In most people’s eyes, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke is very wealthy. So they may not pay any attention to where he holds his money when he has to disclose this information each year publicly. But if the Fed Chairman thinks something is a worthwhile investment, is it worth a look for those of us who don’t have millions of dollars? It just might be. And those who do have savings close to or over a million dollars should have even more interest in what Mr. Bernanke is doing with his riches. Life Health Pro’s Marcy Gordon says that “Bernanke’s largest investment holdings are two annuities.” The 2012 federal disclosure report for public officials was just released to the public and showed that Bernanke made few changes to his assets over the course of 2012. Aside from his home in Washington D.C, Bernanke’s assets were between $1.1 million and $2.3 million. (Officials don’t have to release the exact amount, only a range.)
The article says that he is “vanilla” when it comes to his investments and is focused on safety rather than risk. Most of his money is in annuities and U.S. Treasury securities. He holds a variable annuity and a fixed annuity from TIAA-CREF, both valued between half a million and one million dollars. Last year he earned somewhere between $30,000 and $100.000 from the annuity products. Both annuities are part of a retirement plan that he set in place when he taught at Princeton. He likely holds one of each type of annuity for the security of the fixed annuity payments and the potential to increase his payments with a variable annuity product. Just because Ben Bernanke holds a lot of his money in annuities, it certainly doesn’t mean that you should go out and put all of your savings into one. But ask your financial advisor about annuities within your entire retirement plan, especially because someone so important in the financial industry believes that they are a good way to secure your retirement.
Written by Rachel Summit
