Annuities: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Features
Recommended Reading: Four Books That Cover It All
Where can you get sound financial advice and avoid the costs of attaining it? Reading the right books is an obvious choice. A recommended list of easily readable books.

Stock Strategies
5 Memorable Mistakes and the Lessons I Learned
Winning in the stock market is often about not losing, and one of the ways to avoid losses is to learn from your mistakes.

Hot Links
Professional Designations and What They Mean: On-Line Sources
Find out what the designations that investment professionals use stand for and who confers them.

Financial Planning
8 Steps That Will Make Life Easier for Your Heirs
Many people spend time planning their financial legacy, but skip relatively basic steps that can lead to administrative hassles for their heirs.

Stock Screens
Small Caps & Value Lead at the Mid-Point of 2006
A mid-year review of the screens tracked on AAII.com shows a reversal of last year’s trend, with value strategies topping growth approaches, and small-cap screens outperforming mid- and large-cap strategies.

Matter of Opinion
Shadow Stock Portfolio: Still Up for the Year After Market Correction
The stock market adjustment that began in late May 2006 hurt the Model Shadow Stock Portfolio, but as of May 31 it was still up 11.4% for the year, compared to 2.5% for the Vanguard 500 Index fund.

Insurance Products
Annuities: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Annuities seem to be more popular than ever, but most of this has been driven by marketing. A review of the annuity products available—and which ones are really advantageous for individual investors.

Departments
Briefly Noted
Current news items of interest to individual investors.

Departments
Letters to the Editor
Member questions and comments on recent AAII Journal articles.

First Cut
The First Cut: Attractively Priced Dividend Growth
The top 30 stocks that pass a screen focusing on mid- to large-cap dividend growers trading at good values.

Tax Strategies
Investors Get an Extension--And a New Roth IRA Opportunity
The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 extends some valuable tax breaks for investors. What you need to know.