16 Reasons Why Accountants Prefer Fixed Indexed Annuities To Mutual Funds |
|
be taxable to them, depending upon their needs and circumstances from one year to the next. Mutual fund owners are subject to the fund manager’s annual capital gains distributions whether or not 5. Mutual funds often make annual taxable distributions to fund owners, even when the Value of their fund has gone down in value. Mutual funds not only require income reporting (and the resulting annual taxation) when the mutual fund is going up in value, but can also impose income taxes in a year when the fund has gone down in value. When the markets take an extended downturn after several years of sustained growth 9as they did in 2000-2002 and again in 2008, fund managers will often resort to the selling of appreciated stocks purchased several years earlier, in order to generate gains to offset those losses. This has the effect of minimizing the fund’s published loss-in-value at year end, allowing the fund to claim that it was “only” down, say, 9% on the year while it’s peer group was down an average of perhaps 17%. The unsuspecting shareholder of this fund receives his December 31st statement; sees his account is down 9%, and assumes incorrectly that “at least” he’ll owe no taxes on his “loss” come April 15th. Three weeks later, he receives a Form 1099-Div from his mutual fund company showing several thousand dollars of reportable income. The reason for this is that the longer-held stocks which the fund manager sold to reduce his fund’s year-end loss were sold at a gain (over their original purchase price years earlier), a gain that is now reportable and taxable to the mutual fund owner even though his statement shows his account balance down. Fixed Index Annuities grow tax-deferred, cannot lose value in a market. downturn, and impose no annual tax reporting as the annuity is increasing in value. |
|
6. FIAs avoid a myriad of tax traps. The ownership of mutual funds may require the mutual fund owner to pay estimated taxes. Tax-deferred accumulation inside a Fixed Index Annuity does not create the same tax problem. Fixed Index Annuities are so easy to position so that, at the owner’s death, the annuity will not be subject to estate tax. The same tax reduction techniques do not work nearly as well with mutual funds. There are numerous, often costly, tax traps associated with the timed buying and selling of mutual fund shares, traps that do not apply to Fixed Index Annuities. Additionally, mutual fund ownership can result in the loss of tax exemptions, tax deductions, and tax credits, and mutual funds (except those held in an IRA) are usually subject to tax each year. 7. Mutual funds may cause income taxation of Social Security benefits. The annually reported earnings from mutual funds can, in many cases, cause a retired couple’s income to exceed the thresholds above which up to 85 percent of their Social Security benefits are taxed in their income bracket. The growth within the Fixed Indexed Annuity is tax-deferred until taken as income, The policy owner (vs. the mutual fund manager) is in control of his or her reportable income, thus enabling them to reduce or even eliminate the taxation of their Social Security benefits. 8. Mutual funds create an income tax trap for individuals purchasing funds late in the year. Because mutual funds must distribute realized gains to fund owners each year, fund companies usually do so in November or December. An uninformed investor purchasing such a fund during the last quarter of the year may place himself at a tax disadvantage by taking on a partial tax liability for gains which took place earlier in the year which never accrued to his account. Fixed Indexed Annuity present no such problem when late-year purchases are made. 9. Equity Index Annuities are almost always less expensive to own than most mutual funds. According to The wall Street Journal, mutual fund costs include “expense ratios; turnover costs, 12b-1 fees, sales charges, out-of-pocket fees, and other expenses totally as much as 3% per year.” In addition, such costs have tended to go up over time. A Fixed Index Annuity’s maximum costs are always fixed at purchased and are guaranteed never to go up. 10. The record-keeping requirements for owning mutual funds are significantly more complex, especially for seniors, than the record keeping reuirements for owning Fixed Index Annuities. The keeping of excellent records (redemptions, purchases, dates, values, commissions, etc.) is often one’s only defense in the event of an IRS audit. With a FIA, one’s records are kept by the insurance company, copies of annual statements are mailed to the owner, and distributions (if any) are totaled and reported at year end. 11. Mutual funds are commonly part of a decedent’s probated estate. Estate funds may be available to any and all creditors of the estate. In addition, they are subject to the delays and expenses of probate. The proceeds of the Fixed Index Annuities policy, on the other hand, is always a non-probate distribution that passes outside of probate directly to one’s named beneficiaries, and is therefore not subject to one’s posthumous creditors, unwanted public disclosure, or similar delays and costs. Your heirs receive their insurance proceeds within weeks, not months or years after your passing. 12. Medicaid disqualification and lifetime income. Fixed Index Annuities can provide their owners with a stream of income for their entire lifetime, regardless of how long they live. Insurance is often classified so that it is not considered assets for Medicaid disqualification of nursing home costs. This is beneficial when organizing one’s affairs, and converting assets to income prior to a nursing home confinement. Mutual funds cannot be converted in a similar manner, and are almost always considered countable Medicaid assets. 13. Nursing Home Waiver. Most annuities will double an owner’s penalty free access to cash from their annuity, often waiving any remaining surrender penalties when such individuals suffer a serious illness, need at-home care, or become confined to a nursing home. Mutual finds do not provide a similar waiver when contingent deferred sales charges still apply to a mutual fund account whose owner needs to sell some shares to fund the costs of such a stay. 14. Equity Index Annuities may provide basic as well as enhanced death benefits to the beneficiaries of the FIA owners, and neither the owner nor the beneficiary can ever lose money due to a down market. Mutual funds provide no such guarantees or death benefits of any kind. 15. FIAs allow the tax-free exchange of one contract for another. A Fixed Index Annuity owner may exchange their annuity for a completely different annuity without triggering income taxes. A mutual fund owner cannot move funds from one mutual fund company to another without selling his shares at the former (thus triggering a taxable event), and repurchasing new shares at the latter, often subject to sales charges at both. 16. Mutual funds do not provide cost-free asset rebalancing whereas fixed Index annuities do. This option is usually available among the major equity indices (the S&P 500, NASDAQ DJIA, Russell 2000 etc.), as well as a fixed interest option, at policy anniversaries. Rebalancing one’s portfolio within a family of mutual funds always requires the sale and purchase of shares. Go To SMARTMONEY Newsletter Archives Website: www.StatewideRetirementPlanning.com
|
||
Review our Highly Acclaimed Videos: Review our 10-minute video “Paycheck For Life” Statewide Retirement Planning Co. |
||