Can someone help me figure out what happened here?

[Molly]

My brother-in-law attended one of those free retirement planning dinners. He felt no pressure and eventually met with the CFP and bought an annuity. My BIL is financially savvy, so I trust his judgment. We then attended one of the dinners and then met with the presenter.

Our experience was totally different. The presenter said he had to have all of our financial statements within five days or it was "nice to have met you". We were stunned and put off, but decided to gather our documents anyway and see what he had to say. I sent him an email asking if we could drop them off on a Wednesday, but he wrote back saying no, he needed them Monday and he could come to our house to pick them up. He lives quite far from us so this made no sense, especially as he said he was very busy.

This sent up warning bells, so I replied back that it wasn't going to work out, sorry.

I don't understand why he was in such a hurry. He is in his mid 60's and said he could retire, but loves to work. I could find no negative reviews of him or his company. The BBB had nothing on him. We only have a modest IRA, so we couldn't understand why he would pursue us so aggressively.

So any clue as to why someone who is apparently reputable wanted to close the deal so fast? We are stumped!

[Alan]

End of the month commissions?

[bae]

Sounds like a situation to avoid.

[sweetana3]

You probably did the right thing. A gut feeling is all you need. A reputable business man would not use these kinds of pressure tactics but would work with you in a business like manner.

We attended one of these dinners and strangely after having a pretty good session, they all ran away before dessert. Would have been nice if they had spent a little time talking to the attendees on a personal level even if just around the table. (I was upset they promised a very good dessert and left us with Sam's Club cookies.) Not a good way to make friends with me. Indicated a lack of planning and no apology. We did not pursue and I sent them a pretty pointed email.

[gwendolyn]

Several "real" financial advisors have told me that even supposedly reputable financial planners, a la Ameriprise agents, get about $25,000 commission for each annuity they sell. So you can imagine what an annuity-only salesmen would get to sell some crap annuity fund that's going to collapse in about 5 years, and how much they would consider whether it was really the right product for the people at those dinner tables, let alone if that fund is really the best one to be trusting with your life savings.