Monday, April 21, 2014

What Makes A Good Annuity Advisor

By Essie Osborn


In the most basic way, annuity can be described as an investment contract that an investor enters in with an insurance company and enjoys special tax benefits. Adding it to your investment portfolio can prove very profitable but this starts by selecting the right investment and the right annuity advisor who understands your financial goals.

It is always advisable to adopt a conservative approach in investment particularly when one is approaching the retirement age. At this time, the nest-egg reaches its largest possible level and is very vulnerable to market fluctuations. This is why annuity is usually the better option.

There are many benefits that are associated with this option which include a guaranteed future cash flow and the retirement income increases every year. This is the easiest way to ensure that you pass something to your heirs and protect any of your assets from the creditors or probate.

Annuities come in several types which include immediate annuities, the equity indexed, variable and fixed annuities. Each of these varies in one way or the other and has its own merits and demerits. It is the job of your consultant to outline all these for you and tell you which option is the best and which one is not.

These specialists ought to urge his customer to try for that venture alternative that is in his best investment and not simply anything. On the other hand, the expert has an obligation to enlighten the customer on the investment vehicle on his or her interest. These specialists are typically expected to stick to professional codes of conduct.

The major issues that your consultant should avoid include misrepresentation of information in sales of the insurance or other financial related products, false advertising, defamation, twisting, rebating (offering the client inducement in any form), use of bait and switch to get client purchase what was not originally planned for.

It is also required that an annuity consultant, just like other financial advisor avoid talking ill of character, business or services offered the rivals unless they have proven civil or criminal records. Instead, they should only focus on how their clients and prospective clients are going to benefit from the products they offer.

Many consultants prefer not to recommend annuities to their clients once they realize that there is a possibility that insurance company may be having financial difficulties in the future. Annuities are actually the best way to militate against longevity risk. It is the opportunity to protect the client from the financial problems the insurer is facing.

There are several tips that can be helpful when locating the best insurance firm to take the annuity from. These include working with bigger firms which are known to be less prone to solvency risks, take advice from the rankings as put forward by Moodys, S&P and Fitch and ensuring that the engagement rules are very clear.




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