Episode Transcript
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 00:00:47 Hello and welcome everyone to the Annuity Straight Talk podcast, episode number 95 following the 4th of July. My name is Brian Anderson, your host and founder of Annuity straight talk.com. Remind everyone who's uh, been here and introduce everyone who is new. I wrote every dang word on that website. If you have a question or a bone to pick, go ahead and reach out to me. Um, or if you wanna say, Hey, good job, I'll take that too. So, uh, but I am available top right corner of any button on the annuity straight talk.com. There's a button that says Schedule a call, click that, get on my calendar, or call me at eight hundred four three eight five one two one one. Encourage everyone to like, subscribe or comment on your favorite podcast platform. Share it with your friends. Anybody you think could be in need of this information, even if you have an advisor that you really like, but you think he doesn't know much about annuities, and this is kind of part of the topic today. Second, opinion on annuities. This goes for consumers and advisors alike. I would say advisors are about a third of the people ask these questions, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 00:02:02 Going back to when I started this website, those who know this, cuz I've said it many times, I had to go to a library to research annuities and figure out what they meant. Annuity straight talk was one of the first. Definitely not uh, the first, but um, the type of information that's here, there wasn't anything online. That's why I put it online. Anyway, so this is kind of like one of the things I offer, and I say this to a lot of people, if you're considering buying an annuity or if you already own one and you don't quite know what it's supposed to do, you know the people who already own one, typically the guy took his commission and he doesn't service it doesn't call back. You probably didn't know him a whole lot in the first place, not a high quality advisor. Now, like I talked about a couple weeks ago, made the money skip town and you're sitting there scratching your head thinking, what the heck is this?
Speaker 2 00:02:51 That's all, that's what I'll do. That's my service offer to anyone out there cuz this whole business is a service and I'm not, I don't get paid for, I say 90%, but it's really like 75% of the work I do is charitable. But I do it because that's my number one goal in this business. Number one is to help people. Number two is to make a living. And I can't put the, uh, second one before the first because then my priorities would be in the wrong spot. If you do the right thing, those things will come to you. And that's the philosophy i I adopted 20 years ago. Uh, there's opportunities for me everywhere. There's a ton of annuities being sold. I can't sell them all. That's why I help advisors too. I wanna make sure things are done right and, you know, change the perspective or the opinions on annuities wherever possible. I'm blessed to be here, so that's why I'm generous with my time. If you ask me to evaluate some someone for you, you realize that as I get busier and busier some days I don't have time to even eat lunch, breakfast.
Speaker 2 00:03:57 Um, I do need to limit how much time I spend doing it. So those who have respect for my time, I appreciate that. And this is kind of a guide to say, all right, like, I'm not being a jerk about it, but don't bother me if you can answer the question for yourself and I'm gonna give you something to make that happen. So when you make an appointment with me, you get a chance to write down some notes and let me know ahead of time what you wanna talk about. You know, just say, Hey, I've got this annuity, or I'm getting ready to retire. I got a 401k looking for lifetime income, or I'm tired of the stock market, whatever, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 00:04:34 Probably half the annuity, half the people that make appointments either have an annuity they don't understand or have been pitched a contract and want a second opinion. I've consistently demonstrated the fact that most of the people that sell these things do not conduct deep research in the market. She's just about all these people have only seen one thing. I talked to an advisor last week, she saw one of my podcasts. Oops, I think I'm about to put my client in the wrong spot. Do you have any advice for me? She's got an, a marketing organization that's really trying to push a product. So I've talked about that a fair bit. A lot of the times the products you see are pushed by someone who has no attachment to your situation, but they're gonna make money anyway. It's a fair question to ask. Is the marketing organization like telling you this is what they want you to sell?
Speaker 2 00:05:23 And there's compensation behind all of it. So if you get an unrelated third party, I, I don't wanna go too far into that, but if you get an unrelated third party that's got a stake in it, you better believe they're gonna be looking out for their best interest anyway. So I helped her out, gave her some information. We spent maybe 10 minutes on the phone. Nice lady. Uh, hope we talk again. You know, if you base your opinion on a, about annuities on a single product, then you're dealing with someone who didn't do his or her job first and foremost, you need to remember that an annuity is meant to alleviate concerns. Uh, podcast newsletters, annuities are for protection. Uh, annuities are not just for income. That kind of stuff talks about the things you protect with annuities and what your purpose should be. I'm also trying to help people define their goals.
