Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome everybody to the Annuity Straight Talk podcast, episode number 190. My name is Brian Anderson, founder and creator of AnnuityStraightTalk.com I wrote it all, researched it all. It's taken me 22 going on 23 years to get to this point.
[00:00:17] Dealing with deadbeats is one of the things that really got me into this. So episode 190 going to take a shot at some of my colleagues out there.
[00:00:27] Now, if you're an advisor and this is not you, then obviously I'm not talking to you. The people that I'm talking to are probably too dumb enough to realize it, but it's here anyway. It needs to be addressed and mostly because as a consumer you need to know that it is out there and ask the right questions. I guess I could go into that a little bit more. We'll see. But please like subscribe or comment on any of your favorite podcast platforms are on YouTube. Share it with your friends.
[00:00:54] Share it with your advisor who may or may not be a deadbeat annuity agent.
[00:01:01] All the good advisors are going to agree with me. I know a lot of guys out there. I could mention them by name. I expect to get a few messages from some people. I'm not worried about offending anyone. There are a lot of deadbeats in the business. It goes much deeper than the guys going for an easy sale. But it is related. So people who don't know how to adequately explain a product are certainly no good at servicing it and basically disappear once the commission check has been cashed. It happens a lot. Take it or leave it. I've been pretty dang good at noticing trends over the years. In the past few weeks it really came to a head. They just see it over and over now. Most of the people I talk to either own one or have been pitched an annuity. And just recently I haven't been all too impressed with what I see.
[00:01:42] And as I was writing this, I was like, wait a second, isn't this what got me started 20 some years ago?
[00:01:47] And it really was. When I didn't know anything, I'd see the complaints that people had about annuities and I do specific research on the topic to determine that a lot of it wasn't true and certainly not in a general sense, maybe about a specific product.
[00:02:02] So learn very early on. I say this all the time. If you don't like some feature of a contract, you can usually find another contract with benefits you want without that feature that you didn't like.
[00:02:15] That's why? There's so many different types.
[00:02:17] One of the biggest issues I've seen is that a lot of people don't even know what they have.
[00:02:21] Someone asked for an advice about a contract they own. I first need to know what it is.
[00:02:26] So I'll say something like well, what contract do you have? What do you mean? Well, there's a name of the contract and then I don't know what it's called.
[00:02:35] Do you know what kind it is? And usually by what it's supposed to do, you tell it's like either index or a MYGA or whatever. Right, right. Or an income product. A lot of people had income products, didn't know they were income products. But what company is it with? And well, I don't really know. Okay, well how much did you put into it? Well, I put a 200,000, 300,000 in it, whatever. And it blows my mind. You put two or three hundred thousand dollars into something and you can't even name the company it's with. I blame the agent for that because there was clearly no education that came before the sale.
[00:03:06] And I'm a nice guy. So I'd say a little more than 10% of the business on my books is something I never got paid for. I didn't sell it, I service it. So several years ago, one client, guy I like a lot and he came to Montana and visited me. We went fishing one time. He said, I really like what you did, this is great. But the local guy helped me too. So hey, I'm gonna give him half, give you half. And you know, I mean, that's fair, I don't really mind. I was happy to get something cause it put some work into it. So I got paid a little bit and within two years I was servicing both contracts. He called me. Well I said what happened to him? Well, he retired, change his cell ph so I can't get a hold of him. I say that sometimes he's going to change your phone number just because I've seen it happen. I get calls very often from people that want me to help them understand how their annuity works. My first comment is always the same, where's the guy that sold it?
[00:03:53] So some of the common responses are that he never calls or doesn't return my calls or maybe he's not in the business anymore or ah, well, he was kind of new to it or is my nephew. That happened. One was my nephew. So I don't expect him to know. But I put a pile of money where he told me to anyway. And my favorite is when the salesman gets mad at the client and shames them for asking so many questions. There are a lot of people that have done business with me who apologize for asking so many questions. And what do I always say? Ask as many as you need. I want to make sure you understand it well enough that you can sell it to someone else if you decide to get in the business.
[00:04:30] So these guys are all deadbeats and you should stay away from them. If they can't handle the simple parts of servicing a contract.
[00:04:37] Do you really feel they're competent enough to evaluate the products and deliver a solution that meets your goals? That's up to you. So just this week, a random lady called because she got a letter from a security firm claiming that there was a data breach at her insurance company where she owned an annuity. She said, is this legit? I don't do business with the company, but I believe it's something you should look into because it sends, you know, a red flag for potential fraud. A third party company sent me a letter saying there's a data breach. That sounds like something that's like, oh, call this number and give us your credit card number. So I said, call your agent. She said, I did. I said, well, what did he say? He said, well, he doesn't know anything about it and that I should just call the company.
[00:05:12] Wrong answer. She didn't even know how to get a hold of the company because she never got any instructions for it. Well, it's in the contract, it's in all the place. But you need to make that clear. That's one thing I do. It's like, here's the number. You can always call the company. I prefer you call me because we can get it done quicker for you. That's our job. That guy is a deadbeat. And you certainly don't want to work with an agent like him. I had something very similar, which is why I knew what to do.
[00:05:36] Several years ago, one of the companies where I've got a lot of contracts, we actually got communication from the company and the security firm. Hey, there was a data breach somewhere. And I was able to get on it for a few clients before they even got notice of it.
