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 00:00:44 Okay. Welcome everyone. This is Brian Anderson from annuity straight talk.com. I started this website in 2008, so it's been 12, 13 years since I've been, uh, cataloging annuity information, doing research and whatnot about different retirement strategies. Uh, many of you know, me for the newsletters I frequently write typically about once a week on general retirement planning topics and annuity information. So, uh, one of the things that I'm changing, I, I think in life you to, to be successful, you have to be willing to change and adjust to, uh, changing times. And one thing I've done is reached out to several advisors who share my philosophy about annuities and offer them to people that I meet, who might wanna meet with a local advisor. So this week we're starting that off by a great advisor out of Kirkland, Washington, and his name is Ashoke Ramji. So say hello, Ashoke.
Speaker 3 00:01:40 Hello.
Speaker 2 00:01:40 And tell us a little bit about what your career in financial services and what draws you to the philosophy at annuity straight
Speaker 3 00:01:48 Talk. Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Brian. This is Aoke Ramji with top planning based in Kirkland, Washington, and today, as it stands, I work with clients with annuities, life insurance, and we have a sister company that deals with investment management. I started off in the business back in the mid nineties, focused mostly on what we called the sell side, where people would call us up and say, I wanna buy X number of shares of stock, certain bonds, whatnot. Then I moved over to the buy side where we would call those brokerage firms and say, can you buy us certain amount of shares? But they were bigger in quantity because we were bigger company buyers. And then in around of five years ago, I started wondering, I'd seen the ups and downs with the.com boom. And of course, oh 7 0 8 0 9. How do people make progress consistently without going through these ups and downs? And that's what really triggered my interest in insurance products. And that's why today I firmly believe in the both approach we have insurance products and we have investment products.
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Absolutely. And so I guess to kind of sum it up in my words, correct me if I'm wrong, I think you and I kind of, uh, arrived at the same place, but came from a very, but started in a very different place. Me being on the insurance side of things and finding new ways of using annuities and you, uh, uh, coming from the investment side.
Speaker 3 00:03:19 Absolutely. And I see that, I don't know. I, I see that in today's day and age, many of the people that are looking at annuities are getting different information based on the biases and the philosophies of the advisory community. So one thing that I really like is that you have this approach that says, if you are looking at an annuity, let's just be straight up and tell you the pluses and the minuses and allow you to have an informed decision making process and not have any sort of hidden agendas.
Speaker 2 00:04:03 Right? And I think one of what I would say, one of the reasons I started the website is because I, I wasn't, I was never a fan of the sales pitch and on the broker side of the business, I think you'll understand that, uh, you'll get a wholesaler if you will, that will come to your office. And it might be somebody that's like selling mutual funds. A family of funds says, Hey, you gotta try this new family of funds. Right? And the same thing happens on the insurance side, where a wholesaler's gonna come and Hey, we got this great new annuity. It does this, this and this. And you gotta call everybody, you know, that's ever thought about buying annuity. You tell 'em how wonderful this thing is. Right? But then in the end, that specific, product's really only appropriate to maybe a few percentage of the people that are looking at annuities. And so I thought there needs to be a source for people to go and look and say, what am I doing? Why am I doing it? And is this the right path for me,
Speaker 3 00:04:55 Brian, can I tell you, I personally get a lot of great information from podcasts and when I was driving over, and by the way, we are here in beautiful downtown Spokane, we are Spokane Washington
Speaker 2 00:05:10 Go Gonzaga bulldogs, tournaments coming. We
Speaker 3 00:05:13 Are sitting across from Gonzaga university and they just wanted to give a shout out to Forza coffee. They have been such wonderful people here hosting us for some of these episodes of the podcast. There are small business that were impacted during the coronavirus pandemic and many of their locations closed. This particular one stayed open. And I just think it's awesome that they're still part of the community here.
Speaker 2 00:05:38 They have been wonderfully gracious in taking care of everything. We need a nice quiet place, uh, in a beautiful area and really good products and nice people. So if you're ever in Spokane, then, uh, by all means this would be a great stop.
Speaker 3 00:05:54 Last night, when I was driving out here, I was listening to a podcast. When I walk my dogs, I love listening to podcasts. So when you said earlier that I was a conceiving member of it, I just was noticing we have a lot of good information. I think people might enjoy this in podcast form,
Speaker 2 00:06:11 Right? And that's where a lot of people have. Uh, well, everybody consumes information in different ways, right? So, uh, obviously I've been mostly doing the written word. I've done a, a few videos and I haven't done enough to enough of 'em where I get real comfortable and, and relaxed in doing those. So I need to work on my videos a little bit more. We will add some videos to this as well, but for now, this is just another medium for people to consume the same information.
