Story Comments

Peter, your opinion, although popular, is not true. I work for a bank not an insurance company and I am not compensated any more for annuities than I am for any other investment. Fees inside variable annuities are going to be a little highter, but the question is: Is having my money protected worth it? Not to mention the other benefits such a guaranteed death benefit which many people were very thankful of after 9/11 as well as the tax deferred growth for non qualified accounts. Some variable annuities offer the top investment companies in the world to invest in and will also guarantee your benefit base to grow at a min 7%. Last I checked a Lincoln Navigator was a little more expensive than a Ford Focus.

I have held various mutual funds for the last 25 - 30 years and actively manage and trade my own funds. Some insurance companies,such as John Hanc!*k, have a few of the better performing funds in certain categories. However, the majority underperform compared to other funds in their categories, plus, I am unaware of any insurance company no-load fund. As for annuities, brokers love to promote them for a reason. They are the most profitable offerings they have.

Right on bstone15!!!!! Education is powerful and will enrich lives if ever used. I've been concerned about what our professors (whose research had been sited) are teaching for a long time now. Makes me want to go into education in my next career life - the kids could use a teacher with private sector experience.

I've been a fully licensed advisor for quite some time now and it still cracks me up everytime I hear comments like the one above from mkatz2m. I work for one of the largest Banks in the world for the record. He states to never hand money over to any insurance company under any circumstances. This is plain ignorance. I recommend a very broad range of investments to my clients and annuities sometimes make perfect sense in certain situations. The general public needs to educate themselves on annuities so they truly can understand how beneficial they can be for many people. It's this lack of education and understanding that continues giving insurance/annuity products a bad name. Sit down with a financial advisor and let them fully explain how an annuity can be beneficial then make your judgements.

As a series 7 licensed advisor, I can sell and service REITS, Junk Bonds, Annuities and a host of other financial products. To say one is better than the other is a matter of circumstance that cannot be explained in a short paragraph. They ALL have advantages and disadvantages. To say all annuities are bad would be like saying steroids are bad for all who take them. Yes, maybe for healthy baseball players but not for someone with severe asthma or a premature baby. As Chuck said above, it would take more research to make that determination.

I believe this article. I am totally against buying any kind of an investment from an insurance company. One of worst horrible things all insurance sell are all types of annuities. I personally find that even with immediate annuities, a person is much better off to invest the money and never hand it over to them in any circumstance. For example, right now REITs, Junk Bonds, etc pay higher dividends than the annuities and a person always will have ownership of their life.

I Read the article and did some research of my own. Barrons, a respected financial periodical, recently ranked State Farm Mutual Funds (combined Associate and Retail) 6th overall out of 67 fund families (1-year ranking) and 20th out of 61 fund families (5-year ranking) in their 2007 annual Fund Families Survey compiled by Lipper Associates, Inc. The 2007 rankings for 1- and 5-year performance are a slight improvement over 2006 results in which State Farm ranked 8th out of 67 fund families for the 1-year period and 24th out of 62 fund families for the 5-year period.
Care to comment why SmartMoney combined a great company with great results into the category outlined by three professors, whom did not reference State Farm in their research as a poor company to do business with? Needed to use my companies name to get anyone to read your article? Shame on you for distorting the facts.
Chuck, an honest representative of his company.