July 29, 2008
When it comes to additional legislation that is being considered concerning Indexed annuities, this is nothing more than the Broker Dealers trying to use the fear that the annuity insurance agents are going to take advantage of Grandpa. They want to be the only one who are aloowed to take advantage of grandpa (can you spell Enron). They are trying to use this legislation to take over the Indexed annuities business. It is interesting to listen to them claiming that, "The annuities which are fully guaranteed by the insurance companies that sell them, need their oversight to protect the public." Who is going to protect the public from them?" I think this is just another case of the Fox(the SEC) trying to get a job guarding the hen house. They already have full control over their Registered reps and the products they sell, including Indexed Annuities (if they let the reps sell them)so why do they seem to think that they also have to full control of the sales of these insurance products which guaranteed by the insurance companies, and are well represented by fully trained and qualified Insurance Agents. It's all about Granpa's money, they have it and they don't want give it up until they have charged all of the fees they can. It seems to me that the SEC can't even monitor the sales of the products they already have, those that that they regularly sell to the public that have 100% downside risk (can you spell MCI) . This is nothing more than a money grab by the SEC and the Broker Dealers. They just want to carve off their piece of the commission pie off of the top, register all of the reps so they can charge them fees for the priviledge of selling the products they control, and ultimately add layers of highly compensated beauracracy, which will increase the cost of doing business. In the end, guess who ends up paying for all of this, the reps and the public, but I haven't heard about the additon of even one guarantee of safety or reduction in financial risk to the public at large. It is interesting how the people who have the most to gain from this, say this is needed, for the sake of the public. They probably have a bridge in New York they would like to sell you too.