Concerned about the possibility of another market swoon?

Take a look at some of the living benefits features that can be attached to most variable annuity products to hedge market risk and lock-in a floor of income.

How about inflation risk?

Buy a fixed annuity with inflation protection.

How about capturing a portion of the market upside while also having downside protection?

This is the second part of an interview with Professor David Babbel.

Part one can be found here.

This is the first part of an interview with Wharton Professor David Babbel.

Professor Babbel led the fixed indexed annuity study that is discussed in several previous posts on Annuity Digest.  These posts can be accessed by clicking here.

Part 2 of this interview will be posted later this week.  Annuity Digest would like to thank Professor Babbel for spending time with us for the interview.

The annuity industry is a large and increasingly important part of the financial services landscape.  Millions of Baby Boomers are retiring and will be in need of stable sources of income and protection from longevity risk.

Given the industry’s size and importance, the lack of positive press, prevalence of negative press, and general misunderstanding of the products is truly staggering—just tune in to any Suze Orman show that involves a question on variable annuities.

This is a continuation of a series of posts that discuss a fixed indexed annuity study from Professor David Babbel.

This is a follow-up on two previous entries that discuss the fixed indexed annuity study from Wharton Professor David Babbel.

I received the following question from MJM in Hawaii:

Where did you finally locate the actual study I have looke everywhere and cannot find it Thanks, mjm in Hawaii

I could not find the study anywhere online either.  Professor Babbel was kind enough to provide access to it.

I will be publishing some of the specific results early next week.

There is in fact a study from Professor David Babbel that compares the performance of fixed indexed annuities to portfolios of stocks and bonds and it is fascinating.

A recent article in Forbes magazine discusses the pros and cons of equity indexed annuities.

On the negative side the author makes a high level reference to costs and questions whether equity indexed annuity owners receive fair value for what they pay.