February 16, 2010

Letters Editor
The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281

To The Letters Editor,

Annuities, the only financial product that guarantees lifetime retirement income, are an indispensable part of a well-balanced retirement plan (“Are Annuities Being Overhyped as a Retirement Cure-All?,” Feb. 13, 2010). But as the article suggests, retirees should maintain a diversified portfolio that reflects their individual profiles and retirement objectives.

Annuities provide retirees with the foundation needed for diversification and prudent risk-taking. Since annuities can guarantee lifetime income regardless of fluctuations in the financial markets, retirees can be confident that their basic living needs will be funded. This provides greater freedom for retirees to invest the remainder of their assets in higher-yielding, but riskier, instruments.

The guarantees offered by annuities provide peace-of-mind that no other retirement income vehicle can match.

Sincerely,

Frank Keating

Frank Keating is President of the American Council of Life Insurers. He is also a former two-term Oklahoma governor.