That Annuity Show: Recent Episodes
Nassau Financial Group
We want to help every independent agent or retirement planner be successful explaining the benefits all types of annuities - fixed indexed annuities in particular. You should walk away each time you listen with some idea that will make your next client meeting run better.
Empathy can play an important role in helping clients move from recognizing a need to feeling ready to take action. In a recent episode of The Annuity Show, Maria Ferrante-Schepis, founder of Think Worthy Consulting, discussed how insurance professionals can better understand the "invisible wall" between unmet need and concept of negative demand. Her perspective: education alone may not be enough. Meaningful two-way conversations can help advisors better understand client concerns, build trust, and support more informed decision-making. As technology continues to handle more of the technical aspects of insurance and annuity solutions, the human element may become even more important. She reviews previous failures and successes in industry technology advancements, as well as overlooked nuances, to gain a clearer perspective on how we can approach future innovation. Learn more: thatannuityshow.com and where you get your podcasts Visit: thinkworthy.com to engage with Maria
What do recent legal and regulatory developments mean for financial professionals? In this episode, we examine the current status of the Department of Labor's fiduciary rulemaking efforts, the related litigation, and the implications for advisors, insurers, and the broader financial services industry. Joining the conversation are Eric Lund Marhoun, Senior Counsel at Nassau Financial Group, and Kent Mason, Partner at Davis & Harman LLP. They discuss the evolution of the fiduciary rule, recent court decisions, the role of industry organizations in the regulatory process, and practical considerations for navigating today's compliance environment. The discussion also explores documentation, client communications, and the potential role of technology, including AI, in supporting compliance practices. While the current regulatory framework has evolved through recent legal developments, future legislative, regulatory, or judicial actions may continue to shape the landscape. This episode is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered legal or regulatory advice. Financial professionals should consult their firm's compliance department or legal counsel regarding specific situations.
Brent Williams, CEO of Benekiva, shares his journey from managing a large financial advisory firm to founding a claims automation company. He discusses industry challenges like legacy systems, fragmented data, and the transformative potential of AI in claims processing, emphasizing a human-centered approach to technology. Learn more about Benekiva: https://benekiva.com Tune into TAS for additional episodes: https://thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of the That Annuity Show, Nassau Financial Group's Chief Investment Officer, Joe Orofino, joins Tisa Rabun-Marshall and Mark Fitzgerald to discuss current economic trends and the factors shaping today's investment landscape. The conversation explores inflation, interest rate movements, and how developments such as artificial intelligence and global trade policies may influence markets, investment strategies, and consumer behavior. Listeners will gain perspective on market volatility, duration strategies, and the broader economic signals investors are watching. Learn more at http://www.thatannuityshow.com
This episode of That Annuity Show brings together Paul Tyler, Bruno Caron, Tom Buckingham, James Wong and featured guest David Novak, CEO and Founder, Annuities Genius for a candid discussion on the intersection of AI and annuities. From conference insights to next-generation tools, they delve into how technology is reshaping client engagement, driving operational efficiency, and setting the stage for the industry's next wave of innovation. Learn more at www.thatannuityshow.com
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler and Bruno Caron engage with Qiyun Cai, founder and CEO of Fintary, to discuss the challenges and innovations in the insurance industry, of managing and optimizing compensation and revenue. Qiyun shares her background in insurance and technology, explaining how Fintary aims to streamline revenue growth through flexible compensation structures and automation. The conversation delves into the complexities of multi-level distribution, the importance of data integration, and the need for modern solutions in a traditionally fragmented industry. Learn more at www.thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler, Tisa Rabun-Marshall, and Bruno Caron talk with Samantha Chow from Capgemini to discuss the findings of the World Life Insurance Report. They explore consumer sentiment towards life insurance, the challenges of product design, and the importance of education in the industry. The conversation highlights global trends, the impact of societal shifts on insurance needs, and the necessity for flexible, bundled products that cater to the modern consumer. The role of technology and digital engagement in transforming the insurance landscape is also emphasized, along with the potential for wealth transfer among younger generations. Listen now at www.thatannuityshow.com
