In Defense Of Advisors Who Sell Variable Annuities We have had particularly difficult time dealing with TIAA-CREF. They always treat client dollars as their own. The TIAA portion is very problematic to deal with, since clients rarely understand that this cannot be rolled over at retirement. It has to be annuitized or taken over a 10-year period. Unfortunately, many 403b, 457, etc participants put most of their dollars in the TIAA portion of their plan. The other issue is that if someone has worked at several different schools, churches, government entities over their career, they will have separate TIAA-CREF accounts for each entity, each with slightly different rules depending on what the entity negotiated with TIAA-CREF. Tracking these is often difficult for individuals, and the statements from TIAA-CREF are not particularly helpful, either.
Regarding your other thoughts, since most client annuity contracts are for retirement accounts (nothing like putting a tax-deferred contract inside a tax-deferred account!), we hardly ever annuitze these, always doing a rollover to Schwab or Fidelity IRA. Those few contracts that need to be kept in an annuity format can usually be dealt with in an appropriate manner. Often the client does not need the dollars for income at all, and will continue to put off taking dollars as long as they can. Others might be 1035 to an immediate fixed annuity if the rate is acceptable and the company is good. Unlike those who make a living selling annuities, we find there are many options to consider.
Jefferson National's Monument Advisor has been a godsend for fee-only companies, and it has done a very good job of working with firms to set up accounts for downloading and monitoring. The 400+ investment options are certainly more than needed and have many very good managers/funds. No commission, no surrender period, and a simple $240 annual fee are very attractive. For a $100,000 contract, this amounts to an annual 0.24%, which is similar to Vanguard and Fidelity, lower than Schwab. Truth to tell, there is no perfect annuity, just as there is no perfect investment of any kind.
The Breakfast Briefing: U.S.
Is It Time to Throttle Back Equities? Hi JohnChisum, expatsp, kevindow, Catch22 and others that my follow with comment,
Thanks for stopping by and making comment. The reason I made this post is I am looking out towards mid January when fourth quarter 2014 earnings will began to be reported. I am thinking the outlook for the energy sector will disappoint for many investors which will weigh on the overall equity markets and we will perhaps see a good dip, pullback or even a downdraft present itself. There is always perhaps a not so associated with this call.
Since, I am currently overweight equities from my neutral position I am thinking of trimming after we get into January as I am looking for another percent or so to come for the S&P 500 Index before year end. I am thinking the first week on January will also be a good week but after that I am thinking things will slow and that’s when I am thinking of trimming.
I can do this in steps as the market moves upward, or downward, or in bulk at the time of my choosing. I also think that for 2015 we will perhaps see another 8% gain on the Index although the ride will be a bumpy one. With this anticipated volatility I plan to make some more special spiff investment positions and to profit form this I will have to buy low during market declines and sell high towards market peaks. I plan to do this in a tax deferred account and in funds that I can buy at nav. Some might say this is market timming (as Dex at first did) ... however, by my defination it is not as I am not a day trader nor am I buying inapporiately in mutual funds after the markets have closed and outside of what is allowed by fund prospectus. This type of investment strategy would be called by some as simply playing the swing.
You now have my playbook exposed prior to the anticipated events as some have said I have failed to do in the past in posting past successes. I do this in the spirit of helping others with some insight to my thinking. However, one should do their own thinking and not rely on mine because I have been know, at times, to have missed calls. And, yes, this is hard to do as the market changes and at times is not in concert with my playbook. And, with this I have to remain flexible. But, if one fails to plan then they have planned to fail.
Wishing all the best for the Holiday Season and most of all … Merry Christmas!
Old_Skeet
Chuck Jaffe: The Fund Mis-Manager of the Year — And More Lump Of Coal Awards FYI: I once visited friends for the holiday where the mom in the family insisted that the best thing about the season was “seconds,” meaning that there was always a second helping of everything good for those who wanted it.
Today, there’s a second helping of something bad.
It’s part two of my
19th annual Lump of Coal Awards, my two-week holiday tradition of easing Santa’s burden by singling out the bad boys and girls of the mutual-fund industry who deserve nothing more than an inky chunk of carbon in their Christmas stockings.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-fund-mis-manager-of-the-year-and-more-lump-of-coal-awards-2014-12-23/print
Is It Time to Throttle Back Equities? @Charles: Thanks for sharing your (relative) pain, I too am way behind the S&P this year after a few years outperforming. Fairholme hit me hard, and great performance from Primecap and decent performance from Bridgeway (my other two big positions) weren't enough to compensate. My foreign funds (ARTKX, SFGIX, GPIOX) outpeformed their benchmarks but underperformed, of course, the S&P.
Getting back to this general topic, I intend to remain close to fully invested in equities. The economy seems to be picking up speed, not slowing down, so I don't see any reason for a bear market any time soon. And as to the inevitable 5-
10% corrections, I've learned that I'm not smart enough to time those, though I do have a little dry powder just in case some bargains appear.
Schwab ETFs Say No To Capital Gains FYI: Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW), the discount brokerage giant and eighth-largest U.S. issuer of exchange traded funds, said Monday none of its 2
1 ETFs will distribute capital gains this year marking the fifth consecutive year none of the firm’s ETFs have hit investors with capital gains distributions.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.etftrends.com/2014/12/schwab-etfs-say-no-to-capital-gains/
Is It Time to Throttle Back Equities? Here's AGG...good year, despite the hearsay about interest rates rising...
