Posted on 02/16/2009 7:17:04 AM PST by george76
Most investors sustained serious damage to their wealth last year -- damage that, in many cases, will be difficult to recover from. Certainly Wall Street titans, reckless lenders and irresponsible home buyers all deserve their share of the blame.
But one part of the financial world has not received much scrutiny for its role in the evaporation of investor wealth, and that is the mutual fund industry.
Sadly, a gullible public has bought into the idea that steady investments in mutual funds, regardless of market conditions, is the way to make their financial dreams come true.
This is one of the biggest fallacies of investing, and why mutual funds are hazardous to your wealth.
To give you a sense of just how flawed the buy-and-hold philosophy advocated by the mutual fund industry was in 2008, just look at the numbers. According to the mutual fund industry's own Investment Company Institute, investors lost almost $3.7 trillion in mutual funds in 2008.
Yet how often do you read about mutual funds leading the public down a losing path? How often do you hear about a fund manager whose performance was drastically lower than the benchmark?
My problems with mutual funds don't stop merely at poor performance or inept fund managers. There are serious problems with mutual funds that have more to do with the design and structure of these investment vehicles.
Advocating buy-and-hold investing is the backbone thesis of most mutual funds. A fund company will never tell you to move to cash when things get tough because it's just not in their best interest. Because most mutual funds must stay fully invested all the time, their concern for managing risk is secondary to their concern for keeping you fully invested.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
IULs are completely liquid. You can use it as your own bank to avoid non-preferred debt.
I don't shy away from questions or dissent, so why ask for permission to post. That didn't stop you before when you were making false accusations and acknowledging you didn't know much about the program I was recommending.
Bring it!
Don’t be bashful about pinging your friends and neighbors.
Okay.
I suspect your deep concern about ME calling YOU a FRAUD comes from my post #40: "Insurance purveyors who suppose they are offering an investment, in my experience, are usually A) Frauds."
Please read the whole sentence: "Insurance purveyors who suppose they are offering an investment, in my experience, are usually A) Frauds, B) Extremely Misleading, or C) Have such convoluted and long-term tax-based advantages that a really smart guy wouldn't dare enter that market without a PhD dissertation to back him up." This sentence leaves open two alternatives to Fraud.
Please note the subject of the sentence: "Insurance purveyors...in my experience." I have not met you, or had you pitch me insurance. My experience stands, the subject of the sentence stands, and this is factually true from my experience. Note that the subject of the sentence is NOT YOU.
Your apparent misunderstanding of that sentence follows rapidly in post #41: "Well you just accused me and my wife and three major insurance companies of being a frauds." That is factually incorrect. Please note again that neither you nor any particular insurance company (much less your three) is accused by me of being a Fraud. However, I do know personally (my brother-in-law as an example, sadly) of Insurance Agents who represent their offerings fraudulently.
Next, just to be doubly clarifying on the foregoing points, in my post #41, I particularly disabuse you of the notion that I have called YOU a FRAUD: "If the shoe fits....just kidding. More on this below." Emphasis added. Note further that below in the same post, to elaborate as promised, I point out that:
"most normal people, I believe, are duped into Insurance. That's not to say that a really great Financial Advisor couldn't understand it and guide people into proper vehicles. I'm just saying that virtually all the people so invested have no idea what they've been put into. Might be smart, might be stupid, but they have no idea. While that may not constitute fraud, it is really not a very nice thing to do to people." Emphasis added. Note that I particularly and repeatedly call out examples where insurance practices, including yours, may NOT BE FRAUD.
After repeatedly telling YOU that I was not accusing YOU of FRAUD, you remain perfectly oblivious, in post #44: "And the day they taught ethics about accusing people you don't know." Thumping you repeatedly between the eyes seems completely ineffective at this point.
Your post #83: "Don’t be bashful about pinging your friends and neighbors." Done.
OBTW - Have your friends, neighbors, client list and prospect list come and read my Post #84. Please. Let them all render a judgment here.
Based on the thread as a whole, and with Post #84 having been considered:
Q: Did UNCLE MILTIE directly and distinctly charge NUFSED with FRAUD?
Standing by for a verdict of YES or NO. Reasoning for said judgement would be appreciated.
"most normal people, I believe, are duped into Insurance 'investment vehicles'."
If you want to apoliogize do so, but quit squirming and asking others to do denials you can't support.
I have nothing more to say to you. You can apologize or stop wasting time.
I see you haven no refutation of Post #84.
As they say in NoDak: “Well there you go there then now, eh?”
We are heading down the same road, but this time it is not only Asia who has the economic flu.
Can you use take all of the money out of the account (prior to the death benefit) without any tax implications?
I still can't get a straight answer from nfused on a couple issues...
You could become your own bank. Let's say you put in 100,000 and you increase over time to 200,000. Now you want to buy a car or have an emergency and you want to take out 30,000. Take it out. The death benefit will diminish by 30,000 and no requirement to pay back. Pay it back with no interest if you want. You can be your own bank and avoid non-preferred debt the rest of your life.
No tax on cash out or taking retirmeent income or other withdrawals.
I see you complained to another poster about me being non-responsive to your questions. I was unaware I had open questions from you. Please direct me or repost.
I did this one yesterday. If you pay into a 401k or other tax deferred programs, you will pay 5-10 times the tax during retirement as you deferred during your work years.
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