Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Annuity Straight Talk podcast, episode number 145. My name is Brian Anderson, founder and creator of annuitystraighttalk.com. i'm the guy. All my information, all the help you need. Answer all your questions in retirement. That's my goal. To make things easier for you. Please, like subscribe or comment on any of your favorite podcast platforms or on YouTube. Share it with your friends. Anybody who has questions or needs help or just might find this entertaining. A few of those out there try to keep it entertaining. But if you want to make an appointment with me, that's the top right corner of any page on annuitystraighttalk.com dot this week I'm going to hit something that I've kind of talked about a couple times already this year. But there's a new development, and, you know, one person that I know well thought it was worth talking about again, this fidelity's annuity marketing. So their marketing annuities a little bit. Advertising, I guess the difference between my I marketing and advertising for purposes of this one and the same kind of one of those things you learned back in college. What's the difference between marketing and advertising anyhow? So I'm going to share my screen newsletter as well as a couple other visual aids. I'm going to show you the fidelity page and all that stuff. This is kind of a fun topic and just one of those things, you know, I'm not picking on anyone. I'm in full support of all this stuff. So here we go. There's the website. I'm gonna go to the newsletter. Cool picture of my horses and mules out in the wilderness earlier this year. For anybody looking at the screen now, this is especially one that you don't need to watch the video, but I got a couple visual aids. Some people like to do that. Some people just listen to it on a podcast. That's great. So you guys know this. I've been doing it for 21 years, since 2003. So going on 22, I've been able to share loads of information that's helped a lot of people. And that really has got to be my foremost goal is to help people without regard for what it means to me. Because a lot of people just need some assistance or clear up some confusion. They don't necessarily always. You don't always need somebody pitching you products. One of the biggest hurdles has been conflicting viewpoints, people. You're going to hear someone else say it. No, he's full of it. You don't know. And that's why I try to cover everything in depth so the understand, because you could say, you know, this is good for this type of person, but if you're this type of person, you probably want to look at something else. So you really ought to know a lot about a person's situation. And the only one who can really have that in depth knowledge of your situation is you. So that's why it takes a lot of education. So a lot of what I've done kind of felt like a battle, and it was always kind of an uphill battle. I kind of started on my own. I've done this mostly on my own. I do have assistance, I do have help. Some really great people that helped me get where I'm at. But as far as the information goes, this is my research, over 20 plus years of doing it.
A lot of the pushback came from the investment management industry. When there's money at stake, people are going to fight over it, especially in financial services. I think that's ridiculous. There's so much available out there. If we focus on being really good at what I do, I'm not going to sit here and wear a suit and power tie. I'm wearing a t shirt because it's summertime. I'm outside focus on being good at what we do and keep good service at the forefront of all that is the key. And, you know, I have something that's going to work for a certain group of people and those guys are going to find me. That was my vision 1516 years ago when I started the site. That's what has happened now. So I'm grateful for that and grateful for you guys. So over time, a lot of the companies, those investment companies, kind of have come around, and more recently than ever before, they're offering a more well rounded retirement approach that includes annuities, as it should for many people. So one of the first podcasts in 224. So I think it was the first one of the year, maybe. But this recent one is, you know, an existing client. I've worked with this guy for six years. Really sharp guy. I love that about my clients. They're smart. And it's not that I see myself on their level or I'm above them or they're above me. It's that they're smart enough to have a unique perspective that is valuable for me, forming opinions and turning those where possible into objective fact. So huge benefit of doing this is it's made me a better person, it's made me more intelligent and given me more information. Just seeing perspectives from intelligent people, from all walks of life, all professions. So this guy's still working. He's got a, is managed by Fidelity. They send monthly newsletters to all the participants for his plan, other plans, all this stuff. They've got an email list that is probably tens of millions of people are getting emails from Fidelity. So the first time he's seen it within the monthly newsletter, you know, five or six bullet points. Hey, this is kind of what we're talking about. General financial information. There's actually a pitch for annuities in the monthly newsletter.
Now, the point of the podcast. Earlier this year, I've only heard of them recommending annuities in certain situations, but now they're putting it out there for essentially everyone to hear, and especially a 401K participant, because the point of a 401K is to retire with it. So at some point, everybody with a 401K is going to come to the point where an annuity could be beneficial. So I never would have, like, targeted fidelity. And again, think of it more as joining them in confirming what they're doing, rather than me picking on them. I picked on Ken Fisher. He hasn't come around yet, but who knows? But they heard. They only hurt these people that talked to me, and this is last year, half a dozen or more had only heard about annuities. Their shop and investment managers, they go to Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, whoever else. Fidelity and Schwab were the ones that came out and said, hey, you should take x amount and go put you get some guaranteed lifetime income. Most, for the most part, high net worth individuals.
And the annuity recommendation was kind of a competitive advantage. What's really interesting, a competitive advantage, their retirement services was get guaranteed income.
