Thought for the day:

“We are all here on earth to help others.  What on earth the others are here for, I don’t know.”                                                            W. H. Auden

If you will read no further:

Financial advisors everywhere are discovering the new LTCi connection with Westland Financial.  You bring it up to your client and request a case design from us.  We give you 1,2 or 3 quotes (if you really want that many) from top carriers.  You present the case (we can help) and once the client say “yes”, we take it from there.  We take the application for you, manage the case through underwriting and send you the policy ready to deliver.  Then we pay you top comp and assist you in the future when service is needed.

Thought for the week:

We create dozens of SPIA annuity illustrations per week but only about 1/3 ever get placed in the clients’ portfolio.  Having observed this for a few years now and spoken with many advisors, I have come to the conclusion that it is the advisors who are “waiting for the rates to increase”.  In the meantime, their clients are receiving less and less interest or accepting more and more risk than they would like.

The typical SPIA is providing 6-8% income. 70% +/- tax-free.  That’s better than bonds and will last a lifetime.  It’s a personal pension the give the client the most secure, predictable income from any of the assets in the portfolio.  And if you are one of those advisors waiting for rates to go up, keep in mind that increases in interest rates have only a partial correlation to SPIA rates since a high percentage of the income is from principal.  The way to get the most total money from the SPIA is to start early and live a long time.  Waiting for rates to increase just reduces the total time they will receive the income.

Regarding those Variable Annuities; with the expenses and the portfolio restrictions, you cannot be seriously proposing them for competitive growth if you are also including the guaranteed role-ups and income riders.  Index Annuities have the same rollups and guaranteed income for half the cost or less and the client will never see their portfolio go down.  Wonder why variable annuity sales are down and index annuity sales are up?  Clients are buying the same guarantees you sold them in VAs but prefer the assurances    of safety of their money that Index products provide.  Call Josh and he will answer your questions.

By the way, the Fed met recently: They are going to continue on their path till unemployment hits 6.5% and inflation slows to 2.5%.  They predicted no change in rates till 2015. Then what; you think they are going to jump rates to 6% and destroy all the bondholders in the country?  Come on!

One more item before I let you go.

Idle money in a Forethought (A-) annuity for long-term care will provide up to 200% to 300% of the annuity value when LTCi is needed.  Another opportunity to increase your clients’ comfort level in these uncertain times.