My Goal: No more financial advisor rip-offs

[yakers]

The best resource: http://www.403bwise.com/

My wife teaches in a districe (Los Angeles Unified) that STILL requires the insurance/annuity structure despite systematic pitches from knowledgeable people. No Vanguard or other low fee index funds available. This wil not change as the financial "advisors" have too much influnce, must be approved by the union and the district does not use the same program for non teachers so they are not interested in fixing it.

[LovesLife]

Sam,
Does your annuity contract allow for a free 10% withdrawl per year? If so, you might want to look into that. If you are in the black there might be some tax consequenses though. IIRC, earnings come out first then principle so you might have to pay tax and/or penalty.

My annuity did not earn a darn thing for 2 years. I pulled mine out and took an overall 6K loss. Overall, I am just damn glad to be out of it.

LL

[SamHouston]

I'll have to check further into the contract to see if I have that option, LL. I don't recall anything like that, but the contract is so long and "legal" that it puts me to sleep after a couple of pages of wading through it.

The annuity is a tax-qualified IRA rollover from another account I had previously, so I wonder if that kind of partial distribution could just be rolled over into another IRA account with no immediate tax implications? Seems like that might be the case.

The only thing making this less painful and irritating at all is that I'm up, after all expenses and ignoring the surrender charges, something like 17% in the two years I've been in the contract.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamHouston The only thing making this less painful and irritating at all is that I'm up, after all expenses and ignoring the surrender charges, something like 17% in the two years I've been in the contract.

You've probably made almost as much money as the sales staff...

[SamHouston]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords You've probably made almost as much money as the sales staff...

No, I think they're still ahead of me, easily when you throw in the surrender fees that I still face. But at least I'm not in the red while they make out like the bandits that they are. :

[maddythebeagle]

Quote:

Thanks...that's a new service to me, although it sounds much like what a notary normally does. I'll call my bank and credit union in the morning to see if they will provide the service. I'm with Chase Bank now that they've taken over Bank One here in Texas.

most banks will do the medallion sign. for your (my credit union and regional bank both do).

[garrynky]

Just curious...reading through the thread....what is the overall expense from Vangaurd?

[Repairmanjack]

Not sure if this will work, but could you use a 1035 to move the annuity from one company to another?

http://www.annuityadvantage.com/1035exchange.htm

[SamHouston]

Jack,
That looks like the perfect thing for me or someone who is no longer subject to those horrible surrender fees, but it doesn't appear that it would get me out of that obligation to IDS. But that's good to know, for future reference, and I appreciate the info.

I did find that I am now to the point that I can withdraw 20% of my original investment without being subject to surrender fees, so I guess that's some good news, all things being relative.

[Repairmanjack]

Sam, you might want to call the Vanguard annuity people and see if they can help you figure out the fees you'd save if you did a 1035. It might end up in your favor even with surrender charges (are you sure there would be surrender charges?). I've always found the Vanguard folks to be very helpful. And not at all pushy.

It's a shame that salesmen can call themselves 'advisors'.

[SamHouston]

I hear you, Jack...salesmen disguised as advisors are a hazard to one's financial health, without a doubt. I'll bring this up on Monday with the fellow I've been working with at Vanguard to see what he might suggest. Right now I'm looking at $8000 in surrender fees, so it would take quite a savings to justify me moving it to another annuity company right now. But, who knows? Ameriprise continues to piss me off because of the way that they are over-complicating the transfer of other of my accounts to Vanguard with a combination of foot-dragging and excessive fees to release MY money. I finally had to remind them that I'm leaving about 40% of the money with Ameriprise UNLESS they finally push me over the edge in frustration and I eat the surrender fees and move on.

[cj]

The only thing worse than a salesman disguised as an advisor is a salesman disguised as a "friend".

CJ