Mr. Cuggino is most assuredly much sharper than any investment knife at this house. I am also in agreement that this house prefers to find growth of global economies going forward.
Mr. Cuggino notes the following in quotes:
"Thirdly, many investors continue to sit on the sidelines with investable cash, which means that additional liquidity will eventually come into the stock market over time as people become more comfortable with our economic performance and/or if economic growth continues at a more rapid pace going forward. That liquidity would likely result in multiple expansion and higher stock prices."
>>>>> I don't know who these investors on the sidelines may be, and will presume he is noting the retail investors; as in we here at MFO. A few trinkets of thoughts. Many retail investors remain via 401k's and related. I also know from my own personal diggings, that while this group of retail investor remains in place; they have also scaled back their %'s of monies to this area. Other stuff like food, fuel and related is drawing more of the take home income. I am also aware of some in this group who have taken loans against their 401k's; and others who are retired; tapping their IRA's and related for needed monies to help support other family members who are having cash flow problems. This does not take into account others who will begin (5 years away) some amount of required withdraws from many sheltered accounts. As to a large money area of the retail investors group being those already retired; I do not have a high expectation that many in this group will be throwing large sums of their retirement acct's. back into the equity arena; aside from the % they may already have invested. Like it or not; the boomer group does have access to or control a vast amount of investment monies.
"Wallace Forbes: So you think this is going to entice some of the people who have liquidity get back into the stock market?
Cuggino: Correct. Right now the stock market’s gains have been based on lower trading volumes and not a lot of excitement among average investors. Investors still feel burned by prior moves in the stock market and prior sell-offs, whether it was 2008 or earlier in the decade – 2000 or 2002 for example. It’s not a sexy asset class right now, if you will, among mainstream investors. When that excitement comes back into the market, you will likely see multiple expansions. In the 1980s and 1990s, stocks traded at multiples in the high teens. Right now they’re trading at multiples in the low-to-mid teens. There’s room for expansion there."
>>>>> As noted, I suspect the prior "excitement periods" may have been enough for many of the older folks. These folks , who understand, that they are not getting much from a CD and related, and not staying up with inflation; may likely prefer this to getting a big whack again. If and when numbers indicate a massive flow from retail investors back into equities, this house will be on guard to unload the same. As to the 80's and 90's. From August 26, 1982 through October 31, 2007 one could dollar cost average into just about any equity area and have a hugh monetary gain smile upon the face. Now and today, keeping most of one's money; let alone making a positive return, is real work, in my opinion. Its not August 26, 1982 through October 31, 2007 any longer and this is part of the shaping of what will become the "
new normal".
"Forbes: So you think that there is a fair possibility that we’re going to get those higher multiples back?
Cuggino: Yes, as more investors get interested in stocks again.
And then, fourthly – and it’s more of a wild card here – depending on the outcome of the elections and the actions or inactions of Congress and the Presidency, equity prices could go up further."
>>>>> I prefer that he is correct and that a long and winding road back to real growth of economies is in place. I will maintain, barring white or black swan events that this house will find what the "new normal" may be at the year 2019. All bets are off, if the Mayan calendar predictions causes no holiday season this year...:):):)
We'll muddle along with our boring portfolio, knowing that we have our legs spread astride the sharply pointed fence top of investing just below our crotch; with each foot placed precariously on pillars made from the word "if" and, of course, not wanting to fall onto the fence.
Perhaps PRPFX should be this house's current challenge for return measurement.
Just my inflation adjusted 2 cents, which today is not worth much, eh?
Take care,
Catch

Bee,I am trying to line up some open or closed end funds that deal mainly with MLP's.
No matter what the price of the energy source it has to be transported to an end point for use. The distributors of the product still collects a good fee for transportation.
These funds usually have a high dividend distribution which is ideal for retirement plans.
Any help in giving their opinion on which good funds available would be appreciated.
Prinx

