Understand The Pros and Cons of Variable Annuities

No other product in the Annuity business creates as much controversy as Variable Annuities.  Frankly, I’m getting kind of tired of all the loud opinions about the Pros and Cons of Variable Annuities- it’s either a table thumping BUY or a screaming SELL.  It’s  just like watching Jim Cramer on Mad Money.

There’s no middle ground, and if you follow the BUY side (selling agents) every sales office should have a line of people waiting to buy.  Listen to the SELL crowd (journalists and many financial planners) every insurance company would be shut down because of fraud.

I know that sounds extreme but it really does show you the difference in the type of advice you are bound to get.  So if you are familiar with my work, you’ll know that I try to be objective and provide solid evidence as to the pros and cons of annuities of All shapes and sizes.

Frankly, I’ve avoided writing this for a long time, because these are complicated beasts and it’s hard to make any kind of apples to apples comparisons.  But I’ll tackle the variable annuity debate in this article.  Before I go further, let me say that even after my  research and experience in the industry, I am not overwhelmingly for or against variable annuities.  Like a lot of things in life, there are times when they work great and others when they are completely inappropriate.

Also, while we don’t sell variable annuities, this website would not be complete without this  information on how variable annuities work and their pros and cons.  While variable annuities do make up the majority of annual annuity sales, we use safer, more guaranteed methods of creating stable retirement income.  It you have a question about an existing variable annuity or want to consider other alternatives please Contact Us.

Pros and Cons of Variable Annuities: Pros

Guaranteed Benefits:

Pros and Cons of Variable Annuities: Cons

Pros and Cons of Variable Annuities: Summary

As you can see, the analysis is pretty simple.  If you are looking at the prospect of a variable annuity just weigh the pros vs. cons to figure out if it works for you. For most of my customers using the decisions tools we outline in the Annuity Report, available by free download to our members, most of the cons seem to be deal breakers if even if a few components are tolerable.  Overall, for me, the cons outweigh the pros most of the time.

Once you understand the pros and cons, Variable annuities have specific uses for a small class of investors that either works for you or it doesn’t.  Make sure to seek solid advice from an open-minded advisor.