Speaker 3 00:06:40 Once you see the video, you'll see how good looking Brian is.
Speaker 2 00:06:45 And you'll, uh, you might get a chance to see how big a stroke's wallet is.
Speaker 3 00:06:49 Let's jump right into <laugh> today's episode is called why people don't buy annuities. This is based off of one of your more popular articles from November of 2018. That
Speaker 2 00:07:01 Is correct. And, uh, what many of you know, who have been, uh, receiving my emails from the website, but for anybody who doesn't, I write a mostly weekly newsletter, like say mostly because I reserve the right to take a week off if I want to <laugh> and it's a general annuity information, uh, retirement planning topics, case studies frequently asked questions, all sorts of stuff, ideas pop into my head, whether I'm reviewing another person's article or, uh, talking about the details of a specific case, something that I feel would help more people. I, I like to say one thing I've learned in this business is for every one person who asks a question, there are a hundred people who have the same question, but don't either know to ask it or not are afraid to step forward. So this is a no pressure place where we hope to be able to answer your questions, and that would invite anybody to share their thoughts, questions, objections, whatever.
Speaker 2 00:07:56 It would be. A lot of the stuff we talk about comes in context. Context is extremely important. And so we'd like it to be as interactive as possible and, and have people reach out to us with any type of comments they have. So the newsletter is a comment box. That's open for people. They go out by email every week and you can also respond to the email, but this is one thing I'm gonna talk about, uh, years ago, I've kind of, uh, you know, looked at my sales process and my practice over the years. And a lot of times we don't know why, why someone doesn't do anything. Right? And so if I know why you, for instance, didn't buy an annuity, then that will help me disqualify it for others that are in your situation, if it's a valid reason, but it's, it's just important to understand everything. And it makes us better at what we do. Right. So, I mean, cuz Ashoke, you, you, you could you'd agree, right. If someone tells you they don't like something, then it helps you better serve them. Correct?
Speaker 3 00:08:56 Correct.
Speaker 2 00:08:57 Yeah. So this is going back to, uh, why people don't buy annuities and I had nine reasons, okay. Number one, you ready for this?
Speaker 3 00:09:08 Lay it on me market
Speaker 2 00:09:10 Volatility. So I'm gonna kind of paraphrase and read just a touch from the newsletter itself and spark something. But a lot of people have a specific portfolio value goal and they're waiting for a benchmark before they get out and protect money. Right? So this goes to context, like I said is important because this is written in, uh, November, 2018 and October 28 was one of the worst months for the S and P 500 in a long time. At that point in time, it was the biggest drop in seven years. Right. So, and I think that's just kind of, uh, important for people to understand where timing is very important. Correct. And some people say, for instance, I have a story from a long time ago, I think the guy had a portfolio of $981,000 and he just always wanted to hit a million <laugh> and he said, I'm not pulling anything out until I get a million. Right. And then, you know, of course, funny thing, it went down a little bit <laugh> so he was further away, but you know, he has sense climbed over that benchmark well over it by now. And, uh, it's just interesting, but that's one of those things that people don't feel like they're ready. They don't have, uh, their assets where they want them before they're ready to really exit the market.
Speaker 3 00:10:20 John Maynard Kanes I think one said the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent <laugh>. So unfortunately, the market is a bit of a voting machine with other people may vote in ways where we feel, wait a minute, the outcome should be X and the market ends up doing Y and I think in behavioral finance, there is something called anchoring where we can say, this is where, like, for example, if I buy a stock at a certain price and it goes lower, my anchor is to my cost basis where I bought the stock. And that will dictate whether I want to buy it or sell it again. So I've developed an anchor around that price,
Speaker 2 00:11:14 Right?
Speaker 3 00:11:15 So I feel like this is a, what you're touching on here with market volatility. People may not wanna buy annuities because wait a minute, the market, are you saying that the market has gone much lower and I'll wait for it to rebound? Or could it be well, the market is going higher and when it, you know, takes a big correction, then I'll exit and go to right. The annuity.
Speaker 2 00:11:38 Exactly. It's just kind of the idea of being the timing and the asset value, stuff like that. So, and I think what I was writing at this Pacific time is a lot of people have said, Hey, I think the market's gonna keep climbing and I wanna stay in until it does. So whatever the reasoning would be, but market volatility is kind of one of those things. It's a, it's the idea that, uh, fear and greed drive all decisions, right? So greed keeps you in the market. Fear makes you wanna get out, but you never know when the right time to do it is. I mean, and we we're sitting in a time now where a bunch of stimulus money was just handed out again, and that could create an inflationary effect in stock prices, for instance. So I believe that there's a chance the market continues on a run for a while before there's a correction, but I also believe that there's a real risk of, of uh, the bottom falling out as well. So it's just one of those things where no crystal ball, we don't know. Right? So again, it just comes back to make decisions based on fundamentals. And if, uh, you're waiting to get to some portfolio value, remember there are index annuities that grow, right? The point is to limit losses and by limiting losses and decreasing volatility, it leads to more gradual growth in, in a lot of cases, more overall growth in the long run.