Well, took a short noon time break and ck'd a few things. I did this before food intake, so perhaps my blood sugar is too low and the old brain pathways are a bit on the malfunction side.
--- 3 & 6 month T-bills appear to have some inbound cash flow today. Not gi-normous, but some folks want to go to this area for their own good reasons.
--- major market areas are flipping too much; we're up, Asia up, Europe down and then the other direction for the past several days.
--- noted about Spanish 10 yr bond last week. It did break 6% yield, now moved down a tiny notch. ECB can step in if they like to support this area; BUT the Spanish equity market is attempting to be down 4% today. Me thinks the money is letting the bonds lay where they lay, but there may be cash exiting the equity area for reasons of risk. The remainder of Europe is down, but less than 1%. This etf is a very close match to the Spanish market for pricing, EWP.
***Repsol/YPF energy is part of the Spanish-35 and the noted etf and is down today 7%; but only represents about 4% of the value. 40% of the value for the market index and eft is the banking related sector. YPF is noted as Argentina has decided to bad kids again and still; and has chosen to cause YPF to be a government run operation agains, after selling YPF in 1999 to Repsol. No, Argentina is not or will ever be on our vacation or retirement home list. Ongoing and serious cranial/rectal inversion go'in on down that a way.
So, just some blabber among the other gazillion things going; but which will keep my side attention for the rest of the week.
Hi-ho, hi-ho, tis back to work I go................
Take care,
Catch

The use of closed-end Central Fund of Canada, ticker CEF, that owns gold and silver bullion, is a way around this for taxable accounts. Capital gains get treated as capital gains, not income. Using GLD and other ETFs in retirement accounts avoids this issue, too.

Howdy,
Again, a thank you to all who post the links and also start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around.....Bonds, bonds,bonds. As I have noted before, these are, in my opinion, the backbone of money at all scales; from small local gov'ts. and businesses to the large scale operations of central gov'ts. As to this and we individuals; we also issue a form of bond, in reverse. Very few individuals put up the full amount of monies for two major purchases; being a home(s) and several vehicles throughout our lifetime. One may shop around for the best mortgage or vehicle loan, obtain a loan and in effect have a private issue bond produced in your name. Not unlike traditional bonds, your credit worthiness will affect the yield (interest rate you pay). How does this relate to anything investing. It is nothing more than what our house attempts to view and understand all of what surrounds we investors each and every day. We try to place ourselves into the various positions of the financial machinations in the most simple terms we might understand. As this house will never have an inside track to how or why the big money houses or central banks function; nor will we have the intellectual skills to master all of the subtle changes (sometimes in 275 millisecond time frames---trading computers), we do our best to attempt to determine both fundamental and technical aspects of the markets(sectors), in a simple form and make choices from these aspects to position our monies, .
With a part-time staff of 2, on the best of days; our research staff does its best to find the major cause and effect issues in place.
An example is that "x" number of folks are familiar with a nearly perfect formed, very gently sloping range of small mountains, with either downslope side having 20 small water streams, that feed 10 larger streams, then 5 larger streams and then into one large river on either side of the Bondequity mountain range. A weather forecast notes that there will be a rather strong and slow moving storm; producing more than average rainfall, in the area. Each mountainside has its own set of crop growers (investors), being the bond and equity farmers. Some farmers have diversified/mixed their crops. In either case, not enough or too much rain may cause problems for either farm type; whereas it is possible for both crop types to provide ample returns with just the right amount of rainfall.
Knowing or tracking the storm path may be of great benefit to all growers in order to help protect the crops through the system of drainage gates and bypasses that have been used in this area for many years. Heavy rains may still prove to be overwhelming in the low lying areas in the flat lands below; as the amount of rain diverted above will still find its way to this area. As usual, there will be those who are aware of the weather conditions; and will plan accordingly, there will also be those not checking the weather forecast until after the storm has begun and those who seldom monitor the weather forecast. As time and knowledge allows, one should always make some attempt to monitor some aspects of the weather forecast, in order to protect the planted investment crops.
'Course, an ongoing problem area is too much information about the weather forecast, and who or what appears to be credible; and why. And yes, the forecast always has a mix of fundamental and technical aspects, eh?
Watch the forecast, short, medium and long term; or be prepared to find water over the boot tops.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK:

