Annuities Bad

I put a lot of money in this investment 5 years ago ... and it is still there.

They may be poor investments and often are.

On the positive side, they defer the tax until the money is withdrawn. On the downside, for most people the costs above the costs of mutual funds exceeds the taxes have been paid. So you still have to pay taxes and you must pay additional fees. Even small fees have a significant impact. In addition, earnings are taxed before cost basis as opposed to insurance, for example.

They may be poor investments relative to similar assets, but not necessarily. They tend to be good investments when they are in rents, but most people do not annuitize annuitization and most people did not make sense.

Variable annuities typically pay the highest commissions of any investment vehicle of the person who sells to offer. They are often sold by addressing people's insecurities, emphasizing the fact that they never fall in value. This is true to put your money in a shoebox, too. (Both species shoebox and variable annuities lost "value", but because of inflation)

What has been your investment increased over the last five years? If you put somewhere "at risk" (as real property, or scholarship) money would probably have doubled over the past five years, but this is of no use if you stop the risk to sleep at night!

The worst thing about variable annuities, however, is that they often require up to 2% per year in fees, which eat into any potential growth that you might ...