…Or dinner, for that matter. Free food, gifts or information can be tempting at times. Even I love the word free. But, not when it comes to money. To be told you can have stock market returns with absolutely no risk, when it just isn’t so, should be a crime. To believe it and then discover you’re making about four percent per year is a little disheartening.
Hey, the bright side is it’s better than a fixed annuity at three percent. Every time you get a statement, it should remind you of the back-end load or surrender charge. And, you wonder why you only get them quarterly. By the way, are we told how much commission they earned, probably not, as it’s not always required. I love the line, “Oh, there’s no cost to you. The company pays me.”
With inflation running about 4.35 percent per year, congratulations, you’ve actually lost money. I sure hope the food was good because that’s about all you got. You say your senior advisor is no longer with the company and now you have some other guy, who never calls. What did you expect from someone who just pocketed about eight percent of your money and is now on their way to the next easy mark. Don’t feel bad you’re with the other .1 percent (2,000 mailers, 20 attendees, two sales equals less than $16,000 commission or maybe more). The odds aren’t good, but the money is great.
On a lighter note, it’s legal and you’re stuck with it for a long time. You may want to think about buying some long-term care insurance as you might need it when you run out of money. Or, we could talk about spend down options to get you ready for social aid. So, the next time someone says indexed or bonus annuity, run the other way as fast as you can and by the way, pay for your own dinner next time.
For more information call 661-259-1644, 818-557-7289, visit www.capitalconsultants.org or drop me an email at tjshaner@capitalconsultants.org .