Fixed Index Annuities Tailored to Your Goals

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Welcome to Shooting It Straight with

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Stan. I'm your host, Stan the Annuity

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Man, America's annuity agent, licensed

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in all 50 states. Today's topic is

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tailoring fixed indexed annuities

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to meet your specific goals. Now, a lot

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of you out there that have seen all my

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thousand have watched all thousand plus

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videos are going, "Wait a minute, Stan.

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I'm not sure you really like index

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movies." Nothing could be further from

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the truth. We are a fan if they are

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presented correctly and the truth is

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laid out brutally which we do all the

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time. Indexed annuities just a brief

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history lesson. They were introduced in

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1995. Yes, I was around. I know you're

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saying st but you look so dumb. Yes, I

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was around. And they were introduced to

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compete with CD returns. The hope being

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that those cap spreads and participation

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rates would give you a little bit better

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return than CDs. They are a fixed

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annuity. They're a life insurance

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product. They're not a security. They're

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not regulated by the NASDA or FINRA.

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They are regulated at the state level.

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It's a life insurance product. So, we're

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not against index nuities. We're against

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how a lot of them are sold and pitched

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on the internet, which is horrific. Um,

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at the bad chicken dinner, expensive

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steak dinner seminar, which is a

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one-sizefits-all approach. We are

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horrified when agents, you know, lead

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with this upfront bonus nonsense. And

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upfront bonus is what I call candy for

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the stupid.

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It's also like going to a car dealership

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and asking the the uh salesperson to

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just show you the stereo system. That's

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all I want. Stereo system. Just remember

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there's a hundred pennies in the dollar.

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So if they've given you an upfront

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bonus, what are they doing? You know,

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sometime we quote, if you go to our site

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theanuityman.com and run quotes and if

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you run income writer quotes that are

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attached to indexed annuities, you know,

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we're quoting the ones with and without

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bonuses. We don't care. It's part of the

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contractual guarantee. Ironically,

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probably not, but just contractually,

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the ones without the bonuses seem to in

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most cases offer a higher contractual

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payout. So, the bonus is nothing more

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than a shiny thing. But if you called us

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or set an appointment, you can go to our

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site, theanuityman.com, book a call.

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We'll call right on the dot. We're going

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to ask you two questions. What do you

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want the money to contractually do? When

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do you want those contractual guarantees

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to start? And then we're going to remind

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you the four things that annuity that

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that annuities solve for contractually.

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And the acronym is pill. P stands for

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principal protection. I stands for

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income for life. L stands for legacy.

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And the other L stands for long-term

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care pill. So, if you don't need to

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contractually solve for one or more of

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those items in the pill acronym, then

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you do not need an annuity. Notice

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there's no G for growth or M for market

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or S for stocks.

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Do not ever buy index annuities for

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market type growth. I understand the

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sales pitch locally you're getting or

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nationally or whatever. Market upside

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with no downside. Principal protection

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with um with market participation.

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Listen, if that was the case, that's all

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Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Morgan

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Stanley would buy and they're not buying

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them, okay? Trust me. So there, if it's

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growth that you're after, then do not

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buy an index annuity. if you want CD

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type returns and maybe the potential for

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maybe a 100 basis points which is

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another extra percentage point or two on

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the upside if the planets align

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themselves with the levers inside of an

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index annuity cap spreads of

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participation rates then great but have

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your level of expectation in line with

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reality I always tell people if you buy

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the indexed annuity dream you're going

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to own the contractual realities if

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you're going into an index annuity

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thinking you're going to get annually 7

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8 9% as the agent showed you in their

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cherrypicked backtested numbers. You're

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going to be sorely disappointed if you

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go into it understanding that the

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downside is zero. Okay? So, you know,

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it's a fixed annuity. You're not going

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to lose money and any gains will be

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locked in. But understand those gains

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are going to be CD like CDish.

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If you have that rational thinking cap

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on, then we're good to go. We'll talk.

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But if you're going down the rabbit hole

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of upfront bonuses and 79% return

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because this guy, your friend or

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whatever told you locally about it, then

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you get what you deserve if you buy it

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under those premises. But for now,

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the two questions, what do you want the

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money to contractually do? When do you

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want those contractual guarantees to

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start? If you said, "I need lifetime

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income to start at a future date," then

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most likely we're going to show you a

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deferred income annuity, which is

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another way to do lifetime income, and

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an index annuity with

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an income writer attached. And and we're

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going to shop all carriers. One thing

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you need to understand is I don't care

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what anybody tells you.

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There's not one annuity index or

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otherwise, that's better than the other.

