As Americans scramble to fund 30 years of retirement, their quest for guaranteed income has led them to annuities, doubling sales in the industry over the past four years to $40 billion dollars.
That’s likely to accelerate as some 13,000 Americans turn age 65 each day. But what most consumers don’t know is the insurance brokers who sell them annuities are not fiduciaries and are not required to put customers’ best interests first. In fact, insurance brokers will likely never discuss their retirement plan or needs with them again, despite charging them upfront commissions of 10% to 15%.
The majority of advisors—including fee-only, hybrid and commission-based professionals—not only believe that insurance brokers who sell annuities products should be held to fiduciary standard, but that the lack of such a requirement gives them an unfair advantage, according to a new survey from DPL Financial Partners, a Louisville, Ken.-based platform for commission-free annuities.
“It’s remarkable to find such a strong consensus among all types of advisors that a fiduciary standard is needed when it comes to insurance products,” DPL Founder and CEO David Lau said...