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Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

AIG will be borrowing $38 billion more from the federal government on top of the $85 billion that it has already received. AIG has used $61 billion, $53 billion used to shore up the London subsidiary financial unit headed by Joseph Cassano. This unit was largely responsible for three consecutive multibillion-dollar quaterly losses AIG reported in the months before the government agreed to loan the company as much as $85 billion. P.S.- VALIC a subsidiary of AIG has $3.4 billion in adjusted capital and surplus as of June 30, 2008.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

CEO Edward Liddy is expected to share his plans for selling assets of AIG (American International Group) today. AIG is gearing up to sell units to pay off the government's massive loan to the company. Many firms have been mentioned as potential buyers, Manulife Financial and John Hancock Financial. Mr. Liddy has said he wants to keep as many of AIG's largest insurance units together as possible. AIG owns 720 insurance companies including Valic. But the size and terms of the loan may limit his choices. As of Wednesday, AIG had borrowed $61.3 billion of the $85 billion dollars the FED gave them.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

I have been watching C-Span and listening to the politicians argue their different cases . All of the cases seem to be valid. There has been too much Non- Regulation going on. We the people have to foot the bill , so why not bail ourselves out of the mess that we are in. Let's pay off the mortgages for the two million families that are losing or have lost their homes . This will cost about $800,000,000.00 Let's clear up the mess and put someone in charge of making sure these large companies don't take the equity out of their corporations ( Huge bonuses and large incintive programs ) Let's fix from the inside out and other countries will respect that faster than watching wasteful America trying to show how powerful she is. They will think before devaluing our dollar and maybe we will set a trend for the rest of the world ! If we have to foot this burden ( 770,000,000,000.00 ) then let the government consider this approach !

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

AIG is the largest issuer of fixed-rate annuities in the USA and the ninth-largest seller of variable annuities through banks. Ditching your annuities could trigger costly surrender charges. AIG's financial problems stem from risky investments made by its holding company. AIG's insurance subsidiaries are highly regulated and well-capitalized. If the insurance company failed, losses would be covered by your state's guaranty association, up to the maximum quaranteed by your state. Most states cover up to $100,000 in withdrawal and cash value for fixed annuities. The state guaranty associations don't cover variable annuities. However, those annuities offer another type of protection for investors. Most variable annuities offer a choice of mutual funds, know as subaccounts. These are segregated accounts, which means that if the insurance company files for bankruptcy, creditors can't file claims against them.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

George Schmidt wrote: "Are you still (Monday, September 22) still suggesting, RP, that VALIC has a chance of being "spun off" from AIGs addled main body, say, like Lehman unloaded a couple of pieces of itself to Barclays?" To raise money, AIG in recent days has explored selling off valuable units. AIG, for instance, is looking into selling AIG Variable Annuity Life Insurance Co., which provides retirement services. AIG made no comment on possible sell-off, beyond issuing a statement saying that the Federal loan would provide "the time necessary to conduct asset sales on an orderly basis." George, here is a bit of history; VALIC was originally organized on December 21, 1955 in Washington, D.C.. VALIC reorganized in the State of Texas on August 20, 1968, as Variable Annunity Life Insurance Company of Texas. On November 5, 1968, the name was changed to the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company. On August 29, 2001, AIG Life Holdings (US), Inc., formerly American General Corporation ("ALH"), a holding company and VALIC's indirect parent company, was acquired by American International Group, Inc. ("AIG"), a Delaware corporation. As a result, VALIC is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of AIG which is a holding company. The recent turmoil was mostly contained within AIG's financial products unit, which dealt in structured finance and derivatives. The first priority for AIG's new management will be to stop the bleeding in the financial products unit, where the liquidity crises began. AIG's financial services division has been brought down by its exposure to securities tied to the value of home loans. Yet the company still holds valuable assets. Its main insurance business remained profitable during the credit crises, even though its life insurance operations posted losses. And its asset management group, which includes a private banking subsidiary and a broker dealer, has posted modest losses. P.S.- CNBC cable network is covering this event 24-7.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

"...Variable-rate annuities, which give a choice of stock investments, are governed by securities laws that keep these assets segregated, thus giving a slightly greater degree of security. VALIC has a top rating. It's expected that this profitable insurance division will be an attractive purchase for a stronger company in the very near future!..." (RP, last Wednesday).

Are you still (Monday, September 22) still suggesting, RP, that VALIC has a chance of being "spun off" from AIGs addled main body, say, like Lehman unloaded a couple of pieces of itself to Barclays? I didn't know VALIC had a Midtown office building and state-of-the-art computer centers all within a dozen miles of Ground Zero.

After reading the stuff AIG was passing out last week in the schools, it still looks like AIG got the exclusive right to sell tax sheltered annuities in CPS lunchrooms and elsewhere. Are you saying VALICs monopoly was not a monopoly? Who else was allowed to get those annuity dollars extracted from the payroll and moved to them?

