I thought I'd heard the ultimate structured settlement puffer fish story until now. Apparently some twit recently mischaracterized Symetra Life structured annuity as being provided by a "Berkshire Hathaway entity", One can only suppose that the purpose of such statement was to increase confidence over Symetra's ratings by shamelessly attempting to create the perception of the imprimatur of Warren Buffett.
Symetra is of course owned by an investor group led by White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
As it clearly states on the Symetra Financial website
"Originally a part of a Seattle-based Fortune 500 insurance company, on Aug. 2, 2004, the life insurance and investments subsidiaries were purchased by an investor group led by White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Together, these companies became the privately held corporation known today as Symetra Financial".
For those who have doubts check out the Berkshire Hathaway website. You will find links to all Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary companies You won't find Symetra there! (as of 11/20/2009)
Non worldly financially ignorant competitors like this simply make my life easy. On an industry level however, I'm not sure whether I should grab a hankie. Sniff Sniff!
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