--- NONE ---
Portfolio Thoughts:
Our holdings had a + .45 % move this past week. Sidenote: The average return of 200 combined Fidelity retail funds across all sectors (week avg = -.96, YTD +8.1%). Investment grade bonds gave support to the portfolio last week, the HY/HI bond sector was down about .22% and the equity funds were mixed to down. We're watching who and what is "twitchy". The following quote from last week reminds me of the more than two years of some of the "interesting" quotes that have arrived from Europe.... “I don’t see a good reason” for buying government bonds, Knot of the ECB said today at an event in Amsterdam. “I think there has been an overreaction to the unfortunate communication surrounding Spain.” Klaas Knot is a governing member of the ECB. Knot is commenting about the ECB buying more of Spain's bonds to offset the yields that have continued to increase after the LTRO (QE) placements of several months. Spain will have another bond auction this coming week, which will help tell more of this picture. One may conclude that bond yields for Spain and Italy have risen again; because the evil bond traders are playing games, or that folks are a bit on edge about holding the product due to the "unfortunate communications" regarding a vast array of circumstances in Spain in partiuclar that may indicate quality problems. One may suspect that the central bankers sure don't care much for all of the data (of which the public has a right of knowledge) traveling the globe. I will presume that the ECB will have to form a plan to move more Euro's to Spain and others again. My favorite quote person of the past 6 months is Christine LaGarde of the IMF. Perhaps I can find a top ten list.
Lastly, the U.S. is still my top equity pick from the turd pile list.
The old Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves and watching the weather. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
This 1st link to Bloomberg is for their list of balanced funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?Sector=888&pid=invest_mutualfunds&ListBy=YTD&Term=1
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/partsub/funds/topfundresults.asp?Symbol=$HF&Category=CA
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/partsub/funds/topfundresults.asp?Category=MA&Type=&symbol=$HF
A reflection upon the links above; we attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 4 funds we watch for psuedo benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these YTD's per M*
VWINX .... - .13 week, YTD = + 3.26%
PRPFX .... - .04 week, YTD = + 4.36%
SIRRX ..... + .26 week, YTD = + 2.34%
HSTRX .... + .57 week, YTD = + .23%
None of these 4 are twins to our holdings, but we do watch these as a type of rough guage.
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh?
Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense.
Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of March 9, 2012---
U.S.Stocks 10.5%
Foreign Stocks 6.8%
Bonds 78.5% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
***about 35% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"
-Investment grade bond funds 26.8%
-Diversified bond funds 19.8%
-HY/HI bond funds 23.2%
-Total bond funds 17.8%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds 4.3%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 8.1%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
APOIX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
TEGBX Templeton Global (load waived)
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
FDLSX Fidelity Select Leisure
FSAGX Fidelity Select Precious Metals
RNCOX RiverNorth Core Opportunity (bond/equity)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
FDVLX Fidelity Value
FSLVX Fidelity Lg. Cap Value
FLPSX Fidelity Low Price Stock
MACSX Matthews Asia Growth-Income

I have a large position in OAKBX and I am going to reduce it. I called them and registered my dissatisfaction with how they announced Studzinski's "retirement" after a year when the fund could not get its bond sleeve to produce anything. Wasn't there a vigorous rally in Treasuries that the fund missed? I still have other Oakmark funds, but my over-all confidence in the management is wavering.

Hi Ted,
I will agree about collecting funds without motive for an investor.
Regarding our mix, and the related sectors we currently favor; that the choices in the given sectors are from 8 retirement accts; 4 of which are not yet in place for a rollover.
I.E., the 4 HY/HI bond funds are from a similar sector, active managed and don't always follow the same paths. Tracking the 4 is no more difficult than just 1; and if one finds the general HY/HI bond sector moving too much in one direction or the other, a quick check of the 4 funds will indentify their movement relationship to this sector.
In summary, we do choose to have exposure to the HY/HI bond sector and must choose from a minimum of 5 different vendors. A multi fund mix in a given sector is a method we find to be a suitable "smoother" for a given sector.
Regards,
Catch

