Would an insurance annuity make sense for an IRA investment? -

An insurance agent is showing me a product called MasterDex 5. I retire in 12 years. Thx. Absolutely not!! The recommendation makes no sense. The previous answers are correct, but there is another factor to consider as well. An annuity is a tax deferred product. An IRA is a tax deferred account, so adding a annuity to it is redundant. You get the maximum benefit by putting investments that would normally generate taxes into your IRA. Keep tax advantaged investments in your taxable account. I question the honesty of your insurance salesman if he/she is recommending this for an IRA. It could. If you are still 12 years away from retirement, then a long term annuity investment can make sense. (The tax deferred aspect is a wash and should not influence your decision either way. You are shopping for an investment, tax deferral is already built in.) Indexed annuity accounts like the MasterDex from Alliance our particularly appropriate for those who have no tolerance for market losses. Certainly, protecting your retirement assets while also allocating them to a safe vehicle can be a good choice should you have already accumulated a sizable nest egg. Others might criticize annuity product over the stock market, but these same people always seem to underestimate the risk of loss in the overall markets - and they benefit handsomely from managing your money as well. They ignore market cycles like the one just experienced between 2000-2002. Consumers lost millions of dollars during that time period, and now when many of their portfolios have finally returned to break-even - the market is correcting again. Indexed annuity accounts eliminate those losses. But some are designed better than others. You have to understand the caps, spreads and participation rates. One annuity might return 5% while the other could return 8% during the exact same market cycle. Learn more about indexed annuity accounts here: http://www.ohioinsureplan.com/index.php/... Probably not. I don't know the product, but someone who is not retired can do better than buying an annuity. Your IRA can grow faster over the next 12 years if it is invested in solid corporate stocks. An annuity simply cannot pay that kind of return. Your IRA invested in a good mutual fund, or 3-4 mutual funds (depending on the amounts involved) should grow at 10 percent or more. Your retirement fund will be much higher 12 years later than if you buy an annuity now. The insurance person is looking out for his best interest, not yours. Most of the time, annuities benefit the sales agent more than the buyer. Beware. First of all, you should not be meeting with an Insurance Agent to discuss anything to do with an IRA. Insurance agents are not regulated like a NASD licensed financial services professional. The industry has been highly regulated the past few years due to the high volume of sales in variable annuities. Beware of anyone who tries to sell you on a variable annuity. They are not always the best answer for your problem, more than likely the agent is just trying to make a big commission on you. Now, I would recommend starting at your bank if you don't personally know of any financial advisors. A lot of banks now have in-house people who are licensed to handle this type of business. If not, look into national wirehouses like Principal, Fidelity, Ameritrade, etc. Try to find an advisor who's professional and has some experience. They will give you the best advice because they are well established, are a lot smarter, and also have a lot more to lose if they don't do a good job. Hope this helps. Good luck. Generally, annuities are not the best anything for investments. Just run the numbers - use a low, 10% average for the stock market, over 12 years, and whatever percentage that works out on your annuity. Factor in the fees - annuities are really, really fee heavy. Bet you can do at least TWICE as well, maybe more, in a couple index funds. It would only make sense if you are considering it for some reason other than tax deferral. An IRA already gives you tax deferral. If you need the guarantee that you won't loose money, there are other similar annuity options that have shorter and less severe surrender charges, or heck, even a CD would work. You might also want to consider an asset allocation that matches your risk tolerance. There are many financial advisors who charge a management fee of 1% or less per year to help you with these decisions without tying your money up at any given time. Here is an article I found about the MasterDex 5: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/st... All in all, it's wise to do a little research or meet with someone like a fee-only financial planner before making a long-term commitment with your retirement money. Insurance people typically limit their advice to things they can sell.