The financial crisis and its aftermath have raised investors ire over all sorts of investments. But by one important measure, three kinds of investments in particular are emerging as the meltdown s most-hated products.

Who are the new offenders? They re everyday investments that saw many investors burned in the past year: preferred stock, corporate bonds and variable annuities. Based on data about arbitration claims filed by investors with FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, those three investments are seeing the sharpest rise in the number of complaints filed.

The backlash against these products gives another window into how dramatically the financial crisis upended many notions about investments. The meltdown saw the market lose roughly half its value the S&P 500 fell 57% between its peak (1565) on Oct. 9, 2007, and its nadir (677) March 9 this year wiping out big chunks of retirement portfolios and savings. The damage was severe enough that many investments that had been pitched as relatively safe still saw tremendous losses.

Preferred stock leads the list, with 425 complaints filed with FINRA in the first 10 months of the year, compared with 115 during all of 2008 a jump of 270%, even without November and December factored in. Between 2005 and 2008, there were no more than 41 complaints related to preferred stock filed in a single year.

Preferred shares, of course, haven t typically been considered a high-risk investment. Preferred shareholders get first rights to payment of dividends, and they usually have a claim to the proceeds over common shareholders if a company is liquidated. One benefit of owning preferred shares is that provisions usually prevent the issuance of new preferred shares with a senior claim. Although these are traditionally considered relatively safe and rewarding investments, the financial crisis exploded many axioms of investing and some preferred shareholders were left empty-handed.

Take Fannie Mae, for instance. The mortgage backer s 4.75% Non-Cumulative Preferred stock, Series M, was trading around $40 a share in February 2008. By mid-November, the price had fallen to about $1.30.

Fannie Mae was an icon. Bank of America was an icon. So a lot of these things were shoved into retirees accounts, says Jeff Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James. And it wasn t necessarily a bad recommendation -- it wasn t necessarily the mistake of buying Fannie Mae preferred. The mistake was not selling it when you d lost 15% or 20%.

As the crisis unfolded, investors eventually fled these investments, driving down share prices. They were sold for your hip pocket money: The Fannie Mae preferred, the Wachovia preferred, a number of corporate bonds GM being one of them, says Saut. They were sold to the retirees. They were advertised as safe. Who the hell didn t think GM was safe? Not many.

Overall, the period following the meltdown has seen a rise in arbitration filings with FINRA. During the first 10 months of 2009, a total of 6,113 complaints were filed, the group says. That s a 23% increase over the total number of cases filed during all of 2008. The security category that has seen the most complaints overall so far this year is mutual funds with 1,385 complaints, but that figure represented a much smaller increase (49%) over the number of complaints filed during the full year prior. Along with the 270% increase for preferred shares, corporate bonds have so far seen a complaint jump of 120% this year, with 315 coming in the first 10 months of 2009 and more likely before the year s end. Complaints over variable annuities are up 121% so far this year (104 complaints through October, vs. 47 during all of 2008).

When investors believe they ve been misled or otherwise wronged by their securities firm, they can file an arbitration claim with FINRA to recover damages. At that point, the claim is presented to a third party, which listens to accusation and the defense, examines documentation and presents a binding resolution. These resolutions are typically final and only rarely reviewed by a court.

Broadly, arbitration cases are already well above last year s totals, but well off their high for the decade. As of October, 6,113 cases had been filed, a 54% increase over the year-ago period. Arbitration claims peaked in 2003 (8,945) but fell sharply over the next few years. By 2007, claims were down to 3,238 for the year. The window to file a claim is six years, but it s not clear if people are looking back and filing more claims from years past during a down economy, nor what the typical lag time is.

I can only imagine it s a direct result of how the market behaved, says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. Generally people don t file claims if they make a profit, whether the security was suitable for the client or not. So you ll look at periods where there s a particular weakness and that s where they will come from -- no one expects to lose money.

FINRA says the jump in claims was not a surprise. A wave of claims tends to follow severe downturns in the market, says Brendan Intindola, a FINRA spokesman.

FINRA says it can handle the load and is improving turnaround times. The number of arbitration cases closed was up 18% in 2009, and the turnaround time fell 12%. We re able to meet the sharp increase this year, Intindola says. It s not the first time we ve had market turmoil. After a few months lag time you see the increase in claims. We ve travelled this road before we [had] adequate staff and systems to facilitate quicker turn around.

Roughly the same percentage of claims filed are ultimately being decided by arbitrators this year as were decided by them last year -- either through hearings or document review -- according to FINRA. The percentage of cases resolved through direct settlement with the parties remained unchanged, while those settled through mediation fell by four percentage points. Withdrawn cases increased by four percentage points.

Not everyone is in favor of the arbitration process. In some cases, banks moved away from arbitration on credit-card disputes, and some investor advocates feel securities arbitration has outlived its usefulness as well. The financial meltdown increased the heat under this debate.

The recent crisis has made the process more familiar to investors involved with supposedly safer investments. In addition to preferred stock, claims related to corporate bonds and variable annuities, although still a small portion of overall claims, rose significantly.

Corporate bonds, or bonds sold by businesses looking to raise capital, typically offer higher yields than government bonds but also present a greater risk of default a risk the meltdown helped expose.

We ve had an enormous rebound in bonds, but prior to that happening, prices plunged toward the end of last year, says Ablin. It s all probably a matter of market vs. expectations. Most individual investors try to approach these things with their eyes open, but when you buy a bond you don t expect to have it plunge in value. Some high-profile companies had lousy bonds last year.

Many critics blame ratings agencies for failing to downgrade corporate debt to accurately reflect the risk, either because the ratings agencies themselves were misled or fell prey to a conflict of interest.

Variable annuities are contracts made with insurance companies, wherein they typically invest money in mutual funds. The benefits are periodic payments, a death benefit and tax deferral.

They are known for high fees, but some investors feel like they have assurances that they ll always get income out of them, says Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners. So there was some concern that when those things blow up you ll never wind up with anything. Nobody cares about fee structure when you re going up 15% to 20% a year.

Annuities were often touted for their safety, but some insurers have changed their tune.