[00:05:49] And I called the company, hey, what's going on? Can you update me? And they said, no, it's fine, everything's secure, it's okay. But they had a regulatory requirement to notify their people, but they'd already identified nobody had been happened. So it took me a few minutes to do it, but it Saved all of us a little bit of stress because you think that poor lady is sitting there and the agent won't even help her.
[00:06:10] He's a deadbeat. I also like the people who didn't listen to me five or six years ago and come back to me and tell me it's not working, ask what they should do. If you didn't listen to me, then why should I spend my time hoping you'll listen to me now? Take this to the guy. You can take all this information to a guy, help him be better.
[00:06:26] I'm trying to help everybody.
[00:06:28] Most of what I hear are from people who aren't meeting expectations with a contract they own. Most of those come from index annuities, maybe income riders. Anyone who has been selling index annuities for a while also sold someone rates weren't all that high. I have done it. I'm not saying that everything has worked out the best it possibly could.
[00:06:46] We do the right thing at the right time, what we can. For those guys that get antsy in a contract that may be not providing as much interest as we wanted it to, you got to be able to offer solutions to that. And there's a lot of guys that pass it off. Oh, no big deal. Your money's safe, it's fine. Well, that's true.
[00:07:03] But the deadbeats are going to be quick to replace a contract, get a fresh commission, but they never offer other ideas that don't involve extending surrender terms.
[00:07:11] I've replaced annuities as well, so we've had opportunities to replace some where it didn't make sense for the individual. And I gone over that in podcasts. What are the criteria you got to look at when you're surrendering an annuity? Right. So my clients who have been in a contract like this, they either just let it go, hey, we'll hope for the best, let's let it go because it's not a big part of their portfolio. Or several people have maximized free withdrawals to ladder those funds annually to another higher rate investment.
[00:07:37] And again, it's not hard to be available to those that make us a living, but a lot of advisors don't do it. And I guess I would also consider, you know, there's some guys that sell so much that you're never going to get him on the phone again, but you might have decent service. And I don't have that insatiable greed. I want to make a good living, but I also want to be available to everybody when they need something. I've got Leandra, everybody that works with me knows her. She loves to do it, loves to help.
[00:08:06] So anybody that works with me, you know, like anniversary dates, you get an automatic email from my system that way. You hear from me, set something up that way. And that's how most people do it.
[00:08:16] But I just, again, to everybody that I work with or have sold to, I am here and they know that.
[00:08:21] So I have people that do that. They apologize and say, no, that's what I'm here for. It's okay. So I actually had a call recently with someone who has a whole pile of annuities that have done okay.
[00:08:34] And I don't like the companies that look. It's like, wow, that's a whole gamut of so, so. Right. But they've done fine given the time period where they're purchased, given the goals of this person.
[00:08:47] Now they want to start managing tax liability because some of them grown more than others. It's like, hey, where do I start taking taxes? How does this work? All those things? It's like, who'd you buy it from? Well, this guy and that guy. And what did they say? Well, they said, just deal with it.
[00:09:04] Now I can't understand for the life of me why an agent who made a ton of money off one client won't come forward and offer assistance. I would sure as hell make sure that that person didn't go. Some of them are coming. Surrender, free this year, next year, after that.
[00:09:18] You know, I'll help her out. Not doing it just to get the business. But there is absolutely no reason why this person should have called me. Apparently, she's working with a deadbeat.
[00:09:27] So earlier this week, I got a call from an advisor who had a simple question. Really nice guy. It was an advisor type question. No big deal.
[00:09:34] We chatted for a few minutes. I gave him my best explanation to the answer. He's retiring in a few years with his biggest concern to figure out how to compensate someone for servicing his clients. That's what he's going to work on.
[00:09:45] And I'm not sure what his solution will be, but his head is in the right place.
[00:09:49] Maybe I will get to a point where I just want to retire, but I'm at least 20 years away from that. I've told a lot of people I'm going to get to the point where I'm probably not taking new business. And it's unfortunate, but some people are only in this business to make money, and when they do, they're done.
[00:10:03] I don't see it that way. The reality is that a responsibility is to provide service for the contracts we sell. It is not a legal obligation or requirement, but just good common sense. In my opinion. There are a lot of professionals doing it the right way. I know a lot of them.
[00:10:19] They know I'm not talking about them. I'm not the only one available. So learn to ask the right questions so you can stay away from the deadbeats. It's going to make retirement a whole lot easier. Simply ask what happens after this? What happens on an anniversary? Are you going to help with this? Are you going to help me choose indexes? Are you going to help me with the paperwork when I decide to take income? I've got a lot of self sufficient people are happy to do it on their own as well. But I'm always there. So this has been episode 190 beware deadbeat annuity agents. You know they're out there. Give us all a bad name when we're trying to just do the right thing.
[00:10:52] Appreciate you guys stopping by. Please like subscribe or comment on any of your favorite podcast platforms or on YouTube. Share it with your friends.
[00:11:01] Top right corner of any page on annuitystraighttalk.com if you want to give me a call. I will be in the office all next week and ready to help with whatever you need. Thanks guys. Have a great day. Be back next week with episode 191. Okay, bye.
