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Welcome to the Fun With Annuities mic, a co-host who is crazy connected in the retirement income industry - Kerry Pechter. Kerry is the founder and editor of the Retirement Income Journal (RIJ), which recently celebrated its 500th issue.

So if you're not familiar with MYGAs, let me go through it quickly. Multi-year guarantee annuity, that's what MYGA stands for. It's the annuity industry's version of a CD. It's very simple; there are no moving parts, there are no market attachments, and you're going to get a guaranteed interest rate for a specific period that you choose.

Shopping for annuities. First of all, understand that regardless of what you hear from an agent or an advisor, annuities are commodity products. There's not one annuity that's better than the other annuity, et cetera.The first thing you need to understand is that there's not a one size fits all product, even though there are many people out there promoting that they have that.

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So, annuity companies, how do they make money? There's a reason that annuity companies have significant buildings and that they do very, very well. Why? It's because they know when we're going to die. Property and casualty companies, however, don't know when the hurricane's going to hit. They don't know when the tornado's going to hit.

So you’re looking into exclusion ratios for immediate annuities, SPIAs, also known as Single Premium Immediate Annuities. In essence, the short answer to the exclusion ratio is that, with immediate annuities lifetime income stream, you're going to get a combination of return of principal plus interest based on your life expectancy at the time you make the payment.

So happy to have Owen back on the Fun With Annuities podcast to wake people up to the fact that free ain’t always free. As one of the top money managers in the country, Owen addressed the crisis that affects too many Americans.

The question you have asked, which I'm going to answer quickly, is, “are annuities FDIC insured?”

What does the maturity day on an annuity mean? Great question. Why do companies put maturity dates on policies? We will go over what that means, what your choices are, etc., so that when you get your policy and this maturity date on the policy, you'll understand precisely what to do.

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So what is a cost basis on an annuity? I'm going to talk about the cost basis of all different types of annuities, the deferred annuities, the income annuities, and how that affects the annuity you're coming from an annuity that you're going to.

We're going to talk about laddering investments and protecting your principal all at the same time. You need to understand the contract before you buy anything, right? The only urgency is to understand, not the urgency to buy.

John Olsen is one of the handful, over the long history of annuities that I can honestly refer to as "Annuity Royalty." For anyone who knows John or has read his work, it's indisputable.

So all of us want to take care of our loved ones financially. I mean, that's a goal. There's a myriad of ways to do that but of the best ways, and I don't sell this product, is life insurance which happens to be the best wealth transfer to your beneficiaries as possible.

What happens when your annuity provider goes bust? Can you lose money in your annuity? Does the state ensure fixed annuities? I understand the fears that you might have about the safety of your annuity. We're going to cover it all, and we're going to start by talking about state guarantee funds.