A lot of us are pretty sophisticated investor with both paper credentials and decades of real life experience. I generally read all 120+ page of prospectus before investing in products I don't understand.
Admittedly the last 4 or 5 year so far have been pretty reasonable time to invest in EIA/FIA, which is probably why the insurance companies are making them less attractive.
However, you have claimed there are good ones out there. If so show me.
I'd like to see two things a link to the prospectus, and second and more importantly a FIRECalc-like history of what the returns would have been like over the last say 60 years of the S&P.
For instance if Joe and Susan bought 100K worth Allianz xyz Annuity back in 1950 when they 40, what would have been their monthly income in 1975 at age 65, the same thing if they invested in 1960.
I'll make a deal show me current product that would have performed historical better than a diversified portfolio. I'll stop bad mouthing annuities.
What do you say?
There is no prospectus and it is not an investment as these are not securities. They are not meant to compete with true index funds on a long term 30, 40, 50 year basis. You are talking about a product that is specifically designed for a 5-15 year period to lock in the principle and have a potential return which may or may not be better than a regular fixed annuity, depending on how the overall index performs. EIA's/FIA's are NOT designed to maximize returns, otherwise there would be risk of principle loss, which is common sense.
Most companies require signed product illustrations that at least show the performance over the best 10 years, worst 10 years, and last 10 years (or however long the surrender period is) compared to the benchmark index.
I'm not sure what you want me to show you for "the good ones out there." What do you consider good? What do you want out of the product? Guaranteed income? Higher guaranteed minimums? Return of premium option? I have said before on this forum that with the constant lowering of caps over the past two years, they are much less attractive than they used to be when there were 10-12% caps (they are now 4-6.5% mostly) unless you are specifically looking to use one of the guaranteed income riders and don't care about the caps. Most companies are reducing their guaranteed income because of the continuous low interest rate environment though, so that ship is starting to sail.
Ask someone who bought an EIA/FIA with a 12% cap if they've been satisfied with the product. Then ask them how the rest of their retirement accounts did in comparison.