Senior Citizens tricked into investing Billions of dollars in 2002

Equity Index Annuities issued by top insurance companies mislead consumers into believing that they will actually earn returns equal to the S&P 500 Index.

Equity Index Annuities (EIA's) in theory are wonderful investments for consumers. Unfortuanately, the actual contracts issued by the insurance companies are as difficult to understand as microphysics.

Since the late 1990's, when EIA's were first introduced, the concept of crediting a customer's account with the gains of the S&P 500 (minus a small fee), without experiencing any of the losses has attracted Billions of dollars each year.

The marketing brochures, company recruiters, and agents have sold these contracts as if the consumer is guaranteed to earn all of the gains from the S&P 500 index. This is only the case with three products in the industry.

The most unfortunate situation has occurred, the top selling companies are paying the highest commissions to the agents, but are not guaranteeing that the fee charged by the insurance company will remain the same for the entire surrender charge period. As a result, insurance companies are left in the position to increase the fees to the point that the consumer will never recieve any gains from the S&P 500 index.

In addition to fluctuating fees, the three other concerns that are become more present are the calculation of the S&P 500 Index, the presence of lifetime surrender charges and the minimum guarantees being as low as 1% or less!