Speaker 3 00:12:56 Brian, in one way of looking at, we are talking about annuities. This is annuity straight talk. When we look at insurance, insurance is one of four different ways of approaching any problem, right? We can, it's usually the pooling method. We can pool our resources. So for example, if I'm worried about my house being set on fire or someone, you know, my house getting on fire, I might pay premiums for homeowner's insurance. So in the event, something happens, the insurance company has pooled the premiums to be able to pay for reimbursement. Right? Right. So that's the pooling method, but there are alternate ways people can deal with this. And the three other ways typically thought of are to either retain the risk, manage the risk or avoid the risk. So what we're talking about here with market volatility is people may decide, you know what, I'm gonna stay in the market. It's very volatile. I'll retain that. You're making a choice to retain that. Or maybe an alternate would be, well, let me use some sort of, uh, hedging tool, uh, hedging means to minimize that risk, let me use that. That was the management part. And some people may say, you know what? I choose to avoid it altogether. The market's too volatile. I'm not gonna get involved. I think what we're talking about here is maybe when people don't use the annuities, they may be looking at using some of the other approaches.
Speaker 2 00:14:29 Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just, I, the idea of being mm-hmm <affirmative> oh yeah, absolutely. It's free market decision based on fundamentals, right?
Speaker 3 00:14:36 Absolutely. Yeah. And I think w we were talking about this morning before we went on the air mm-hmm <affirmative> was that, you know, what, when exactly do people change and make that decision? Like, for example, if they retire or maybe if they eligible for Medicare, do they similarly wake up one morning and say, you know what, I'm going to switch from that perception of climbing the mountain to now scaling down the mountain. And maybe they tie that with, oh, I'm now on Medicare. I'm need to be a little bit more conservative with my investments. But I, I, I think people generally their perception of how to address that risk may not may or may not be anchored to those key milestones, like retirement or Medicare.
Speaker 2 00:15:22 Right. Right. And while we talked about that, yeah. We're walking around and talking and, and you brought up, when do people just switch to saying, I need to start decumulating assets. Right.
Speaker 3 00:15:32 Right.
Speaker 2 00:15:33 And there's not everybody kind of comes to it differently. I mean, I've, I've met people that got five years into retirement before they move, even move their 401k from their previous employer. Everybody's gotta be ready for it. And that's where, you know, straight talk and just taking a fair and honest approach to presenting options to people and ideas, you know, low pressure so that everybody can come around and do it in, uh, in their own time. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so, all right, we're gonna move. We gotta move on. Cause we got, we got eight more of these. We all do one. So reason number two, why people don't buy annuities, waiting for interest rates to rise. And I think this is a big one
Speaker 2 00:16:08 Because it's been a consistent theme throughout my career of 18 years. And aside from maybe the past five, well, this is, this is funny right now. And anybody who's retiring is, has been around long enough to know this. But when I first, probably my first year in the business, there was a real big buzz around about 6% mortgages. Right. And everybody was so excited. The mortgage rates went to six, holy cow, what a deal. It's just like, they're given away houses right now. And now we've seen, 'em go under 3% recently. But the reality is that interest rates have been falling since 1989. Now in the last we're just talking about treasuries and a good benchmark for annuities are just general benchmark for retirement planning and safe assets is, you know, the five to 10 year, uh, treasury, the yield curve. Right. And I think in 2015 it hit a low and then it kind of climbed up.
Speaker 2 00:17:08 And there was a high point where the 10 year treasury was about 3.2% at the end of 2018. Uh, but then it dropped pretty dramatically. And I think it closed as low as half a percent last year, about a year ago, but it's back. And so the, the talking about waiting for rates to rise, and I think a lot of people are holding onto the fact that, oh man, I had a, I used to be able to get, uh, 15% CDs in 1988. And that's the idea. Again, it goes back to fundamentals, make choices based on, you know, long term trends, right. But magically waiting for interest rates to rise is a little bit misguided cuz we just don't, we don't have control over that. And there's nothing that says, I think, you know, the common sentiment is inflation's gonna go crazy. Yes. Uh, all the indicators are there. It certainly could, but it doesn't seem like that's affected consumer rates as much as has say candy bars.
