025: How To Shop For An Annuity To Get The Best Deal

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welcome to

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fun with annuities with your host me

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stan

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the annuity man america's annuity agent

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can annuities be fun

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can contractual guarantees be fun

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absolutely they can find out the brutal

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facts about annuities

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with no sales pitches or high pressure

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nonsense

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just the brutal and factual annuity

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truth which is all you need to hear

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let's have some fun with annuities and

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let's have that fun start

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right now

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hey this is stan the annuity man and

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welcome to fun

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with annuities i am america's annuity

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agent i'm licensed

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in all 50 states and founder of the

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annuityman.com and annuities.direct

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so today's topic is a good one how to

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shop for an annuity how do you shop for

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one

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how do you find the best deal how do you

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find the best price

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i guess in essence you could call it

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also how do you shop online

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for an annuity because that's how we do

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business

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with all of our clients in all 50 states

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in the world that we live in where

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amazon has kind of taken over retail

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and people are feeling comfortable

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shopping online annuities are kind of

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the last

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industry to the party to me to be very

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honest with you

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most annuities are sold 30 miles

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or less from where the agent lives it's

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kind of like the old

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travel agency model if you can believe

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that still exists it's the annuity

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agents

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most of them just you know they sell

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locally and that's nothing wrong with

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that

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okay so no letters or emails or calls

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it is what it is i just think that when

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you're selling contractual guarantees

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only which is what i

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sell i do not sell hypotheticals

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theoreticals back tested projected

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hopeful

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return scenarios i only show you

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and recommend and plan for

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contractual guarantees because annuities

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are contracts they're transfer risk

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products you own them for what they will

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do not what they might

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do like a lot of agents want to sell

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so how do you shop for an annuity

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great story long time ago and i used to

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work for the major

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brokerage firms started with dean witter

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which became morgan stanley when they

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bought dean witter and then i went to a

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smaller firm called payne weber for all

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you older people out there like me

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you know who that is and then payne

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weber was absorbed by

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union bank of switzerland ubs and then i

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was out

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you know i took a hiatus a sabbatical

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a stand battle right until uh you know

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until i decided to become stan the

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annuity man

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which is great right america's annuity

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agent

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but i'm sitting in dean witter and i'm

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one of their

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their bigger cats young kid slaying it

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you know working hard

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working all day all day all night

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seven days a week and that was about the

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time

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when schwab and those cats started

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coming in

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and saying we're gonna do trades for

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seven dollars a share or four

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or fourteen dollars a trade or seven

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dollars a trade whatever it was it was

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like

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it was mind-bending how cheap it was

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back then because

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when i first started out in the

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brokerage world

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to buy stocks you had to go to a firm

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like a dean witter or merrill lynch or

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somebody like that you had to go to them

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to buy stocks and it was expensive

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i mean it was you know 100 to 500

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every transaction it was expensive to

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buy stocks it was a full service

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brokerage firm

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so when the the discount brokerage model

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came out

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and they're saying okay you can go

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online and buy it you can do it yourself

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i remember this so vividly we had one of

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the grand poobahs one of the

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the all-knowing all-seeing leaders of

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dean witter flying from

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new york to grace us i was in florida at

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the time

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and we're all sitting in a room and and

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he has the arrogance

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and the and the and the no vision of

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saying

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that he didn't believe that all of these

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low-cost

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transactional places were going to

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interrupt business for dean witter

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and i literally looked at my my buddy

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though some time and said that guy's an

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idiot

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i mean this changes the game man that's

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like the guy

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from ibm a long time ago and this is

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true too i think he was either the ceo

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or one of the uppity ups at ibm when

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when personal computers were just coming

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out

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and he said he did not see why anyone

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would need a personal computer at home

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you talk about vision or lack thereof

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from ibm

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i mean that was said so when this dean

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witter

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guy said that i was like okay that's the

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dumbest thing ever

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and it just as you know you know that

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the schwabs and the e-trades and the

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in the td the td ameritrades whoever

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whoever you want to put in that category

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fidelity vanguard whatever they've taken

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control right and they have a huge

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market share do those other

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full service firms exist they do but

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they're not existing the same format

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there's no transactional fees

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it's a wrap fee so if you come in there

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you better have big money and they're

