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system
withdraw funds with penalty or bear high management fees for 10 years?
user
to me, it depends. how much are their total assets?  having 10% of your money in something like that isn't crazy.  having it all in?  that is crazy. can they reduce their exposure to this account without paying a penalty (say pull out 10%?) the manager should be taking direction from them.  if they aren't able to get the manager to re-allocate to something more suitable, under your friends direction, they should then pursue whether or not the manager is operating lawfully.
assistant