Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence>
Speaker 1 00:00:05 This is annuity Straight talk. Since 2008, your host Brian Anderson, has helped clients nationwide navigate the complex market for annuities With Brian's assistance, hundreds of clients have achieved a profitable and secure retirement. I would know because Brian has answered many of my questions concerning annuities and retirement planning, so that you can benefit as well. Let's get started. Here's Brian.
Speaker 2 00:00:48 Hello and welcome everyone to the Annuity Straight Talk podcast, episode number 100 N two. My name is Brian Anderson, founder and creator of annuity straight talk.com. Here with kind of a simple, easy, kind of a conversational topic for everybody. Uh, I like to take breaks every now and then. We'll probably get into more technical stuff and maybe a few more numbers. Some people like those, but I gotta stay active and keep the me messages flowing. Talk to you about how I work, what my experience is, all that stuff. So this one is just a simple topic. Annuity solutions are easy, and I've been thinking about it a lot. Basically, it comes down to the fact that a lot of people have comp, or when you wade through all the sales pitches and all this stuff, right? And try to figure out, Hey, is this the best thing?
Speaker 2 00:01:34 Is that the best thing? Know how many products do I have to look at? You meet with a bunch of different people, see a bunch of different advertisements, and then they come to me and we get their goals in line and I said, uh, here's the solution, and I can do it very easily. And it seems like some people pull back, oh, that's too easy, right? And so I think a lot of people pause, uh, because of that. Okay, start starting this, uh, newsletter off. I do not know everything about annuities, but I know a lot from time to time, technical rules or regulatory changes. Things get swapped up on me, congressional acts, product differentiations, product changes. On occasion you'll catch me with something. But it's all just part of continually it's continuing education and evolution. I wanna be the best I can be at this and do the best job I can for the people that ask and also spread the right information.
Speaker 2 00:02:26 I talked about that a couple episodes. Go episode 100. There's a lot of times, I mean, there's not, there was no information available when I started this online and now there's a lot of bad information, so it hasn't really gotten better. That's where there's an opportunity for me to just set the record straight. But the average person that comes, comes here typically doesn't know a whole lot. And most of it is because someone tried to just sell them something and then they were stuck trying to figure out was this a good idea or what do I, what should I do with It creates tunnel vision. You're looking at that product and you're not even learning the fundamental reasons why you would be using an annuity. Yeah, if, if you don't know a whole lot about annuities, how are you gonna know if a single product is the right answer? There's thousands of 'em out there. Different ways of doing it. Last week at a second meeting with a guy, and I was going through the options with him, and again, he knows enough to know, he knows he wants an annuity, but it, it was go through the option. He said, man, I wish someone would just tell me what to do
Speaker 2 00:03:26 And it would be convenient. I am capable of doing that. But most people don't have the, the, that level of trust in someone they don't know. And I don't think he was the exception to that. So he's probably just frustration kind of thing. I wish this was easier, as long as you tell me exactly what you're trying to do and you got plenty of money to work. Some people say, this is what I wanna do. It's like, well, you don't have enough money to do that and that then I can't.
Speaker 2 00:03:52 But if you got what you need to work with and you tell me what your goals are, it's pretty simple to say, Hey, here's the best way to do it. And I'm always, and I think it's our duty to say what, here's a couple other ways you could do it. So really try to help you find something that you prefer rather than just tell you what it is. My, I my goal is to make sure that if you use an annuity and you get it for me, you choose the one that you want to go with. So 20 years of experience have put me in position to be able, uh, to come to some pretty quick co conclusions for people.
Speaker 2 00:04:20 And it's not just 20 years of having a license. Uh, my path has been different from every other person or almost every other person. There's a few other guys that do it. The conference that I went to in June, out of the 80 or 90 advisors there, not a single one of them, A lot of 'em said, oh, I need to do more with my website. I need to do this or that. But I've constantly been out there creating content, making videos, doing stuff like this teaches me how to communicate, take the information and relate it to you in an under, uh, understandable way. And doing it so many times, I learned so much. And also getting the positive and the negative, the positive reinforcements, the negative reviews or the people that disagree with me that only strengthens my argument or allows me to learn even more. So thousands of case studies I've run into mean, I've probably seen a situation like yours at least a hundred times. Most people, everybody's a little bit different, but nobody's all that much different. And it may seem easy to me, right? It's I can solve your problem in 10 minutes,
Speaker 2 00:05:28 But it was 20 years of education to get to the point where I could use 10 minutes. So that's what it took to, to get here. I've done it thousands of times. You only get to do it once. And that's, so I understand why people hesitate when a solution seems so easy.
