Variable Annuities With Lincoln Financial
Terry,
8 years ago a financial planner convinced me to transfer all of my 401 k nest egg into a variable annuity At the time I was 44 years old. My first thought at the time was wow arent there a lot of fees? and dont you open up a annuities when you are in your 60’s? well at any rate I told the advisor who is in his 70’s that I trust him and opened up a annuity account investing in two mutual funds LVIP Management profile growth and moderate fund. This advisor told me back in 2007 that I would get a return of 5%. My actual rate of return over 8 years is 2% I pay 2.95% in fees every year on this account. The fees are very high and I feel that Lincoln is making a lot of money off of my money. From the start I was never happy and not completely convinced that this was the right thing for me. Over the last years I feel that I missed out on a lot of growth potential. I know now that he basically made a great commission from my money. I would greatly appreciate a fresh approach and wiser ideas as to what I should consider. I’m past my surrender period and wanted to know if no load mutual funds would be a better option for me because I have at least 14 more years that I have to work.
Terry Says: OK, this is a specific question — and I want to give you specific help. So I’m going to refer you to my own annuity expert, Jeffrey Oster. You can reach him at Jeffrey.Oster@RaymondJames.com or by phone at 888-655-1035. I trust him 100 percent!
When I roughly outlined your question to him, he said he need more details, specifically: the specifics of the annuity you own, the living benefit income structure and payout percentage, the actual cash value, and whether there is a death benefit, and if there are any other riders. If you reach out to him directly he will work with you to figure out the best solution — depending on your goals, tax situation, whether this is inside an IRA now, etc.
