Financial Dentistry and the Often – Uncomfortable Process of Annuity Shopping
As a 20-year annuity agent, I began to recognize several years ago the uncanny parallel that the emotional process of shopping for an annuity, from your perspective as a consumer, is not all that much different than the psychological process of scheduling a trip to the dentist.
Check this out and tell me if I am wrong:
Both services are preventative. Both services promise to fill a big hole in your life: at the dentist – it’s those darn cavities. From the insurance agent – it’s the inevitable future gap between your guaranteed income and your guaranteed expenses in retirement. After all, an annuity is an insurance policy designed to prevent this from happening.
Both services are NOT commonly recurring procedures. How often do you see your dentist anyway? Once a year, once every five years? Ten? (I confess to being on the latter end of that scale, sadly). And how frequently might you visit with the insurance agent to whom you have chosen to handle the unique responsibility of managing your lifetime income?
Both services are vital! If you never see the former, one day, you’re going to wake up with sore gums, sickness, toothaches, and it’s going to be hard to finish your apple each day. And if you skip the latter, it will be even worse; you’re going to wake up someday and not know how to pay the cable bill. And if you had skipped both – no apple and no TV for you! You’ll have to resort to reading good old fashioned books made out of paper and sucking on gummy bears.
But here is where I have found the most significant similarity:
Many people feel the internal resistance to meeting with both of these professionals despite the necessity of doing so. As far as the dentist is concerned, it is obvious: physical pain, the anticipation of physical pain, and the anticipation of sitting in the waiting room while anticipating the physical pain. That is enough emotional turmoil to cause any cavity-prone individual to consider putting off a preventative health issue that should not be ignored.
But as far as meeting with an annuity agent for the first time is concerned, many investors experience reticence for a plethora of reasons as well:
• Is this person calling me going to take advantage of me?
• Aren’t they going make a commission off of me?
• Are they a person of integrity, or are they a financial shark?
* Annuities are too confusing; I cannot figure them out.
* The guy on TV says I should hate annuities, whatever his name is.
* My broker says you can’t make money in annuities.
At the Safe Money Singer, I have endeavored to circumvent such reluctance by sending you a personalized video quotation to your inbox so you can review the appropriate annuity plan while you are in your pajamas, nibbling on Cheez-its crackers and watching Dateline – all at the same time!
A typical video annuity quotation will encompass:
• Rates from all 56 annuity carriers
• Using all four types of safe annuities
• Screenshots of your future guaranteed lifetime budgets before and after annuities
• Company Rating information from all 5 rating agencies
• Secret strategies on maximizing your income benefits employing timing delays, maximum RMD dates, inflation riders, IRS tax loopholes, and zero-fee options – all were utilizing the four different types of annuities.
And more ….
So fear not, dear annuity shopper, YES, you can make intelligent decisions for your retirement income needs from the comfort of your home without the fear of being coerced, cajoled, or cannol lied (which is my home-word for the act of being twisted against your wishes into a pretzel)!
Annuities can stand on their own two feet, and you will get to experience the peaceful easy feeling of this instrument once you get your personalized video quotation that demonstrates how your future household budget might be permanently satisfied.
And in the meantime, don’t forget to follow through on that dental appointment. Most dentists use laughing gas anyway; heck, you won’t feel a thing!