Speaker 3 00:18:01 Oh, correct. Food prices. Inflation. We've seen that big. But again, we go back to that saying where canes was saying the market can be more rational longer than you might think. So just because you expect rates to rise doesn't mean that the rates will rise. We're in an era of general financial repression. That's what it's considered. Right? Because rates are so low. And just to level set, the reason why there's a connection between interest rates and annuities is that fundamentally insurance companies are big buyers of bonds. And when they buy those bonds and the yields, which is the interest rates of those bonds, if those drop in the portfolio, the overall yield of the portfolio starts heading down and therefore the insurance company must reprice their products to have a lower yield because the underlying bonds that are supporting that annuity have lower yields. Right? So if we get higher interest rates, then the thinking is, oh, then the payouts, the interest that is credited, if you will, on the annuities are similarly going to go up. And what we've generally seen is interest rates keep dropping and staying low. So maybe people feel well, it'll be a lot more interesting when rates are a lot higher. Right. And that's when I can get a better term on my annuity. Is that
Speaker 2 00:19:36 True? Yeah, exactly. And, and really what, you know, that's, that's the reason I'm using index annuities. Now I've told everybody when I started AST 12 years ago, MetLife had a 6.5% fixed rate for 10 years. And I tell everybody, if I still had that today, I wouldn't have any time to do this podcast. For sure. I wouldn't have enough time then to take some general information and I'd have to have three people doing paperwork all day long. So everybody would want it. Right. I could solve any retirement planning situation, but yeah, if rates go up, maybe I'll get a better interest rate, but that's where we use index annuities and realize there's a time and a place. And there's a specific way to use them for every individual. But that is where people are seeing the yields that they want to use. And I always, I guess I always, I think everybody thinks safe money, 5%, right? Something like that. So of course, if you can get, you're not gonna get a guaranteed five anywhere right now, developing world bonds, right? You can go buy Mexico bonds probably get six or 7% if you, if you want bonds from Mexico. Right? So that's why we use index annuities because they get us in the ballpark of what most people expect to be a reasonable return on safe assets.
Speaker 3 00:20:48 And the reason why index annuities can do that in a sense is that the interest is credited based on the year over year change of an index. So if a stock market index, not a, in this case, we're not talking so much about a bond index, but if a stock market index goes from point a to a point, that's say 10% higher in year two mm-hmm <affirmative>. We would look at those year over year comparisons and the way I like, and it for people who aren't, who are maybe a little bit new to fixed index annuities is you think about someone when they're young and they're going through that growth spurt and you say, Hey, wait a minute. Why don't you go against the wall and we'll draw a line, right. And show your height. Yeah. And why don't we come back a year later and see where you are on the wall. If we had positive growth in height, that is how we can determine the crediting. And it's a way to get away from interest rates for our interest crediting. Right? So that's why people are kind of thinking, well, bonds are too low. The yields are too low. So the insurance annuities may also have a low yield, but maybe
Speaker 2 00:21:59 That's why. Yeah. But then in, and I always just said, Hey, you know what? We're all living in the same environment. We're all the same options. Get the best thing you can today, but keep your options open for the future.
Speaker 3 00:22:10 Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:22:11 Yeah. Okay. Number three. Reasons why people don't buy annuities information overload. This is a big one with straight talk. And I always use the, the dinner seminar. Right? Cause that's a, that's a common way. Advisors will, uh, will market as they'll invite a bunch of people to dinner and then we'll give a retirement pitch or whatever annuity and annuities are sold at dinner seminars all the time. So
Speaker 3 00:22:32 They used to be pre COVID,
Speaker 2 00:22:34 Pre COVID. Well, it's coming back. I get, well, that's gonna be one of the things that comes back. They're gonna keep, they're gonna start doing it again. But what happens is you meet a guy at dinner seminar, and it might be a great guy and he bought you dinner and he showed you something and you thought, oh yeah, that hits, that checks all the boxes. And then you get onto annuity straight talk and you say, well, this guy's saying something completely different. And maybe it opens your mind and makes you think that you gotta go do something else or that you should at least explore an alternate path. Right. But then you get stuck between two ideas. Okay. Well, Hey, Brian seems like he knows what he is talking about, but a show just took me to dinner in Seattle and he seemed like he knew what he was talking about too. And I don't know what to think and what happens is it, people get caught in that a lot. And then, you know, because you know, they don't know what we know about annuities or something that kind of pulls 'em back and says, you know what? I just need to take a break. And so it's information overload.
Speaker 3 00:23:29 Yeah. You're I think people kind of, there's a saying that a confused mind does nothing. Yep. So I think that, by the way, if I were to suggest an, uh, an approach to offset information overload is to provide educational content in an easy to digest manner and to answer specific questions and hopefully that way, cuz people don't wanna feel, I mean, right behind Brian, we've got a library full of books and you can't see this yet because we don't have the video stream enabled yet, but there
Speaker 2 00:24:05 It's killing. It's killing him. <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:24:07 There are books and books and books that have been written on annuities as an example. And I think for most people that are in to going into retirement, their focus is on their choices for their retirement savings, but they also have other things that they're tending to. Right. So they just want highly digestible information. And that's what I think we are trying to accomplish here where we absolutely give you the information you need and then you can follow up.
