Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome everyone to the Annuity Straight Talk podcast, episode number 158. My name is Brian Anderson, founder and creator of AnnuityStraightTalk.com Please like subscribe or comment on any of your favorite podcast platforms or on YouTube. Share it with your friends. Get it out to people who could use the information before they make a mistake with their retirement. It's a pleasure to work with you guys. It's been a busy year and helped a lot of people, confirmed a lot of stuff for people. We sold some annuities to people, all that stuff, make sure everybody gets what they need. And I'm going to go down to a topic today to talk about what so many people ask me about. What products do you recommend? It's like I don't, but I'm going to tell you my favorite ones, which a lot of you guys know. I've done it before, but I haven't really done a full line lineup review and it's going to be general information, but let me share my screen. You got the newsletter. This is available on the website and dot com on the newsletter page. And if you want to schedule a call, it's the top right corner of any page on the website. Schedule a call, get on my calendar, we'll chat about it, see if we can't solve some of your problems. So it has been no secret for quite some time that Binland national is my favorite company to work with. Outstanding customer service, quick processing and a lot of products for a lot of situations. It is competitive in just about every planning situation I encounter. We're talking about mostly indexed annuities today. They do have a spia. I've only seen it in one situation where that was the top one. I was going to look at it, but they're not competitive in the spia. They do have variable annuities. That's the other side of the business. I'm not a big fan of those, so I'm not going to cover those, but their major product lineup. So before you accuse me of steering business in that direction for personal gain, I'm just standing here confidently saying this is usually something that will work for just about everyone. There is something in there. This year so far they got about a third of my business. So it's not something you use all the time. And that's about average of what I've done. And when we're doing mygas and income products, we go for the best deal and a lot of times it goes somewhere else. So for anybody else that has bought Something from me and didn't get Midland. They know the reason is because the product you did get had a distinct advantage in that situation. The point is everybody does have a choice and from what I've seen, I do more to give you choices and opportunities than most anyone else. So the processing of applications is not necessarily a selling point for a lot of consumers, but it makes a huge difference to me. And you want people to professionally handle your money and have transactions done in a timely manner. So last week Specific Situations Midland issued a contract 12 minutes after I submitted the application. And one company, I'm not picking on anyone so I'm not going to by name one company that's really busy has had applications sitting there and I've been waiting for nearly two months. Oh, you need to correct this or we need to ask this question. Then it goes to the bottom of the pile. We're 10 days out and we'll look at it again. So just ask me who would you rather do business with? People that have it in line or people that don't or people that get in over their head with products? I don't know. That's up to you. A lot of you guys have met my new assistant Leandra. She has more than 20 years of experience with processing contracts for all sorts of companies and financial institutions. When she started last year I had a lot of business and she had to call and follow up and make sure it all done and a lot of its waiting time and all this stuff. And I said just wait till you talk to Midland. You never wait more than 30 seconds and they're exceptional and go ahead and after a year of doing this, ask her why Midland is like nothing she's ever experienced. So if any of you guys get a chance to talk to her, hey, why do you like Midland so much? She would be happy to tell you because in 20 years experience, take it for what it's worth. But it's a first class organization from top to bottom. So I'm going to talk about why I recommend their products. I typically don't do this because I'm not trying to tell you go buy this or buy that. But when it's close I'll explain why I prefer to do business with Midland. The choice is yours. You can go do it wherever you want. In a lot of cases Midland is by far the best. One time this morning I said here it is, top of the list, top of the pile. That was pretty objective recommendation. So I'm not giving you specifics but I'll explain all the products the company has that I've used in the past several years, starting with the Midland National Guaranty Pro. It's a three, five or seven year myga. Now this is an A plus company. They don't have to chase rates like a lot of the top mygas that we've got or we sold. I try not to go below A. Some people are comfortable going A minus. I tend to avoid it. You're not getting much more for doing it. But there are times when Midland has been right in the mix. And if that's possible or if they're close, then you get to decide do I want an A plus or an A or do I want an A plus? So they have been there. But if you want a really solid company, they're usually in that a plus kind of top tier. Maybe 25 to 50 basis points below the lower rated companies.
