Why Carrier Ratings Don't Tell the Whole Story

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Hi there, Stan the Annuity Man,

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America's annuity agent, licensed in all

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50 states. I think my cameraman just

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fell. Pick him up. Pick him up before he

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sues. [laughter]

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Today's topic is why carrier ratings

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don't tell the whole story. Stan only

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tell I'm only going to buy A+ or better.

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The reason that they don't tell the

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whole story for us at the annuity man,

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the gorilla in the annuity industry

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room, licensed in all 50 states, is that

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ratings are part of what we look at.

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They are they but you have to understand

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with rating services, most of them are

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pay for play, meaning that the annuity

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carriers have to pay the rating service

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to rate them.

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So there's a little bit of conflict of

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interest, but not much. But you can't

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say, "I'm only going to do this carrier

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with this rating." Now, we do have a

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rule at the annuity man that if you're

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looking for lifetime income, our

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recommendation currently at the time of

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this taping is car is our depending on

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what class you went to are carriers that

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are only rated A+ or better. But it's

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even bigger than that for us. Let me

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tell you why. At the annuity man, we

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have our own internal what we call

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scorecard. Now, you're saying scorecard?

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Listen, I play college basketball.

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Everything's kind of sporty with me.

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Okay? We always say take shots and all

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that stuff because I play basketball.

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But our scorecard is bigger than just

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the rating. So, with our scorecard,

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we're looking at how the uh back office

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of that carrier interacts with our team

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that's working for you. How fast do they

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issue the policy? How easy is it to work

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with them? How good is their website?

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And then me and a bunch of other smart

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people and they're smoking cigars and

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I'm not look at their financials. We

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literally go in and do that. And you

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say, "Stan, you don't look that smart to

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look at financials." Trust me, there's

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some IQ behind this baseball cap. You

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know, I used to work at Morgan Stanley,

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Dean Witter, Payne Weber, and UBS, Union

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Bank of Switzerland, so I kind of know

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what I'm looking at. And I have even

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smarter people around me that can really

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read the financials and look at the

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numbers that have been listed by the

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carriers in addition to the in addition

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to the carrier rating. Okay? So I just

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want you to put that in the back of your

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head. You can't just be myopically

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looking at the carrier rating. And and

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typically on our site we'll list there's

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a there's a good company called AM Best,

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but there's other companies that do it.

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Sanderpores, Moody's, Fitch that rate

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carriers for the claims paying ability

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and the strength. But we do have some,

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you know, we do have some parameters

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that we say, okay, A+ or better if you

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want lifetime income because they have

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to pay you as long as you are

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breathing, right? Okay. But there might

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be on our site because annuities are

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commodity products. We list all

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carriers. You might say, you know what,

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I like that XYZ company or whatever the

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company's called. Okay. I love Sink and

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Sands of Texas Insurance Company. That's

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the one I want. Okay, great. We say,

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"Okay, but right now on our scorecard,

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TAM, the annuity man, TAM, the annuity

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man." On the TAM scorecard, we're not

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recommending them right now. Now, we're

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not going to throw a carrier under the

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bus. We're not going to say anything

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negative about them. They're doing the

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best they can. But if they're not

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meeting our parameters from the

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administrative side, proconsumer side,

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proc customer side, we will put them on

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a watch list, not recommend them. And

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then I have a person in my office that

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is the sweetest little thing. She's

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fantastic until this happens. And she

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calls the carrier and we'll say, "Call

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the carrier and tell them we need them

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to do this or else we will not recommend

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them." and she does that and typically

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they turn things around for us because

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we are the annuity man, the gorilla in

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the fixed fixed annuity world. So that's

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how it works. That's the reason that

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carrier ratings don't tell the whole

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story.

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All right. Now, we'll be very upfront

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with you on on who's on that watch list,

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who we're not recommending at the time.

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You know, we don't say anything negative

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about the company because we want them

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to be a better company. If we see

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something financially, we're going to

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ask a question. If we if they

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continually are late on some things or

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don't return our calls on your behalf,

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we're going to score them. So, every

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week we have a meeting with all the

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people at the annuity man and and we

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talk about the carriers and then we

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score them. So that I'm just giving you

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a heads up when you go to my site at the

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annuity man and you're running quotes

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and you're looking at the MIGA feed you

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might see something that you really like

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re really like and then you schedule a

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call with our team and they might go at

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this point in time the TAM scorecard is

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not up to our standards and we're not

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recommending them. We're okay being

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wrong about that but this is your money.

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Okay, that's the reason that you know I

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own the company with my wife owned it

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for a long time but we take this

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serious. We both came from

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low low low middle class America and

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nothing wrong with that. Okay. But what

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that means is you always say there's two

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types of advisors. Advisors that grew up

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rich and advisers that grew up not rich.

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Advisors that grew up not rich. Which

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means that every dollar means a lot to

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us that you're looking to invest or

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looking to place with annuity company.

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And that's the reason the annuity man

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scorecard is in place. Hope that helps.

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If it doesn't, call me and I'll try to

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help even more. Contact us at

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theanuityman.com and go there, run

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quotes, and you can schedule a call with

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my team and we will listen and try to

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help. I'm Stan the Annuity Man. See you

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next time.