Speaker 2 00:05:48 A lot of people need more justification. That's why there's so much information on this website. A lot of you would know if you had had a conversation with me, I'd say, you know what? There's this podcast for this newsletter that came out. Whenever this really applies to your situation, I'll send it to 'em and see. And that has helped a lot of people figure it out. The other thing is that I can look at things objectively. I don't have a subjective attachment to the money that you saved, the work that you put in to get here. I'm simply looking at the ABCs and doing the math. It's very objective from my standpoint. So it's easy for me to give you an objective answer. And that's where communication is important between us because I need to know all the little reasons why, you know, why you wanna do one thing over over another. So annuity solutions are easy, but convincing people of that is pretty difficult. So income products are the easiest ones to figure out. So we got a database and sometimes I have to go one or two. All I gotta do is put in the variables. It spits out the top numbers, your age, spouse, age, how long you wanna defer all that stuff.
Speaker 2 00:07:01 And anybody could do that. There's only about four or five inputs. So that doesn't take a whole lot of e expertise.
Speaker 2 00:07:10 But the experience I have in the market with different carriers is helpful to determine which company is best and what, which contract might have better components. People don't always take the highest payout. Some people don't because they never see what it is. And others chew a lo choose a lower payout 'cause maybe they get a higher, uh, rated company. Uh, maybe it's got a better underlying growth component. Maybe it's got a lower fee, maybe it's got, you know, there's any number of reasons why you might not always just take the highest payout. The experience with a wide variety of products is important. And something being out here in competitive situations all the time. I've learned a lot more about products than I would have if I just stuck to a company and sold only that stuff. And I just don't do it because it's not the best thing for every individual.
Speaker 2 00:07:55 So a lot of people that have been on this website have been here for a year or more. I think the record was one guy followed me for eight years before he ever did business. If you read a bunch of the newsletters, watch the podcast. You may or may not find a perfect solution for you and the examples I provide, but you're probably gonna get something close. When I meet and I come to a conclusion quickly, I think people pause because they expect the process to be harder. A lot of this happens when I destroy a proposal from another advisor. We wanna talk about past podcasts like BSS annuity illustrations. That's a big one. If you're doing performance based income, that's very important to look at. People like too often focus on the bonus. So you get rid of bonuses and sales pitches and arrive at a simple solution only deposit. 'cause it can't be that easy, right? You don't know what you don't know. That's a big factor in having confidence in moving forward on a major financial decision. If you need more explanation from me, you have to ask, I'm gonna try to identify the things that would help you understand the right path.
Speaker 2 00:09:02 But I can't know everything about you as much as I'd like to. 'cause it makes the recommendations more perfect. But communication is key. You have to tell me what you like, what you don't like. If I throw you an idea that say, oh, you know, that really doesn't work for us, just tell me that. 'cause a lot of, I think a lot of people will say, yeah, we don't like that. And they assume that's all I've got. Maybe I read you wrong in communication, whatever, I, I said a bunch that I had a finance degree in college and I think a psychology degree probably would've been better. It would've taught me how to communicate and read people a little bit more. Now I think I've got a decent handle on that, but no, I'm not perfect. That's one, one area where I could improve, right?
Speaker 2 00:09:41 That's where my one star review came from. It's like it was a miscommunication between me and the customer. And so try to avoid that if all at all possible, whether we do business or not, I want you to have a good experience. So another quick story about somebody recently, and this is not, I'm not picking on this person 'cause we're very much still in the process, but she's been following the podcast for a couple of years. Probably listened to most of them, but she already had an annuity, was just interested and it, she bought it in 2009 and it's a guaranteed income product. What happens with a lot of those products is after a certain period of years, and this year, well, I think this was the year at year 10, the income is capped and it's not gonna go higher. It's been surrender free for four or five years and she's not ready to take income yet. She's not gonna get anything extra by waiting a couple more years.
