We all know the meaning of the idiom "Shooting oneself in the foot." This is exactly what the insurance industry has done to itself with old generation retirement annuities! Prohibitive initial and ongoing fees coupled with disappointing investment returns have put many people off this product. And so - to use another idiom - the baby is being thrown out with the bath water. This is a great shame for retirement annuities (RA's) have plenty of merits for any investment portfolio: