Friday, February 8, 2013 - 7:00 AM

Be Wary Of Insurers Offering Annuity Buybacks

From Kiplinger

A growing number of insurance companies are offering financial incentives to owners of annuities to relinquish lucrative guaranteed income benefits and death benefits. In most cases, the extra payments will be a bad deal for seniors who own older annuities

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This reminds me of some banks and credit unions that have offered waiving early withdrawal penalties for customers with high-interest CDs.

KenBDG5,146 posts since
Nov 29, 2009
Rep Points: 117,030

1. Friday, February 8, 2013 - 8:02 AM

I'm not surprised this is going on. Of course I wish I had purchased a lifetime immediate annuity paying-out at an annual rate of 6%, plus an inflation rider, in the days prior to ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy). But I can't now, can I? The insurance companies believe they can get out of their high-paying annuity contracts with seniors by offering "incentives" to those who might take the bait. Legally the insurance companies can do it but it's ethically wrong to use any pressure on those seniors to relinquish those products.

Shorebreak1,296 posts since
Apr 6, 2010
Rep Points: 4,866