Be Careful Out There!

Posted by Ray on March 28, 2007 under Main | Be the First to Comment

When shopping or looking for annuity information you will find many websites that are offering free information. These websites are more than happy to help you make an Annuity decision, simply give them your name, contact information and the amount you want to invest. I am sure they or whoever they sell your info to will get right back to you.

Some of these sites are OK and others are a bit more dubious and it is ultimately your responsibility to know who you are dealing with. I know most of the players out there, either personally or by my own research, and can tell you there are, other than Annuity IQ, only a few sites I actually trust.

The fact of the matter is, there is nothing for free in this world. Either they are trying to gain your business by selling you an annuity or they are going to sell your contact information for $20 to $50 a lead to other brokers. Some of these sites, you know who you are, copy other websites, this one included, and make claims that are false.

Annuity IQ is not free because we do not try to sell you an annuity. We do not sell your information, ever! We have no hidden agenda, as a matter of fact Annuity IQ is one of the few sites that actually tells you who runs the site, ME! Many other sites do not tell you who they are and simply tell you to contact them, with your information, to find out who they are…I wonder why that is?

I am writing this because I am about to launch a new web page that will go over the internet, annuities and you. These sites are not my competition, as a matter of fact I am friends with a person who works for one of these websites, but we do not have any business relationship with each other. I want to keep my work pure and consumer and broker based so you get good information without the fear of a sales call.

Some of my free information does require you to provide your name and email address. I do this so I can track who is requesting information, their location and I can identify who my viewing base is, consumers or brokers. In other words I take this information for marketing purposes only and rarely, if ever send out mass emails and I never sell the information, as laid out in my privacy policy.

So, here are some signs that you are on a website designed to sell you an annuity or some pie in the sky information:

All the ‘Contact Us’ forms involve you giving your contact information such as your name telephone number, address, state, etc.

You are getting a sales kit for ‘free’, providing you give the information requested as listed above.

They tell you that they are licensed, but do not give you their names or the firm they work with on the website.

They ask how much money and when you want to invest in an annuity product.

The website has no more than one page and it is a mile long. This is known as a ‘squeeze’ page and is designed to sell you information or get you to sign up for a free newsletter. Also, the claims they make are all emotional and the product usually sells for $47, $67 or $97 dollars.

They provide you with ‘ratings’ on variable annuity contracts. Annuity IQ is the only ratings website on the internet that actively reviews and rates variable annuities. Others use it as a gimmick.

They claim to have never had a customer complaint against them. I just found a new website that makes that claim and the person who runs the site has two settlements against him and the owner of their broker/dealer, a family operation, has 12 complaints against him.

10 years investment experience does not mean 10 years experience as a financial advisor. The same firm mentioned above has two people with over 10 years experience, the rest only have a couple years experience. I am sorry but an UGMA account or a savings account that you have had for 10 years does not count as investment experience.

They have a top annuity that ‘stands out’ over the rest of the variable annuity contracts they ‘track’. Under no circumstances does one contract issued by a single company meet everyone’s needs. Also, there could be a financial reason that that contract is ‘the best’, the commission is high or they are getting marketing dollars for supporting that product. This is not always the case, but you would be surprised how often it happens.

If they have a 1-800 number and are showing you variable annuities, they are brokers trying to sell products to you.

Like I said before, there is no such thing as a free lunch and real information is rarely free, especially for annuities. You can find free mutual fund information, but we pay for the Morningstar report. We pay for that report because we know Morningstar does not care about the mutual fund firm and are unbiased. We pay for that information because it can be trusted. This is why Annuity IQ information is not free, we do the same thing, just with variable annuities.

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