Milevsky warns: Beware of annuity ignorance
July 15, 2013 by Gil Weinreich, ThinkAdvisor
Advisors, be very wary of what you read about annuities, for it may be devoid of any meaning.
That warning comes from Moshe Milevsky, pictured, just back from a visit to England, where he poured through dusty documents in the British National Archives, examining the actuarial assumptions of the life annuities issued by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 17th and 18th centuries.
While he saw evidence of mispricing that accrued to the disadvantage of the Royal Treasury, when AdvisorOne caught up with him the subject of discussion was today’s sensationalized characterization of annuities as products of unremitting evil or of unsurpassed virtue.