So, this guy who is handling my MILs estate is selling my husband an annuity

[K8-EEE]

13. My husband is a successful artist - and completely uninterested in finances

I think he thinks of his oldest brother as "the smart one" and he is. He's an architect, but what I'm finding is you can be brilliant at what you do and just be utterly unsophisticated and vulnerable when it comes to things like this. These products have 800 page prospectuses and you can bet the sellers know the ins and outs and are only telling you what appeals to you. There's almost no way to fully understand those things so you think, wow, he understands all this he must really know what he's doing!

The wildest thing is my BIL is very, very frugal with everyday purchases. He is the type who will drive all over town looking for gas that is two cents cheaper. And yet I can tell that he invested $300,000 without even comparing the damned variable annuity to any other variable annuities! HE WILL BE PAYING $10,000 IN FEES JUST THIS YEAR - if he had bought the same thing but gone with Vanguard he could save $7000 a year and he plans to be in this 10+ years. But obviously he didn't REALLY look at it because I'm convinced anybody who really looks at this thing would not only not buy it but NOT be friends with the guy selling it. IT'S THAT BAD.