All-Channel Trend Report

If you believe their critics, annuities are a big ripoff financial vehicles that are flogged by financial advisors merely for their high commissions. This is unfortunate, for annuities (both fixed and variable) can be useful financial planning...

Picture this: An older woman with a limited investment horizon her nest egg in a diversified portfolio, but at his advisor's urging, he agrees to move everything into a variable annuity with whopping upfront fees and penalties for early withdrawal...

Securities firms have good reasons for wanting their reps to sell insurance, but some stockbrokers dismiss it outright. It is beneath you, too complicated or simply not worth the risk?

To find a good match for both you and your clients, you must do your homework.

In the converging financial services business, reps have a big edge over insurance producers. They make more, have better clients--and are pushed harder by management.

Unlike their parents, baby boomers can't count on employer-sponsored pensions to support upon retirement. Boomers will have to come up with another way to ensure financial security. With 76 million boomers forecast to reach the age of retirement ...

The past few years of roiling, tumbling markets have struck fear in the hearts of many investors and sent some searching for a port gold, CDs, guaranteed investment contracts in which to wait out the storm. Annuities, long derided as overpriced...