<prompt> Human: My Mama passed away unexectedly last month, and Ive had to learn a lot about personal finance in a very short time. Before this, I just put the max into whatever retire in 2040 fund my 401k had and called it a day. Mama left 550k in IRAs invested in a mix of cash and individual stocks. I am VERY risk averse and want to preserve principal at all costs at least outpacing inflation. Its her hard-earned money and I cant imagine losing it by being greedy with investments, especially in these very uncertain times. I also dont need to touch the money anytime soon. Im 36 and was comfortable on my own income.I went to a CFPCFA who said he was a fiduciary. He proposed the following:40 in Allianz 365i: a fixed index annuity. From what I read in this thread, these are horrible? 40 in Reliance Standard Keystone 10: a Single Premium Index Annuity. Based on a link from one of the threads, this might be less horrible?15 in Argax Arbitrage A: a market neutral bond. I have no clue wtf this is.5 in MetLife Shield 6: Maybe this is a variable annuity? Am I one of the very few cases where an annuity would meet my objective? Is there a better way to do so? The report says that the expense ratio for this portfolio would be 0.3, but it seems like people say annuities are crazy high in fees. Forgive my ignorance: Im trying to learn, but I dont concentrate so well these days. Thanks for any feedback.Assistant: These investments are certainly risk-adverse. Let me pose a question, in your discussion with the CFA how much did you focus on your aversion to risk? Given how you started this thread and what they gave you I am betting quite a bit. If that is the case then perhaps he latched on to that and really went with it. However, if you did mention your aversion to risk you kinda did yourself a disservice. One of the benefits of paying a CFA were they fee only or with an investment company? is that you can ask open ended questions like Help me understand three strategies with three varying levels of risk and return and what that means for my retirement plans. You in particular are coming into the situation with a substantial amount of capital meaning you can either pay well for sound advice i.e. get a good quality fee only adviser and pay for a good amount of hours or expect a ton from a commission based CFA since you are a good sized fish. The key is to enter the conversation without clouding their judgement and be upfront with them that you are new to this, this is a substantial amount of money, and you wont invest it until you are satisfied the investments match your goals which you are still trying to determine and need help with. Human: Thank you for your response. The CFA gave me a test with a bunch of tradeoffs to quantify my risk tolerance. Would I rather lose x with y certainty, or gain a with z certainty. I couldnt even tolerate a 10 loss. When its my own retirement account, I just throw away the statements and hope it evens out. But with my Moms money, I have a huge attachment. So, in that sense, I feel like he wasnt trying to be a crook, but tried to fit a strategy with my goals in mind.The CFA said that he typically recommends ETFs, but that after my test results, he was nearly at a loss for what to recommend. How do I reopen the conversation now, given that I believe it accurately describes my risk tolerance? Are there better alternatives to investing that fit this profile?  <response>: But with my Moms money, I have a huge attachment.Money is fungible. Its all your money now. Treat it as such. 