Speaker 2 00:06:12 I get a lot of people like, well, what do you wanna do? Uh, I don't know. Uh, well, do you need income? Uh, maybe. Well, are you trying to protect assets? Uh, I don't know, maybe. Um, you have to decide what your goals are first. And a lot of this product first approach doesn't give you the time and the chance. So this is something when we build a retirement plan, we're cultivating a relationship and trying to discover some things. I've told a lot of people over time, I've said it publicly, I'd be better, better with a psychology degree than a finance degree. So advisors and consumers, oops, I scrolled down too far. Come to me for advice. It's not because I'm the only one who knows, uh, these things, but I do approach it like nobody else. And so far as I know I'm the only one online doing it.
Speaker 2 00:07:02 You give me any other website, I'll tell you what their, their pitch is and their focus. There's product review websites. There's web websites that pretend to be nonprofit and hey, we're just, but they're trying to sell too, right? I'll come around and say, I sell annuities for a living, but I wanna make sure I'm educating you. If you buy it from me, you're gonna know dang well what you have. But I take like it's goals first. Cause I take what I know about the industry and I try to compress that down into one simple question. What are you trying to do? Some people want to get out of an annuity, other others are trying to decide if they, if they should get into one.
Speaker 2 00:07:39 So we can certainly divide the group into those who have an annuity, those who don't, or an advisor who's wondering if they should sell one. A lot of people that already have one don't understand it. Anyone looking for an annuity wants to avoid the same fate. Now I'll, I'll say like as far as not understanding an annuity you own, I consistently say it's pretty typical for me to do a review three to six months after they, uh, bought an annuity and definitely at the anniversary date. And it takes a while to remember things we're all getting older. Some things don't stick in our brain like they used to. So it's not uncommon, it's not a bad thing if you like, Hey, I kind of forgot what this is all about. But if you don't have contact with your advisor or he is lying to you, um, then you're in a bad spot.
Speaker 2 00:08:23 So this uh, the newsletter of the podcast, this kinda stuff, it's a marketing tool, uh, and it's a way for me to compress my time. So I'm trying to do that here a little bit as well. I don't have time to talk to everyone, but I can help everyone. You have to consume the information elsewhere. You have to be able to help yourself. I want empowered, free thinking, strong-willed, independent people to figure this out. It's a lot of money we're talking about here. It deserves a little bit of time. Okay? So there's three questions you're gonna ask yourself about it. This is on the newsletter if you wanna read it, whether you own it or thinking about buying it. Number one, do you understand the contract? What is the purpose of it? Is it for income? Is it for protection and accumulation? Does it have a bonus?
Speaker 2 00:09:10 What does the bonus mean? Is there vesting schedule? Did they disclose that to you? Is it a true bonus or is it an uh, income enhancement bonus? All that stuff. You're gonna trip up a ton of salespeople if you simply learn a few of these things and start asking them these questions. I hear from people all the time, guy was trying to sell me this. I saw your podcast, I read about it, asked him some questions, he got defensive. That's what they do a lot of times. Incredulous. How could you question me? Right? Do you understand the contract? Number one? If so, number two, do you believe the contract will help you meet your goals? If I'm five minutes into a conversation with someone, I haven't determined what their goals are. If I'm not selling it to 'em, it wasn't my job to determine goals and put them in the right place.
Speaker 2 00:09:57 So I'm just saying, do you believe it's gonna meet your goals? Right? Because this is a five to seven minute phone conversation, the whole thing. And if the answer is yes, great, did you define your goals? And if it's income or accumulation or asset protection or fee reduction or any of those things, does this appropriately address your concerns? And if the answer is yes, so you understand the contract, you believe it meets your goals. And number three, is there mutual respect and trust between you and the person you're working with? Do you believe this person? Can you see yourself working with them on a Saturday afternoon when you really need something done? We did a withdrawal for a client of mine last week and I pushed on it to make sure they got their money in three days.
