(MONEY Magazine) – Q. Recently, I bought an annuity from Citibank, dividing my money between the Nationwide Total Return Fund and the Neuberger & Berman Balanced Portfolio. Later, I looked in several mutual fund listings but found neither fund. The Citibank salesman told me they were "too new" to be listed, but I pointed out that the prospectus showed both had three- and 10-year returns. He handed me a MONEY story that seemed to recommend the Nationwide fund, but then he admitted it wasn't exactly the same thing. What gives? Robert Huber Glendale, Calif.

A. Your funds are not covered by MONEY nor by most other financial publications, because they are not available to the public but only to people who buy a Nationwide Life Insurance Co. annuity. There are about 600 such private-label funds offered through insurance companies and pension plans. Many have titles that sound like name brands: Your fund, for instance, could easily be mistaken for the Nationwide Fund that was one of our "Nine Funds That Never Lose Money" last June, although the two are run by separate Nationwide subsidiaries. Fact is, the insurance and mutual fund industries are playing a name game worthy of the one Hollywood plays with producer titles. The typical movie will list Henry Mindless as producer and 14 friends as executive producers in a J.D. Sequel/Mal Evolent production of a Pewter Screen Partners-Dizzyland presentation of Home Alone XIII: Lost in the Wisconsin Dells. In truth, several of Henry's friends did most of the work, and the others contributed only enough to take a slice of the profit. Similarly, though your annuity was sold by Citibank, it was created by Financial Horizons, a Nationwide subsidiary. And though Nationwide manages your total- return fund, it subcontracts to Neuberger & Berman the management of the Balanced Portfolio. Neither fund is doing particularly well right now: The balanced fund returned only 6.91% for the year ended Jan. 31, compared with an average of 8.31% for all balanced funds; your total return was up 7.22%, vs. 9.81% for the average growth and income fund. To track their future performance, you might subscribe to Morningstar's Variable Annuity/Life Performance Report ($55 a year; 800-876-5005). Other private-label funds -- though not yours -- can be found in Annuity & Life Insurance Shopper ($45 for four issues; 908-521-5110) or Barron's. My advice: Save your money, and pester Nationwide for figures.

Q. My 22-year-old daughter will graduate from college in May. She plans to travel in Europe for a year or so, doing odd jobs and hoping to land a permanent spot. My group health policy covers her only if she is a student, though. How can I insure her until she finds a full-time job? Michael B. Conway Littleton, Colo. A. You are in a catch-22. Most individual U.S. policies will not cover her abroad. And most European policies won't protect her if she returns to the U.S., which she might do on holidays, for example, or if she contracts some horrible stomach virus. (I can say from experience that there are few tortures worse than being sick while sharing a bathroom with 11 strangers in a cheap Spanish pension.) And though European countries sometimes provide medical service free to each other's citizens, visiting Americans usually aren't eligible for more than emergency care. To be safe, buy two policies: For protection abroad, choose one like International Lifeline from British United Provident Association in London ($644 a year; 44-71-353-5212); it pays hospital bills up to 200,000 ($288,000) and outpatient fees up to 1,000 ($1,440) anywhere except the U.S. and Canada. And for home, get a U.S. policy like MedFlex Major Medical from Mutual of Omaha ($1,228 a year; 303-755-0357), which covers her for as much as $1 million in hospital and outpatient expenses. With those premiums, of course, you may have to take an odd job yourself. But hey, that's a father's lot. As one weary dad told me after packing his girl off to France: "In my next life, I plan to come back as my daughter."

Q. Both my bank and my broker refuse to put Series EE U.S. Savings Bonds in an Individual Retirement Account. How can I find a financial institution that will? Corinne B. Krebs Winnetka, Ill. A. Well, maybe there is some long-lost bank or brokerage that will keep Series EE bonds in an IRA. But the fact that your investment stratagem is so unpopular should tell you something. One big advantage of Series EE bonds is that their interest stays untaxed until you cash them in. And the chief advantage of an IRA is that its earnings stay untaxed until you withdraw funds. Ergo: There's no point putting EEs in IRAs (unless you want to spell something really weird); you would just be duplicating a tax benefit you already get. Find a good taxable investment for your IRA instead.

Q. Part of the information in a mutual fund prospectus I read was audited by Ernst & Young. Given the poor track record of big accounting firms in auditing failing savings and loans, how much confidence should I have in a mutual fund audit? Arthur L. Cook Charlotte, N.C. A. True, some big-name accounting firms seemed like the Keystone Kops in auditing S&Ls. Dear old Ernst & Young, for instance, recently paid three federal agencies $400 million -- without admitting or denying any wrongdoing -- to drop charges that it had improperly audited thrifts that later went down the tube. Mutual funds are less likely than banks or thrifts to trip up even the thickest accountant, though. Fund assets are valued at the prices of their securities as of a certain date -- figures you can often find in a daily newspaper. (For S&Ls, by contrast, auditors had to guess the value of, say, a five-year-old nonperforming loan on a half-built shopping center.) And the Investment Company Act of 1940 requires that at least 40% of a fund's board be independent of the sponsoring company -- cutting down on the influence of / cronies and family members who helped scuttle some S&Ls.

Q. I am a citizen of India who worked in the United States during 1990 and filed a joint tax return with my wife on Form 1040. A friend tells me I should have used Form 1040NR, because then I could have deducted expenses for car mileage, rent, utility bills and so on. I earned $28,000 that year -- all here -- and my wife earned nothing. Should I amend my return? Rick Aurora Gaithersburg, Md. A. Let's get real: If you could deduct ordinary living expenses on a 1040NR (the NR stands for nonresident), then most of us U.S. taxpayers would long ago have switched our citizenship back to the countries from which our families came. In fact, for reasons too complicated to raise here, you'd have paid about $1,600 more by filing 1040NR that year, according to accountants Patrick J. Brennan and Kurt Wilner of Putterman Rush & Shapiro in New York City. Form NR makes sense only if you have significant income from outside the U.S., which you didn't. That's because it excludes non-U.S. earnings from taxation, whereas the standard 1040 taxes income from anywhere in the world. And people say Indian law is complicated!