Annuities Are for Do-It-Yourselfers: Shootin' It Straight With Stan

For all of you do-it-yourselfers out there who've been managing your own money—running it through the Fidelitys, Vanguards, TDs, and Schwabs of the world—annuities are right up your alley. Annuities are do-it-yourself products, and if anyone is trying to charge you a fee to manage an annuity, you have to ask, Why?

The one that truly slays me is someone charging a fee for fixed products. Fixed Annuity products include:

Single Premium Immediate Annuities (SPIAs)
Deferred Income Annuities (DIAs)
Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts (QLACs)
Traditional Fixed Annuities
Multi-Year Guarantee Annuities (MYGAs)
Fixed Index Annuities

Anyone charging a fee—especially for Fixed Index Annuities—is out of their mind. If someone tries to charge you, they shouldn’t be. Now, I know I’ll get blowback from annuity divisions at brokerage firms that are trying to justify charging fees. They’ll send me emails, historical data, or call me, but I’ll factually blast them like I always do.

The One Caveat: No-Load Variable Annuities

The only possible exception is a no-load Variable Annuity. If someone is actively managing the separate accounts (what we call mutual funds) and doing it well, they could charge a fee. But even then, buy a no-load Variable Annuity and manage it yourself.

How Annuities Are a Do-It-Yourself Dream

These are do-it-yourself products. Here’s how it works: if you go to The Annuity Man, you can:

Run SPIA, DIA, QLAC, and Income Rider quotes
See a live feed of the best MYGA products available
Make your decision on your terms and timeframe

You can run as many quotes as you want with as many parameters as possible. There are no limits, and no one will call or bother you.

Why You Buy an Annuity

Here’s the key: You own an annuity for what it will do, not what it might do. The “will do” is the contractual guarantee. Never, ever, ever buy an annuity based on hypothetical, theoretical, back-tested, or projected agent-return scenarios. Forget the “unicorns chasing butterflies” sales pitches or “what would’ve happened 10 years ago.”

Let’s be honest: if you’d done 100 sit-ups every day for 10 years, you’d have six-pack abs, but you didn’t. Annuities are contracts, and you buy them for contractual guarantees only. When you do that, you commoditize the product.

Why Is That Important?

When you buy for the contractual guarantee, you can shop for all carriers to find the highest guarantee. Quotes are like a gallon of milk—they expire in 7 to 10 days. It’s a do-it-yourselfer’s paradise.

Making Annuities Simple

I’ve commoditized the annuity space, stripping out the sales pitches, hype, and hypotheticals. I’m turning the complicated into something a nine-year-old can understand. Why? Because we focus on contractual guarantees only.

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, theannuityman.com is your paradise. You can shop, run quotes, and decide on your terms.

Annuities Solve for Four Things (PILL)

Annuities solve for:

Principal Protection
Income for Life
Legacy
Long-Term Care

If you don’t need to solve for any of these, you don’t need an annuity.

The Future of Annuities

At the time of this blog, a licensed agent must be on the phone with you to complete the application. But I predict that in the near future, you’ll be able to click a button and do it yourself. I’ve already trademarked the “no agent needed” concept for annuities, and my site is built to handle that transition.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, annuities are for you. You don’t need advice or a sales pitch for contractual guarantees. Annuities are contracts, and you should base your decision on the contractual realities, not hypotheticals.

The annuity industry has earned its bad reputation through sales practices, not the products themselves. Annuities are fantastic when you strip them down to their core purpose: transferring risk to solve for principal protection, income for life, legacy, and long-term care.

Walk away from this blog understanding:

Annuities are for do-it-yourselfers
The Annuity Man is built for you

I built it for myself, and I built it for you. So, take a look—read the books, watch the videos, run the quotes, and make your decision.

Welcome to the annuity do-it-yourselfer dream.

Never forget to live in reality, not the dream, with annuities and contractual guarantees! You can use our calculators, get all six of my books for free, and most importantly book a call with me so we can discuss what works best for your specific situation.