How Does The Annuity Man Look at Carrier Risk?: Q&A With Stan

0:00
Hi there, it's Q&A with Stan. Today's

0:01
question is, "How does the annuity man

0:03
look at carrier risk?" I know what

0:05
you're saying, Stan. That that shirt's

0:06
pretty risky. Um, [snorts] you know,

0:08
it's it's a tie-dye shirt. We're a

0:10
little little forward thinking, right,

0:12
Zeke? Zeke's behind the camera. Um, we

0:14
look at carrier risk a little bit

0:16
differently than most. Now, obviously,

0:18
we look at the rating services, AMBS,

0:20
Moody's, Standard Pores, and Fitch. Um,

0:22
Ambass is what you'll see on our site,

0:25
but we go deeper than that. Obviously,

0:27
we're going to look under the hood

0:29
financially and look at their

0:30
financials. I can do that. I know you're

0:32
saying, "Stan, you look pretty goofy."

0:33
But yes, I can do that. I used to work

0:35
with Morgan Stanley, uh, Union Bank of

0:38
Switzerland, Dean Whitter, Payne Weber,

0:40
all that stuff for a long, long time.

0:41
So, I understand what to look at. So, I

0:45
look at that. And then the I think the

0:46
more important thing is we look at

0:49
carrier risk from the standpoint of can

0:51
they get the application done quickly?

0:54
Are they easy to work with with my team?

0:56
Now, when you go through the application

0:58
process with us, it's us taking those

1:00
bullets. We're dealing with the carrier.

1:02
We're just updating you on the process.

1:05
But part of that risk mitigation that

1:07
I'm always looking at is obviously

1:08
ratings, obviously financial, but the a

1:11
big part of it, [snorts]

1:13
can they can they push the paper? Are

1:15
they easy to work with? Are we on hold

1:18
um for an hour? We look at that

1:20
recently. I give you a good story.

1:21
Recently, there's a really highly rated

1:23
carrier. I'm not going to name them.

1:25
They had great contractual guarantees.

1:28
Um, but they were so hard to work with

1:29
and they were so anti-consumer and we're

1:33
proconsumer if there ever is a company

1:36
that we decided to not recommend them

1:38
anymore. Their financials were

1:40
fantastic. Their ratings were fantastic.

1:42
But the third thing, which is working

1:44
with us, which is in essence working

1:46
with you, because we do all of that for

1:48
you, it wasn't a pleasant experience for

1:50
anybody. And so we made the decision

1:53
that we're no longer going to recommend

1:55
there. We get calls all the time, hey,

1:57
we see all these carriers on the site

1:58
and they'll ask about it and we'll say,

2:00
well, right now we're not recommending

2:01
them. Now, hopefully this carrier that I

2:03
mentioned will get their stuff together,

2:06
hire more people, train them better, and

2:07
and be better to work with and easier to

2:09
work with, and we'll assess that at that

2:11
point in time. But we're we're looking

2:14
at a lot more than just the ratings.

2:16
Okay? A lot more than that. We're I'm

2:19
actually personally looking at the

2:20
financials. I have another couple of

2:22
friends that are kind of retired gurus

2:24
in the from the stock market world and

2:26
they help me as well look at things. Um,

2:28
but understand the annuity industry is

2:30
very heavily regulated. There's not a

2:32
lot of shenanigans going on out there.

2:33
Sometimes it happens and the annuity

2:36
industry as an industry steps up and

2:37
backs things up. There are state

2:39
guarantee funds and what I call the

2:40
annuity mafia, which is the big

2:42
companies making sure the small

2:43
companies don't mess things up. But from

2:45
a risk mitigation standpoint, I'm taking

2:47
a very close look. At the time of this

2:49
taping, um, you know, there's two types

2:51
of recommendations. If it's lifetime

2:53
income, we're typically looking at A+ or

2:56
better, we're we're going to marry that

2:59
carrier. So, we're going to marry them

3:01
for life. So, we're looking A+ or better

3:02
for lifetime income. If we're looking at

3:04
MAS, like fixed rates, we're going to

3:06
date them, right? We're going to date

3:08
them for a specific period of time. And

3:11
I'm going to make that call and tell my

3:13
team what we're going to recommend based

3:15
upon what I've done from the standpoint

3:17
of looking at the financials and all of

3:18
that. And then my team then comes back

3:20
to me on their side and tells me about

3:23
how it is to work with the companies. We

3:25
do this all the time. We're always

3:27
evaluating that. And we do make some

3:29
tough calls and carriers get upset when

3:31
we take them out of our selling process

3:34
or our recommendation process because

3:36
everybody wants the annuity man in the

3:38
party, right? Um, but they have to earn

3:40
that. They have to prove to us they're

3:41
pro customer. So that's part of how and

3:44
that's how we do risk mitigation at the

3:48
annuity