Speaker 2 00:24:36 And again, feedback's important, cuz context is critical. So you may have a different there's little things that will, you could be just the same as someone else, but one small difference will make, will make, you know, a difference in what the recommendation is or maybe disqualify a certain option for you where it wouldn't someone else. Right. So ask questions so that we know exactly what kind of context to put it in. Otherwise a general, you know, general recommendation or idea is not applicable to anybody really, because everything's gotta be kind of specific.
Speaker 3 00:25:07 I I've also found that sometimes if people were to say these are the two or three things that I'm really getting hung up on, you know, maybe it's just that one thing which can clear up everything and makes it better, you know, oh, my answers are now getting more and more. So me, we may just have to prioritize where is the area that you're feeling most overwhelmed. Right. You know, so it's not the overwhelm may be, there may be a key blockage. I think there was a gentleman named, uh, gold rat who wrote a book called the goal. And he wrote this really interesting book. And he said sometimes, well you have to look at the blockage. And this was sort of a manufacturing textbook that was written as a novel. And he said, you always have to look at the supply chain and where is it being blocked? And once you can alleviate that bottleneck yep. Things start flowing. So sometimes the bottleneck could be one major thing. And maybe what we can do during a complimentary consultation is just to alleviate that bottleneck. Right. So it could lead to some better decision making.
Speaker 2 00:26:06 Absolutely. Absolutely. Just make, you know, keep it simple and boil it down to the basics. So, all right. Moving on reasons why people don't buy annuities. Number four, life is hectic. It's hard to make changes and learn new things when you have a lot of other stuff going on. So I have told people and it's, and it's been hard. I think a lot of people will look at the whole scope of a financial plan and they'll try to consider all the variables at one time and it makes it really difficult to pick one thing, right? One example, a a couple of, or my clients, a couple in New Hampshire, great people. And the husband retired two years before the wife. And she had, she kept him so busy working around the house and doing chores and all this stuff that he's like, man, I I'm glad we got this done before I retired.
Speaker 2 00:26:57 Cuz I have less time now than I did when I was working. And which is just funny, cuz it's just a timing situation. Right. And they set aside time to do it, focus on what's important. And if there's big things going on in your life, get those outta the way and forget about annuities. Forget about retirement planning. When that becomes important. It should be the kind of thing that you focus on. Like just that one thing at one time, right? If you've got, if your daughter's getting married this summer and you're working on flower arrangements and caterers and all that stuff, maybe it's not the right time to focus on, you know, complex financial decisions. Right.
Speaker 3 00:27:37 Which is ultimately once people get past this stage and let's just say they put an annuity as part of their retirement savings, hopefully it gives them the peace of mind that this asset is safe and it's accomplishing my goals and I can hopefully get on with my hectic life.
Speaker 2 00:27:58 Right.
Speaker 3 00:27:59 So, but I completely agree with you. They may not have the time at that time. And maybe it's just not the right
Speaker 2 00:28:05 Time and it's not for us to say, Hey, you gotta do this now. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I mean, that's the difference between, you know, a sales pitch and, and advice or information education mm-hmm <affirmative> right. So we start with those two, those two things, advice and education. And uh, you're gonna know when it's the right time. So let's see reasons why people don't buy annuities. Number five. You don't know what you don't know. Let's see. One thing I like to tell people is, uh, I get more sales pitches than you guys do because I got different brokerages insurance companies and everybody calling me wants me to do business with them. And every product sounds so good, right? Oh this is amazing. And when you're new to it, you don't know what questions to ask. Right? So I guess we're gonna stay away from particular pro products for the time being, but something might look good and there might be some little detail about it. You don't know how to ask the question to uncover that. So annuity straight talk is big on the disclosure and understanding. So
Speaker 3 00:29:10 You, you, you were looking today, you had somebody reach out and say, Brian, I'm looking at a, what we call an illustration mm-hmm <affirmative> from a certain company. Yep. And I am being told, this is what's happening. This person made a wise choice to say, can you be my counselor? Can you help you are someone who did not prepare this illustration? Can you it over and tell me, am I missing something here?
Speaker 2 00:29:45 Right. Absolutely. And that's what, uh, I guess, you know, this gentleman asked for someone's uh, advice and they showed him the product. They thought they were that worked. And I can't, I can't look at it and I don't know the guy well enough to say, Hey, this is great for you or it's not right. But yeah, he doesn't know what questions to ask and you know, Aoke and I looked over this B between episodes and um, there's some pretty wild projections in there and we know enough to look at it and say, Hey, is this realistic or not? But we don't know how the other guy's selling it. We don't know what the pitch is. We don't know the purpose of it. We don't know the guy's attachment to it or his connection. It could be his brother that's selling him the product. Right. We have no idea or it could have been his investment advisor for the past 25 years. So, so many of those things you gotta uncover, but he doesn't know what to look for necessarily. Is that what you're getting at?
Speaker 3 00:30:43 Yeah. I I'll give you another specific example. Uh, I have a client who owns several annuities. Somebody else was the agent or the producer that placed those annuities in the portfolio. He came to me and asked me for my thoughts because he was talking with the third party who said, in order to get out of these annuities, you have two choices, a or B. And I make it a point like you to really know about these products. And I said, you know, there's a option C that was not addressed. And this actually, I think, works out better in your favor. So that person, the customer could have stayed up all night and they would've never known about option C and that other party that was trying to get the client to exit the annuity. They either didn't know, didn't ask the questions of the insurance company, if this was an option. So you need somebody who can hopefully focus on this at length and know these products well, and then be your counselor.
Speaker 2 00:32:00 Right?
Speaker 3 00:32:01 So that's really where I was going. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:32:03 I agree. Um, okay, let's go. Let's move on. Reasons people don't buy annuities number six, and this is what we're here today to address. We're gonna begin working on it. You wanna work with someone local and you know, this is something I'm changing. And again, I never really chased anybody around and was hungry for sales. I just, I tell everybody, I just wanna be really good at what I do. And the primary goal has to be to help people, help people understand how people make good decisions. And I'm not gonna try to convince anyone to do business with me if they would be more comfortable doing things face to face. And so, uh, I'm gonna be honest with everyone else. I want him to be honest with me, but now I know that if anybody in Western Washington or Eastern Washington, the man travels his name's Aoke Ramji, I'm absolutely gonna give anyone the opportunity to say, Hey, would you like to meet another guy who shares my philosophy? And then I'm always here to be a second opinion. So
Speaker 3 00:32:58 I think that, uh, when you're sitting down with people socially distant, of course, and following all the proper protocols, uh, but when you're talking with somebody, you can have hopefully a heart to heart conversation. And we, we think more about, uh, maybe the communication, maybe some discussions of this is why I'm really looking for this as a possible solution. What are the pluses and the minuses? And as much as in a post COVID 19 world, where we're using the internet and various platforms to engage people from all over the world, I think people still want somebody that's in close proximity, right. That they can sit down with and feel. One of the things I've noticed in this world as a big trend is two factors. And these are the guiding philosophies at top planning. I know they are similar over at annuity, straight talk is competency and accessibility, right?
Speaker 3 00:34:09 So, you know, some firms you call and you'll get somebody who's really competent, but it's a big firm. And the next time you call you'll get somebody very different. Yes. So being able to reach out to Brian at 804 3 8 5 1 2 1, for example, and know that you call that number again and get Brian is I think really comforting. But then of course, Brian is based in Montana as a small business owner there. So how do people still feel they need that? If they require an additional level of comfort that there's somebody local. I, I can definitely see this being a trend.
Speaker 2 00:34:47 Yeah, absolutely. And what, uh, you know, the benefit of that is, you know, in my position, I'm happy to be, provide a second opinion. So if someone in Kirkland, Washington goes to meet, uh, if I introduce them to Aoke, I'd absolutely wanna check in with him, Hey, let me know what he comes up with. Right? Uh, just, uh, confirmation, just to vote of confidence, a little support, and really it's again about helping people make good decisions. So I'm, I was never arrogant enough to say that I have to sell every annuity out there. I don't, and I can't don't have the time. So, but I'm here to help as many people as I can moving along to number seven reasons why people don't buy annuities big one here, and this might be the number one you and your spouse can't agree on a plan. It's in a lot of couples.
Speaker 2 00:35:35 There's one person that makes all the decision and it could be the husband or the wife. It could be the person that made all the money, or it could be the person that never made the money. It doesn't matter. It goes either way, but you have to be on the same page as your spouse. So as much as you know me as an advisor, uh, we've gotta get, we've gotta get along. I've gotta get along with my clients. We've gotta be able to communicate and talk, cuz it's a relationship we're starting, but pales in comparison to the person you live with. Right? So a big key is to, there's a, a, a funny story. I had years ago, I met a gentleman and he was in Arizona and we went through four or five meetings and he was retired, but his wife was still working and she had an old 401k that we're talking about moving.
