Unlocking Annuity Guarantees for a Worry-Free Retirement

Hi there, Stan The Annuity Man, America's annuity agent, licensed in all 50 states. Today's topic is unlocking annuity guarantees for a worry-free retirement. We all want a worry-free retirement. In my opinion, the way to get a worry-free retirement is to have a lifetime income and enough money to live on without worry. That's what annuities can do for you. They can contractually put that income floor in place so that you can go live your life and do your thing, start a rock band, and be a race car driver or whatever you want to do in chapter two of your life. The contractual guaranteed natures of annuities of which you already own one Social Security, that guaranteed income that's coming in or will come in depending on if you turned it on already or you're planning on. That's what we're talking about.

‌But we can talk about a couple of other strategies as well, using annuities and the contractually guaranteed nature of them to make your retirement what you want it to be, what it should be, what you deserve it to be, what you work so hard for it to be, which is worry-free, after this.

‌So, the word retirement, it's tough. A lot of us, the A personalities out there that's been grinding every day, been doing it for decades, and you look up, you go, what are we going to do after that? Well, regardless of what that choice is or what you will do for chapter two of your life, I like chapter two better than retirement. It's just a different chapter. You're going to do different things, whether that's philanthropy or you have a side hustle you're working on or another career or whatever. It's chapter two. But you want that to be worry-free. You've worked very hard for that. But really, when it comes down to what worry-free means to most of us out there, I think it's income, it's lifetime income, it's paying the bills. If you think about it, that's what we've been doing our whole life: we're paying the bills.

‌Lifetime Income

‌And many of us have been fortunate to make more money than we need to pay the bills, and the more money has been put aside, and it's grown, it's got this big lump sum. And now you need to turn that lump sum into how do we pay the bills so that I can live my worry-free retirement. There's a couple of ways to do it. The obvious way with annuities would be lifetime income. It's the only strategy on the planet that provides lifetime income as long as you're breathing. There's no ROI until you die. If you buy a lifetime income product today and lived to 185, or 285, or whatever the amount, the annuity company's on the hook to pay. And we can structure it so that if you die early, 100% of any unused money goes to your beneficiary.

‌That's the obvious thought because, hey, I need lifetime income. I can buy an Immediate Annuity to start now, a Deferred Income Annuity, a Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract, or an Income Rider to start at a future date. You can go to my site and run those quotes using our proprietary calculators 24/7, 365; no one will bug you; you can run as many as you want. Consumers only, by the way, not agents or advisors, consumers only, because that's who we're trying to help, is you the consumer, you the person that's either retired, thinking about retirement, pointing toward retirement, planning for retirement, what I call chapter two.

‌Peeling off the Interest

‌Okay, lifetime income. I mean, there's no ROI until you die. Annuities are a great way to solve for that. But at the time of this blog, please check the date. You can also lock in guaranteed interest rates that allow you to take the interest out and never touch the principal, just what I call peeling off the interest.

‌That's not a lifetime income. That's an income stream for the duration that you lock in. At the time of this blog, we recommend up to a 10-year to lock in and peel off interest. That's an income product. It's just not a lifetime income product. So, you can take two different strategies. You can say, okay, I want a lifetime income product that, as long as I'm breathing and regardless of whether I'm hitting on all cylinders or if I get Alzheimer's or something like that, it's still going to pay. Or you can control the asset, peel off the interest, and never touch the principal. Remember, with lifetime income, regardless of the product. SPIA, DIA, QLAC, and Income Rider, regardless, you're getting your money back with interest. And if you draw the account down to zero, it doesn't matter because the annuity company's on the hook to pay contractually as long as you are breathing, even if that account's at zero.

‌Transfer of Risk Products

‌We have thousands and thousands of clients, Stan The Annuity Man, America's annuity agent licensed in all 50 states, that they've outlived their life expectancy, they're at zero in the account, and the annuity company's on the hook to pay. That's fantastic. What's the ROI on that, Stan? I don't know until you die. It's a transfer of risk, lifetime income stream. But again, if you don't want to do that, you can just buy a MYGA, a Multi-Year Guarantee Annuity, the annuity industry version of a CD, and just peel off the interest and never touch the principal. But to me, it all comes down to lifetime income. After you have solved for lifetime income, you can look at legacy and leaving money to the heirs, working with your CPA, the estate planner, the trust lawyers, and people like that.

‌But annuities are transfer risk products. They're contractual guarantees. You're buying a contract; in most cases, you're either protecting the principal or peeling off the interest, and that's a legacy-type product. Also, you can use it for income for that duration, or you're locking in a lifetime income stream for you or you and the spouse combined so that if you pass away, the income continues uninterrupted and unchanged for your spouse, and when they pass away, whatever's left in the account goes to the list of beneficiaries of the policy. I encourage you to go to my site. I designed it and paid a lot of money to a really good firm that's very, very, very, very smart. They put it together so you can run quotes using our calculators 24/7, 365.

‌You can read the books that I've written. They're on the site; you can read and download them right there. We've done articles, thousands of videos, and my Fun With Annuities podcasts. I'm always thinking like you're thinking; many of my ideas for these types of content come from you. As we're talking to you, we're listening because you ask good questions, and they need to be answered in a non-salesy, informative, edutaining format. And that's the reason I'm here. My name is Stan The Annuity Man. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you on the following Stan The Annuity Man blog.

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.