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I agree there were many things that were not reported totally honest and upfront.
Here is a link of the transcript.
Tricks of the trade - Dateline NBC | NBC News
I found this online and agree with what is said:
Hansen's central point was that insurance agents were tricking the elderly into buying these products without informing them of the penalties for early withdrawal. Every one of the presentations on the hidden video included the agent mentioning that there were penalties for early surrender. In one case in particular, the agent went through the penalties in detail. In every instance, the agent also provided what appeared to be substantial written information that contained a surrender penalty breakdown.
If I were Chris Hansen, I would have probably packed up my things and considered the whole project a flop. After all, he was not able to prove his central point about people being tricked, and I am sure that we saw only his best edited clips. Every individual was informed about the penalties verbally and provided the details in writing. But this was not in thes script. Hansen sat down with various state regulators that watched segments of the hidden video. Hansen grinning ear to ear had the regulators agreeing with his every point. Although the penalties had been mentioned by each agent and provided in writing, Hansen and the regulators agreed that they were not emphasized enough. This really seems like splitting hairs to me and falls enormously short of the promise made at the beginning of the story.
I am concerned that the media in presenting stories like this are needlessly making people into victims, when they appear to have entered into perfectly legal investment contracts. As it stands now, we have millions of people walking around that claim they were tricked into mortgages they can not afford. While some may legitimately be victims of fraud, most simply assert that they signed all of the documents without reading them! We have to be very careful here to remind people that they are responsible for their own decisions. If you don't understand something, don't sign it! Get your attorney to review it, get a second opinion.
Consider the spin on the central victim's story. A man who reportedly invested $40,000 in an indexed annuity. His wife died and he closed out the annuity early. As a result of the surrender charges, he supposedly lost his home! Now wait a minute here, how could a loss of $6,000 on a $40,000 investment cause someone to lose their home? As this was continually repeated,a picture would come up on the screen of the man and his deceased wife. Please…. I am the only one that saw right through this?
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One thing I've experimented lately is to not start talking about withdrawal features, but to bluntly tell them their money will not be available until after surrender, so they know that up front, and then work backwards into how surrender works.
There's no point in deceiving people about anything regarding annuities. If that's the only way you can live with yourself, you need to find another occupation or not sell them.
There's no point in deceiving people about anything regarding annuities. If that's the only way you can live with yourself, you need to find another occupation or not sell them.
This is trash tv that deceives people and hinders the careers of honest agents. Why don't he do exposes on financial advisors who put clients no stocks and mutual funds that lose 50% or more in market drops.
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I give Hanson that it is an issue. If the agent omits information and puts all of a clients funds into the annuity AND decieves the carrier on the suitability forms. I don't shy away from surrender charges but if I haven't had a chance to explain the positives I might say this is a place for your long term assets and that I will get into all the specifics....Case in point I have a carrier that provides a bonus and you are vested in the bonus so the surrender charge seems high if you have not been told about the bonus.
- 104
Exactly. The video only had 8 minutes of total footage, maybe with 30 seconds of his presentation. It was heavily edited, and every time he started into explanations or was SHOWN leaning forward with documents in hand, the video cut to Snowden, er, I mean Hansen whistleblowing himself and demonizing annuities across the board.
A lot of paint was splashed about, but little substance was shown.
The worst we saw was his response that "like CD's there are fees..." *footage redacted* Note: he did not say the withdrawal fees were like/similar to CD's fees, but that LIKE CD's you are penalized with fees for early withdrawal.
For all we know he went on to say "but those feels are substantial and heavily weighted up front.... under now circumstances is this a checking account.... try to avoid early withdrawals at all costs.... (etc etc)" while providing all written accounts of the charges and disclosures.
Then, an issue was taken with the commission (go figure). Hansen and his 'highly-skilled' editors make it sound like the agent dodged the question of commission and instead offered up the lolmagazine, but I for one never heard one posed.
If anything, Hansen should have taken more issue with the service offering ghost-written articles that claimed not to know what agents were doing with "bolstering their reputation" (citation needed there as well).
And, OH NO! (evil) Allianz is still in business! This must be representative of their practices on all accounts. Ban all insurers ("lawsuits pending") and annuity agents!
Good thing we have no examples of other financial institutions, banks, governments/politicians, brokers, clearinghouses, pension providers, oversight agencies, major accounting firms, rating organizations, etc being shown guilty of doing much, much worse. The carriers may be held liable for agents' behavior, a rotten apple makes not a poisoned apple tree.
Good!
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- 11,502
Hansen's in trouble... again:
'To Catch a Predator' Host Chris Hansen Charged With Bouncing Checks
Karma can be a real b**** at times.
'To Catch a Predator' Host Chris Hansen Charged With Bouncing Checks
Karma can be a real b**** at times.
Oregon Ben
New Member
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Fixed Annuities are great because unlike a bond they can't loose value. And the interest is comparable even so.
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Bonds provide a guaranteed rate of return. They do not lose value.