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going to wrap the account and charge you

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an annual fee etc

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nothing wrong with that but that grand

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poobah that came in from d wonder was so

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wrong it's scary

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and i if he's still alive i'd just like

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to walk up to him and say you're an

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idiot

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do you remember what you said it's not

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his fault he just was trying to drink

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the kool-aid and trying to tell us to

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drink it after him

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so i remember that and i also remember

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a few years back you know the the whole

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the annuity man online thing

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i remember when i tried to first start

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selling annuities contractual guarantees

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to people in other states

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there were a ton of carriers that didn't

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want that they wanted all the paperwork

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signed

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the same day and we had to convince them

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that they were honorable people we're

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doing the business right way and we're

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explaining everything limitations and

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benefits

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and we would need to sign it a day later

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because the fedex is coming in

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the day later after the person signed it

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so we sent them the paperwork

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it's the same today unless it's an e

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app but back then there were no e-apps

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it was all fedex and

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or ups overnight and so i remember

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thinking you know man the pioneers take

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all the arrows i remember having to

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fight like heck

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to get carriers annuity companies to

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agree to have me sign the paperwork a

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day later

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it's like their brain couldn't wrap

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around it

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but now you know there are a lot of

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copycats there are a lot of people

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trying to do what i do which is fine i

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have no problem with that i think the

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more choices the better

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but we pretty much laid the groundwork

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for a lot of the stuff

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that's happening and my staff who's

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fantastic

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a lot of you have interacted with with

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them they are wonderful

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and they were part of the pioneers that

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were taking all the arrows they were

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they were with me that whole way as we

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were struggling to

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have the industry catch up with us and

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and by the way we're still trying to

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have them catch up with us

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and i still think our our model is the

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most progressive model out there and let

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me tell you how it works

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first of all when you come to the

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annuityman.com you can interact with me

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or a very small handful of annuity

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experts that i have stamped

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my approval on is i control everything

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it's my company

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i own it and i choose who i want to

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interact with people

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so if you're interacting with me or

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somebody else they're the show they're

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good

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okay so the annuityman.com is where you

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want personal advice you want an annuity

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advisor that's going to be one-on-one

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with you

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to run quotes to make suggestions and

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recommendations to talk you through

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the limitations and the benefits of the

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strategy

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and then leave you learn to make

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decision on your own terms on your own

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time frame so

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that's the annuityman.com but also when

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you go to that site you have a choice to

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go

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to our sister site which is

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annuities.direct and what is that

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that is if you want to quote yourself if

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you want to

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go out and run the quotes yourself if

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you want to do the research yourself

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it's there we're providing that so you

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can have us run the quotes

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and interact one-on-one or you can do it

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yourself period

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now the current environment that we're

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in regulatory wise from the annuity

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world

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is that by law you have to speak with

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a licensed agent at the finish line of

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the process

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to make sure that the recommendation is

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suitable and appropriate for your

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specific situation

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i'm all for that you know you don't have

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to do that with stocks or mutual funds

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you can go on e-trade or wherever

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and vanguard and you can just buy

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whatever you want

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right we're not there with annuities yet

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we will get there

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we will be there i don't know how soon

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it's going to be probably longer than i

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think

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because the annuity industry moves slow

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but in an amazon driven world in an

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e-trade driven world in a vanguard

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driven world

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where people have choices and they want

9:09
24 7 access and they want to make the

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decision on their

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terms and known time frame annuities

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will eventually get to that party now

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there's a lot of financial technology

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money that are entering the space that

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are trying to copy stand the annuity man

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am i the annuity man platform that's

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fine bring it on

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that's all it's all good we're all out

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here competing i have no problem

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competing

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but that's what's happening that's

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what's happening in the industry

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but remember when you run quotes

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commodity type quotes

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you know and annuities are commodities

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so it's not like the annuity man

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or some of my competitors have a better

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deal than the other person

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we are all quoting the same from the

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same carrier

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you have to choose who you want to do

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business with hopefully it's us

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hopefully you

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you realize that i'm the expert out here

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and that my team is the best

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and you will find that out if you

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interact with us but if you don't that's

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fine too

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understand that if someone says they

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have a better product than the next guy

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they're they're not telling the truth