Howdy,
Again, a thank you to all who post the links and also start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around..... Mega, as in the recent lottery; and the word fickle indicates: is erratic, undecided, or unpredictable.
A few personal notes for reminders, or for those reading this for the first time. Surely there are those who view this portfolio mix as a possible clunker, not containing enough forward growth and/or value. In the current investment environment as this house views this area; the first and primary aspect is to retain capital. We will surely miss opportunities and turns in this sector or that, which will cause losses in some areas and gains in others. With this we must ride and adjust to the best of our ability. Also to this, with our misses and hits we find our portfolio in company with bright minds over the past few years; hedge funds, J.P. Morgan (in 2010, spring; the 10 year Treasury will move to 5%) and Pimco Total Return (PTTRX) missing the Treasury run and other bright minds on a global scale attempting to do the same thing. Horn blowing; no ! We all get lucky and find our monies in the right place at the right time, eh?
To the Mega: Would this portfolio look different if we were a Mega Million lottery winner? Without a doubt. Would we feel sad about a 20% loss to the downside, if we were farily wealthy? But, if we still had $8 million remaining of a $10 million portfolio; we would surely not be stretched into a poor lifestyle. Some many things are from one's perspective, eh?
The fickle side will be an addendum, as the write ran into the text limiter.............................
As usual, the markets and the sectors within the markets were scattered every which way this past week. I will note a few areas:
--- U.S. equity funds = +.45 through - 1.77 % (week avg= -.79/YTD +13.2%)
--- Int'l equity funds = +.32 through - 3.1 % (week avg= - 1.63/YTD +12.6%)
--- Sector equity funds = + .94 through - 6.6 % (week avg= - 1.09/YTD +12.8%)
--- Investment grade bond funds = +.74 through - .0% (week avg= +.15/YTD +.3%)
--- HY/HI bond funds = + .0 through - .41 % (week avg= -.23/YTD +4.9%)
--- Multi sector bond funds = >>>to be revised
--- Emerging markets bond funds = >>>to be revised
Average of 200 combined funds across all sectors above (week avg= -.73/YTD +9.4%)
The above numbers provide some value as to how one chooses to arrange their portfolio, not only relative to weighting of sectors; but also how confident one feels with using very narrow sector investments or broad based funds, be they active managed funds, indexes or etf's. The above list and the variances of gains or losses, of course; are nothing new. But as this house moves along with our portfolio, we continue to reshape and attempt to understand methods of how to best provide for positive returns going forward.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK:

--- NONE ---
Portfolio Thoughts:
Our holdings had a + .003 % move this past week. Yes, that is 3/1000's. Well.......we'll sit with our current mix to find what this Monday brings. Our 50% reduction in FSAGX several weeks ago still finds the remaining holding to get whacked (-6.6% last week). Most of our equity holdings were down a bit last week; as well as the high yield bond sectors; while the mixed bag of other bonds were flat to slightly positive. To those holding 50% or more in equity postions, I salute you; as you should be at a most favorable YTD return, far surpassing our performance.
The old Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves and watching the weather. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
This 1st link to Bloomberg is for their list of balanced funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?Sector=888&pid=invest_mutualfunds&ListBy=YTD&Term=1
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/partsub/funds/topfundresults.asp?Symbol=$HF&Category=CA
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/partsub/funds/topfundresults.asp?Category=MA&Type=&symbol=$HF
A reflection upon the links above; we attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 4 funds we watch for benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these YTD's per M*
VWINX ....YTD = + 3.39% - .30 week
PRPFX ....YTD = + 4.40% - .82 week
SIRRX .....YTD = + 2.07% + .09 week
HSTRX ....YTD = - .34% - .26 week
None of these 4 are twins to our holdings, but we do watch these as a type of rough guage.
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh?
Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense.
Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of March 9, 2012---
U.S.Stocks 10.5%
Foreign Stocks 6.8%
Bonds 78.5% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
***about 35% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"
-Investment grade bond funds 26.8%
-Diversified bond funds 19.8%
-HY/HI bond funds 23.2%
-Total bond funds 17.8%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds 4.3%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 8.1%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
APOIX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
TEGBX Templeton Global (load waived)
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
FDLSX Fidelity Select Leisure
FSAGX Fidelity Select Precious Metals
RNCOX RiverNorth Core Opportunity (bond/equity)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
FDVLX Fidelity Value
FSLVX Fidelity Lg. Cap Value
FLPSX Fidelity Low Price Stock
MACSX Matthews Asia Growth-Income

