Fidelity Survey on New Retirement Income Plan

[Another Reader]

Looks like Fido is thinking about an alternative to the standard annuity concept. I received a survey about it this morning. Lots of alternative plans, all with a hefty fee to Fido of 1.0 to 1.6 percent of assets. My answers were totally worthless to them because the survey instructs you to leave out real estate and I would never pay them this amount to structure a withdrawal plan. Anyone else get this survey and take it?

 

[athena53]

I haven't seen it yet (and I have a Fidelity account) but I answer surveys on e-Rewards and Fidelity had a flurry of them a few months ago. Sometimes you can tell what firm is behind the survey (e.g., they run possible commercials by you and ask what you think) and sometimes you can't, but these were all Fidelity. I've gotten a lot of e-Rewards funny money for finance-related surveys lately (in the last year I've redeemed them for 35K Hilton points in total). I think a lot of financial service firms are trying for models with steadier income, typically a % of assets under management. There have been a few floating automated portfolio reallocation products.

 

[nun]

What are they considering as "alternatives"?

 

[Gone4Good]

What are they considering as "alternatives"?

+1

I'm always looking for alternative ways to diversify my lifetime income stream beyond stocks and bonds. If someone comes up with a decent plan to insure against longevity risk I'd be willing to consider it, even if the nominal fees are high.

 

[Another Reader]

The proposals are a series of pseudo-annuities. Guaranteed income for various periods, flat, indexed, some with remainder value, some without. Some become more conservative over time in asset allocation. Lots of moving parts in each proposal. You pick your favorite on each page and then check a box for how likely you would be to use the product.

They were all confusing, so I just selected against plans I thought were silly and then picked the lowest cost. I checked the "unlikely to use" box on every page. The survey instructs you to leave out rental properties. Ummm....I'm clearly not your target market, Fido.

 

[Gone4Good]

The proposals are a series of pseudo-annuities. Guaranteed income for various periods, flat, indexed, some with remainder value, some without. Some become more conservative over time in asset allocation. Lots of moving parts in each proposal. You pick your favorite on each page and then check a box for how likely you would be to use the product.

They were all confusing, so I just selected against plans I thought were silly and then picked the lowest cost. I checked the "unlikely to use" box on every page. The survey instructs you to leave out rental properties. Ummm....I'm clearly not your target market, Fido.

OK, so nothing necessarily new coming out of FIDO. Just more of the same overly complicated, trap-door laden, gee-wiz marketed, Rube Goldberg machines for separating investors from their money.

 

[FiIQ]

The proposals are a series of pseudo-annuities. Guaranteed income for various periods, flat, indexed, some with remainder value, some without. Some become more conservative over time in asset allocation. Lots of moving parts in each proposal. You pick your favorite on each page and then check a box for how likely you would be to use the product.

They were all confusing, so I just selected against plans I thought were silly and then picked the lowest cost. I checked the "unlikely to use" box on every page. The survey instructs you to leave out rental properties. Ummm....I'm clearly not your target market, Fido.

Hmm...

New (potentially) annuities products, I see this as turning out to be them putting their low expense ratio funds in an Insurance product, to make up the lost fees from their low expense ratio funds.

 

[Another Reader]

There was a lot of focus in the survey on what would you pay for the product shown. I would pay nothing because I can manage my assets just fine. With pensions, Social Security, enough in IRA's to pay more than the pensions and Social Security, plus a number of rentals, I'm not worried about eating. My big worry is cognitive decline later in life, but that is not how I would manage the problem.

 

[Another Reader]

The survey is being done by a company called The Modellers. Never heard of them, but market research companies come and go.

 

[Greg V]

I took the survey and didn't find any of the options attractive. It would have been interesting if there was a question that asked you to put together the most appealing plan a la carte. Even though I still would't be interested, that might have told the market researchers a bit more about the most desirable features.

 

[DrRoy]

I've gotten a lot of e-Rewards funny money for finance-related surveys lately

We have also been doing e-Rewards for several years. I used to buy miles on Delta but they dropped out. Now I buy Holiday Inn points with the credit. Then, I like their option for a $70 hotel room just about anywhere for 5000 points.

 

[samclem]

It would have been interesting if there was a question that asked you to put together the most appealing plan a la carte. Even though I still would't be interested, that might have told the market researchers a bit more about the most desirable features.

Maybe so, but I doubt the folks here are the market they are shooting for.
There are things in which many people on this board might be interested (e.g high-deductible LTC insurance, low cost inflation-indexed pure longevity insurance, etc), but apparently the market and margin is too small to make it worth pursuing.

 

[heeyy_joe]

I answered about six questions and they ended the survey. Should I be hurt or happy?

 

[kimcdougc]

Most of our funds are at FIDO. Haven't received any surveys. Hmm, maybe our big account is not big enough to qualify to fill out a survey or I could have just deleted it in my email. Oh so many problems to have.