Live from the LIMRA Annual Conference, hosts Paul Tyler and guest co-host, Tom Rios sit down with Ken Leibow of InsurTech Express—a relentless chronicler of what’s actually working across carriers and vendors. Ken breaks down the shift from AI talk to agentic AI doing, with underwriting workbenches embedding decision engines, Rx/MIB data, and scoring to move closer to instant decisions at point of sale. He maps today’s reality in service and claims—AI clearing level-one while humans handle complexity—and explains why annuities and RILAs remain red-hot despite cooling predictions. If you want practical signals (not hype) on underwriting, workflow automation, and real-time CX, this episode is your fast brief. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Live from the LIMRA Annual Conference, host Paul Tyler and guest host, Tom Rios explore the future of carrier communications with Stephanie Warren and Tim Mader of O’Neil Digital Solutions. The conversation looks beyond today’s PDFs to a unified, intelligent platform where print and digital are orchestrated together—with auto-failover (email → mail), real-time delivery confirmation for agents, and 10-year, regulation-ready audit trails. They sketch what’s next: dynamic, personalized content (QR codes, agent video intros), event-triggered journeys (policy issued, first annuity payment, claim payout), and template consolidation that unlocks governance and speed. Most importantly, they reframe communications as a revenue and referral moment—turning required documents into measurable CX wins while staying compliant. Learn more at
Recorded live on the floor of the LIMRA Annual Conference, host Paul Tyler and guest host, Tom Rios sit down with Jim Kerley, Managing Partner at Clearview Partners, for a candid conversation on what really moves the needle: going deep with AI (not broad), building a clear roadmap, and supporting people through constant change. Jim shares pragmatic guidance for carrier executives—how to future-proof your career, reduce organizational stress, upskill teams, and use industry resources and peer networks to turn transformation into measurable outcomes. If you’re leading strategy, operations, distribution, or product, this episode is your field guide to doing AI—and leadership—right. Learn more at
Join That Annuity Show hosts for an insightful discussion with Chief Information Officer, Alex Seidita, and Chief Technology Officer, Jason Pedone of Aspida. Hear about the benefits of an API-first architecture for straight-through processing and how they're exploring AI as a productivity multiplier rather than job replacement. The conversation explores the future of insurance technology, industry-wide data standardization challenges, and why emerging opportunities in RIA wealth channels, in-plan annuities, and alternative investments depend on solving current data friction problems that the industry must address before unlocking new possibilities. Learn more at
Nassau Financial Group's Chief Investment Officer, Joe Orofino joins Paul Tyler to analyze the current economic landscape and its impact on retirement planning. They examine how Federal Reserve rate cuts affect annuity products, discuss inflation expectations hovering around 3%, and explore the looming Social Security funding crisis. Orofino explains why higher long-term interest rates benefit the annuity industry and shares insights on portfolio diversification strategies, including concerns about the S&P 500's heavy concentration in AI and tech stocks. Key topics include treasury rates, tariff impacts, sovereign wealth funds, and annuities. Learn more at www.thatannuityshow.com
Jeff Affronti, president and CEO of FSD Financial Services, joins our show to delve into the current landscape of annuities, focusing on market trends, the purpose of annuity laddering, and common strategies for younger investors. Jeff shares insights on using MYGAs for retirement income, the impact of inflation on annuities, and some of the latest product features and innovations in the industry. The discussion also touches on the risks associated with life-only annuities and the potential for entering the MYGA market. For more information: thatannuityshow.com
Joe Jordan explores the importance of purpose in retirement, the impact of demographics, and the role of technology, including AI. Joseph emphasizes the significance of life insurance and social security in financial planning, advocating for a human-centered approach to financial services. The conversation highlights the need for advisors to adapt to changing client needs and the importance of understanding the emotional aspects of financial decision-making. Listen now where you get your podcasts and at
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler, Tisa Rabun-Marshall, and Bruno Caron speak with Jason Hopper of AM Best about the rapidly evolving annuity market. They discuss emerging product trends, the growing role of private equity and asset managers, shifts in asset portfolio strategies, and how credit risk evaluation is adapting to changing market conditions. The conversation also explores the reinsurance space, spotlighting new market entrants and the regulatory complexities shaping the future of the insurance industry. Learn more at www.thatannuityshow.com