It takes a ton of pressure off investment performance, gives you that sleep at night money, 100% success ratio, or approaching that. There are a lot of other people that reached out after that was coming. They said, well, I've been with Fidelity for years with my IRA, and they've never mentioned it. And it's easy to understand why that's the case. Because if fidelity is trying to gain more assets under management or keep assets under management, then they're going to think of alternative ways to stand apart from the rest of their competitors. If the money's been sitting there for years in Ira, and you've done your, you know, quarterly or annual rebalancing, whatever it is, and never expressed a concern or a desire to change anything, why they're not going to bring it up, oh, yeah, you should take money out of management and buy an annuity. So when people have expressed a need for it, fidelity has offered, hey, this might be a good idea now. Investment companies have always had some basic information. I think going back I looked at it, it was pretty watered down. To my knowledge, it has never been widely distributed. So this could be speculation on my part and the part of the guy who sent this to me, who also requested I record this by the lake. So I moved all my stuff down here and you guys can see a perfectly clean window reflecting what I'm looking at as I'm delivering this beautiful place on Flathead Lake in Montana. It's hard to ignore the fact that spreading positive annuity information is a departure from normal operations. Whether this is labeled as speculation or not, I don't care. It's big news and I'm happy to see it because it's the right thing to do. The less we fight each other, the more effectively we can help you. I've always been opposed to the either or people. It's like annuities or investments. I like the both and approach. Annuities can help the investments can help the annuity.
It's a well rounded approach. If you guys see more of that, the both and one, you know, annuities and investments, it's going to be a lot easier to plan for retirement. You're going to get less resistance from people.
Wouldn't it be great if you really can, if everybody's kind of on the same page and you can just choose to work with the person that you get along with and like? But seeing this change over the years justifies my effort and that uphill battle that it has felt like for a long time. So we're in the podcast showing you the newsletter and I'm going to move over to the page, interestingly enough. So here's the email that's interesting. Right down here is get guaranteed income for life. So I've already clicked that. Open it up and here's their page. It's kind of a long form explanation of all the different types of annuities. So learn how they can help retirement savers and income seekers. So it's positive. I kind of agree with that. They can help retirement savers and income seekers. What's interesting is that the key takeaways are brilliant. Annuities can be both a boost to retirement savings and a dependable source of future income.
These investments can help manage market volatility. The possibility you could outlive your savings, the risk of inflation will eat away at your savings in retirement.
They can help you grow retirement savings even if you've maxed out contributions for the year to qualified plans, you want to save more. You can put it into annuities, flexible premiums. You can continue contributing extra to a deferred taxable account. You don't get tax deductions for it. And in retirement, annuities can offer pension, like cash flow, like a paycheck during working years. Couldn't have said it better myself. And again, a lot of these companies, if I go back to this, so I got that graphic in the newsletter. Yeah. Boost retirement savings, manage market volatility, never outlive your money. Decrease the risk of inflation eating up your savings. That kind of sums it all up. So in my experience, the past suggests that Fidelity mostly offer just, they do single premium immediate annuities and deferred income annuities, although the other, others were there when I ran into it. That's kind of all they offered. From the information on the page, they've managed to also include mygas, guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits. Don't specifically mention index annuities. Don't think they have that yet. But again, some of those are the, some of those have the healthiest, most competitive payouts for guaranteed lifetime income. So if you look at this, what are annuities and how do they work? They come down here and they've got this nice little chart that talk about, you know, so they say tax deferral, market participation, guaranteed rate of return, principal protection, access to assets and guaranteed income. And they've got checks for each of the different types. So you can look at that and say, oh, which ones, which of those are more? And if they don't have access to money, for instance, that, that is the reason why you don't put all your money in annuity. If you're trying to have a well balanced portfolio, market growth, but the protection, so you don't have to worry about retirement. You can spend as much money as you want. Pretty interesting. So, so I showed you the email, I'm going to go to one other spot and this email, because I looked at this and I thought, I was like, well, I wonder if it's in there anywhere else. So what to do with your cash now? Got cds or bonds? Maturing CDs or bonds? Here's how to deploy those proceeds. So let's click what to do with your cash now. What does it say? And I'll paraphrase it, reflect on what the money is for. What is your goal? Is it part of emergency savings? A down payment on maybe a piece of real estate? Is it for your retirement nest egg or is there something else for.
And they go through all these things, and this is perfect. Home purchase, safety net, child's education, retirement. And they go, it basically comes down to all this stuff. It comes down to the purpose. Cds, generally very low risks, insured by the FDIC, right? Money market funds, very liquid, short term. If you need liquidity, that's for, you know, maybe, you know, you put in a CD and you're going to go put a down payment on a new house, maybe you put it in a money market fund. Bonds very widely in risk and return, potential treasuries or bonds, all that stuff. And it comes down.
