Regarding Kerry Pechter’s article, “Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing”
October 6, 2017 by Sheryl J. Moore
A note regarding Kerry Pechter’s article, “Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing,” from October 5, 2017’s Retirement Income Journal:
There are inaccuracies in this article and comments that I made, which were taken out-of-context in this piece. I was out-of-town for a speaking engagement when the author asked for feedback on some commentary; I was, therefore, unable to reply. I am alarmed that although a second email was sent to me with no reply, asking for me to approve certain statements, and my out-of-the-office responses were being automatically-generated, the journalist chose to move forward and publish the article without my approval or clarification. Further, I am sorry to see that when I finally arrived in the office, hours after the article’s publication, and brought the inaccuracies to the journalist’s attention, he did not make appropriate corrections to the piece.
For the record-
I am not skeptical of the potential of FIAs. I have never been. I am not sure what I ever could have said to give Mr. Pechter this impression.
Regarding fee-based indexed annuities, my commentary is that “I do not understand how one can justify an asset management fee on a product that has no market risk. I understand the implications of the DOL’s rule on annuity product development, but this still has me scratching my head.”
Further, I do not think that insurance-licensed-only agents will keep selling indexed annuities if they are fee-based. I personally think that these agents would move to selling commission-based fixed annuities if all indexed annuities are fee-based.
sjm