Subject: S7 - 14-08

August 27, 2008

I would like to ask you to consider that index annuities are not securities. They should be regulated by the state insurance commissioners and any violations of insurance law should and would be punished to the full extent of the law. The feature of an index annuity that allows for an interest rate credited to the contract in excess of the guaranteed rate if the performance of an unrelated index allows is really more similiar to a fixed annuity crediting more than the guaranteed rate based on the performance of the company's general account. Both annuities have an absolute bottom guarantee stated in the contract. Both annuities allow for an excess over the guarantee, the traditional fixed annuity by the performance of the company general account and an index annuity by a published formula that includes the change in an outside index in the calculation. An index annuity is not funded by a seperate account as in variable annuities.
Both are fixed products with two different methods to calculate returns in excess of the guaranteed rate, if any, and should be regulated as such. Thanks you for your consideration.

--
Marty Berger, CLU
Berger Benefit Connections