Speaker 2 00:36:20 And we went through the whole process of figuring out where to put it and get him to understand everything right. And he said, well, gimme a call on, on Tuesday. Well, get this thing going. And so I, you know, thought I made a nice sale. It was nice. You know, it wasn't billions of dollars, but you know, it's nice sale. I'm like, Hey, this feels pretty good. And so I called and his wife answered the phone and I said, oh, hi, Mrs. So, and so I'm talking to your husband about annuities and stuff. And she got really mad and she says, why is he talking to you about annuities? We had annuity once. And I told him, he's never supposed to talk to any annuity salesman ever again. And I'm never, ever putting my money into an annuity. And I was like, wow. I mean, I wasn't talking to the decision maker, but clearly they didn't agree on a plan and nothing was gonna happen until they did.
Speaker 3 00:37:03 Yes <laugh>. And I agree with you, your best bet in the name of family harmony is to make sure both spouses are on the same.
Speaker 2 00:37:14 Right. And, and it speaks to just, uh, being efficient with your time as well. Yes. So, I mean, don't go, uh, don't spend four or five meetings exploring something that your spouse is not gonna understand or agree with. Right?
Speaker 3 00:37:27 Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:37:28 That was the key. So I like to, I like to get that outta the way up front, uh, both spout, both spouses, both members of a marriage are, uh, invited to join. Okay. Number eight reasons why people don't buy an annuity. So this is all alternative investment seem more exciting. So this is another story from several years ago where a gentleman came in and says, well, I like your idea of using a deferred annuity and taking free withdrawals. Can, can you compare a guaranteed income contract in a growth contract? I want X amount per year. So we did went through a couple of meetings. I showed him the growth contract, free withdrawals, and he really liked, he said, this is exactly what I was looking for. Give me the weekend. I'll, uh, crunch some numbers. We'll figure this out, but let's talk next week. Okay. So he, I call him the next week and the same thing I thought, you know, I thought we were gonna be able to get something done. I'd been a very straightforward conversation direct to the point. And he said, you know what? I decided I'm gonna invest the money in my cousin's gold mining business in Brazil, or what was, it was in south America somewhere. Yeah. And I said, holy cow, like, that's not even close to the same thing.
Speaker 3 00:38:32 <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:38:33 And so you have to want an annuity. You have to want it for what it does. Right. And it's not like we were talking about bonds versus annuities or CDs versus annuity. This is a mining company in Brazil for crying out loud. Right. So your expectations have to be aligned and you gotta let us know what ballpark we're playing it. Right. <laugh>
Speaker 3 00:38:54 Absolutely that. I think that, uh, I think people want to, you know, I, I feel like Brian, when I walk into a store, I mean, as the buyer know some information and I will probably be a little hesitant to share mm-hmm <affirmative> that information, but ultimately something is gonna happen either. I'm gonna leave the store or I'm gonna, I'll leave the store empty handed or I'll leave the store with a
Speaker 2 00:39:21 Purchase.
Speaker 3 00:39:22 Right. And so it's, it's kind of a tricky situation where you feel, you know, don't lead the salesperson on, if you will, with, you know, if you're thinking of something very different, but at the same time you have every right to say, no, you know, I'm looking at this other completely different investment. And I think what we're talking about here is straight talk, right? If you have had few meetings and you feel like, let the other person know if there's, uh, having straight talk and if you, and you should expect straight talk from the advisor as
Speaker 2 00:39:55 Well. Right? Absolutely. So we're gonna go to the final one here. Reasons why people don't buy annuities trust. So you've gotta have confidence in the person giving you advice, confidence. They'll be there for you there to answer questions, help you with anything along the way. And I can't tell you who to trust and I can't ask you to trust me, but that goes to straight talk where we're trying to provide information, low pressure environment, uh, for people to become educated about things, to make good, fundamental decisions they can live with with the flexibility, and then the ability to control the outcome and have control over the assets. Uh, but the point is to, you can only trust yourself, right? So it's, you know, our mission to provide that information and ideas so that you can own the decisions you make and you can have full, full confidence in those.
Speaker 3 00:40:44 And I think that it's okay. Uh, one way, by the way, to try to make sure the advisor is earning your trust is to ask certain questions. Like, are you showing me every tool that is out there? Do you know of some other tool that, uh, besides, or I'm not talking about alternate investments, I'm talking about, if we're talking to somebody who's knows about annuities, do you know about all the different annuities out there? There is a distribution system that exists in the, the space. And so sometimes there could be products out there that we just don't have access to. Right. So I'm not gonna say I, I will show people my work, to the extent I can generate a report that shows everything that's out there. Here's what I have, even the stuff I don't have access to. Right. And we just need to make sure that there's no filters. So question the advisor and say, you know, yeah, there might be something, you know, but do you have some sort of a, a process, uh, that shows kind of cast a net and show me the ones that you, you ruled out and why? And don't be afraid by the way, to ask some questions and the advisors should never feel like, why are you asking me this question? I think it's like, yes, we welcome your questions. Because at the end of the day, we want you to make an educated decision that's in your best interest.
