Annuity and Other Scams

I came across this article on yahoo finance, one of my most frequented sites. It provides a nice overview of red flags and what to look out for when perusing your financial planning options:

Protect Your Retirement From These Investment Scams


Pay close attention to the part about Variable and Equity Indexed products. I often find consumers don't even know what they have bought soon after they have signed the contract. Usually they think they have actually purchased a normal mutual fund, and are not aware of any early withdraw penalties and/or don't understand the fees and expenses of the product. So to be blunt, they know have have put their money into something whose return depends on the preformance of the stock markets, and nothing else.