Speaker 2 00:10:32 Well, if she would've called me two years ago, I would've probably said stay put. But now, because rates are so much higher, she might be able to get more income from a new product. Her ultimate goal is maximum income. So it's appropriate to be in an income product. And when looking at something different, it only takes a couple minutes, no big deal. So it just so hap happens, she can switch to a new product with two thirds of the money in that account and match the income she's expected from the current contract, the obvious solution to the problem, right? And the new contract will continue to increase higher if she waits a couple years, two, three years, maybe four I think is what she was thinking.
Speaker 2 00:11:14 So it's a really good deal and a very good move for her to do that. If she took the whole balance, she'd have a 50% increase in income with the new contract. And I prefer flexibility. I think her accountant suggested, Hey, put, why don't you keep some of it in cash so you have an emergency fund of sorts. And so I I, she said that, I was like, I think that's a great idea. 'cause that's something I've, I've, uh, preached for a long time. Take two thirds of the money, match the income, and you got one third of the money left. It wasn't a small amount, but the amount's not really that important, but it amounts to finding a big chunk of money in the cushions of your couch. It's okay, I can swap over now that you, I gotta enter new surrender charges. It's not gonna affect the income, but there's an emotional jump for anyone to do that.
Speaker 2 00:11:59 So, oh, I gotta start all over again. If the goal is income, then it doesn't really matter, but it's still a mental hurdle that people have to cross and I understand that. And I'm not trying to single her out. We're only a few weeks into conversations. Uh, had a couple of meetings. Again, that was an example I think of quick easy solution. Something she's held on for a long time. So she's really gotta pull back and think about it. How can it be that easy? I've thought about this for a long time and there's a solution. It took me five minutes, no big deal. But it's a big deal to her and I understand that. That's why I'm patient and I'm not gonna call her and bug her all the time. And just like anybody else, she's got a whole lot of other things she's gotta focus in on life. If she decides to do this, it's gonna take 20, 30 minutes to fill out the application. We'll be done. Piece of cake, right?
Speaker 2 00:12:46 Who knows? But you could be sitting on an opportunity for a while and not realize dramatic improvement is very easy to find. It doesn't always happen like this, but it's not uncommon. There are a lot of people looking right now saying, Hey, should I get rid of this annuity and get a better deal? Now it's very possible that you can benefit from doing that, but it's not something I go chase because I, I typically recommend not surrendering annu an annuity early. In this case she's outta surrender charges. So it doesn't really matter. But I don't take my position for granted. And I wanna understand all the, all the challenges you face in making a decision. Wherever I can help, I'd like to do that.
Speaker 2 00:13:24 These solutions are easy for me, not because your case is an important, rather I've seen it so many times that it comes easier to me. It's not much different than a mechanic fixing your car. A novice would take more time doing it, but, but a professional will do it correctly and more efficiently. My job is a blessing. I certainly appreciate everything I'm able to do. The support you get give and following me the comments I receive, positive comments, reinforce, uh, what I'm doing, the negative comments give me an opportunity to improve the service and learn something new every time. So I take either one, whatever you have to say, go ahead and say it, but I'm grateful for all the opportunities that come my way. I'm always gonna put focus on making sure the reasons behind what I recommend. Communication is the key. Annuity solutions may seem easy for me, but was not easy to get here.
Speaker 2 00:14:17 So anyway, this has been episode 102. Annuity Solutions are easy. My name is Brian Anderson. Please like, subscribe, comment, or share on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube. If you don't wanna sign up, you can sign up for the email to get these every Saturday morning. If you don't wanna do that, you can just go subscribe to the YouTube channel. You can notify anytime it comes out. Simple and easy. A lot of people have told me, Hey, how come you don't have more follows? How come this, I guess it takes time to develop. But you know, if you find or if you know somebody that might want the information, go ahead and share it to 'em, send 'em a link, forward 'em email. It's pretty, pretty simple. But I'm here to help. No pressure, you guys digest it in your own time, however you want. So I appreciate you guys, uh, stopping by and continuing to follow the podcast. It's a lot of work to get here and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I'll be back next week with episode 103. Okay, thanks. Bye. You
Speaker 1 00:15:08 Have been listening to Annuity Stray Talk. The proceeding information is for informational and educational purposes only and does not represent tax, legal or investment advice. Reviews expressed by guests on this program are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of annuity, stray straight talk, or its partners. No information presented today should be acted upon without meeting with the qualified and licensed professional. It is important that you read all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a purchase. Decision guarantees are based on the financial and claims paying ability of the insurance.
