Prudential Annuities Reviews

Several years ago my financial person set me up with the annuity. He is no longer my advisor. Left Morgan Stanley. This decision for annuity was the a terrible decision. Dealing with Prudential customer service was horrendous! Not educated with their programs. We have changed the monthly deposit date to work with my needs. And do you think the deposit happens timely. No! I would never ever recommend Prudential. And the staff is worthless!

Prudential Securities in Syracuse NY is nothing short of horrible to deal with. Their ability to service my account with them in the past 40 years has been non existent. They don't care about anyone unless they are making tons of money off you. The call center has got to be the worst ever.

I am the trustee and personal administrator of my cousins annuity with Prudential. Actually to her entire state. Trying to make this claim with annuity has been ongoing for months. They tell me to do this. I do it then they say we need that. I do that and then they tell me oh you need this back-and-forth back-and-forth back-and-forth. Today I said I want resolution right now and after 14 minutes I got cut off. The agent did try to call me back, but for some reason it didn’t go through and then the office was closed. Major frustration continues.

I understand that I likely purchased this annuity at a time when the market was falling. However, my other 401K and IRA's have been increasing since the market has turned itself around a bit and returned to their prior balances. However, with the Prudential Flexguard, I'm still at a significant loss. I so regret buying into this annuity and advise everyone to take a long hard look before jumping in. I don't know what kind of investment mixes they utilize but they're not lucrative by any means. Am considering pulling what money I have in the annuity and taking a hit. This is the bulk of my retirement savings and don't want to be at a continual loss long term.

My wife and I discovered that we had been victims of unethical business practices by our “trusted financial adviser”, had been giving us false information, verbally and in writing, taking actions that were clearly not in our best interests. He then made false assurances, provided fraudulent financial reports, to delaying our discovery of his deception, until he earned yet another commission.

My father had a small (<$5000) annuity left when he died in January of this year. There are six beneficiaries named. I am one of them. My portion comes out to <$700 total. I filed the claim in June (there were several delays, they sent me an outdated claim form). I had called Prudential customer service for assistance in filling out the claim forms and opted for a lump sum payment. I received a letter from Prudential that I will be paid monthly payments via paper check for $8.63 until, hold on, MARCH OF 2029. I was not told when filling out the form that a lump sum payment was not an option. In fact, I was told to choose between lump sum and monthly payments.

After losing my father in September 2019 I began the process of collecting on his annuities policies left for me and my sister. I have continually been given incorrect information first by Kathy ** in Delaware who sold my dad the policies. Once the paperwork was sent in with information on how I wanted to have the funds distributed I received a call from a man who did not identify himself properly. He wanted me to give permission over the phone for payments to start immediately. Not knowing if it was a legitimate call from Prudential and because it completely went against the paperwork I had filled out I repeatedly said no and requested the information be sent to me for review. This call was ignored and the checks began arriving. I have not cashed them as this was not what I wanted.

I rec'd my tax form, did not take out enough tax on the distribution I requested in Sept. 2019. Called for amended tax form, couldn't understand the person in customer service, have to jump through hoops to get to c/s - really don't like this company, but too late to change now. Finally, after demanding that I get a revised tax form for taxes held - will email me the proper form. FINALLY!!!

1 - Customer Service reps are mostly subcontractors located off-shore. Difficult to understand. Not very helpful. They keep asking the same questions over and over again. Purposely undertrained.

I called Prudential to ask some tax related questions for my grandma who is a US citizen if doesn’t live on the US. After asking me a million questions about my name and other stuff and basically treating me like I’m some nuisance to get rid of despite my politeness the lady transfers me to a certain David who can help me. After David has zero interest in finding out what my question is because he obviously doesn’t like his job he tells me he can’t tell me anything and I need to get data from the IRS and gives me completely incorrect data about what my grandma needs to fill out.

