Index Fund Attention Abundance

I attended a meeting in the early/mid 2000’s where Abigail Johnson, now the president and chief executive officer at Fidelity Investments, was the featured speaker. She tried to make the case that if everyone bought index mutual funds, that security prices would never change. In other words, she claimed that if index funds become too popular and investors “blindly” bought an index’s underlying holdings, that sufficient price discovery may not happen in the market.

So was Ms. Johnson right? Should the rise of index funds be a cause of concern for investors?

Q1 2019 Market Review

Remember how bleak the markets seemed at the end of 2018? All of the worries about whether the Fed may have applied the brakes a tad too long, an escalating trade war with China, a mid-term shakeup in Washington DC, ongoing Brexit drama, and a eurozone confidence slowdown? While some of those issues remain unresolved, hopes for a trade deal with China and an about face toward dovishness by key central banks buoyed markets in spite of a Polar Vortex and another government shutdown that created more headwinds.

US growth stocks, both small and large, were the big winners of the quarter, but every equity category saw gains.

Guaranteed Annuities and other Three-Legged Chickens

One of my first Accountable Update posts was about Three-Legged Chickens. I was reminded of this recently as one of my clients dealt with a complicated Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB) variable deferred annuity that a “friend” sold him for his IRA several years ago.

As is usually the case with products like this, it sounded too good to be true when it was sold to him. He could invest in the stock market but have a guaranteed minimum return of 7%. If only it were so simple.

Long story short, after over a decade, the value of the underlying funds were not much more, if any, than his original investment. After a few years, he decided to transfer the account somewhere else, but had been discouraged from moving it due to surrender penalties that were as high as 7% of his account balance. While market conditions and fund selection contributed to the dismal performance, the fact that he was paying over 2% in annual fees was the primary culprit.

We ultimately found a solution for him after carefully reading his annuity contract. The insurance company now sends him a check each year for the rest of his life and we deposit that into his IRA within 60 days of the distribution so it can continue to grow tax deferred. If you want to hear all of the details, or if you have a similar product and feel stuck, get in touch to discuss.

If you are considering any new investments, especially those touting guarantees, let me tell you a story about a chicken…

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