Speaker 2 00:10:45 It was a surrender poor health situation or si or an illness, bad timing. Another deal I gotta take. It was surrender free. The money was out big distribution three days including the weekend cuz it started last Friday. Mutual respect and trust. Is it someone you can work with? Is somebody you gonna be there to help you out? And I can't do that for everybody on a Friday afternoon or a Saturday. Um, but you need to have somebody who's willing to do it and I certainly can get to it soon if that's not the case. So if you understand the contract, know it will meet your goals and you like the person who showed it to you, then why would you even ask me, right? I mean, I get people coming and like, well that's not what he said. Like, they defend the guy who lied to them. Go ahead. Like, I don't even care anymore. Like there's the newsletter. I don't care if you buy an annuity, don't buy it. If it changes my life, buy it. If it changes yours, if it makes you sleep at night. Now a lot of times I'll look at it and be like, well it's not my favorite.
Speaker 2 00:11:44 Um, that's not what I would do, but it's okay. That's fair. We all have our own opinions. I love it. Like some of these companies that are, you know, so, so again, I'm not saying bad, anything bad, what do you think about this company? I'm like, eh, that's not my first choice, but you don't have to take my word for it. If you like the guy and he says go with this company. I'll tell you if it's a big red flag for sure. A lot of the situations where I've proposed something that I thought to be a better idea, the person I'm talking to didn't take my recommendation. So what's, I'm not gonna waste my time. I can do this in a five to seven minute phone conversation right before I was doing it in 30 minutes because I was trying to convince him, no, you need to go this route.
Speaker 2 00:12:31 I'm not gonna do that anymore. It's up to you. It's your money. 23 to 25 minutes is worth a lot to me. Okay, that's lunch, that's a quick nap. That's uh, some paperwork. That's a service call. That's the little things that I can get done so that I can get outta here and go enjoy my life, which I'm about to do right now. If I give you a solid reason why you shouldn't buy something, don't complain to me when it doesn't work out. Colorado Banker's Life was a big one. Fixed annuities about five years ago, 4%. Nobody else was over three and a quarter. I looked at that new company scratched my head, I don't think so. I'm not doing that. I say that to a lot of people. These rate shopping websites, they always have the top top rate. A lot of 'em with companies that I don't really like and ma and they're probably just fine. But again, I don't have the time to chase that and I certainly don't want to. When I told about a dozen people, I'm not gonna sell Colorado Banker's life, half of them came back to me two years later when the company got uh, put into receivership and says, what do I do now? Like, I'm not contracted. I don't know him. I'm not even gonna try. Call the guy who sold it to you. Well, he won't answer his phone. Okay, I make recommendations I can live with. That's happened a lot.
Speaker 2 00:13:51 So not gonna lie to you at all. And I'll tell you if there's a better deal, but I'll also tell you, hey, if it's okay, you like the guy cool, right? Hey, that steak was really good. He seems like a great guy, right? Well just know he is doing 30 people a week. If a contract works for you, then you don't need my advice. This is trying to help everyone figure it out. Gotta stand on your own two feet. If I tell you it doesn't, I think you should listen to me, but not, there's a lot of people that don't. I'm not here to make a dollar off of everyone that comes looking for information.
Speaker 2 00:14:24 Most people I meet know next to nothing about annuities that includes those who already own one. Um, you should almost like this goes into people who haven't almost never surrender a contract early. And if you have doubts about one you're ready to buy, um, then go ahead and ask me. If someone tells you something contrary to what I'm telling you, they're probably wrong and you should call me, give me a second chance. Um, chances are I'll tell you what's written above or anywhere else on the, on the website. So anyway, this is a quick one. I appreciate you guys' time. Hope everybody what Everybody enjoyed the holiday. Uh, episode 95, second opinion on annuities. My name is Brian Anderson. I'd appreciate it if you like, subscribe, subscribe or comment on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube. Share it with your friends, get it out there. Help me out a little bit. Um, return the favorite. I know that a lot of people really appreciate this and if you don't like it, then tell me that's how I get better, right? I'm trying to be the best I can be at this. You can schedule a call on the top right corner of any page on annuity straight talk.com, uh, or gimme a call at (800) 438-5121. Okay? Thank you guys for joining me. I'll be back next week for episode 96. Have a great day. Okay, bye.
Speaker 1 00:16:00 You 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 annuities, straight talk or its partners. No information presented today should be acted upon without meeting with a qualified and licensed professional. It's important that you read all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a purchase. Decision guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability. The insurance company.
