093 John Lenz: What You Need To Know About Annuity Laddering in 2022

About Fun With Annuities Episode #93

I consider John Lenz one of the top annuity minds in the country.  His depth of knowledge is something that I respect and rely upon.  I was so happy to have John on the Fun With Annuities Podcast again because we covered annuity laddering, a topic and strategy that people need to be aware of.

That topic is laddering annuities, specifically, laddering Fixed Index Annuities (FIAs).  John is a thought leader and pioneer in this space, and we went into the details of how these laddering strategies work.

Most FIAs just offer one-year call option strategies for accumulation.  There is nothing wrong with the one-year choices, but the historical returns of longer option durations of 2 and 3-year call options offer more upside potential.  When you are just looking at FIAs for a pure accumulation strategy, you have to use those longer option strategies to enhance returns.

Without mentioning specific carrier names, John and I explained how these 1/2/3 year FIA laddering strategies work.  Most agents aren’t even aware of options strategies that are more than one year in length and a just selling their FIA of choice for whatever reason.

If you consider FIAs for accumulation, you have to take a more academic and analytical approach to have a chance at a real return.  As you will hear in this podcast, John Lenz brings the facts and unique analysis that will make you think differently about FIAs for accumulation.  After listening to this discussion, any other FIA sales pitch you will hear or read about will be elementary and a joke.

As I always say, don’t buy the sales pitch because you will own the contractual realities of the policy.  Laddering FIA options is a “next level” approach to a typically mis-sold and overhyped product.  This is one of the most important podcasts I’ve done because it sets the record straight on FIAs for accumulation and brings some well-needed IQ to the annuity table.  Enjoy!

"The longer that you measure the equity markets, the higher probability that you’re gonna have a predictably higher rate of return… " —  John Lenz.

Brief Bio on Co-host: John Lenz

This week’s celebrity co-host is an annuity rock star who has seen it all with 40 years in the business. John Lenz is the founder and President of the Lenz Financial Group, a Simplicity Group company, and full-service brokerage agency which distributes life, annuity and long-term care insurance products to insurance professionals and financial advisors. They provide complete back-office support to experienced advisors in the areas of life insurance, estate planning, and financial planner. LFG is also a principal member of the Insurance Designers of America.

He wants to make sure people have a good buying experience and get what THEY need. So, his goal is to make sure financial professionals have the tools make that happen. This guy is plugged into the markets and there is no one better to tell us what’s new and what we need to be paying attention to.

In this episode, The Annuity Man and John Lenz discuss:

• What does laddering mean?
• Lowering risk until it’s nonexistent
• Hybridization of annuities
• Annuity industry standards

Key Takeaways:

• Laddering is when you commit to pushing out your money when it becomes liquid into the long end of your ladder and recycling fixed income or annuities to keep your ladder in good form.
• If you look at a two-year period or three-year period, you’ll see that the chance of you losing money in a long period of time goes down until it’s nonexistent.
• Hybridization brings in the best features of a fixed annuity and the features of a variable annuity - which gives upside growth and brings them together into the index annuity.
• Regulators look at index annuities closely; there’s lots of disclosure and lots of innovation. The range of expectations is broadening.

Fun With Annuities® Podcast is hosted by America’s Annuity Agent®, Stan Haithcock, The Annuity Man®. Hear brutal annuity facts with no sales pitches from the top independent agent in the country, licensed in all 50 states. Author of 7 books, Stan dives deep on all annuity types and strategies. It’s fun, learning the contractual truths on how annuities actually work and if they’ll fit your personal retirement lifestyle.

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