Reply to @CathyG: The various Arbitrage funds - Merger (MERFX) or Arbitrage (ARBFX) or AQR Diversified Arb (ADANX, I think?) would be a place to park low-key (although there is certainly still *some* risk) non fixed-income money I'd consider personally. Certainly would be more risk, but Sierra Core Retirement (SIRIX) is a conservative fund-of-funds geared towards retirees with an "absolute return" goal (emphasis on *goal* - I believe the goal is an 8% total return - capital gain + dividend on average per year *over a market cycle*, so there may be years less and more. It handled 2008 and 2009 well, but has been quieter since.)
There are likely a number of lower-risk fixed income options that others will likely be able to offer if you didn't want to go to cash. I'm not in cash at all - I own what I want to own for the mid-to-long term (especially long-term for a series of various stocks) and am really trying to make very little in the way of moves for the next year or two.
Or one can always look at going to cash (MM/CD/etc) as at least not putting money at risk (aside from inflationary risk.)

Yes, there is a way, but it sounds like you may not be clear on what creates that tax deduction. It's the fact that you're contributing money to a spousal IRA. It doesn't matter where that money comes from.
If the only way you can come up with the cash to fund that IRA is by taking a distribution from another retirement account, then perhaps that deduction isn't doing too much for you now, and you'd be better leaving the money in a tax-exempt account growing tax-exempt, rather than moving it to a tax-deferred account, where the growth will ultimately get taxed as ordinary income.
If this is a short term cash flow problem, you can move the money to the new employer account and borrow against it. (Something else that's not advisable, but it can beat outright withdrawing the money.) Technically, that's a way of taking 401K money and getting it somewhere else. At least for awhile. Note that you can do this only with a current employer's 401K, and the loan is due upon termination of the job, if not sooner.
As I described in a prior post, if you take a distribution of the Roth401K, roll most of it into a Roth IRA, then the remainder may be tax (and penalty) free. Then you have the cash to do with as you will - contribute to your wife's IRA, go on vacation, whatever. For example, say that you've contributed $6K to the Roth 401K, and it's now worth $9K. If you transfer $4K to a Roth IRA, the IRS says that this $4K includes the $3K of gains and $1K of original contributions. The remaining $5K consists entirely of contributions. They're tax-free. No penalty. That gets you $5K to play with. But also as I noted above (as did BobC), watch out for possible withholding on the distribution.

http://www.smartmoney.com/retirement/planning/mlps-offer-income-but-theyre-not-without-risks-1331654710712/?cid=djem_sm_dailyviews_h
Advisors flunk undercover stings
http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/stocks/financial-advisers-flunk-undercover-sting-1333374512622/?cid=djem_sm_dailyviews_h

To put some numbers behind what BobC is saying, here are the IRS's life expectancy tables from 1994, (see p. 60, Appendix E), and here are the current (2011) life expectancy tables (see p. 86, Appendix C). Both are from IRS Pub 590, the tables used for IRA MRDs. While different from the tables that the insurance companies use, they nevertheless give a pretty good indication of the changes the insurance companies use, and in any case, since you're talking about an IRA are not totally inappropriate.
My cursory look suggests an increase of about 4%. 4 percent! That's about what you need to pay just to get more money into the annuity. (And if you're looking at that 2% load, remember that you're also adding 0.5% each year to the cost as well - in four years, you've paid more than any benefit from an old, shorter lifetime.)
People are indeed generally better outside of an annuity for IRAs. That's exactly what the SEC says in the link that Catch already provided: http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/varannty.htm

if you are investing in a variable annuity through a tax-advantaged retirement plan (such as a 401(k) plan or IRA), you will get no additional tax advantage from the variable annuity. Under these circumstances, consider buying a variable annuity only if it makes sense because of the annuity's other features, such as lifetime income payments and death benefit protection.