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If the person says to you, "This is the

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best one. I've looked at them all. is

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the best one. That's garbage. Might be

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the best one for them. They might get to

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go on a really nice trip if they sell

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enough of it. But but annuities,

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including index annuities are commodity

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products, period, end of story, etc. If

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you take one thing away from this is do

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not buy it for market growth. Buy it for

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CD type growth. Buy it for principal

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protection. Okay? If you're looking just

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for accumulation. But the majority of

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people that buy index annuities from us,

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they're buying them for the income

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writer guarantee. The income writer is

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the will part of the annuity. Remember I

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always say own an annuity for what it

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will do, not what it might do. The might

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do is the index hopes and dreams and

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unicorns chasing the butterflies and the

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agent hopeful return scenarios that he

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shows you on the board and the stairstep

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and all that stuff. Buy it for the

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contractual guarantees. Period. Now, if

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you want to buy a standalone index

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annuity, we will we will do the research

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for you. We will explain the good and

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the bad, the limitations, and the

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benefits, but we will have to make sure

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that you're not looking for market

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growth. We will have to make sure that

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you're not dreaming. We will have to

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make sure that you're buying it for

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principal protection first and a little

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bit better than CD returns if it all

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works out. Because remember the levers

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that limit the upside that index annuity

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companies use, they're called caps,

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spreads, and participation rates. Those

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can be changed on the anniversary date

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with most index annuities at the annuity

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company's discretion. Now, there's some

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that are a little bit different, but the

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vast majority work like that. So, they

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get to change them. They don't consult

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you and they don't consult me. Which

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leads me back to my original premise. Do

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not buy these for growth. If you want

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market growth, go buy stocks or ETFs or

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mutual funds or whatever you do on that

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side. I used to do that with Dean Wood,

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Payne Weber, Morgan Stanley, UBS.

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Totally understand it. But what I do

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totally understand as well is that

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annuities don't fit in that world.

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That's that's a whole different world.

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Period. So if you want market growth and

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those types of returns, those S&P types

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of returns, go do it. Also understand

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with indexed annuities that index that

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S&P index or whatever index you you

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choose those do not include dividends

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and and if you do your research on s

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just just pull up what's what's the

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return percentage of the dividend of the

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S&P return it's it's typically over 50%.

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So that's not included in the in the uh

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index annuity return. The other thing

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that kind of drives me crazy is

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currently there's over 750

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indexed option choices with the in the

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index annuity world. I think it might be

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a little bit more. And there's over 50

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50 index choices, some made out of thin

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air that you've never heard of. And then

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the agent says, "Well, if you owned it

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10 years ago, my question is, how's that

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possible if it's only been on the on the

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planet for three months?" So, there's a

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lot of shenanigans.

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There's a lot of um shiny things going

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on out there with the index world, but

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with us, we're just pragmatic, rational,

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and brutally factual when it comes to

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all annuities and especially index

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annuities. Most of the time, we're

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walking you down

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into reality. You know, you're up on the

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top going, "Boy, this is the greatest

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thing I've ever seen. I get market

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upside, my principal protect, I get

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upfront bonus, I get free long-term

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care." All that we have to fully

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explain. And all of that is most likely

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nonsense

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u that's been pitched to you from a

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30,000 foot view. What I encourage you

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to do is dig in. Dig into the details.

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This is serious. This is your money.

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There's no urgency to buy. The urgency

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is for you to fully understand what you

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are potentially buying. Correct? So the

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way that we would use index annuities

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with you, if you said, I really won't

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want an index annuity, then we' explain

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how they work. their principal

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protection products first, their CD

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products second, you know, CDish

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products. We would show you MAS,

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multi-year guarantee annuities, which

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are on my site, which are the annuity

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industry's purest version of a CD. And

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we might do a combination of say if

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principal protection is your goal. A

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combination of MAS and index annuities,

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maybe a 2:1 or a 3:1 just to pepper it

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in, but probably not go all in index

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annuities. The cool part about index

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annuities in my opinion for lifetime

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income. Let's go back to that. When you

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have an income writer attached to the

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index annuity and you and you say,

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"Okay, Stan, um you asked me the two

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questions. What do you want the money to

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contractually do and when do you want

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those contractual guarantees to start?"

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And I said, "I want income to start in

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seven years." Okay, great. you know,

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most likely we're going to we're going

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to purchase a 7-year index annuity with

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an income writer, and you'll know

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exactly to the penny what that income

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writer, lifetime income stream will be

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starting in seven years. The the really

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neat part about um index annuities,

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using that for income in the future is

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at the end of the seven years, you might

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say, you know what, things have changed.

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I don't need the income writer. I don't

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need the income. Just send me all that

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money back that's been growing on the

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accumulation value side. might be at 2%

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or 3% or 4 percent, who knows? But it

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does provide a pivot liquidity that if

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you decided not to do the lifetime

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income as you had initially decided at

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the time of application, you can pivot

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out and get all of your money back. So,

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that's a good thing, too. It's it's

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flexible from the standpoint of a

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decision that you can make at the end of

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the surrender charge time period, but

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the contractual guarantees are in place

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in case that that initial decision is

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still what you need. So, hey, nothing

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nothing wrong with index annuities. I

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have a problem with how they're sold

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across the industry. Um, the reason that

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they're pitched, regardless of what you

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need, is because they are a high

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commission product. They're very

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complicated. And just remember, if you

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can't explain it to a 9-year-old, don't

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buy it. No offense to nine-year-olds,

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it's just that this is your money. Don't

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don't believe the hype. Um, believe the

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contract and own an annuity for what it

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will do, not what it might do. My name

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is Stan the Annuity Man. That's Shooting

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It Straight with Stan. I'll see you next

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time.