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Why annuities are among the strongest retirement savings vehicles.

How to guarantee your retirement income for life.

Given today’s fragile and unpredictable economy, many people are looking for ways to provide GUARANTEED income for life from their retirement savings. This is the finding of a report entitled “Money Matters” from AARP, the 40-million-member association for people age 50 and over.

The report notes that retirees should guaranteeenough retirement income to cover recurring expenses such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities, food and medicine. Other issues addressed in the report include when to claim Social Security benefits, whether to buy an annuity, and what to do with homes and mortgages.

“Rules of thumb no longer apply,” according to AARP. Their report also offers general financial guidance that challenges some conventional wisdom, including not placing all of your retirement savings at risk in the stock market.

Income growth potential without risk

You may be aware that annuities provide regular payments for life. However,
relatively few people use them out of fear that they are risky or inappropriate. People want growth potential WITHOUT the risk. With people living longer, facing increasing costs and addressing new challenges every day, risk cannot be part of the planning process for all of a person’s monies.

Annuities can help retirees address today’s economic challenges by offering greater potential for growth than what a traditional fixed asset can offer. Furthermore, annuities offer protection from market downturns.

When most individuals think of retirement, they think about how to save enough money. We have not spent nearly enough time discussing the best ways to take that money and turn it into an income stream that lasts throughout retirement for a lifetime.

Why does “annuity” seem to be a dirty word?

After the recent stock market decline, consumers are interested in-safe retirement investments and products. Yet “annuity” seems to be a dirty word in many circles, particularly among financial advisors. They cite high fees, complicated guarantees on investment earnings, early surrender penalties, and agents who may not understand your financial goals or have your best interests at heart.

I do not agree with these objections about annuities!

Instead, I believe annuities to be the strongest of retirement savings vehicles currently available to consumers.

Annuities have significant advantages and can be a do-it-yourself pension. In planning for retirement, you give a lump sum of money to an insurance company and an annuity can start paying you a monthly income for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live or what happens in the economy going forward.

Reliable lifetime retirement income

When you retire, however, you need to shift your thinking and focus on generating reliable lifetime retirement income, which is the goal of annuities.

Annuities may also be a good investment while you’re accumulating retirement savings, especially if they offer guaranteed rates of growth on the Income Account Value. Annuities definitely deserve a place in your retirement income portfolio. Given that you’re planning for the rest of your life, it’s well worth your time to investigate them.

What do Walmart, Wells Fargo, major wire houses and Tony Robbins all have in common? They’re all part of a growing stampede to sell Fixed Indexed Annuities.  2015 will end up as the year where Fixed Indexed Annuity sales were up over 36% from the previous year, a new record high for FIA sales.

Financial commentators of all stripes tend to harp on high profile cases where consumers were sold annuities ill-suited to their needs. These commentators also claim annuities are too complicated, expensive and have inflexible terms, making them unattractive to changing needs.

Many advisors believe annuities offer clients little more than 3 to 4% interest.

We believe the public is not getting a balanced picture and the time has come to set the record straight and give consumers the truth about fixed indexed annuities.

It’s crucial to disseminate accurate information to clients about what fixed indexed annuities (FIAs) do and why they should be considered as part of a retirement portfolio. A fundamental problem is that many advisors simply dismiss FIAs products as having no real value. New marketplace voices, i.e., Tony Robbins, should be a wake-up call and help people realize that clients do in fact value what FIAs offer and they want the benefits of an FIA.

Robbins even stated there is a major unfilled need for products that protect consumers from market risk and simultaneously produce tremendous streams of guaranteed income.

FIAs are designed to guarantee income, offer peace of mind and provide protection and that’s why nearly 90% of annuity owners buy them – they protect contract holders from losing money. It’s important for advisors to keep their story simple and this is where someone like Tony Robbins excels, keeping his story short, sweet and attractive to consumers which can threaten your relationship with your clients. But why do consumers find the story so appealing?

Years ago, workers could count on monthly income from corporate defined benefit retirement plans and retail buyers had little contact with annuities. Most hadn’t even heard of annuities, which tended to be the purview of institutional money managers.  With Baby Boomers retiring in droves and searching for guaranteed income, annuities enter into the lexicon more frequently.  It’s clear that FIAs are capturing public attention and gaining a larger market share.

FIA deposits were at record levels and closed out 2015 at $50 Billion. Why the record growth:

• Deposits remain entirely in your control – you are not giving up access to your cash.
• FIAs offer the potential for significantly higher annual returns than other “safe money”
  solutions such as CDs or bonds.
• Your principal is 100% guaranteed – you can’t lose money.
• FIA growth is tax-deferred, maximizing compound growth of your retirement income fund.

You get income insurance or guaranteed income for life when you select an optional income rider.

So what is the truth? It’s really all about Income, Income, Income.

As powerful a tool as FIAs can be for safe money return, what makes them so attractive is their ability to protect principle and simultaneously provide a guaranteed lifetime income stream, not to mention tax efficiency and upside potential without the downside risk.
No other financial product in the marketplace today does all of these things as efficiently as a Fixed indexed annuity. Learning the truth about FIAs and their power give advisors the opportunity to immediately serve their clients’ best interests. Our Special Report is a definitive guide to Fixed Indexed Annuities, please call our office at (800) 831-2901 for a copy.

We look forward to the opportunity to clearing up the myths, hype and confusion surrounding these important investment vehicles.