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period now back in the day when vanguard

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used to be in the annuity business and

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they're no no longer that's the reason

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i'm mentioning them

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they used to represent say five carriers

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five or seven

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carriers which i always thought was

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limiting because

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you should quote all carriers to see the

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highest contractual guarantee but i'm

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not sure how those carriers got

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got approved by vanguard if i had to pay

10:31
i don't pay a fee i don't know who knows

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but i never thought that that was fair

10:35
to the consumer because

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you're only quoting a handful of

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carriers the reason i bring it up is

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there were times that they had

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a sweetheart deal but since they've left

10:44
the business they're no longer in the

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annuity business

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that pretty much has gone out the window

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in most cases majority cases let me tell

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you this if the annuity man stand the

10:54
annuity man america's annuity agent the

10:55
number one guy out here

10:57
if i'm not getting the sweetheart deal

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then probably no one is

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and if they are i'll find out about it

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and i'll yell at the carrier

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or i'll get it right but it just it

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doesn't in a commoditized world it

11:10
doesn't make sense to give stan the

11:12
annuity man

11:13
the deal because that's not fair to

11:14
everyone else

11:16
truly when it comes down to service it

11:19
comes down to

11:20
education it comes down to resources it

11:22
comes down to listening

11:24
so when you shop for an annuity just

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understand that

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you need to see all carriers quoted so

11:32
someone

11:33
if you went to the bad chicken dinner

11:34
seminar or your local advisor or your

11:37
local brokerage firm person or your

11:38
local bank whatever

11:39
and they're showing you maybe one or two

11:42
if they're only showing one carrier to

11:44
you get up and walk out

11:46
because they either don't have an

11:47
inventory to show you or they're

11:49
steering you

11:50
to their product of choice of which if

11:52
they sell enough of

11:54
they get to go to italy with their

11:55
girlfriend and or wife

11:57
or it's a very high commission product

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of which they're steering the youtuber

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they're not listening to you there's

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many types of annuities you can't say i

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hate all annuities you can if you're

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going to say that say hate all

12:07
restaurants

12:08
there's cd type annuities you don't hate

12:09
cds there's lifetime income

12:12
stream annuities you don't hate social

12:13
security there's deferred lifetime

12:16
income

12:16
stream annuities you don't hate your

12:18
pension do you i mean annuities

12:20
transfer risk products they don't they

12:21
have a monopoly that they pay income

12:24
for life that you can never outlive it's

12:25
a monopoly no one in the financial

12:27
service

12:28
has that period and a story

12:31
so you know there's only two questions

12:34
that you need so

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so let's just say you want to shop for

12:36
you knew it you want to do it online at

12:38
annuities.direct or you want to use the

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annuityman.com

12:42
and speak to one of the experts me or

12:43
whoever that i've approved

12:46
you have to answer two questions number

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one what do you want the money to

12:49
contractually do keyword contractual

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and number two when do you want those

12:55
contractual guarantees to start

12:58
that's it never buy an annuity on a

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hypothetical theoretical back-tested

