Customer Q, age 40, is married with 3 young children. He earns $120,000 per year and has $10,000 of liquid assets to invest. The customer has no current portfolio, but does own his home, worth $400,000 against which there is a $200,000 mortgage. The customer informs you that his father just died, leaving him an inheritance of $150,000. He wishes to invest the money so that he can retire in 20 years, using the investment's income. The best recommendation to the customer is to invest the $150,000 in:______________.A. a large cap stock mutual fundB. CMO companion tranches with a 20 year average lifeC. TIPs with a 20 year maturityD. a low-load variable annuity separate account with a growth objective

The customer plans to retire in 20 years, and even though his earnings are relatively high, his assets and net value are not. Before his father died, he only had $10,000 to invest, so he cannot afford to take high risks.

A low load investment is one whose managers charge low management fees. A variable annuity is a type of investment that yields a variable return depending on how the investment portfolio performs. In order to be able to have a larger future return, the growth objective would be to have a portfolio that grows, and not necessarily yields annual returns, e.g. zero coupon securities or stocks that pay low dividends or even no dividends at all but have a higher growth rate.