I’m finally getting around to updating my post about the Fixed Index Annuity I wrote about. Last Friday, I met with the Financial Strategist (title on his business card) that is representing this product.

Summary first. I decided not to invest in it for two major reasons both of which I knew somewhat about before the meeting. One, is the investment is tied up for 6 to 10 years. Two, there is a cap on the most you can make in years that the market is up. The percentage that was presented was 4% to 7%. However, the paperwork I was given to read states, “We may change caps and spreads at the beginning of each contract year.” In my mind I think - lower. Nothing explains how they arrive at the cap figure for each year.

If you want to check out all of the details you can go to their website at www.allianzlife.com. Click on annuities and then Fixed Income Annuities. The plan that was presented to me was the Allianz222 Annuity.

I was not familiar with Allianz. I found out they are one of the largest insurance companies in the world and based in Germany. They are over 100 years old. Two of the companies they own are Pimco and Fireman’s Fund.

Some nice features are your annuity can gain value based on which index you like: S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Barclays US Dynamic Balance Index, Russell 2000 or a blend of 4 Indexes. You can also choose among three crediting methods: Monthly Sum, Annual Point to Point or Monthly Average. The advisor recommended the Monthly Sum but I didn’t try to calculate which one I would like.

There are too many other details to go into them all including 4 annuity values, bonuses, and how you can access your money. If you want to know about more of the details please go to their website.

This post was edited on 10/23/14 at 1:04 pm