Lifetime Income Doubles for Long Term Care Needs

The “Prosperity Elite” index annuity from Fidelity & Guaranty Life has been our top selling annuity for nearly 3 years.  Why?

For starters, it has a competitive income rider that packs an 18% bonus to the income account.  It also has 3 surrender period options, a very nice bonus, a variety of crediting methods, and a very fair commission.  But, the REAL reason it holds the #1 spot is…

THE LIFETIME INCOME PAYOUTS DOUBLE IF THE CLIENT NEEDS LONG TERM CARE!!!

There are plenty of other index annuities out there that can offer more aggressive accumulation, higher lifetime income payouts, more commission, a bigger bonus…but very few offer the opportunity for the client to DOUBLE their lifetime income if they ever need long term care.  Here in California Equitrust is the only other carrier offering a lifetime income doubler for care needs, but it has only been available a fraction of the time the F&G doubler has been on the market. When an agent asks us to recommend the best annuities for lifetime income for a client case, we usually get them projections for the top 2 or 3 highest income payout amounts—but then we also include the lifetime income doubler as another option.  And—believe it or not—75% of the time the client will choose the rider with the LTC doubler, even though it means receiving less in lifetime income payments.  Sometimes it is the only thing that makes the sale—because none of the competing advisers showed the client an income doubler.  Let us show you ALL of the advantages from LTC doublers available. They really make an impact.

Reverse Dollar Cost Averaging: A Strategy for Selling FIAs

Here’s another technique to use with those clients who like to have money in the market, AND have concerns about having too much money at risk if the market crashes again.

Have the client pull some (or all) of their risky money out of the market and put it into an index annuity with at least 10% annual penalty free withdrawals.

Then, once the next crash comes, they can pull out 10% each year and buy stocks at the lower prices the stocks have dropped to.  By repeating this process annually, they will be accomplishing some dollar-cost-average investing while buying stocks at lower and lower prices.

This strategy gives the client the best of both worlds; they get to continue to play the market, while protecting their assets from any abrupt and significant downturns.

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Make Sure The Accounts Grow On The Way Down…

While capitalizing on the falling stock prices, the clients can assure growth in the index annuity by taking advantage of inverse-performance-trigger crediting, which applies a positive return in a negative index year.  North American Life’s “RetireChoice 10” annuity offers 4.5% to 4.85% credit in the down years.  By allocating 50% to the inverse-performance-trigger, and 50% to one of the other strategies, the client can rest easy knowing they will be receiving growth on their annuity funds that are waiting to get back into the stock market.

Pro Tip:  Many clients who start this strategy end up leaving their funds in the index annuity because they outperform the securities accounts.  Then they buy MORE annuities! Give us a call for more details.

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~ Greg Skogsberg

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