Retirement Expert Rants: Your Agent Should Not Be Your Friend

First of all, I'm Stan the Annuity Man, America's annuity agent. I'm licensed in all 50 states. Yes, I do sell annuities. That's how I make my living. Now, I consider myself the number one educator on the planet when it comes to annuities because I do these types of content every single day. I'm in this thing. When you call yourself Stan The Annuity Man, you've burned the boat, right? But what I’m going to talk to you about today is what bothers me about the industry, and it bothers me not only about the annuity industry but advisors in the financial world in general.

Advisors Shouldn't Be Your Friend

What I’m really upset about is this: Your agent should never be your friend, ever. I'm never going to be your friend, but I'm going to be the best damn advisor you've ever had. Why? Because I'm going to be brutally factual. I'm going to tell you if you need an annuity. I’ll tell you if you don’t need one. I’ll tell you how much money I think you should put in, and I’ll tell you if I think you're putting too much in. I know the sales gods are looking down upon Stan The Annuity Man saying, “Don’t do that. Please don’t do that.” In fact, one of my favorite things to do when you’re running a quote like a Single Premium Immediate Annuity, a Deferred Income Annuity, a Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract, or an Income Rider quote when you want specific income; I like doing a reverse engineer quote, which means we’re going to use as little money as possible to provide the highest contractual guarantee for your specific situation. I’m not just going to accept you saying, “Hey, I’d like to put $400,000 in there.” I’m going to say, “Why? Why are you doing that?”

Setting Boundaries with Advisors

Now, getting back to the friend part, I’m not saying I’m going to be mean to you on the phone. I’m not, but we’re never going to go golfing. We’re never going to eat out together, and we’re never going to exchange Christmas cards, ever. But you’re going to be so happy with how I do business. I’m brutally factual. I’m the walking middle finger of annuity truth. I have no problem being that person when it comes to money. And when it comes to money, you don’t need friends to advise you unless it’s your son-in-law and he’s starving and you want your daughter to have a nice house. That’s the only excuse I’ll give you. Other than that, if someone tries to be chummy with you and starts showing you all this stuff about their life, that’s garbage. Because what happens is that false trust will lead to mistakes with your money. It always happens. I always hear, “Well, Stan, I bought this annuity from a friend.” Right then, I know it’s going to be a problem. Right then, I know they didn’t do the due diligence.

Professionalism Over Personal Relationships

When you go in for heart or brain surgery, are you friends with your doctor? You can’t be friends with your advisor, your agent, and your annuity agent, especially your annuity agent, because your friend will probably sell you something you don’t need. Your friend is probably going to say, “Hey, this is the best one, I think for you, Fred, because me and you are friends, and I just think this is the best one. This is the best annuity.” Annuities are commodities. You have to shop every single carrier for the best contractual guarantee for your specific situation and make the decision on your terms and on your timeframe, period. End of story. No friend, no dinner, no coffee, no gifts, no nothing, period.

The Reality of Annuity Commissions

Understand, in the Fixed Annuity world, the Indexed Annuity world, the more you sell, you go on trips to Bora Bora, Italy, and Spain. You can take your wife, you can take your girlfriend, you can take anybody you want. But if somebody’s showing you one product, that’s not good because they’re your friend. So, if you have that relationship with a person that’s your advisor or friend, find another advisor. If you work with me, and I hope you do, and if you go to The Annuity Man, you can schedule a call with us. Is it going to be warm and fuzzy? No. Is it going to be factual? Yes. It’s your money. You’ve worked hard for it. You don’t need any more friends. If you want a friend, get a dog and stencil an annuity on the side of it. That will be your annuity friend. That’ll be fantastic.

Avoiding Family and Friend Conflicts

If I’ve done one thing, if you’re close to buying an annuity from a friend, then get a quote somewhere else. You’ll find out in most cases that you’re being sold something by your friend, okay? And that goes with family. Don’t do business with family either. No, I don’t sell my mom annuities. She lives in St. Augustine, Florida. She’s 80 years old. I wouldn’t sell her an annuity if you put a loaded gun to my head. The same thing has to happen when you are dealing with friends, supposed friends, or someone you just met who’s just too chummy on the phone. I’m never going to be chummy on the phone. I’m going to be factual. I’m going to quote all carriers and I’m going to find you the best annuity on the planet. And with that, take that to the bank. Even when you go see your banker, they’re not your friend either. You need experts in your life. You need to be surrounded by experts in your life, and that includes annuity people.

A Real-Life Example of Mistakes in the Industry

I’ll give you a story because this happens to me all the time, and this is what creates the rants, and I’ve just had it. But I got a call from a really nice lady in Florida the other day. I live in Florida and Nevada, but I get them from all over. But this one just happened to be from a lady in Orlando, and she was in her mid-70s. The first thing she said out of her mouth is, “Hey, Stan, I saw your YouTube video, and I wanted to run something by you because our financial advisor, my husband, and I went and saw him, and he’s been a good friend for a long, long time.”

I said, “Stop. What is he trying to sell you?” And she told me. The product—I'm not going to get into the specifics. Still, it was so unsuitable and inappropriate that the person should have lost their license for recommending it, but they didn’t buy it. And that’s the good thing because they called me and said, “Does this make sense for us?” Now, if I’m some sociopath, that’s just all about commissions, and yes, I am the top agent in the country. I do sell more than anybody when it’s appropriate. But in her situation, we’re talking about a huge lump sum of money. She wanted to put $600,000 into the annuity her friend advisor pitched.

Conclusion: Making the Right Decision

I said, “Absolutely not.” If I’m a sociopath, I say, “Hey, I’ve got a better annuity. Give me the $600,000 and I’ll do it.” No. After the conversation, after going through all of my suitability questions—what do you want the money to contractually do? When do you want those contractual guarantees to start?

We determined that they really did not need an annuity. What they really needed were short-term Certificates of Deposit (CDs), which I do not sell, and that’s okay. The person was also trying to sell her some really high-expensed life insurance product, which again, we went through the situation, what do you want the money to contractually do? When do you want those contractual guarantees to start? And we came to the conclusion that if they bought term life, they would get more death benefit for less money.

The agent’s not going to like that, but who cares about the agent? Once again, it’s not about the agent; it’s about you. It’s not about the agent; it’s about your money. It’s not about the agent; it’s about your legacy. It’s not about the agent; it’s about your family. It’s not about the agent; it’s about the contractual guarantees and finding the best contractual guarantees on the planet.

I hope I've made my point. I know this is a rant, but it's important to the public. With 10,000 baby boomers hitting retirement age every single day, there's a demographic tidal wave of baby boomers looking for contractual guarantees. Every industry has bad people, but when that type of momentum comes into the annuity market, and people are looking for guarantees, it's ripe for friend selling. It's ripe for buddy-buddy selling. It's ripe for, "Hey, let's go have a cup of coffee and play golf," selling. I'm not putting that down, but you don't need to do that. You don't do that with your doctors; you don't do that with your surgeons. Hopefully, you don't do that with your CPAs. You definitely don't do it with annuity agents.

I'd love to speak with you. Go to The Annuity Man and schedule a call with us. It'll be brutally factual. It will be enjoyable because it's brutally factual. There'll be no high pressure, and you will understand what you're considering and if it makes sense for you to either own an annuity or not own an annuity.

My name is Stan The Annuity Man. I'll see you on the following Stan The Annuity Man blog.

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