An Introduction

Hi. Welcome to BourGroup and my blog. Phil

Phil Bour is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(tm) professional since 2004, a Magna Cum Laude college graduate and an accounting professional for over 35+ years. I love numbers, statistics and economic history.

I am also an Enrolled Agent (EA) to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service and to prepare tax returns.

"Phil"osophy: I believe that you can manage your money on your own (not necessarily through individual stock selection but through mutual funds, ETF's and other solutions) once you receive some one-time, professional guidance. Why pay annual fees when there may be little added value? For additional information, first read the "An Introduction" label at the left. Then move on to others.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Annuities - Basics: A Contract

Kerry Pechter, author of Annuities for Dummies, writes on page 44: "Investments involve risk...investors actively seek investment risks in order to get rewards..." (better returns)

He continues, "...Contracts involve the transfer of risk...Annuity buyers actively see to limit investment risk..." (most importantly, whatever the 'guarantee' it will not be free).

Because of survivorship risk (also called mortality pooling), annuity contracts can be a very efficient way to:

(1) Maximize an income stream

and

(2) Guarantee that income for life (though maybe not inflation-adjusted).