Last week, I came across this publication (opens pdf in new window) put together by the Association For Insured Retirement Solutions (Hmmm, I wonder if they have an agenda?) rebutting what they call common “misconceptions” about variable annuities.  According to their website, this association (called NAVA),
“…is a proven, highly-effective alliance of leading companies involved in the annuity and variable products [...]

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Back in february I wrote about certain situations where a variable annuity may make sense.  My conclusion was that there are particular investments it makes sense to put in a variable annuity:  high-yield junk bonds, intermediate-term corporate bonds, and REITs, provided you have:

Maxed out all other tax-advantaged retirement options like your 401k and Roth IRA
Built a [...]

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Ok, so we all know variable annuities are usually better deals for the annuity salesman than the customer.  But let’s ignore all that for a moment.  Surely there must be certain circumstances when an annuity makes sense, right?  Indeed, I’ve already written about some of the few (very few) ways you can use a variable [...]

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First things first:  variable annuities are poor investments for most people (with a few important exceptions I’ll get to in a moment).  They are usually expensive, complicated, illiquid, and hard to understand for all but the most sophisticated of investors.  Unfortunately, the target of a variable annuity sales pitch is usually a financially unsophisticated middle-class investor who [...]

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