Securities Industry Attacks on EIAs Are Rooted in Finanacial Jealousy

When the stock market began its slide in 2000, investors were routinely looking for alternate ways of preserving and protecting their assets from further losses, and thus the sale of indexed annuities began increasing at a record pace. This flow of money, from brokerage accounts, into these fixed insurance products, was so dramatic, that it quickly got the attention of the NASD and the broker dealers, who were losing hundreds of millions in commissions, and tens of billions in assets under management. In 2004, the sale of indexed annuities grew to a whopping $23 billion, up 64% from the previous year. With the loss of so much business, so suddenly, into one single competitive product, the securities industry decided to respond with a vengeance, but not with new and innovative products, in order to effectively compete with indexed annuities. Rather, the securities industry chose to start a methodical propaganda campaign against indexed annuities. The NASD Notice to Members 05-50, attempts to force registered agents, who want to sell non-registered indexed annuities, to only use their broker dealers to access a short list of “approved” indexed annuities. This action clearly exposes their true intentions of trying to return all of that lost commission money to their broker dealers and registered agents, by ultimately garnering complete control of this rapidly growing market sector. In spite of the questions you may have heard raised by the NASD, about questionable sales methods and the suitability of indexed annuities in certain markets, their real concern is not about the sales process, it is about the money!