13:02
projected hopeful agent return scenario

13:04
never never buy juice numbers never buy

13:07
non-guaranteed numbers

13:08
never make your decision on that make

13:10
your decision solely on the contractual

13:12
guarantees

13:13
why because annuities are contracts

13:14
don't believe it buy one you're going to

13:16
get something in the mail it's called a

13:17
policy

13:18
i call it a contract it's contract

13:21
between you

13:22
and the life insurance company that

13:23
issued the policy so what are those

13:25
questions again what do you want the

13:26
money to contractually do

13:28
and when do you want those contractual

13:29
guarantees to start now

13:31
there's four primary things that

13:33
annuities solve for the acronym is pill

13:36
p stands for principal protection i

13:37
stands for income for life

13:39
l stands for legacy and the other l

13:41
stands for long term care slash

13:43
confinement care enhanced benefits if

13:46
you don't need to

13:46
contractually solve for one or more of

13:48
those you do not need an annuity

13:50
so if you're coming into the annuity

13:52
world space shopping for an annuity and

13:54
you want market growth in standing

13:56
utman's opinion

13:58
number one agent out here america's

14:00
annuity agent you do not buy an annuity

14:03
market growth means unlimited growth

14:05
market growth means no limitations

14:07
market growth means no limitations on

14:09
choices

14:12
i've just eliminated all annuities with

14:14
those statements period

14:15
now i know the variable annuity people

14:17
in the index annuity people going to

14:18
throw stuff at me i get that

14:20
but i'm right especially on the index

14:23
side the index annuity is

14:24
a cd product that was developed in 1995

14:26
to create cd type returns and that's

14:28
exactly what they've done

14:30
there are some anomaly years they do

14:31
better but the bottom line is

14:33
it's a fixed annuity it's a life

14:35
insurance product it's not a security

14:37
if it's not a security you're not going

14:38
to see you're not going to see market

14:40
returns right

14:41
i know the pitch market upside with no

14:42
downside

14:44
if that was true then the fed just buys

14:46
indexed annuities right

14:48
fed chairman says i've heard the pitch

14:50
it's i'm going to buy indexed annuities

14:53
think about it if it sounds too good to

14:55
be true it is every single time but when

14:57
you shop for an annuity

14:59
you have to understand that on an online

15:02
world like the annuityman.com

15:04
you can either use an expert like me or

15:08
you can do it yourself but at the end of

15:09
the day

15:10
the finish line is at the same place

15:12
there's two different directions same

15:14
finish line

15:15
the finish line meaning that you're

15:16
going to have to

15:18
speak to a licensed agent that's

15:20
licensed in your state

15:22
that's licensed with the contracted with

15:25
the carrier that they're recommending or

15:27
the carriers that they're recommending

15:29
to make sure that the transaction is

15:31
suitable and appropriate for your

15:33
specific situation

15:34
so regardless of what you choose whether

15:36
it's one-on-one personal the

15:38
annuityman.com or do it yourself

15:40
annuity.direct

15:42
you're going to end up the finish line

15:43
you're going to you're going to be

15:44
speaking to me or somebody

15:45
most cases it's me to make sure that

15:49
you're not either putting too much money

15:50
into the annuity or that you think that

15:53
it's going to do something

15:54
that's not going to do and i'm going to

15:55
tell you that i'm going to say

15:57
you know it doesn't do that because you

15:59
own annuities for what they will do not

16:00
what they might do

16:03
every single time so shopping for

16:06
annuities whether you're shopping

16:08
locally and going into an office and

16:12
sitting with an agent or advisor

16:14
make that person shop all carriers make

16:16
that person show you at least five

16:18
carriers for the specific contractual

16:20
guarantee you're trying to solve for do

16:22
not allow them to steer you to their

16:23
product if they say the following phrase

16:26
i think this is the best annuity for you

16:28
translation

16:29
it's the best annuity for them period

16:33
they're doing you a disservice if

16:35
they're not showing you at least

16:37
five carriers for your specific

16:40
situation

16:40
i would even say three is okay but i

16:42
would say five pound the table

16:45
especially if you're looking at

16:46
immediate annuities referred income

16:47
annuities q lakhs multi-year guarantee

16:49
annuities

16:50
indexed annuities income riders etc

16:54
those products are commodity products

16:57
you just need to shop them all and

16:58
remember that

17:00
when you're shopping for annuities

17:01
whether it's online or locally

17:04
annuities are like a gallon of milk

17:05
those those

17:07
quotes that you get expire every seven

17:09
to ten days

17:10
just like a gallon of milk so unless you

17:13
lock it in moving toward that

17:14
application process

17:15
as part of the application process you

17:18
have to re-quote it which is fine that's

17:19
the reason that

17:21
we have our experts here at the

