more banks closing in USA

More banks have closed in 2009 than were closed in all of 2008. The newest bank closing are in Georgia, New Jersey and Utah. This pushs the number of bank closing to 32 so far this year compared to 25 bank closing during all of 2008.

Financial products update.

There are several interesting developments in the past year.  Variable Annuity  sales  have  dropped.   For 2008  Variable Annuity  sales are down over 60%  according to the industry  trade group NAVA.

Fixed  annuity  sales on the other hand are going UP, UP, UP!   They actually increased by 60% topping  $107 Billion according to a Beacon Research study.

Maybe people are finally getting the word.  Fixed annuities and Fixed Indexed Annuities offer the protection of principal without market risk.  That’s a powerful combination of benefits that we help clients with.  Guaranteed protection of principal from the issuing  carriers and indexed products that have to potential to produce double digit  gains in good years and some products even offer a way to double your money in 10-11`years.  In addition to these benefits you get tax deferred growth in the accumulation mode and the possibility of lifetime income that you cannot outlive.  WOW!

Are you tired of loosing money?

I saw some very interesting statistics recently about Americans and their current financial advisors

81% of investors  surveyed  intend to change their financial advisors       Financial Plannning Magazine Jan 09

75% of the investors over age 50 do not believe that their current advisor is positioned to take them into retirement

89% of investors over age 50 surveyed are planning on consolidating their assets with a new comprehensive advisors who will protect their assets on into the futue according to a study by Fidelty dated 2006

Where do you fit in these critical criteria?

Are you fed up with bad advice and advisors who loose your money?

There are financial advisors that are dedicated to protecting the assets you have spent a lifetime collecting .

Even More Bank Closings

3 more banks have been closed by the Feds. This brings the 2009 tally to 12 closed banks. I don’t know how a bank can get so screwed up that they get closed.  They do not pay anything to the depositors and they charge outrageous rates to their credit card clients and most of their loan customers.  The spread between what they pay depositors and charge borrowers is now the highest in US history or at least close to it and they still can not make it.

There are low risk financial alternatives that pay a much better rate of return on your money!

3 More Bank Closings

So far in February the Federal Reserve has taken over three more banks and the tally for 2009 so far now totals 9 bank closures. More will follow!
If you are looking for alternatives to weak banks, paying inferior interest rates on deposits there are alternatives you should know about!  You can get up to almost 5% on 5 year deposits with principal protection guaranties. USA Today just recently reported that  average Bank yields on 5 year  CD are paying an average of only 2.4%. That does not even keep up with the rate of inflation. There are Good Sound Safer Money Financial Alternatives.

Another round of Bank Failures

The FDIC has closed another set of banks. In an effort to be geographically balanced they closed one in Utah, one in Fl and one in Va. That makes 6 bank closing so far in 2009.

With banks still closing and banks still unwilling to loan money. This does not demonstrate that the worst is over in the financial crisis. The only good signs I have seen are that the market indexes have not fallen to new lows. All three of the major indexes are trading slightly above their November 2008 low values. Many analysts see this as a sign that the worst is over. We could still be in for a long slow period of no growth. By the way the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 have just completed their worst January performance ever. The Dow was down over 8.8% and the S&P was down over 8.5%. All ovf this with the benefit of a new president.

This continued weakness in the markets suggest that Safer Money Financial Alternatives are still a Very Good Idea!!

University Education Tuition Free

I saw an interesting article on a niche educational market. A limited number of schools are offering tuition free education. There are about 15-25 schools that guarantee no student debt. After you pay the  Expected Family Contribution (EFC) the school s guarantee that everytrhing else will be covered by Scholarships, grants or work study program participation. Probably the best school on this list is  Princeton University. Some other well endowed schools participate as well.

There are some modest schools with a similar program. The College of the Ozarks does something very similar. All students who are accepted get a full scholarship. Then if you also agree to give up a summer break to work on campus you are also covered with free room and board as well. Every student works on campus for 15-20 hours a week. not a bad concept and for some students it might well be the only way to get a college degree.

Quote from the Wall street Journal – re: Changing advisors

There was a quote in the  Wall Street  Journal that would still appear to  be very timely and maybe even more appropriate today with the continuing poor performance of the markets. “Fully 90% of investors with $1 Million or more of investable assets plan to take money away  from their current financial advisor and 70% plan to leave their (current) advisor altogether” The Wall Street  Journal – October 2, 2008

Brokers are licensed to sell products that may include market risks. Some products are high risk, some offer relatively low risk and some  very small percentage of products offered have no market risk. However Market risk is still market risk.  FINRA even has a detailed white paper that talks about all of the kinds of risks that exist in the market. It is a good read!  In the past year  I have spoken  to almost no one who has not suffered with some market risk.  I have clients  that have some of their financial assets in long term savings products that  have no market risk  and unlike a bank also have a chance to beat the rate of inflation over the long term. That is a powerful combination in one financial product. These products  are not right for  everyone. To find out if they are right for some portion of your assets you need a professional consultation.

If you are tired of RISK and  are looking for Safer Money Financial Alternatives offering PROTECTION of PRINCIPAL  combined with Serious UPSIDE POTENTIAL and GUARANTEED MINIMUM PERFORMANCE help is currently available…..

Best Interest Rates Available For Savers

Periodically I like to  report on high interests rates  available for  savers. I do this to keep you aware of  viable and  safe options.

Multi year interest rates  best  deals this week

3 year  fixed rates 4.37%

5 year fixed  rates 5.46%

7 year fixed  rates  6.10%

10 year  fixed rates 6.36%

all product include protection of principal and guaranteed interest rate.

Rate change  weekly and minimum initial $ amounts apply. These rates are available for tax qualified or non qualified money. These products may not be available in all 50  states.  These financial products may not be suitable for every saver. Only a brief consultation can determine if they are suitable for your particular needs

Just for  comparison purposes here are the  national bank CD rates from the bankrate.com website

1 year 3.49% non qualified money

1 year 3.22% IRA CD rates

5 year 3.87% non qualified money

5 year 3.68% IRA CD rates

I like the  first  set of rates better! What about you?

Misuse of $700 B government bailout proceeds

The  government needs to  clamp down on any misuse of the $700 Billion Bailout program.  These funds were authorized to  ease the lending logjam! The use of these funds by a bank to go on a bank buying binge is criminal. The use of these funds to pay a dividend to shareholders is also an  abuse of the funding bailout program.  Clearly if a bank is in so much financial peril that they need to be bailed out there is no reason that the bank should be paying  shareholder and bank officials a dividend on their shares.  Dividends are intended to  share surplus profits with the shareholders.  Any  bank with surplus profits  do not need and should not  receive any government bailout program funds.  Any  bank that does not ease their lending programs to help the economy should receive no additional funds under the program. The  Government must  Stop this abuse immediately!!