The New York Times published an article in its July 8 Sunday edition, “For Elderly Investors, Instant Experts Abound.” The financial services industry includes an awful lot of professional designations—with some easier to attain than others. And there are agents, at least according to the Times, who are using a credential to claim they are experts and take advantage of their elderly clients.

The article provides a legitimate service to readers by alerting them to what appears to be the actions of a small percentage of agents. But what troubles insurance professionals is the pall the negative press casts over all agents—especially those most committed to their careers who have spent long hours to learn their trade, through accredited programs, to meet their clients’ needs in the most professional and ethical manner possible.

We at the LIFE Foundation care about how the public perceives agents. A part of what we do is remind people of the important role agents perform in helping families, businesses, and individuals find the insurance products that best fit their needs. These kinds of articles no doubt leave consumers believing just the opposite.

That brings me to another concern raised in the article. While the Life Foundation is primarily charged with educating consumers about the essential role of life, health, disability and long-term care insurance in sound financial and retirement planning, we take exception—as do many of the companies, trade associations and agents the LIFE Foundation represent—to how the Times portrays deferred annuities.

Annuities, both deferred and immediate, can play a vital and valid role in sound financial and retirement planning. It is not the products that are abusive, as is suggested in the New York Times piece. It is the use or misuse to which they are sometimes put.

In fact, deferred annuities are an excellent vehicle for accumulating tax deferred money over a long period of time in the context of a sound financial plan. Immediate annuities are outstanding products for guaranteeing a lifetime income to a retiree and, if they so choose, his or her spouse. And deferred annuities can become immediate annuities at any time the annuitant chooses.

The full and easy-to-understand disclosure of all the pertinent facts about these and all insurance and financial products are in the public interest. That’s just the standard a great majority of agents meet. They put the interests of their clients ahead of their own. They understand each person's financial situation is unique and must be evaluated, addressed and resolved in the context of what is best for that client. This conduct is more typical. Unfortunately, their actions aren’t as newsworthy.