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When it comes to retirement planning and making sure that you have enough retirement income in place, most people are relying too much on their Social Security payments. For all of you “annuity haters” out there, Social Security is the best inflation annuity on the planet...and every American owns one.

Or are they? It's common and required for all of us to have car insurance, health insurance, and homeowner's insurance. You can't drive a car or own a home without that type of coverage, and we pay these premiums without hesitation.

Two of the most frequently asked question that I receive are “How does longevity insurance work?” and “How much does longevity insurance cost?” Solving for longevity risk is making sure that you will never be running out of money and that you have a sufficient lifetime income stream hitting your bank account regardless of how long you live.

If you grew up in rural America, you remember the outside water spigot we used with the garden hose and to fill buckets. Imagine if you mistakenly ripped or broke the knob off of that faucet. If that happened, water would flow uninterrupted until you got someone to fix it.

I’ve learned the word “annuity” is a curse word in the financial industry. Perhaps some bad sales practices have helped with this bad reputation, or maybe it’s the constant “I Hate Annuities” ads that blanket all platforms. Many people that might need an annuity transfer of risk strategy have, unfortunately, opted not to learn more because of this unearned negative stigma.

I find that the majority of people think that when you own an annuity for lifetime income the annuity company keeps any money in the account when you die. Too many people who needed a lifetime income stream from an annuity didn’t make that purchase because of this common assumption, I can guarantee that.

The Secure Act (aka The Secure Retirement Act) was signed into law on December 20th, 2019. The primary government intention was to encourage Americans to start planning for their own retirement income needs. 2 Words Matter...Lifetime Income

Since I am licensed in all 50 states, I get a ton of calls from across the country with the following question, “Are Fixed Indexed Annuities a good investment and do they really get stock market returns?