17:22
annuityman.com and we have annuities out

17:24
directly you keep quoting it

17:26
but what you can't do is quote it and

17:28
then

17:29
call us two months later and say that's

17:30
the one i want it doesn't work like that

17:34
so just remember they're commodity

17:35
products you have to re-quote them

17:37
unless you lock them in and move forward

17:38
with the application process

17:40
so shopping for an annuity right now

17:43
you can do pretty much the same thing as

17:46
if you were you know buying a stock

17:47
mutual fund bond whatever you can go

17:49
online

17:50
you can learn you know go to the annuity

17:52
man or annuities

17:53
direct and you can learn you can you can

17:54
get quotes etc

17:56
the only difference is with the annuity

17:58
industry right now at the time of this

18:00
taping

18:01
and we're in 2020 at the time of this

18:03
taping of the annuity man podcast

18:06
you have to speak with someone

18:09
who is a licensed agent at the finish

18:11
line to make sure it's suitable and

18:12
appropriate right now

18:14
where the education level is with the

18:15
country concerning annuities

18:17
i think that's a good thing as the

18:19
education level

18:21
increases with people that that fully

18:24
understand annuities and as

18:25
online sites like mine continue to

18:27
educate and i continue to send books and

18:29
i continue to do videos

18:31
i continue to do podcasts i continue to

18:33
write articles

18:34
that's probably going to change and i

18:36
hope to be the driving force of that

18:38
change

18:38
because i think in the future you should

18:40
be able to buy an annuity on your own

18:41
terms on your own time frame without

18:43
speaking to an agent

18:44
and that's coming from the number one

18:45
agent in the country

18:47
how about that i think that's where we

18:50
need to go

18:52
i think that's where we need to be and

18:54
i'm trying to put together a platform

18:57
that will get us there as soon as the

18:58
annuity industry thinks it's prudent to

19:00
do that

19:01
i'll be there in other words i'm gonna

19:03
put myself out of business that's okay

19:06
that's okay because when you're selling

19:08
annuities for contractual guarantees

19:11
i'm not sure that if you're educated as

19:15
a consumer

19:16
and i've done my job with educate you

19:17
really don't need me and most of my

19:19
clients that will tell you and if you're

19:20
listening you're probably going to nod

19:21
your head

19:22
by the time you made the decision to buy

19:25
the annuity from

19:26
stan the annuity man the annuityman.com

19:29
you were fully informed and you knew

19:30
exactly what you were going to do

19:32
in fact every single one of our clients

19:34
make their decision to buy the annuity

19:37
i don't tell them to buy the annuity

19:39
another way and one of the taglines i'm

19:41
toying with that i've actually

19:42
trademarked is

19:43
where annuities are bought not sold

19:46
people always say well annuities are

19:48
sold no one wakes up in the morning to

19:50
buy an annuity

19:51
are all of them are sold incorrect at

19:53
the annuityman.com

19:55
because what we do is we provide the

19:57
highest contractual guaranteed quotes to

19:59
you

19:59
on both platforms and then leave you

20:03
alone to make your decision

20:04
and inform you along the way and answer

20:05
all the questions in that the way it's

20:07
supposed to be

20:08
nod your head course that's the way it's

20:10
supposed to be

20:11
so remember before we go i do have a

20:14
youtube channel

20:15
stand the annuity man youtube channel

20:17
i'm putting out a video every single day

20:19
monday through

20:20
friday i encourage you to check that out

20:22
go to youtube

20:23
type it in and then in the youtube

20:25
search bar type in stand the annuity man

20:26
you'll see all my videos

20:28
those are informed as well and i'm

20:29
writing an article trying to write one

20:31
every day

20:32
but it's about every day or every other

20:34
day a new one comes out on

20:36
on a major platform like thestreet.com

20:38
or marketwatch or somewhere like that

20:40
so you need to check that out but i

20:42
really appreciate you tuning in to

20:44
the number one annuity podcast on the

20:45
planet fun

20:47
with annuities thanks for listening to

20:50
fun

20:51
with annuities please hit the subscribe

20:53
button and make sure to go to my site

20:55
at the annuityman.com where you can run

20:58
your own spea dia

20:59
and culat quotes and see a live feed of

21:02
the best mega fix rates

21:04
in the country and even get indexed and

21:06
income writer quotes as well

21:08
you can also sign up for my six annuity

21:11
owner's manual books and i'll ship them

21:13
for free and under no

21:14
obligation i also encourage you to

21:17
schedule a one-on-one call with me

21:19
stan the annuity man so we can have a

21:21
full discussion

21:23
of your specific situation it will be

21:25
the best

21:26
brutally factual and truthful advice you

21:29
will ever

21:30
get and that's one guarantee you should

21:32
definitely take advantage of

21:33
so join me next time for the number one

21:35
annuity podcast

21:36
on the planet fun with annuities

21:44
[Music]

21:50
you