July 12, 2008
I believe the proposed rule would be too much sugar for the cereal. The vast majority of Insurance Companies do a very aggressive job in seeing that the average consumer of an "fixed annuity contract tied to an indexed" are well informed and protected by the insurance agent and the company writing the business.
In that the Insurance company is guranteeing principal it seems that this would take it out entirely under SEC scrutiny. There is no stock like product that has a guarantee.
Most of all this proposed rule would deprive countless individuals of a solid investment that would not otherwise be exposed to it becauuse they just aren't about to open a brokerage account. It's very intimidating for many.
Please keep the indexed annuity under the present scrutiny.
It is working very well in the vast majority of cases.
SEC scrutiny would just confuse matters and really offer no benefit to the consumer.
Thank you,
Dan Douroux