By Marc Gilman
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Key Takeaways
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Ken Fisher’s actual, stated critique — in his own firm’s words — targets complexity, high fees, withdrawal limits, and strict requirements, and it’s specifically aimed at variable annuities. His firm’s own site states fixed annuities aren’t the target of his criticism.
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Fisher’s firm has, at the same time, held substantial stock positions in insurance companies that sell annuities — including several million shares of American Equity Investment Life Holding, one of the largest sellers of indexed and variable annuities — according to reporting by InvestmentNews.
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Fisher Investments also runs an annuity buyout program, paying clients’ surrender fees to exit their annuity contracts, on the condition that they become Fisher Investments clients — moving that money into the firm’s own fee-based, assets-under-management model.
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The regulatory landscape has changed substantially since his original 2014 column. All 50 states now require some best-interest standard for annuity sales — 49 through the NAIC’s model regulation directly, and New York through its own separate, longstanding regulation.
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2024 was annuity sales’ third consecutive record year, according to LIMRA — a signal that current savers aren’t broadly accepting the “annuities are a bad deal” conclusion, whatever they make of the underlying critique.
What Fisher Actually Says
It’s worth reading his firm’s own framing rather than a secondhand characterization. Fisher Investments’ own website states plainly: annuities are “often one of the most complex investments in the financial services industry,” and the specific concerns are high fees, withdrawal limits, and strict requirements hidden behind marketing about safety and guaranteed income. The site is explicit that “many annuity contracts are long, complex and confusing, such that even many insurance agents may not fully understand all the details.”
It’s also worth being precise about scope: multiple independent accounts of Fisher’s original 2014 Forbes column confirm his critique is specifically aimed at variable annuities — products where returns are tied to market-based subaccounts and can lose principal. Fisher has been on record acknowledging fixed annuities are “okay,” a distinction that gets lost in the “I Hate Annuities” headline but is genuinely part of his actual position.
The Part of the Story That Complicates the Message
This is where it gets genuinely interesting, and it’s independently reported, not speculation: according to InvestmentNews, Fisher Investments’ parent company has held tens of millions of dollars in stock of major annuity-selling insurers, including several million shares of American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. — one of the largest sellers of indexed and variable annuities — at the same time Fisher was running his public “I hate annuities” campaign.
To be fair to Fisher here: some industry observers don’t see this as a contradiction. As one advisory principal put it to InvestmentNews, disliking a product publicly doesn’t necessarily conflict with recognizing it as a sound investment from a different angle — the same way someone might avoid alcohol personally while still owning stock in a beverage company. That’s a reasonable point. But it’s still worth knowing about, especially alongside the next fact.
The Business Model Behind the Campaign
Fisher Investments operates an annuity buyout program: the firm pays a client’s surrender fees to exit an existing variable annuity contract — on the condition that the client then becomes a Fisher Investments client, moving those assets into Fisher’s own fee-based, assets-under-management structure. In Fisher’s own words, describing this program: “My firm often buys folks out of the humongous surrender fees that imprison them in variables — if they stay with us.”
That “if they stay with us” is the key phrase. This isn’t a hidden detail — it’s Fisher’s own description of how the program works. It means his very visible, well-funded anti-annuity marketing campaign has a direct, traceable business incentive behind it: every dollar that leaves an annuity is a dollar that can move into Fisher’s own AUM-based fee structure. That doesn’t make his underlying product critique wrong, but it’s relevant context for weighing how much of the “I Hate Annuities” campaign is disinterested consumer advocacy versus a genuinely effective, decade-long client acquisition funnel.
What’s Changed Since His Original Critique
Fisher’s column first ran in 2014, and the regulatory environment around annuity sales has moved substantially since then. All 50 states now require a best-interest standard for annuity sales — 49 states through the NAIC’s revised Model Regulation #275, adopted starting in 2020, and New York through its own separate (and in some respects stronger) regulation that predates the NAIC model. Under this standard, producers are legally required to act in the client’s best interest, with documented care, conflict-of-interest, and disclosure obligations — a meaningfully different landscape than what Fisher was describing in his original column, when this uniform standard didn’t yet exist.
Separately, LIMRA reported that 2024 marked the third consecutive year of record annuity sales — which doesn’t settle whether any individual annuity purchase is a good decision, but does indicate that a large and growing number of savers are evaluating annuities on their own terms rather than broadly accepting the “hate them” conclusion.
What This Means for You
Fisher’s specific, stated concerns about variable annuities — complexity, high fees, and restrictive terms — are legitimate and worth taking seriously if a variable annuity is actually what’s being discussed. But painting all annuities with the same brush, the way the “I Hate Annuities” headline implies, doesn’t hold up against his own firm’s more precise position, and it’s worth knowing that the campaign delivering that message operates alongside a business model that profits directly from moving people out of annuities and into Fisher’s own fee-based accounts.
What To Do Next
The right way to evaluate any strong public opinion on a financial product — including this one — is to check what’s actually being claimed, who’s saying it, and what they stand to gain from the conclusion. Fisher’s specific critique of variable annuities has real merit; his broader “hate annuities” brand extends well past what his own firm’s stated position actually supports. If you want to look at whether a specific annuity type fits your situation, independent of any campaign’s incentives (including reviewing mine), reach out and we’ll work through it together.
Questions? Call (800) 927-9326 or email
Sources: “I Hate Annuities,” Fisher Investments (fisherinvestments.com); Greg Iacurci, “Ken Fisher, Famous Annuity Hater, Invested in Annuity Companies,” InvestmentNews, 2018; 401(k) Specialist, “All 50 States Now On Board With NAIC Best Interest Annuity Rule,” April 2025; LegalClarity, “Annuity Suitability and Best Interest Standard: NAIC Rules,” June 2026; LIMRA 2024 annuity sales data via RetireGuide.com.
