James M. Dahle, MD, FACEP, is the author of The White Coat Investor: A Doctor’s Guide to Personal Finance and Investing and blogs at http://whitecoatinvestor.com. He is not a licensed financial adviser, accountant, or attorney and recommends you consult with your own advisers prior to acting on any information you read here.
View this author's posts »
2 Responses to “Annuities Not Recommended As Investment for Physicians”
January 2, 2018
BrentSeven years ago I took half my Roth IRA balance, $25K, and invested it in a Variable Annuity with MetLife. The strategy at the time was to choose the riskiest funds available since it had a guaranteed 5.5% return and could possibly earn much more. Having read numerous articles I have regreted the decision, not only due to the commission it paid up front, but it’s complexity which made the investment decision with all its options unnecessarily difficult. At one point the insurance company actually changed my chosen investments to different, less risky ones and more recently changed invested assets again, as well as company organization, now called Brighthouse. I have no idea how solvent they are for the future. It’s got a $35,000 life insurance value now, but penalty-free withdrawal balance of only $2500. I’m meeting with the agent this week to see about liquidating it as I don’t need the insurance and its dwarfed by the rest of my Roth IRA which has grown to $400K. What are my best future options for this relatively inconsequential sum?
August 22, 2018
Andreas LawsonDr. James,
I am a financial economist specializing in portfolio management.
We found your website b/c a physician client asked me about defined benefit plans for doc’s.
In your above piece, you are right on the money. Thank you for writing it.
Best regards,
Andreas Lawson, Ph.D.