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

VALIC is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of AIG. AIG is a holding company. The federal government will lend up to $85 billion to AIG, and the U.S. government will effectively get 79.9% equity stake in the insurer in the form of warrants called equity participation notes. The two-year loan will carry an interest rate of Libor plus 8.5 percentage points, (Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is a common short-term lending benchmark.) The loan is secured by AIC's assets, including its profitable insurance businesses, giving the federal government some protection even if markets continue to sink Tuesday afternoon, after the market closed (AIG's market value was $10.08 billion and AIG's shares are now down 94% for the year), AIG put out a statement saying its basic insurance and retirement services businesses are "fully capable of meeting their obligations to policyholders." P.S.- Insurance contracts do not have a federal guarantee; instead they are supported by state guarantee funds-which are basically a "call" on other insurance companies doing business in the state,. In previous insurance company failures, contract holders did lose money on fixed-rate annuities, which are considered assets of the insurer. Variable-rate annuities, which give a choice of stock investments, are governed by securities laws that keep these assets segregated, thus giving a slightly greater degree of security. VALIC has a top rating. It's expected that this profitable insurance division will be an attractive purchase for a stronger company in the very near future!

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

Does anyone else wonder what New York City is going to do with all those copies of "Atlas Shrugged" that are being dumped on Seventh Ave. this week. It wasn't only Milton Friedman who schooled these fools (all of whom had the highest SAT and ACT and GPA scores in the USA over the past 25 years by the way, for those who equate test scores with virtue).

I'm still waiting for Arne Duncan to introduce all of us to John Galt. That's the guy who operates "John Galt and Associates" on the 19th Floor of 125 S. Clark St.

If these things weren't so tragic, they would be worth a major laugh in just how sophomoric they are. But the jokes on the rest of us. Arne's been worshipping the John Galt version of reality since he first shaved. That's how you get so many of these goofy "solutions" and that Zombie look when a complex educational question comes up.

Yes.

CPS has been landlord to "John Galt" since Arne took over. Take the elevator up to 19 and ask to meet the gentleman, assuming he's not out to lunch with Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, what's left of Ariel Capital Management, and Arne Duncan.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

AIG will probably get a 85-90 billion bridge loan with warrants from the federal government!

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

corrections 20 million shares. hypocrisy that is.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

I used to think I was 5 years from retirement but now my VALIC portfolio is pretty scary. The main issue is that we all should be looking at long-term investments, but as George and others have said, Who knew Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers could go under????

Thank you Milton Friedman for the insistence on unfettered markets, where the rich become the uberrich and the rest of us slide into poverty. Where golden parachutes are de rigeur and managers who make horrendous decisions are richly rewarded while teachers get bashed for fake test scores.

There was a time where we had choices about our retirement accounts, but CPS insisted the only company that could take care of our 403b's was VALIC. I tried calling my rep for the entire 2006-2007 school year and never got a return call. Last year, they sent me a guy who want me to close down an account I've had for years with another company and roll that over into my Roth IRA - not bad advice, but why did it take so long?????

I'm planning on working until I'm 70 now instead of 60. Hope I can last and that we'll even have a pension since Arne & Rufus complain bitterly about how retired teachers pensions are stopping poor children from getting the resources they need.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

Alexander, it's pensions and 403b's. AIG is looking at selling off some of its assets, one being AIG Retirement Company 1.

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

Anyone want to comment on the fate of all those 529 accounts that believers set up for their children's college? Didn't the fine print warn that all investment can suffer loss? That's why grandpa always left something in reserve in the mattress for the rainiest of days (observation: two of the rainiest days in history took place for us this past weekend, one here in Chicago; the other on Wall Street).

But of course keeping currency in the mattress doesn't help completely if a gallon of milk that cost $1.99 to years ago now costs $2.99 (or more). Despite all that econometric mumbo jumbo (sort of like that psychometric mumbo jumbo on test scores), inflation in the real world of the rest of us is a lot higher than five or six percent -- and everyone who has had to buy milk, break, or gasoline knows that.

This time around, the "best and the brightest" who had infected every major institution have surpassed Enron. Two, three, many Enrons must have been their central committee's slogan on this one. AAARGHHHH...

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

VALIC (i.e., AIG Retirement) is only a problems because CTU and CPS agreed to make it(them) a monopoly for people to select a program. Don't believe, however, that many of the front line competitors would have done you better. The special thing about the current tsusnami(s) -- and what makes them unique, even by comparison with the 1930s in the USA and a few other countries -- is that all of the major financial services corporations were playing the same games since deregulation.

Do you really think you'd be doing much better if you had the option of Merrill-Lynch or, say, a Bear Sterns hedge fund?

One thing is true: For all of Arne Duncan's talk about "choice", CPS actually prefers dealing with monopolies. Centralized dictatorships tend to function that way. It would probably have been better to figure out how to take your own money and invest it later, after personal due dilligence, but who in the real world has time for that type of work in the "Ownership Society"?

Reader Suggestion: Financial Impact Of Brokerage Woes

Yup. Annuity statements now come addressed from AIG Retirement.