indexed annuities

Indexed annuities are insurance products with a minimum rate of return guaranteed to the investor by the insurance company. If the index--usually the S&P 500--has a great year, the investor gets a higher return than the promised minimum rate. But, he doesn't get the full upside on the S&P 500. And, there may be a maximum that the contract can go up in one year, period. These investment/insurance products usually impose a surrender period during which the contract owner would lose a % if he/she took a withdrawal. So they are only suitable for people with no need of liquidity on the money they plan to put into the contract.

Where do I take my Series 65 or 66 Exam?

Customers and prospects frequently ask, "Where do I take my actual Series 65 or Series 66 exam?" That's because while NASAA's website contains all kinds of information, they are not a well-known bunch of folks, and their website is just slightly more user-friendly than software developed in Redmond, Washington. In order to find information for your exams, you'd have to go to www.nasaa.org . . . then figure out that all the menus are only triggered as "mouse-overs." So, if you lay your pointer on "industry and regulatory resources" and then manage to click the little "exams" link, you'll then be at least half-way finished with your quest for knowledge. If you click on Exam FAQs, you will find the answer to the question above as well as several other important questions. For example, click on Where are the exams given? and you will see that: FINRA is NASAA's contractor for administering the Series 63, 65, and 66. As with other FINRA-administered exams, they are given at Sylvan Prometric Centers." NASAA then points you to the FINRA website, but I'll go ahead and tell you where you can find the "sylvan prometric centers" online, at www.prometric.com

Now, you want to actually SCHEDULE an exam? Better leave that nightmare of a process for a separate blog post. Seriously.