Annuities: tripwires and snares... again?
Thank you for welcoming me as a new member. I need some info re retirement annuities that I am having a hard time finding.
At least some annuities, Like Fidelity's for instance [NOT AN ACCUSATION], are written on insurance paper, and make it clear (though in rather fine print) that Fidelity is not responsible for the annuity if in the event of any financial failures on the part of underwriter. Fidelity also is (obviously) connected to the Fidelity Insurance Network.
This may sound like an idiot question, but the Fidelity annuity app, while letting itself off the hook, does not identify the underwriters. Are they Fid Ins Net companies? if not, who are they? Either way, how strong are they? This sounds too much like sub-prime lending.
Please don't think I am a troublemaker -- I am a fraidy cat. I have watched not only the sub prime deal, Lincoln Savings, the dot com balloon, the S&L scandal, and even the variable interest second mortgages of the 1980's. All depended on (ultimately unstable) secondary markets and/or steady interest rates (a legend from the 1960's) to do their thing.
In my view, disclosures left out of an ad for an instrument as potentially wonky yet absolutely vital as a modern annuity is often important information indeed. I have been there before and my retirement income is all I have left.
Please tell me if you know anything about this issue, and/or where I can find and document the informnation
Thanks again!
Tinsmith