How much control and ongoing maintenance do you prefer? It's like all these things that are going to, you're going to check them as important or disregard them because they're not a big deal to you. But annuities. So they bring back annuities right here and say, this is an option for those funds. So typically in the past, investment management companies, based on where the market is, oh, we got a really good buy opportunity, go to the market, or it seems like they're including all the variables. So what I would consider this to be is representing that fidelity is actually interested in holistic planning. I had no doubt they were doing it, but this is the first time I've seen something where it has all of the options in there. Annuities, retirees and pre retirees who want predictable guaranteed income but would prefer a more hands off approach, might be well served by considering an annuity. Isn't that what we're all here for? You guys are retired or getting ready to retire. You want to protect money, you want to generate income, you want to plan for RMD's, you might be want to do Roth conversions. How can annuities be used to protect money while you do all those things? And perhaps this is more of a push now, because like I said earlier in the year when we did this, rates are higher, so it's more obvious how they help you. They can't be. I'm not considered damage control. Fidelity is not going to go broke just because people are moving out and buying annuities. I've heard from several people, hey, I want to talk to my fidelity guy first before I review this. I've had a couple of people choose to go with Fidelity because they had a good relationship there. They might be giving up a little bit. In one case, it really wasn't a whole lot, but he said, you know, I've been with this guy for 20 years. They've served me well. I like it. And, you know, they're pretty close to what you have. I really don't want to burn the relationship. That's fine. That's where we're honest with each other. If you don't want to do it, just tell me. I don't care. So there it is. They're putting it out, and I guess you'll probably see it in more places. And I'm not at all trying to be critical, because I do support this.
I want to remind everyone there are limitations in a lot of cases to what fidelity can provide. In some cases, they are very competitive. And the one I just mentioned, yeah, they were dang close.
And thats something. Relationships are a big part of this. You want to work with me, we have to decide if we can work together. Ive met people that I had exactly what they needed. We didnt really mesh, and I just said, hey, listen, I think you should do this, but maybe go find somebody else. I think youll get along with them better. Doesnt happen often. Im a pretty easy going guy, not hard to get along with. With fidelity, you might get the best. In a lot of cases, there are more competitive options available elsewhere.
So when I talked about Fidelity's annuity recommendation the second time, I did it, where I showed you a direct comparison in the deferred income contract, what I was able to save was 15% cheaper the contract I got than what Fidelity provided. It's not bad. It's just the way it is. I don't have a fault with Fidelity doing that. So the products they have available are there because of a decision made in a boardroom and based on relationship with certain companies. So I've sold contracts from more than a dozen companies this year. If for a reason, I got to go to another one to deliver a really good deal to you or anyone else, I'll go ahead and do that, because I'm independent. And major firms are captive to corporate red tape, so I don't have a problem with the corporation that moves more slowly to expand offerings. That makes sense to me. You know, look at the B's that goes along with corporate. Even good companies, you know, you talk to their employees. It was like, yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of B's in here, but it really bothers me when there's a guy that says, oh, I'm independent, and this is the best, when it's not, he's just being lazy. So perhaps there's a partnership between AST and a major investment firm coming? Yeah, I doubt it. But either way, we're coming closer to a time when there's not so much fighting between the insurance and the investment industry. There shouldn't be. They're both meant to support each other and provide the benefits that the other can't. When a major firm steps out like this, then I have to wonder why a lot of the independent investment managers don't follow suit. That's why that can be seen as kind of a dwindling business, to be honest with you. I'm not sure if it is, but it just seems like there's less of it out there. I've got a couple of good and good contacts with investment managers, a half a dozen them around the country, who understand the value of annuities the way their business is set up. They don't offer those, but they understand the value. So they send their clients to me and we work together. Well, that's the kind of thing. Not because I can make more money, because that's the right thing to do, only do it in annuity if it's the right thing to do and if it's what makes you happy. Whatever that is, is what it's going to be for the time being. And I'm going to continue to refine my information as needed, update it, where I can offer disclaimers based on changes in the market, interest rates, all that stuff. If you guys see something in the past, if somebody says, well, I watched, you know, this podcast episode you did two years ago, I don't think I've gone and I've deleted, you know, three or four podcasts that are really just out of date. I don't need anybody finding those. And, you know, if it's irrelevant and not important, I'll delete it. If it's really important, but has changed, I'm just going to update it and offer it as a new episode so everybody can stay on the front edge of this. I could not have done any of this without you guys, without the motivation, without the validation that I'm doing the right thing, that I'm helping people. So thank you so much for being here. I'm here to address any of your concerns. Any questions related to retirement. I've got a really good handle on it. Don't know everything if I don't know it. I haven't. I have never been stumped by a question where I couldn't directly go to the person who I know can answer it. How about that? So if you want me to help you out. Go ahead and make an appointment. Top right corner of this newsletter page or any other page on annuitystraighttalk.com. like I said, like subscribe or comment to any of your favorite podcast platforms or on YouTube. Send this to your fidelity advisor. Say, hats off. This guy appreciates what you guys are doing. We're all in this to make your life easier, make your life more profitable, and help you enjoy retirement. Thanks so much for joining me for episode 145. I will be back next week with episode 146. Okay, thanks and have a great day. Bye.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: You have been listening to annuity stray talk.
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