Prudential and the representative agent are only agreed to take your money, not caring how to better manage your savings & retirement. They work for their own profit only! Be aware of this if you choose Prudential. I want to state this, so this will not happen to other people!! I had an annuity account with New York Life and was not happy with the 1% given, and was advised by a Prudential agent that they could handle and do better than the 1 %, to end up making 0%!

I also am the victim of a huge financial annuity loss December 2018 by Prudential/AXA! Like those who have lost upwards of $60-70,000 in value of their portfolio I experienced the same. I have tried for six months (as of April 2019) to close out my account and have been unable to! From an agent not showing up for a scheduled meeting to calls to the head office to close the account, nothing is moving! Once these crooks have your money, you can kiss your financial future goodbye! Prudential is a Ponzi scheme as many here have related. Without your hard earned money coming into their pockets they have nothing!

Apply for a hardship loan after my son had cancer and receiving a bone marrow transplant. Had all paperwork from the hospital doctor. Bills over $47,000. 2 months later we had a hail storm and wind damage in my house with $15,000 of damage. Requested $25,000 out of my $50,000 available. Gave them over 300 pages of documents and they continue to say not enough paperwork, not enough proof then I was approved then denied then approved then denied over three times. I'm at the end. I never got a penny. Never got a dime out of them. I gave up. Oh after 2 months of fighting for my money the money I put in they will not give me anything. This is an overseas account. They are still in the American money. It's racketeering. Someone needs to get together and have a class action lawsuit against these people. It's unfair. It's not right what they're doing to the American people. They're stealing our money.

They were the most unhelpful people to handle your funds, they all say different things and to this day I am waiting on my funds. It has been months! Set up your own retirement! They are not professional at all!

As of this date... I have lost $60,000 dollars out of my annuity value. Prudential invests in themselves it seems and it's a losing deal. I cannot/will not recommend Prudential. Find someone else for investment management. I never receive any literature from them in the yrs I have been with them. No year end statements no agent calls to review account. Nothing. They took my money and have squandered it. In my opinion, they can't manage their way out of wet paper bag!

I opened this annuity through a broker, and after 10 years it has stopped growing. Knew this up front. No problem, but trying to get my annual check or even my balance was incredibly difficult. I had electronic access up until their "new server". I live overseas, and since they had a problem verifying the ip, because it was Myanmar, their IT department decided the correct approach was for me to purchase (at my expense) a VPN account which I successfully used for the last three years. In August their "new server" no longer allows VPN access, and after a month they had no solution. Kept trying to tell me it was my computer.

I am trying to find somewhere to post my displeasure at this company so others avoid going through the same problems. It’s taken 14 months to cash out my pension plan and I have read the same from other folks. My plan was in the UK so the issue is company wide. For 14 months I went in circles trying to get my money, by the time I did the value of the dollar dropped and cost me a few thousand dollars. I am currently trying to get reimbursed for all my costs, so anyone looking to invest go elsewhere.

My wife and I were told by the Prudential salesperson that we would, if we left or 300k annuity untouch for ten years, we would then be guaranteed a minimum of 60k per year for life. Five years into the contract we learned that we were in fact guaranteed only half that amount. As it turns out, we will have to live into our late 80's to have this investment make sense. The company refuses to allow us a meeting in person with someone from personal relations. It has been a nightmare experience for us. I urge anyone considering a Prudential annuity, or any other annuity for that matter, to consult an independent expert who can evaluate whether this EXTREMELY complex instrument is right for you.

I retired at 53 and chose Prudential to help make it last. After 10 years and somewhat limited funds to invest in, I broke even. They advertise how great they are with money but they only make it for themselves and not the customer. Think twice or 3 times before you pick Prudential.

My grandmother set up an Educational Annuity for my granddaughter. At the time it was set up, my grandmother had my mother's name added as the secondary person that could access the account management. When my grandmother passed away, my mother was the only person that could manage the document. Now that my mother is 87 years old, she was wanting another person named on the account. She wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any problems with the account after her death. Since the account was set up for my granddaughter, she wanted my name to be added to the document. We did that last Fall. Now it is time that we get all of our tax documents in order to do our personal taxes.