Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Fixed Index Annuities are a good alternative to bond portfolios or funds.


FIAs are a very good asset class to address the "bond/fixed" portion of a client's well rounded portfolio.  Wharton recently published a white paper entitled "Real World Index Annuity Returns" in which it revealed actual FIA avg. returns over a range of 5 year periods from 1997 - 2008.  the avg. return were 4.33% low and 9.19% high while the S&P avg returns for the same time frames were (3.08% to 13.37%).  Personally I would rather a client have some upside and no downside. 
In another paper written by Andy Robertson of "Capital Indemnity Group, LLC.", he stated "before a variable annuity with a GLWB rider can achieve the stated objective of providing a guaranteed income that also combats the effects of inflation, the underlying funds must deliver enough performance to overcome the impact of the annual charges and fees as well as the current income withdrawal.  What type of market performance is the annuity required to deliver in order to meet the client's objective...14.44%".  The recent market has certainly not delivered this amount of return.  
 Given the new lifetime withdrawal benefit riders offered by fixed and fixed index annuities at much lower internal fees 1-1.5% vs 4%+ (roughly), it is easy to see why many advisors are taking a second look at the fixed side of the annuity solution. 

If you are interested in learning more please visit www.wealthvest.com.