Not knocking anyone. I'm just saying that's their product. So sold a number of those because there have been times when they are right up there and very competitive. Then why not just take the A plus company? So the biggest seller for me this year has been the Midland National Income Planning Annuity. This is a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit product. Of all the podcasts I've done this year, I've said it time and time again. If income is deferred for more than a year, then the GLWB is probably the best way to do it. So this product has been on top of the list for the past five years. Probably five years ago is when it came out. And in the past two years it's been even more profitable just because everything else came up. So there's a clear distinction that makes this the best in many cases. You guys understand in a GLW B annually there's an increase in a step up and it could be 8%, 10%, whatever it is. So normally you have to wait for a contract anniversary. In the case with the Midland ipa, that happens on your birthday. Now if your birthday is only two months, three months away, then instead of waiting a year, you can get a step up on your birthday. I had one issued earlier this month that was three days before the youngest person's birthday. So they got their first step up after only three days. Really cool. So even when some annuities may seem to pay more, this monthly retirement payment will pay earlier. And that's a deciding factor. So I did one just the other day where this guy was looking for guaranteed income. In five years in Midland, the IPA would pay 22,800 annually. The next one, the highest, was 23,800 annually. So he was going to take income at age 72. The other, the 23,000. The higher paying contract, he'd have to wait five full years. With the IPA, only five birthdays have to pass. So his first birthday is only a few months away. Meaning this will pay $1,000 less but nine months earlier. You see that? I did the math correctly.
So Midland will pay him 17,100 before the other one kicks in. If he starts at age 72 just to get another thousand dollars per year, he would be almost 90 years old before he actually catches up and receives a material benefit. Put that money in your pocket at the beginning. Time value money. It's a better deal. Take the lower payment, starts earlier. Good deal, right? In a lot of cases, this gave this product the distinct advantage. And I wonder how many people didn't realize that because a lot of people, well, I want to retire when I'm 65. Well, what if you're 65 in four years and three months and they're buying a product that's a five year deferral. So they got to be 65 and nine months before they can take it. So there's a gap issue there and that's why they created the product. That's where it's an advantage. So the Midland National Income Vantage Pro. This is probably one of the coolest annuity contracts on the market. I really like it. This is the one that I would personally buy because I'm young and I have a long time to defer it. It has a lot of options. It's got a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit with no fees. And it looks similar to the Allianz Benefit Control because it works the same way. But it has several distinct advantages. So their performance based income contracts, meaning the growth in the account will translate to the guaranteed income in the future. The Income Vantage Pro has much higher growth rates than the Allianz abc. And the ABC has a contractual ability to add an allocation fee to the indexes. So you could have that happen. Says it right on the website. This one's really good because it doesn't do that. No fees, no possibility for fees. Right. The growth in the IV Pro Mat nearly matches many of the index annuities that are accumulation alone. And you get that little income backstop. And that's where I've sold it earlier this year. Sold one to a couple. They're retired. Hey, we just want protection from the market. We don't want to pay fees.
