NASD Propaganda against Indexed Annuities Led by Glauber Double Talk

The NASD, and its Chairman, Robert Glauber, are at it again. In a message he delivered on Monday at an NASD enforcement conference in Miami, Fla., Glauber’s words were filled with lies and misleading insinuations. He stated that buyers of fixed annuities think they are buying a product that is the same as a variable annuity and that this should require that the NASD offer their protection to those buyers from agents, he is insinuating, are all misleading their prospects about the facts and details of fixed and indexed annuities. But, Mr. Glauber, as he has often done as of late, is the one to lie and misstate the details and facts about indexed annuities, and incorrectly insinuate that fixed and indexed annuities are the same as variable annuities. His “mantra” that he loves to promote, is that "it is not clear whether indexed annuities are securities or not." Other than erroneous statements like this, made by the head of an agency whose members are having a hard time competing against the popularity of indexed annuities, the public has no question that indexed annuities are savings vehicles and not investments, offered by insurance companies, with guarantees of principal, guaranteed minimum returns, and the potential of earning higher interest than the guaranteed minimum, based on changes in a linked index. Glauber also drops phrases like, “fixed annuity investors,” in his attempts to try to legitimize his claims that fixed annuities are investments, when in fact; they are not investments at all. No one, other than Glauber and his jealous securities industry cronies, claim that they might be. In cases where risky securities products have been replaced by guaranteed products, like fixed and indexed annuities, Glauber incorrectly indicates that the NASD has authority over the fixed products in these cases, because they were used to replace a securities product. If Glauber, or anyone at the NASD or related securities industries want to try to intelligently argue, that it is innappropriate to move a senior’s assets from a risky market investment, where they can and HAVE lost principal value, into a product that offers guarantees of principal and a minimum return, and the potential for a guaranteed lifetime income, I welcome that challenge. Meanwhile, I encourage Mr. Glauber to CEASE and DESIST his propaganda campaign against the insurance industry, and focus on his own sick industry and cleaing up the widespread corruption in the securities industry that has caused so many people to flee its uncertainty and risk, and seek out secure and guaranteed products, like fixed and indexed annuities.