By the way, that's the SEC's bold print, not mine. So if you're not going to take the lifetime payments (and nearly no one does), and you hold it for more than a few years (so that it's worth more than you paid, rendering the basic death benefit pointless), it's hard to see any reason for an IRA inside a deferred VA for an IRA.

Here is my understanding. I'm fairly sure it differs from what other posters understand, and my understanding likely differs from reality (what you actually have) as well :-). I'll try to be as concrete as possible so that we're on the same page.
20 years ago, you bought an annuity with a minimum guaranteed settlement rate. You also say something about it being based on a shorter lifetime. That part I don't understand, as I'll explain now.
I believe a min guaranteed settlement rate is the lowest rate that an insurer will give you when you elect to annuitize. That is, when you start to take annuity payments, the insurance company then locks in a rate of return. That rate is based upon choices you make in your election - whether it is for a single life or joint lives, whether there is term certain (payouts for a minimum number of years even if the person dies), etc. Since there are lifetimes involved, the rate set is obviously set based on expected lifetimes. You seem to be saying that the insurer promised to use the mortality tables from 1992, and not current tables. That's definitely a new one on me (though I know that insurers will reduce life expectancy - and increase payments - based on certain medical conditions).
Forgetting for the moment the life expectancy issues, what the min guaranteed settlement rate is doing is setting a floor on the rate. For example, suppose you have a min settlement rate of, say, 6%. That means that the rate of return the insurer gives you when you elect to annuitize won't be less than 6%. Now I think 6% is a high rate these days; it may or may not be high in 7-8 years if you annuitize later. So if you didn't need to annuitize now (you didn't need the cash flow), you might choose to annuitize later. You'd be sure of getting the same minimum, and you might get more if rates went up.
While you're waiting to annuitize, what about the 401K money? If you invest it in the VA, you'll get charged the M&E fees (0.50%) in addition to the underlying fund costs. You could just as easily invest in comparable funds in an IRA, save the M&E fees, and then, shortly before annuitizing (if you still like the rate you'd get, and you want to annuitize everything), you could transfer that IRA into the annuity. (Unless the policy prohibits annuitizing in under a certain number of years after adding money.) Let's not forget the load (2-4.5%) that you'd pay, now or later, to get that money into the annuity.
What if you're annuitizing now? (I'll go more into "why wait" below.) Then it would seem you'd have to add the 401K money to the annuity now, if you wanted the 401K money to get the settlement rate.
But why would you want to annuitize now? As BobC said, you'll be locking in a rate that may look good compared to current rates, but quite possibly won't look good several years down the road. You're likely not close to retirement, so my guess is that you don't need the cash flow. You could keep the investment in the annuity (but not add to it), having a whole variety of fund options that could grow your investment faster than the minimum settlement rate. You also have a GIF (guaranteed income fund) available within the VA - how does that compare to the annuitization rate? (Remember, the former would be for just a few years; the latter could lock you into a rate for life that would look low in a decade.)
Unlike others, I'm not willing to say that it's impossible for this to make sense, for you to come out better by adding the 401K money to the annuity and annuitizing now based on the min guaranteed settlement rate. It's just really, really, really unlikely.

