July 10, 2008
I can not state strongly enough my position that Indexed Annuity products need to be further regulated by the government to protect the most vulnerable among us. Senior Citizens who have worked an entire lifetime to accumulate savings so that they may enjoy their retirement without worry. While I am licensed in the State of Florida to sell Indexed Annuities I have stopped selling them because of the way I was trained by a Veteran agent of 40+ years. The industry is rampant with fraud, mistatements, misrepresentations and glossing over of surrender fees. etc.
I have seen an agent flat out lie to a customer about guaranteed rates, surrender periods, I seen this agent gloss over the most signficant provisions of a contract on delivery to obtain a signature quickly from a Senior Citizen, and quite frankly the forms are so complicated that it would take an entire law firm to explain these product properly. As these are sold mostly in the clients home, it takes away from the professionalism that something of this magnitude should be afforded.
At all costs protect our Seniors and others from this industry. It was so bad that I found out I was being trained poorly and as a result, acted illegally in the sale of these products that I turned myself into the State of Florida.