive To Exit Any Deferred Annuity

No Control Over How Your Money Is Invested

Commissions, Fees And Caps Erode Returns

Deferred annuities are long-term insurance contracts which require you to lose control over your investment, and some annuities may earn little to no interest.  If you try to exit the annuity contract, you will be penalized.  Evans Law Firm, Inc. generally recommends against deferred annuities for older consumers because of these very characteristics; deferred annuities are expensive and complicated and tie up a senior’s money for years. Ken Fisher, a leading investment analyst puts it more dramatically in his TV ads: “I’d die and go to hell before selling an annuity.”  While that may be a little over the top, we do advise you to think long and hard whenever an agent proposes an annuity.  Never be rushed into a sale, and always get a second opinion for a financial professional with nothing to gain from the sale. Unsuitable policies and deceptive or aggressive sales tactics may also violate legal protections for older consumers in particular. Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15610.30 (definition of financial elder abuse); Cal. Ins. § 790 et seq. (Unfair Insurance Practices Act).  Senior victims may sue for damages and other relief including awards of attorneys’ fees and expenses for bringing your case.  Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15657.5.  If you are over 60, live in Riverside County or elsewhere in California and own a deferred annuity, call us today at 415-441-8669 (or toll free at 1-888-50EVANS) for a free review of your policy.  We do not offer investment advice.

Surrender Penalties, Sales Commissions, Fees And Caps

Three features of deferred annuities that should be of particular concern for seniors especially are:

  1. Surrender Penalties. A surrender charge is a fee assessed withdrawals prior to annuitization. Typical surrender periods last seven to ten years and typical surrender charges start at 7-10% (and sometimes more) and falls by 1% per year.  As an example, if your annuity charges a 7% penalty for year one withdrawals, if after two years, you need your money back from a $200,000 annuity, it’s going to cost you $10,000 ($200,000 x 5% = $10,000) to get your own money back.
  2. 2. Sales Commissions And Annuities pay high commissions — often 7% or higher of the total amount. So if a client was sold a $200,000 annuity, the salesperson might take home $14,000 up front. Needless to say, there’s not a lot of incentive for him to put you in a low-cost index fund. Annual contract fees can also be high According to a recent Investment Company Institute (“ICI”) study, the simple average expense ratio (includes investment management and transaction fees) of equity mutual funds was 1.28 percent in 2016. Conversely, annuity fees can run in the range of 2.5 percent to 3 percent a year. 
  3. Caps On Performance. Annuity providers determine a “cap rate,” an interest rate that limits the growth of an indexed annuity. This cap ensures that the annuity provider can meet their obligations and still make a profit on the product. But the cap works against the policyholder. Even if your chosen index grows at a significant clip your account will be credited in an amount no greater than the cap rate, which can be substantially less than the actual rate of growth in the index.

Contact Us

If you are over 60 and live in the San Francisco Bay Area or elsewhere in California and have a deferred annuity or universal life insurance contract, we can review your contract for free.  You can reach Ingrid M. Evans at Evans Law Firm, Inc. at (415) 441-8669, or toll free at 1-888-50EVANS or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>.

Some significant issuers and distributors of fixed, variable and fixed indexed deferred annuities in California are listed below.  We are not in any way suggesting that any of these carriers or distributors has done anything wrong.  The list is provided solely as a reference for our readers.

AIG/American General Life Insurance Company

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America

American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company

American General Life Insurance Company/AIG

American International Group, Inc. (AIG)

American National Life Insurance Company

Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company

Athene Annuity and Life Company

Athene USA

Aviva Life Insurance Company

AXA Equitable Financial Services, LLC

AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company/AXA US

AXA Advisors, LLC

Brighthouse Financial, Inc./MetLife

EquiTrust Life Insurance Company

Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company

Genworth Financial, Inc.

Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company

Genworth Life Insurance Company

Guggenheim Partners, LLC

Guggenheim Partners/Security Benefit Life Insurance Company

ING USA Annuity and Life Insurance Compan

Jackson National Life Insurance Company

John Hancock Life Insurance Company

Lincoln Benefit Life Company

Lincoln Financial Group

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

Metlife/Metropolitan Life Insurance Company/Brighthouse Financial, Inc.

Minnesota Life Insurance Company

Nationwide Investor Services Corporation (NISC)

Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company

New York Life Insurance Company

Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company

Pacific Life & Annuity Company

Pacific Life Insurance Company

PacLife

Security Benefit Corporation

Security Benefit Group, Inc.

Security Benefit Life Insurance Company/Guggenheim Partners

Security Investors, LLC

Security of Denver Life Insurance Company/Voya

Transamerica Life Insurance Company

Voya Financial Advisors

Voya/Reliastar Life Insurance Company

World Financial Group Insurance Agency, Inc.

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