Annuity Expert Rants: Annuities and the Media

Hi, my name is Stan The Annuity Man. I've got a little bit of an issue with annuities and how the media treats annuities. Now, the last time I went on one of these rants, I guess, for lack of a better phrase, I got emotional about it because I was talking about the stock market decline, etc., but I'm upset about how the media talks about annuities. Annuities have been around for a long, long time. Annuities are pension products. Annuities are the only products on the planet that can provide a lifetime income stream. But somehow, the media has driven home this; I hate annuities, mantra, which is total crap.

‌Now, I understand that there are agendas out there, and I understand there are ads that are out there, but what I don't understand is that the media continually feeds into it. They continually are uneducated about the product. They continually don't want to learn about the product or talk to someone like myself who will tell them the brutal truth without sales pitches. That's what I'm mad about. But you know what? I'm mad about the media in general because what I'm mad about with the media and annuities is the same reason the rest of the country's mad about the media. It's all about advertising. It's all about clicks and getting revenue. It's all about agendas, both left and right.

‌We're All in This Thing Together

‌I could give a crap whether you're Republican or Democrat. It doesn't matter. And this isn't some political speech with I love America in the background. We're all Americans. We're all in this thing together. We're all working hard. I will tell you that I don't see color. I know you don't see color. People out there are just trying to make it. The media has to get to a point where they're telling the truth about such a simple product like annuities, and they tell the truth about such a simple thing like whatever's in the news today. I wonder if that's even possible. I'm so frustrated about how annuities are framed by the retirement and financial industries; it's crazy.

‌Contractual Realities

‌I give props to YouTube for giving me a platform to talk about annuities, to put out videos about annuities, to put out podcasts about annuities so that people understand the transfer of risk nature, that they're not all one size fits all. They're not for everybody. They're not too good to be true. They're not pie in the sky. They're not unicorns chasing their butterflies. They're not some back-tested great thing. They're not market participation with no downside. They're not all the upside with no down. They're not the dream. They're contractual realities. We're reaching a point in this country with 10,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every single day, and with market volatility happening like it's happening now, with a global and geopolitical mess on our hands, and we have no clue what will happen. People need to be told about guarantees. People need to be told that other options are available to them than some mutual fund or some stock or some ETF or some tech company or whatever.

‌Being Transparent

‌Institutions run the stock market. Institutions run money. Computers, they're driving the whole thing. The media has to be transparent to the consumer about what's out there, about their retirement. It's a demographic tidal wave. It's a demographic tidal wave of people who are tired of losing money, tired of being sold a bill of goods, tired of buying potential, hopes, dreams, and pie in the sky. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas. If you want to gamble, go to Las Vegas. If you want to gamble and travel, go to Macau or whatever place Wynn owns. Go there. Gamble. Gamble on sports, but don't gamble on your retirement.

‌I blame the media for this. The media should be transparent. Here are your options. But no, the clickbait. No, we get more clicks, Stan The Annuity Man, if we're showing Bitcoin, or if we're showing Apple, or if we're showing Amazon, or if we're showing whatever. Middle Americans go to work every single day and work hard. They can't follow the markets. They have to trust in someone to follow the markets. And what do the big firms do? The big brokerage firms that I used to work for, they'll come in and say, yeah, we really don't like annuities, or we have some great online firms that get out of the annuity business altogether. We don't want to sell those anymore. What? Why? People want guarantees. Annuities aren't just all about income. You can get principal protection, but most of them are about income. And the last time I looked; Social Security was not put in place as the primary income source for everybody. It wasn't. But what is everybody using it for? Primary income source.

‌You're Losing Us

‌So, media, I'm going to tell you something. You're losing me. You're losing the audience. You're losing middle America. No one trusts you anymore; you've earned that lack of trust. You've earned that reality of people going to alternative media to get their news, which is not good, but you've earned that. Stop with the agendas. Stop with the political stuff. Stop with where you want the country to go. Stop. Report the news. Report it on both sides. Be fair, be consistent, be factual, be brutally honest.

‌Do you think we're dumb out here as Americans? We're not dumb. We see right through all that stuff on both the right side and the left side of the political spectrum. And you know what we're doing now? We're tuning out. The problem with that is we're tuning out at a time that we need to be tuning in with all this stuff going on and all this global geopolitical nonsense. It could be genuine, catastrophic, or horrible, but what you have done, media, is you have laid the field and laid the seed to where we don't trust you anymore. You're to blame. This is a watershed moment where you can stop all the BS, political nonsense, and shenanigans that go on and be honest with us.

‌This is America. We're all in this together. Everywhere I go and travel, and I'm in Uber cars and talking to people, we're all in this together. It doesn't matter how much money you have; we're all in this together. Stop trying to break us up. Stop trying to be politically correct. Stop trying to look at races, and you're not getting this, and we're not getting this, and blah, blah, blah. Stop it. This is the time right now. This is the time, media. Be honest about financial products. Be honest about politics. Be honest about everything for once.

‌I know it's for profit. I know what you're saying, Stan The Annuity Man. You're screaming into a hurricane. No one's going to listen to you. Maybe not. We have a small YouTube channel. I talk about annuities. I talk about lifetime income. I talk about trying to help people set up contracts and policies that will protect the principal or give them a lifetime income stream. That's boring stuff. I understand, my life's boring. I'm just a minion out here, but I speak for a lot of people. I know I speak for my client base; most of them, I would assume, that we're tired of it. Media, this is it. Pivot right here because if you do not pivot right here, you'll lose us forever. And if you don't believe me, don't pivot.

Never forget to live in reality, not the dream, with annuities and contractual guarantees! You can use our calculators, get all six of my books for free, and most importantly book a call with me so we can discuss what works best for your specific situation.