Advice #1 DON'T buy an annuity for any reason whatsoever.They are the next worst investment next to Whole Life Insurance.Borderline scams.
Get a competent investment firm, and if you don't know or don't want to deal with it, get a managed account. They'll feel you out for your risk tolerance and invest accordingly.
This is the best advice on the internet.
But it is very hard to know if you have a good financial advisor, and by the time you find out he is bad news, he has made a lot of money off you. I had 3 of them. Was was not good at all, one was ok but just wanted to sell me loaded Franklin funds and the last one was a nightmare. We gave them a $56,300 check and they didnt invest it for 5 weeks . They said it was no good anymore so we gave them another and it took 3 weeks to invest that one, in August 2015, just in time for a 10% correction. The owner was a jerk , He sold us $40,000 of 2 non traded REITs. We still have $10,000 of it stuck , and may never get it back. Some say I should have done my homework, or due dilligence , and we did, we had a few at my wifes bank where she worked . We talked to him several times before commiting. It is very hard to tel a professional BS salesman from someone that really knows what they are doing, and they make a living bs ing. To make matters worse my son worked there. About 2 months after the second check, we headed to Fidelity and never looked back. A few months later they fired my son anyway. However, it was their loss . We now have a lot more money , I do it my way and it is a better way of investing with ETF's and stocks and some bond mutual funds . I have not done real well , but no doubt better and cheaper than the 3 advisors we had. My son works at a better financial firm and after 3 yrs with this job, he still cant believe how they operated at his old firm. Investing yourself just isnt that hard anymore and hardly any fees at all.
