Thought for the day:

Confidence is contagious.  So is lack of confidence.        -Vince Lombardi

 

 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCMENT:

Westland Financial Appoints Tim Morton CEO

Tim Morton has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of San Diego based Westland Financial Services (WFS), Founder and President Gene Pastula CFP® announced today.

Mr. Morton has been an integral part of Westland for the past six years with an ever expanding role.  An active member in the broker/dealer community, Mr. Morton was recently elected to FINRA’s (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) Small Firm Advisory Board (FSAB) and is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Independent Broker/Dealers (NAIBD).  Mr. Morton’s 33 years of success in the financial services industry and his previous senior managerial roles, makes him uniquely qualified to lead Westland to its next level of success, Pastula said.

Established in 1974 and headquartered in San Diego, CA, Westland Financial Services, is a national insurance consultancy serving the financial planning and investment advisory community. WFS has been instrumental in the development and marketing of new generation insurance products that are uniquely designed for use by financial advisors to expand their value and provide stability and predictability in client portfolios.

 

 

If you will read no further:

Should all of a client’s retirement income be derived from the “I’ll do my best to get you 4-5% with just a little volatility and not too much risk” kind of planning?

Fixed Index Annuities set sales records in 2013; and SPIAs (we think of them as personal pension plans) are increasingly becoming an important tool for planners advising their clients on how to take income from their qualified and non-qualified portfolio.  We have all the top carriers and (most importantly) the expertise to properly incorporate these into your clients’ retirement income plan.

Become an expert in 2014:  Call Josh Ver Hoeve (800-238-8144) every time you have a client who wants income from their portfolio.  Get his recommendation to compare with your (annuity deprived) plan.  If you choose not to recommend Josh’s approach, it won’t be because you never considered it or new nothing about the option.  By this time next year you will know more about annuity planning than 80% of the financial planners and investment advisors out there.

 

 

Thought for the week:

The story of Fred and Alice

About 14 years ago, Fred and Alice began their retirement years.  They had been using a financial planner friend of ours for many years before so had been successful in building a retirement portfolio capable of providing a comfortable lifestyle.  The only thing that had not been considered to that point was what to do about long-term care planning.  Alice was in favor but Fred…well Fred was Fred.  And Fred could not see spending money on some insurance that he knew they would never use.  But Alice convinced him to at least consider it and their planner surprised them by suggesting that rather than purchase a conventional LTCi policy (since they have a substantial portfolio) why not simply “invest” some of their savings into a linked-benefit product.  That way, if LTCi were ever needed there would be extra money to pay the bills and if not; the money wouldn’t be wasted since it would continue to be part of the estate.

Last year, at the age of 83, Fred suffered a serious stroke.   So now Fred and Alice have a caregiver in their home 12 hours a day to take care of Fred.  The linked-benefit plan doesn’t pay all the bills, but it does provide over $5300 a month tax free and will continue to do so for a total of six years if necessary.  Can you imagine the peace-of-mind that gives Alice?

She tells her friends about this policy but unfortunately many of them are already too old or too sick for the idea to do much good.  Their advisors should have told them about it years ago.

You know? The interesting thing about including insurance products in the plan vs. just investments; when things go wrong, the insurance products truly become stars.  And when things go right, they just become part of the planned-for results….all up-side and no down-side.

You need to tell your clients that….before they get too old or too sick.