So I've been working with my financial advisor for 2 1/2 years. For the first 2 years, things went pretty well with quarterly meetings to review my investments within my 401k and make changes through the self-directed brokerage. Things have not gone well this past year and I'm wondering how I should proceed. A couple months ago I posted a question about a particular annuity they were proposing to get some perspective and folks on here were kind enough to provide feedback (see link below for context).
viewtopic.php?t=433579
The backstory: When I first started working with this advisor, she and her supervisor advised putting a portion of my retirement assets in an annuity as a conservative investment strategy. We ended up rolling an old 401k totaling about $65,000 (currently about 20% of my portfolio) into the Fidelity & Guaranty Accumulator Plus 10 with the Barclays Trailblazer Sectors 5 Index. At first it seemed like a good idea, but after receiving my first statement after 2 years, I was furious to see a 0.0% return. During the next meeting with the advisor, she showed little empathy for the poor outcome but instead proposed we withdraw the funds out of the F&G annuity incurring a 10% surrender charge (about $7k) and move the funds into another annuity (Silac Denali Bonus 14) where the "bonus" would make up for the loss in the surrender charge from the F&G annuity. She was very insistent that we moved quickly on it since interest rates were high and we did the paperwork. After the meeting I began to wonder "Who is this really benefitting from this considering the prior outcome?" and I emailed her to stop any forward progress on the application for the Silac annuity. We met several more times over the next couple months to answer questions I had as I became very suspicious. Red flags such as Silac being recently downgraded to a B+ rating by AM Best, the 14.75 year surrender schedule, the sample return history of prior years that seemed too good to be true, etc., started popping up the more digging I did. Her carefree attitude towards the whole ordeal and reluctance to take any responsibility for the nonperformance really just pissed me off. I eventually decided to not move forward with the other annuity (Silac) and figured I'd at least try to negotiate with the current annuity company, F&G Annuities & Life, on the surrender charges. From there I could just roll the F&G Annuity into an IRA and be done with it.
The letter to F&G basically stated that I felt I was misguided by my advisor at ___ firm, and that I went with this product believing that they were advising in my best interest. I believe they were more motivated by the commission as they were clearly the ones who benefited from this product while I was essentially left holding the bag. I asked that they waive the surrender charges so I can get myself back on track. I figured it's a long shot, but maybe they'll at least negotiate the surrender charges if they won't wave them (which I seriously doubt they'll do).
A week goes by and I get a call not from F&G, but my FA's supervisor. He mentioned that he received the letter from F&G and we talked for about 20 mins before I had to run to a meeting at work. I'll admit, it was nice that he listened with empathy and apologized that things did not turn out as expected. He listened to what I had to say about the past year of working with my advisor (his employee) and offered to fully refund the $800 advising fee I paid earlier this year. He also wanted to know how he could make this right to get me back on track. He proposed that he would do my financial advising for a small fee (and later said for free) but insisted that it would be a terrible idea to withdraw from the F&G Annuity and that the loss in surrender charges would be a huge setback. He insisted that I wait until the next statement (May 2026) as he strongly believes the return will be as high as 15%. (Honestly, 15% over 4 years is still kinda [(removed --admin LadyGeek]). He seems truly apologetic and followed up with an email that he looks forward to working with me and rectifying this as quickly as possible to get me back on track. I have not received an official response from F&G yet regarding the letter and hope to hear something from them in the next couple days.
My question is how should I proceed? Should I give this guy the opportunity to try to make things right and get me back on track? Or is this all pretty much smoke and mirrors with him just trying to [(removed --admin LadyGeek] and make it appear all is good with the annuity company and avoid any negative reviews? He mentioned he had to respond to F&G, but I do not know what all that entails. What is fair for me to ask moving forward if I choose to continue working with them? I honestly just want to get out of the F&G Annuity and not play any more games. I'd rather put that money in index funds and get a moderate return instead of waiting for 2 more years with the hope of getting something above 0%. Sorry for the long post, but I could really use some perspective in how to go about this..
viewtopic.php?t=433579
The backstory: When I first started working with this advisor, she and her supervisor advised putting a portion of my retirement assets in an annuity as a conservative investment strategy. We ended up rolling an old 401k totaling about $65,000 (currently about 20% of my portfolio) into the Fidelity & Guaranty Accumulator Plus 10 with the Barclays Trailblazer Sectors 5 Index. At first it seemed like a good idea, but after receiving my first statement after 2 years, I was furious to see a 0.0% return. During the next meeting with the advisor, she showed little empathy for the poor outcome but instead proposed we withdraw the funds out of the F&G annuity incurring a 10% surrender charge (about $7k) and move the funds into another annuity (Silac Denali Bonus 14) where the "bonus" would make up for the loss in the surrender charge from the F&G annuity. She was very insistent that we moved quickly on it since interest rates were high and we did the paperwork. After the meeting I began to wonder "Who is this really benefitting from this considering the prior outcome?" and I emailed her to stop any forward progress on the application for the Silac annuity. We met several more times over the next couple months to answer questions I had as I became very suspicious. Red flags such as Silac being recently downgraded to a B+ rating by AM Best, the 14.75 year surrender schedule, the sample return history of prior years that seemed too good to be true, etc., started popping up the more digging I did. Her carefree attitude towards the whole ordeal and reluctance to take any responsibility for the nonperformance really just pissed me off. I eventually decided to not move forward with the other annuity (Silac) and figured I'd at least try to negotiate with the current annuity company, F&G Annuities & Life, on the surrender charges. From there I could just roll the F&G Annuity into an IRA and be done with it.
The letter to F&G basically stated that I felt I was misguided by my advisor at ___ firm, and that I went with this product believing that they were advising in my best interest. I believe they were more motivated by the commission as they were clearly the ones who benefited from this product while I was essentially left holding the bag. I asked that they waive the surrender charges so I can get myself back on track. I figured it's a long shot, but maybe they'll at least negotiate the surrender charges if they won't wave them (which I seriously doubt they'll do).
A week goes by and I get a call not from F&G, but my FA's supervisor. He mentioned that he received the letter from F&G and we talked for about 20 mins before I had to run to a meeting at work. I'll admit, it was nice that he listened with empathy and apologized that things did not turn out as expected. He listened to what I had to say about the past year of working with my advisor (his employee) and offered to fully refund the $800 advising fee I paid earlier this year. He also wanted to know how he could make this right to get me back on track. He proposed that he would do my financial advising for a small fee (and later said for free) but insisted that it would be a terrible idea to withdraw from the F&G Annuity and that the loss in surrender charges would be a huge setback. He insisted that I wait until the next statement (May 2026) as he strongly believes the return will be as high as 15%. (Honestly, 15% over 4 years is still kinda [(removed --admin LadyGeek]). He seems truly apologetic and followed up with an email that he looks forward to working with me and rectifying this as quickly as possible to get me back on track. I have not received an official response from F&G yet regarding the letter and hope to hear something from them in the next couple days.
My question is how should I proceed? Should I give this guy the opportunity to try to make things right and get me back on track? Or is this all pretty much smoke and mirrors with him just trying to [(removed --admin LadyGeek] and make it appear all is good with the annuity company and avoid any negative reviews? He mentioned he had to respond to F&G, but I do not know what all that entails. What is fair for me to ask moving forward if I choose to continue working with them? I honestly just want to get out of the F&G Annuity and not play any more games. I'd rather put that money in index funds and get a moderate return instead of waiting for 2 more years with the hope of getting something above 0%. Sorry for the long post, but I could really use some perspective in how to go about this..
Statistics: Posted by HughMorris — Mon Aug 26, 2024 12:15 am — Replies 24 — Views 1814