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler speaks with Krish Krishnan, CEO and founder of Magnifact, about the company's mission to streamline data aggregation in the insurance industry. They discuss the challenges of data management, the importance of digital transformation, and how AI is set to revolutionize the industry. Krish shares insights on the evolving relationships between carriers and distributors, the need for mobility in insurance, and his predictions for the future of the industry. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler, Bruno Caron, and guest Joe Nunes discuss the evolution of retirement planning, focusing on the shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans. They explore the challenges faced by retirees today, the role of annuities, and the importance of adequate contributions to ensure financial security in retirement. The conversation also highlights the differences between the US and Canadian retirement systems, innovations in retirement savings, and strategies to address longevity risk. Listen now: www.thatannuityshow.com
In this episode, Paul Tyler interviews Kartik Sakthivel, Vice President and CIO of LIMRA, discussing the transformative impact of AI on the insurance industry. They explore the evolution of AI, its ethical implications, and the importance of governance. Kartik shares insights from his personal journey in the industry and emphasizes the need for AI literacy and operational efficiency. The conversation highlights the potential of AI to expand access to insurance and the importance of innovation from all levels within organizations. They conclude with a look at future directions for AI governance and resources available for industry professionals. Learn more at: www.thatannuityshow.com
In this episode, Paul Tyler and Tisa Rabun-Marshall discuss the intersection of annuities and AI with Jay Singh, founder of Hedgness. Jay and our hosts explore innovation in the annuity space, the importance of compliance, and how AI can enhance sales efficiency without disrupting existing workflows. Jay shares insights on successful AI implementation, the significance of meeting users where they are, and the potential ROI from AI adoption. The conversation also delves into specific use cases, particularly around illustrations for wholesalers, and the broader implications for the insurance industry. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Join executives from Prudential, Global Atlantic, Conning and Zinnia as they dive deep into how artificial intelligence is reshaping the life and annuity industry. Recorded at Hartford AI Day, this candid panel explores the real ROI of AI investments, the dramatic potential for call center cost reduction, and the critical 90% challenge that isn't technology—it's changing human behavior. Learn more at and more on Hartford AI Day at
In this episode, Paul Tyler and David Czerniecki discuss the current state of the markets, focusing on the interplay between tariffs, inflation, and economic indicators. They explore the implications of the bond market dynamics on the annuity industry, the impact of rising interest rates, and the role of AI and energy in shaping future market trends. David provides insights into the challenges posed by the rising deficit and the potential for economic growth, while also addressing the importance of energy production and regulatory changes.
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler and Laura Dinan Haber welcome Miles O'Keefe, who shares his journey in the funeral and financial planning industry. The conversation explores the intersection of Medicare and financial planning, the role of technology in enhancing human-centered services, and the challenges of navigating change in the funeral industry. They discuss communication trends in sensitive situations and the importance of maintaining a human touch in a rapidly evolving market. In this conversation, Miles O'Keefe discusses the evolution of communication in the funeral and Medicare industries, emphasizing the shift to digital platforms post-COVID. He shares strategies for working with funeral directors and Medicare providers, highlighting the importance of seamless communication and adapting to client needs. The discussion also touches on the fear of change in business, the evolving perspectives on death and funerals, and the potential future of technology in the death care industry. Listen now: www.thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of That Annuity Show, host Paul Tyler welcomes Roger Kahlon, Vice President and Head of Consulting at Zinnia, to discuss key takeaways from the recent IRI Annual Conference. They explore the industry's digital transformation journey, including the Digital First initiative, the growing importance of Contingent Deferred Annuities (CDAs), and the need for standardization and collaboration to expand the marketplace. Roger shares valuable insights on how carriers can overcome transformation challenges and better serve wealth management firms, providing expert perspective on the future of annuities in an increasingly digital landscape. