The Annuity Man team and I hope that you are having a great Thanksgiving weekend. As your first holiday gift of the season, I am “re-gifting” a podcast I recorded with the one and only Wade Pfau. If you are not familiar with Wade, you need to be. He is a retirement guru monster, and this Fun With Annuities podcast is one you can’t miss. We discuss Wade’s new book and his insights on how annuities can properly fit into your retirement plans along with factually destroying the 4% rule. This is pure podcast gold.

In this week’s YouTube video I hammered how Index Annuity Scams involving back-tested annuity sales pitches are nothing but a misleading joke. Always remember to own an annuity for what it will do, not what it might do. That means to make your buying decision solely on the contractual guarantees of the policy. Back-tested returns are pure nonsense and should be illegal and prohibited to show, in my opinion. Not only should you watch this video, you should send it to your local agent that sells this misleading dream scenariio. If there was a product that actually gave you “market upside with no downside” or “market participation with principal protection”, then that’s all Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley type firms would buy. Spoiler alert...indexed annuities are CD products and Wall Street’s not buying them!

As always, my Shootin’ It Straight with Stan video reminded everyone that Annuity Contractual Guarantees Are Not Complicated. There are many types of annuities, and the majority of those contracts are very simple. Remember that if you can’t explain it to a 9-year-old, then you should not buy it. No offense to 9-year-olds. Never buy the sales pitch dream because you are going to own the contractual realities of that policy.

How do you compare Life with Cash Refund vs. Life with Installment Refund? This week’s Q&A Friday fully answers that need-to-know question so you can make a good decision when structuring lifetime income and the attached legacy “back-stop” that most people want contractually built in. Both Cash Refund and Installment Refund guarantee that the annuity company will never keep a penny of your money even though they are contractually on the hook to pay for as long as you live. And if you set it up “Joint Life,” then the annuity company will pay as long as one of you is breathing. Annuities for lifetime income are pensions. Pure and simple.

We all have a lot to be thankful for, so make sure to reflect on the blessings that you and your family have. Enjoy life and live for the day because I will always remind you that there are no U-Hauls behind hearses. Thanksgiving food for thought.

Contractually Winning With Annuities,

Stan