We'd like a little upside and we don't need the income, but we'd like to be able to take a little bit if we can. That's the IV pro. Now if it performs really well, you could get a solid payout. But the no fee accumulation is what people really like about it. Market protection, solid growth and a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit if you ever want some extra cash flow. Now also there's an enhanced death benefit and there's again, the mechanics of the product and how it works is not the point of this. But anyone with a slightest amount of skepticism and average brain power would choose this product over any others in its class. Now I'm not trying to pick on anyone who chooses something else, so long as you have truly seen alternative options. And that's the problem. You haven't seen an alternative with all the detailed information. A lot of those other guys like to skim over it. Hey, look at the bonus. Guaranteed income. The income increases, all that stuff. The likelihood of happening again, not just the purpose of this podcast so Midland National Index Builder. Now bonus products have been all the rage because it's nice to get a little juice to the product. A lot of them are misleading. Some of them only credit to the income. But it makes it easy for guys who don't do a whole lot of homework. But this one has a healthy bonus and the fewest strings attached of any other product. Now we've used it to offset surrender charges on old contracts with low rates or we've used it to kickstart cash value. Some people just like, hey, like putting that in the pocket. And that's what a bonus does. It comes with a little bit lower growth potential. But hey, right now it's you want to pay a fee, get some additional benefits, it bumps up all the way up to 20%. Pretty simple. Straightforward growth index annuity with a bonus if that's what you want. Then there's my favorite of the accumulation products, the Midland National Retire Vantage. I consider it to be the best all around fixed index annuity available for asset accumulation. They've got another one that's really close to it called the Endeavor 8. If you want a slightly lower surrender term, but there's I think 16 different index options. You get to choose from several different variations of both The S&P 500, the NASDAQ, different blended indexes at best. Any other contract will have similar rates and you may not get the same quality of company service and renewal strength as I've seen with Midland. I have a ton of confidence in It. So that's a really good deal. And then the Midland National Accelerate 5 about a month ago I talked about that specifically. There's more details in that quality alternative to MyGas or CDs. It's got growth potential that's guaranteed. The rates don't change at all. And a lot of people have used this. What we've done is half of it in the accelerate 5, half of it in the retire vantage 10 or the index builder. So you ladder it a little bit, maybe throw a myga in there. People for just protecting money and getting some growth potential out of it and not paying fees. It's a really good deal. Talked to a guy this morning. He's been looking at this stuff for a couple of years. He said, yeah, I think I like that one. And it works in his timeframe. They need to be able to access it in about five years. So five year deal, game, set, match, piece of cake and easy. That's product lineup and that covers about anything you're going to find in the market. A lot of people think it's more complicated because there's a ton of companies doing it. Not all of them have this wide range of products. Some of them do. But when you talk about the quality of the company that you're working with, financial strength. And I think I said this in a podcast because I went to the conference about a year and a half ago really top level advisors and I limited this commentary so it doesn't need to be a really long email and all the details about every product. Just giving you a basic idea of a great place to put money. If you want to shop around and look at the entire market and talk to 12 different people, they'll show you 12 different things. In most cases it's going to be concentrated around three or four companies that are really popular. Save a lot of time. You're not going to see anything a whole lot different than this. And then that goes into the details and all that stuff. So you want safety and accumulation. Midland's got it. You want guaranteed lifetime income with or without fees, Midland's got that too. So you might find a better salesperson, but you won't find a better solution unless I verify it for you. There's a reason why very few advisors have heard of Midland National. It goes back to sales and marketing issues with annuity products and why third party marketing agencies push certain products. And some guys just get there and they like to have their information fed to them. I go out and find the information. I found Midland national and When I go to a conference and meet all the other agents, they took the same path. They came to the same conclusion as I did. Very high level advisors. So a lot of those other guys that are pushing other products and again there might be one that you like more than Midland. That's why I give you options and the ability to look at not just different types of products but different options within the industry. I'm not always going to show you just Midland unless it's an income product that is unequivocally, objectively guaranteed to be the best income payout. But guys who really do their own research will find that Midland national and any other company, there's a night and day difference. So next week I'm going to talk a little bit more about sales and the push for sales toward the end of the year. People are trying to meet targets, goals, all that stuff. And that's not just agents. And I did mine a little bit here and that's why I did it because there's some heavy marketing pushes that come up toward the end of the year and I'm good, right? But if you want to schedule a call to talk about any of these in more detail. Top right corner of any page on annuitiestraighttalk.com you want me to run the numbers and guaranteed lifetime income. I don't just go straight to looking at this, I go to the database and a lot of times Midland's up there and I know about that little glitch with the income planning, annuity and all those things. So pretty straightforward for me. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Top right corner and schedule a call if you want to chat. I will be back next week with episode 159. Certainly appreciate you guys sticking with me. Been a great year and we're going to keep rolling along. You guys have a great day.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: You have been listening to Annuity Straight Talk.
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The views expressed by guests on this program are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of annuities, Freight Talk or its partners.
No information presented today should be acted upon without meeting with a qualified and licensed professional.
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