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of That Annuity Show, we welcome Bill Bengen, the creator of the 4% rule, to discuss the evolution of retirement planning strategies. Bill shares insights into the origins of the 4% rule, its mechanics, and how it has been adapted in his upcoming book. The conversation delves into the eight essential elements of a comprehensive retirement withdrawal plan, the impact of inflation and market valuation on withdrawal rates, and the role of annuities in retirement income. Bill provides insight on the benefits of maximizing income while managing risks and provides case studies to illustrate effective retirement planning. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Philip Chao, a leading voice in the 401(k) space shares his sharp focus on creating guaranteed retirement income. The conversation explores Philip's background, his companies, and the evolving landscape of annuities within retirement plans. Key themes include the role of fiduciaries, the integration of annuities into target date funds, and the future of guaranteed income products in the retirement market. In this conversation, Philip Chao discusses the evolution and importance of Target Date Funds and Qualified Default Investment Alternatives (QDIAs) in retirement planning. He emphasizes the need for personalized solutions that consider individual data rather than relying solely on averages. The discussion also highlights the significance of engagement in retirement planning, the challenges of behavioral finance, and how guaranteed income can help ensure financial security in retirement. Chao advocates for transparency and education in financial services to empower individuals in their retirement decisions. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Today, we welcome Ben Faught, Chief Actuary at Oceanview Life. The conversation delves into the success story of Oceanview Life, its unique investment strategies focusing on mortgage-backed securities, and the challenges and considerations in pricing annuities. Ben shares insights on market trends, the importance of understanding asset-liability matching, and the future of fixed index annuities in a changing economic landscape. The discussion emphasizes the role of actuaries in advocating for clients and ensuring sustainable business practices. Learn more at our website, thatannuityshow.com
Tom Totten, an actuary and serial entrepreneur, shares his journey from a defined benefit consultant to advising companies on Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). The conversation delves into the intricacies of ESOPs, their guarantees, and the liquidity risks associated with them. Tom discusses the purpose of lifetime income strategies, including the use of annuities, and reflects on the evolving relationship between employers and employees in the context of retirement planning. In this conversation, the speakers discuss the benefits of including lifetime income solutions in retirement planning, emphasizing the role of the workplace in providing these solutions. They explore the challenges of communicating the value of lifetime income to pre-retirees and retirees, the impact of technology on retirement planning, and the benefits of diversification in investment strategies. The discussion also touches on the potential of ESOPs as a means of wealth creation for employees and the evolving landscape of retirement planning in light of alternative investments.
Jeff Affronti, president and CEO of FSD Financial Services joins our show to delve into the current landscape of annuities, focusing on market trends, the purpose of annuity laddering, and common strategies for younger investors. Jeff shares insights on using MYGAs for retirement income, the impact of inflation on annuities, and some of the latest product features and innovations in the industry. The discussion also touches on the risks associated with life-only annuities and the potential for entering the MYGA market. For more information: thatannuityshow.com
In this episode, Paul Tyler, Ramsey Smith, and Graham Clark discuss the emerging opportunities in in-plan annuities inside 401k plans. They explore the importance of guaranteed income, the skills needed for insurance carriers to compete effectively, and the strategic partnerships necessary for success. The conversation delves into product design, the role of target date funds, and the significance of being proactive in a rapidly evolving market. The speakers emphasize the need for carriers to take leadership roles and adapt to changing market conditions to ensure long-term viability and profitability. Learn more: thatannuityshow.com
Paul Tyler and Bruno Caron welcome Deloitte's Insurance Practice leader Dan McCoach to discuss how technology is reshaping the life and annuity industry. The conversation explores four practical applications of AI delivering immediate value: automating developer workflows, enhancing back-office efficiency, streamlining document processing, and drafting complex communications. McCoach offers a fascinating perspective on how AI tools are rescuing legacy systems just as subject matter experts reach retirement age. Looking ahead, McCoach discusses DeepSeek's disruptive impact on AI economics and warns that quantum computing's arrival within 5-8 years could compromise current encryption standards. Whether you're an industry insider or technology enthusiast, this episode delivers essential insights on the digital revolution transforming insurance.