Thanks Mark. As it happens, I use TIBIX, DLTNX AND RNDLX as well. I’m transitioning to an income focus from a strict capital appreciation approach. It sounds like you’re a few years ahead of me. RNDLX is interesting in that it has a closed end fund component that adds an element not found in open end funds. Thanks again for your thoughts.
From a “bucket” perspective, it may still be a good idea to set aside some long term I’m-not’-going-to –touch-this-money and allow it to just grow in value. But as one really begins to think about retirement, the immediate thought is “how do I replace the paycheck I won’t be getting”. That really snaps the income focus into view.

retirement w/ 1.5 millions
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/30/pf/expert/retirement-ira.moneymag/
perhaps this may answer what MF to buy in a retirement bucket
also look at this trust
http://www.bullmarket.com/digest/?id=338#1085

Reply to @AndyJ: hi andy. I agree with you. I thought that was what I was describing with the 3 legged stool, ss being 1 leg, annuities the 2nd and drawing from savings being that 3rd leg. All that added together supplements your retirement in come.
I've read a couple books on setting up bucket systems (for that 3rd leg). But like someone else mentioned, it's just another way to segment your investments for growth and supplemental income.

Hi msf. I suspect few people are more motivated than I to like Schwab. At one point I've had every account in our household at Schwab: 2 IRAs, a rollover, a Joint Savings/Brokerage, a checking, a Visa Signature, and through my work a Personal Choice Retirement Account (PCRA). All these accounts were linked on a convenient on-line summary page.
Hands-down, the PCRA is best account with diverse fund selection, low fees, fast settlements, and very responsive staff that really takes pride in the select service they offer. Maybe because of the first-rate PCRA, I have recognized the short-comings of some of the other services. For example, the $50 fee to buy or sell a fund not on the OneSource list. This applies for IRA accounts as well, which have limited yearly deposits. The $50 fee was effectively a 1% load each way on a $5000 transaction, making the option a non-starter.
OneSource is a good service offering, I agree. A few times I noticed fees appeared higher than advertised on MS. For example, Parnassus Equity Income PRBLX, TCW Select Equities TGCNX, and Matthews Asia Dividend MAPIX are 0.04-0.05% higher. But after double-checking, that difference may just be a manifestation of reporting source. MS publishes expense reported in annual report, while Schwab uses the prospectus. So I stand-corrected, which is good thing in this case. Now Schwab does up the redemption fee period to 90 days for OneSource funds, which is longer than the 60 days typically used by the fund houses.
As for WGRIX, the institutional class of Wintergreen WGRNX, it was not available at Schwab shortly after it was established. Since I own WGRNX, I checked right away. But it is available now, as you point out, and that availability is a good thing too.
Today, I just maintain the PCRA and brokerage accounts at Schwab. I recently transferred the 401 and IRAs directly to the fund houses, Dodge & Cox, Fairholme, and Seafarer. Schwab stopped offering its Visa, which was a disappointment, after which I closed the checking account also.
Trust all that provides a better perspective of my early post.
Thanks, Charles
PS. Schwab website still says Seafarer SFGIX is not available.

Reply to @MikeM: Mike, the way I've heard SS, pensions, annuities and any work income addressed in one bucket method is that they're a prequel you have to figure in before you structure the pots of $: quick and dirty, it's to come up with an annual budget as best you can, figure in how much of that can be covered by SS etc., & then structure short, intermediate, and long term investments around meeting the rest of the budget, plus (I suppose) emergency expenses you can't anticipate.
The linked article in Bee's OP is about how M* Discuss posters in retirement structure their investments. The original thread has a lot more than is in the article.
From what I've read it sounds like the object is just a simple way to organize your thinking about income and expenses in retirement.

Mike: your laddering of CDs is a losing deal at this time. You already knew that, so I'm thinking you believe rates will be on the rise by the time you decide to pull the (pin), retire. I thought cds would be a part of my retirement funding, but not using them at this time. To much dead cash at this time. What's one to do ?
Have a good wked,
Derf

I think it's important to remember "the three leg stool" when thinking how your investments need to be distributed within a retirement portfolio. The bucket system feeds just one leg of that stool. The other 2 legs of course being social security and any pension or purchased annuities you may have. I suppose you could add on a forth "removable" leg if you want or need to work for added income in retirement.
I'm not there yet, but I foresee the investment leg as being 2 buckets. One being 3-5 years of CD ladders and the second bucket being a moderate risk distribution of stocks and bonds.
I'd be interested to hear from others already in retirement or those, like myself, getting close to that next life adjustment.