Subject: File No. S7-14-08
From: Victoria M Crouch, CRP

September 7, 2008

I am 61 years old and have been an insurance agent since 1988. I have retired from a job after 20yrs. I am helping many people keep their nest eggs safe using annuities. I love my work and really don't feel that I am doing a job, but doing a service to people who have worked hard for many years to find that their retirement funds are depleting, daily, based on the roller coaster movements of the stock market.
I show my clients that the fear and risk is removed when they have guaranteed interest rates on their funds and they don't need to be worried about what the Dow, Nasdaq, or the SP500 does. My clients sleep at night knowing that their money is safe and they can look forward to a stress free retirement without worry of out-living their money or losing money at a time when they need this security the most.
If the brokerage houses,who are many money hand-over-fist with commissions and fees,are left in charge to tell the consumer about annuities,the consumer will not be told. Why would they tell consumers about annuities? There isn't enough money in it for them or their brokers. Why give them the authority to continue to take the clients money and be the only "game in town" that is draining the client to proverty? Let us, as agents, show them there is some fairness in how we can be free to show them an alternative to losses.
If stocks, real estate, and bonds are the only investments people can make, then this society is doomed We all know what is happening in the Real Estate market.
Consumers insure their homes, cars, and their lives with insurance companies. Shouldn't they be able to insurance their nest eggs with insurance companies to protect their retirement funds in their retirement years? What has happened to free enterprise in this country?
If this can happen to us, then who will be next to have their rights to sell products to people who need a choice? Do we close are the stores that are not Walmart? What chance do we have to be in control of our personal fate and the fate of others we are desparately trying to help?
We aren't drug dealers or con-men. We just want the right to make a decent living, honestly, and help others who don't know that they don't need to stay in investments that don't work for them. Please let us exercise our right to be in a democracy where the giants don't take over the small guys. I thought that only happens in other countries, not here.
Victoria M Crouch CRP-Certified Retirement Planner