The planner has been doing this for 18 years and I thought all those awards hanging on the wall he would be helping me make money. PBK I have no idea what the expenses are, when we signed up the financial planner told us that his fees would not come out of our money but out of allianz.
Start with
http://insuranceportals.blogspot.com/2013/12/industry-first-barclays-us-dynamic.html. Regarding your planner's fees, note "Don't forget, as an Allianz Preferred producer, you can earn a bonus commission. Your bonus commission rates are based on the sale of ALL Allianz fixed annuity products in a calendar year."
Yes, first your money goes to Allianz, then Allianz pays your planner - because Allianz will make much more on your money than you will.
Can anyone tell me what in Barclays US dynamic balance how much of it is bonds.
See this link:
http://www.biltd.com/CarrierMaterial/AllianzPreferred/ASI-381.pdf. The short answer to your question is "it changes on a daily basis."
And now the most important quote of all, from the second link:
Actual contract results would depend on crediting method chosen, and caps and spreads in place during that time period.
The actual formula used by Allianz to calculate the annual interest you will receive is very simple. It may take a little digging on your part to find it - or you could sit down with the planner and ask him to show it to you.
Here's a simple test: if you can program the formula into Excel, then you understand. If you can't, you don't. And by "program", I mean something similar to the table below. Copy and paste that into cell A1 of a blank worksheet, and start comparing what Allianz gives you vs. what the market could give you.
A | Index at year end | 1500 |
B | Index 1 year ago | 1300 |
C | Asset Fee Rate | 0.002 |
D | Participation rate | 0.4 |
E | Spread | 0.02 |
| Actual Index increase | =(C1/C2-1) |
| Interest rate you receive, ((A/B -1) - E) * D - C | =((C1-C2)/C2-C5)*C4-C3 |
Yes, if the number 1 goal is "don't see my account balance decrease at any time," this or any other indexed annuity will do that for you. And it's possible that the market could drop for a few years in a row - but also consider your own comment, "the biggest risk may be taking no risk."