This month’s Compliance Corner blog entry will focus on a topic that regulators are consistently concerned about: replacements of annuity contracts. Replacements, also referred to by some as exchanges or switches, occurs when an agent recommends that a customer replace one annuity contract for a new one. Regulators have often argued that agents make commissions from these transactions, but customers are not always in a better position in the end. In some cases, the customer may be assessed a surrender penalty and may never reach the level of returns they would’ve achieved by staying with their existing annuity contract.