In the August 30 issue of Newsweek Jane Bryant Quinn uses the following illogical syllogism in dissing tax-deferred variable annuities.

Tax-deferred variable annuities are a bad thing being sold by "stock brokers, insurance agents, bankers and financial planners". Some older people buy tax-deferred variable annuities.
Therefore, stock brokers, insurance agents, bankers and financial planners are "lying in wait" for older people.

Now Jane Bryant Quinn is nothing if not certain of her rightness. She may, in fact, be wrong, but she's never in doubt.

There is no question some older people have been sold deferred annuities with high surrender charges for an extended period of time. That is usually a bad thing. But to rise up in righteous indignation and indict all stock brokers, insurance agents, bankers and financial planners for preying upon the elderly somehow rings hollow. JBQ should know better. She is certainly entitled to her opinion about any product about which she chooses to have an opinion. But to scare people away from what can be a useful and valuable component of retirement planning is just as irresponsible as the alleged behavior of the few unscrupulous tax-deferred annuity purveyors she singles out for her wrath.

Come on, Jane. To generalize from a particular is a no-no we all learned in Freshman Philosophy or Logic or somewhere. We have all either heard or used or both a well-known phrase of most teenage parents, "Just because all the other kids are doing it doesn't mean you can do it."

In other words, your own situation is what should control. Just be sure you know what you are buying. And, with apologies to my insurance agent brethren and sisteren, the best person to tell you that is a well-trained and scrupulous stock broker, insurance agent, banker or financial planner.