Speaker 2 00:42:14 Right? And then again, you know, the more information we have, the more we can help you. And that'll also, we, we learn every day, right. And, and, uh, it also learns that teaches us how to, you know, change any recommendations we make or to evolve so we can better serve the next person, including any ongoing relationship with, uh, with any of you.
Speaker 3 00:42:35 Number 10.
Speaker 2 00:42:37 Okay. I told them to add some, here you go.
Speaker 3 00:42:39 Well, I'm just gonna add number 10 is I would say pain. The reason why people may not buy any products is because they don't feel like it addresses their pain and whatever that pain is. So pain is really that, you know, if I stub my toe and I walk into the drug store, I'm looking for something that helped me with my toe. Right. Right. And so I think quite frankly, that I would say the number one reason people may feel that they're not gonna buy an annuity for example. And that's a subject of this episode is it doesn't solve their pain. Right. And that's okay.
Speaker 2 00:43:19 Absolutely.
Speaker 3 00:43:21 As long as you feel like you have been provided enough information to make that educated decision, then your right to say, well, let me look at something else. Right?
Speaker 2 00:43:31 It's gotta, it's gotta, yeah. You buying an annuity is not gonna change my life. You should only buy an annuity if it changes yours, if it helps you and solves a problem, you have.
Speaker 3 00:43:41 I think though, that one way of dealing with everything you've talked about here is you should see whether an annuity makes sense for a portion of your retirement savings, the best way. One of the ways that is done in a low pressure environment, low to no pressure, right. Is to call annuity straight talk at (800) 438-5121 that's 804, 3 8 5 1 2, 1, or go to the website at annuity, straight talk.com and hit the schedule, a call green button, and just say, Hey, I have questions. I have questions. I'm trying to figure this out and be blunt, be candid, you know? Uh, so I think that absolutely, that
Speaker 2 00:44:31 That truly maximizes the conversation. I don't think this thing is gonna solve this, prove me wrong. Right? There's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely. Let's have that straight conversation. Uh, 100%. Yeah. Annuity straight talk.com. It's easy to get on a call with us. No pressure. Just want to learn a little bit about you and see if we, what we have can, uh, help you learn a few things to be dangerous in retirement. Right? And also on the website drop down menu on the top under annuities, the little dropdown comes up, hit the newsletter page. There's a search button. You can search any topic you want. I challenge you to stump me. It won't be long before before somebody does, but there's a lot of different topics in there. And you can search by keyword and check out just good. Easy. I try to write it in a way that's very kind of conversational, simple.
Speaker 2 00:45:16 They average about 700 words. Take you about five, five minutes to read it. But yeah, look, look, uh, for your stuff there. And then always, if you have a newsletter idea, Hey, I've got this great question. I couldn't find the answer here. It is. Right. And you could be the topic of next week's newsletter. And if there was a newsletter that you liked in particular, and you felt like, Hey, could you address this on your podcast? I'm gonna have some drive time as I go, you know, from point a to point B. Holy, can you imagine if we actually made you a podcast just for you? <laugh> custom tailored. Yeah, but we won't, we won't, uh, we won't go, uh, we won't share your personal details on the internet or the podcast so we can change just enough. So nobody knows who you are. Anonymity is a big thing here at annuity, straight talk <laugh> well, I think we've given them enough reasons of why people don't buy annuities. Hopefully we give them some ideas of how to get around these. Yep. This is a show Ramji with Brian and I thank you all for joining us. We look forward to making more content and, uh, we're gonna call it today. Annuity straight talk made in Montana today, it was recorded in Washington state, not Washington DC, as your daughter. We're going Washington state going. Yeah. The kids came over and said, uh, Sage thought she was gonna meet Joe Biden in Washington, DC, wrong Washington, wrong Washington. But that's how we learn. Right? Take care everybody. Thanks.
Speaker 1 00:46:41 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. The views expressed by guests on this program are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of an moody 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 the purchase decision guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the insurance company.
Speaker 4 00:47:29 Aho S Ramji is an investment advisor representative of insight. Folio's Inc an S E C registered investment advisor. The firm only transacts business in states where it is notice filed, or is excluded or exempted from notice filing requirements, any fee based financial planning and investment advisory services are offered through his association with insight FOLs Inc. Top planning LLC is not a registered investment advisor and is not another name under which insight folios provide services. Insurance products and services only are offered through top planning, LLC insight, folios Inc, and top planning LLC are not affiliated companies.