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler and Chief Investment Officer, David Czerniecki of Nassau discuss the current economic landscape, focusing on tariffs, inflation, cryptocurrency, and the impact of AI on productivity. They explore the volatility of markets compared to the economy, the implications of tariffs on manufacturing and inflation, and the speculative nature of Bitcoin. The conversation also delves into the future of AI and its potential to enhance productivity, as well as investment strategies in a changing market environment. Learn more at
Ramsey Smith and Graham Clark share insights on the challenges of securing retirement income, the importance of 401k plans, and the need for effective stakeholder engagement. They explore how ALEXIncome aims to provide sustainable solutions that bridge the gap between traditional retirement income sources and modern investment strategies, emphasizing the significance of education and transparency for plan participants. This conversation delves into the complexities of retirement planning, focusing on the importance of guaranteed income, the impact of market disruptions on investment strategies, and the role of technology and innovative products in enhancing financial security for retirees. The discussion highlights the need for a shift in how retirement funds are managed, emphasizing the benefits of annuities and the potential of blockchain technology in simplifying processes.
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler interviews Toby Leonard, Assistant Vice President of Product Development at Security Benefit. They discuss the evolution of annuities, particularly fixed index annuities, and their role in financial planning. The conversation highlights the importance of education, technology, and the impact of AI on the insurance industry. They also explore market trends, predictions for annuity sales, and the significance of annuities in the RIA space. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Karen Monks, a principal analyst at Celent, discusses the intersection of technology and life insurance. Karen shares her insights on how AI is transforming underwriting processes, the impact of COVID on consumer behavior, and the driving forces behind technology adoption in the insurance industry. The conversation also explores the challenges of integrating legacy systems with modern technology, the importance of consumer experience, and the skills needed for future success in the industry.
In this episode of That Annuity Show, hosts Paul Tyler and Bruno Caron welcome Jim Ryan, Executive Director and Head of Distribution at Oceanview, to discuss the company's growth since its 2019 launch. Jim shares insights into how Oceanview has established itself in the annuity market. The conversation explores the evolution of both MYGA and FIA products, the critical importance of technological integration across multiple platforms, and why keeping products simple can be a key to success. The conversation emphasizes simplicity, technology investment, and focus on efficiency to help adapt to market changes. Listen for Jim’s optimistic outlook for incremental industry growth in the coming years. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Katherine Dease, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) discusses the future of annuities and how the Digital First Initiative could accelerate growth. With special guest host, Michael Celi, Chief Product Officer of Zinnia, Katherine shares insights on the challenges of modernizing the annuity industry, particularly the data problems that hinder innovation. The conversation highlights the importance of user experience, the role of annuities in holistic financial planning, and the need for collaboration among industry players. They also touch on regulatory considerations and the metrics for measuring success in the initiative, emphasizing the call for industry participation to drive meaningful change. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
In this episode industry leaders Sheryl Moore, Wink Inc., and Michele Trogni, CEO of Zinnia, a guest host, explore the evolving landscape of insurance and annuities, from digital transformation challenges to opportunities for growth. The discussion weaves together Moore's journey from personal investment challenges to becoming the "Annuity Rockstar" with Trogni's vision for technological innovation in the industry. They address the delicate balance between digital innovation and traditional agent-led sales while highlighting how technology can enhance consumer understanding and product accessibility. Learn more: thatannuityshow.com
In this episode, Paul Tyler and Bruno Caron catch up with Joe Jordan, a leading voice in purpose-driven planning, to discuss the evolving landscape of retirement. They explore the importance of finding meaning and purpose in retirement, the challenges posed by an aging population, and the emotional aspects of retirement that financial advisors often overlook. The conversation emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to retirement planning that includes community, relationships, and personal fulfillment. More about how Books:
In this episode, Paul Tyler and Bruno Caron welcome back Arun Muralidhar, co-founder of Alpha Engine Global Investment Solutions, to explore "SeLFIES" (Standard of Living Indexed, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities), an innovative retirement solution he developed with Nobel laureate Robert Merton. Arun delves into Brazil's successful implementation of “SeLFIES”, which has attracted 105,000 investors and raised $2.8 billion since January 2023. The conversation highlights an approach to retirement planning that focuses on guaranteed monthly income rather than wealth accumulation, addresses the potential shortcomings of current retirement statements and target date funds, and explores potential implementations in other countries like India and the UK. Arun also discusses complementary innovations such as education bonds and using QR codes for retirement contributions, while emphasizing how these instruments could help address gender equity in retirement savings. For those interested in learning more about this groundbreaking approach to retirement security, Arun can be followed on LinkedIn: Listen to the full episode: thatannuityshow.com
In this episode, host Paul Tyler broadcasts from Noida, India, where he visits Zinnia's offices and speaks with their leadership team including Josh Everett (CEO of Zinnia India), Kapil Bhardwaj (Head of Global Processing), Pawan Choudhary (CTO), Rajan Agarwal (Head of Exchange Solutions), and Eti Gupta (Head of Marketing). Key highlights: Zinnia’s India operations manage an impressive 1.4 million calls annually and handle over 55% of North America’s variable annuity business, reflecting their critical role in the company’s global strategy. Once viewed as a back-office function, India’s operations have transformed into a Global Innovation Center (GIC), driving innovation and strategic growth. This shift leverages India’s diverse talent pool across key cities: Bangalore stands out as a hub for AI and tech innovation, Chennai excels in engineering and operational capabilities, and Delhi/NCR is renowned for its deep insurance expertise and skilled knowledge workers. The conversation focuses on how insurance companies need to evolve, with key recommendations to: Embrace transparency in operations Simplify complex processes Be bold in adopting new technologies Stay adaptable to changing trends Focus on building partnerships rather than vendor relationships The episode provides insights into how insurance companies can leverage India's talent and technology capabilities to transform their operations and improve customer experience.
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler and Tisa Rabun-Marshall engage with Kerra Bolton, a prolific writer and independent journalist, who shares her diverse career journey and insights into the retirement space. The conversation explores the challenges of career reinvention, the importance of understanding consumer concerns in retirement planning, and the role of fear and motivation in financial decision-making. Kerra emphasizes the significance of finding purpose in life and work, and how one's purpose can evolve over time. The episode provides valuable takeaways for financial professionals and agents on how to connect with clients and address their concerns effectively. Listen to learn more: thatannuityshow.com Learn more about Kerra:
In this episode, Paul Tyler and David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau, discuss the rapidly changing economic landscape, touching on global political trends, the implications of tariffs, market predictions, energy dynamics influenced by AI, and the impact of interest rates on the insurance industry. They explore how these factors interconnect and shape the future of the economy, emphasizing a cautious optimism moving forward.
Susan Winkler of CT IFS joins Paul Tyler as a guest host to discuss their interviews from InsureTech Connect (ITC) in Las Vegas. The podcast explores the critical intersection of climate risk and insurtech innovation, featuring conversations recorded during the conference. The episode includes insights from Stacey Brown of InsurTech Hartford discussing industry AI adoption trends; Sabine VanderLinden of Alchemy Crew examining climate risk and its impact on retirement planning; Tom Polowy of InsureGo addressing personal lines challenges in the Connecticut market; Travis Grassel from the Iowa Department of Insurance providing regulatory perspectives; and Vilas Shah of Infosys sharing sustainability initiatives and innovation budget trends for 2025.
In this episode of That Annuity Show, host Paul Tyler, along with guests Bruno Caron and Tisa Rabun-Marshall, engage in a comprehensive discussion with retirement planning expert Suzanne Norman. They explore the complexities of retirement planning, including the emotional landscape retirees face, the importance of financial literacy, and the concept of 'Peak 65' as a significant demographic shift. The conversation emphasizes the need for purpose in retirement, the role of financial advisors, and the emotional aspects of financial decision-making, particularly concerning longevity and healthcare costs. The episode concludes with insights on how to better engage clients in meaningful financial conversations. Links mentioned in the show: RISE Score and . (great for FPs and consumers). with a lot of education materials. Also, regarding the cognitive/financial topic, here are links to Chris Heye's Institute papers:
Susan Winkler of CT IFS joins Paul Tyler as a guest host to discuss their interviews from InsureTech Connect (ITC) in Las Vegas. The podcast captures conversations with key industry leaders about AI innovation in the life and annuity sector, recorded during the conference. The episode features interviews with Nagesh Cherukupalli from Cognizant, who introduces the "Three I's" framework for AI implementation; Neeraja Rasmussen of SpyGlaz AI discussing sales optimization; Kumar Das Gupta from Allianz Life sharing carrier perspectives on AI investments; John Keddy from Lazarus exploring the concept of AI as a "Digital Coworker"; and Brent Williams of Benekiva providing market validation with concrete implementation metrics. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler, Bruno Caron, and Ramsey Smith discuss the importance of reaching more people in the annuity industry with their products. They are joined by Sri Reddy, Sri Reddy, senior vice president of Retirement and Income Solutions at Principal® and a Principal Securities Registered Representative, who shares insights on retirement income solutions, pension risk transfer, and the evolving landscape of defined benefit plans. The conversation delves into consumer behavior regarding annuities, the rise of registered indexed linked annuities (RILAs), and strategies to address longevity risk. Sri also highlights the role of research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) in understanding retirement behaviors and outcomes. Learn more: thatannuityshow.com Important Information: Principal Custody Solutions assets under administration (AUA) were nearly $1 trillion as of December 31, 2023. Before investing in registered index-linked annuities, investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the contract and underlying investment options. This and other information is contained in the free prospectus which can be obtained from your local representative or online at principal.com. Please read the prospectus and, if available, the summary prospectus carefully before investing. Investment and insurance products are: · Not Insured by the FDIC or Any Federal Government Agency · Not a Deposit or Other Obligation of, or Guaranteed by Principal Bank or Any Bank Affiliate · Subject to Investment Risks, Including Possible Loss of the Principal Amount Invested Registered Index Linked Annuities do not directly participate in any stock, equity investments or index. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS Index-linked deferred annuity contracts are complex insurance and investment vehicles. This contract is a security and there is a risk of substantial loss of principal and earnings. The risk of loss may be greater when early withdrawals are taken due to any charges and adjustments applied to such withdrawals. These charges and adjustments may result in loss even when the value of a segment option has increased. Clients should consult with a financial professional about the appropriateness of this product based on their financial situation and objectives. There is risk that this segment interim value could be less than the original premium payment even if the applicable index has been performing positively. The buffer or floor rate provides limited protection. There is a possibility of a significant amount of loss of the total premium payment, credited interest and prior earnings. In the index-linked segment options it is possible that the total loss could be 100%. If clients choose to allocate amounts to an index-linked segment option subject to a cap rate, that rate limits the positive index change, if any, that may be credited to the annuity for a given segment term. The participation rate limits the positive index change, if any, that may be credited to the annuity for a given segment term. It is possible to receive less than the full protection of the buffer rate or floor rate. Once a segment lock-in is executed, it is irrevocable for that segment term. A lock-in will not be applied retroactively and can only be exercised for the entire segment option. A segment lock-in may only be exercised once per segment term for each index-linked segment option. There is no guarantee that any particular segment option or index will be available during the entire period. All guarantees and benefits of the insurance policy are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Policy guarantees and benefits are not obligations of, nor backed by, the broker/dealer and/or insurance agency selling the policy, nor by any of their affiliates, and none of them makes any representations or guarantees regarding the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Pension plan assets transferred to an insurance company group annuity contract through a Pension Risk Transfer are guaranteed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. The subject matter in this communication is educational only and provided with the understanding that Principal® is not rendering legal, accounting, investment or tax advice. You should consult with appropriate counsel, financial professionals, and other advisors on all matters pertaining to legal, tax, investment or accounting obligations and requirements. Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) is not an affiliate of any company of the Principal Financial Group®. Annuity products and services are offered through Principal Life Insurance Company®. Custody and trust services are provided by Principal Bank®, Member FDIC, and/or Principal Trust Company®. These services are provided under the trade name Principal® Custody Solutions. Principal Trust Company is a trade name of Delaware Charter Guarantee & Trust Company. Securities offered through Principal Securities, Inc., member SIPC, and/or independent broker/dealers. Principal Global Investors® leads global asset management. Referenced companies are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, Iowa 50392, principal.com. Annuities have limitations. They are long-term vehicles designed for retirement purposes. Annuities are not intended to fund short-term savings goals. Principal®, Principal Financial Group®, and Principal and the logomark design are registered trademarks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a Principal Financial Group company, in the United States and are trademarks and services marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., in various countries around the world. 3997008-102024
Today, Mike Odor, Head of Annuity Sales at Midland National Life Insurance Company and Branislav Nikolic, Managing Director, Head of Insurance at The Index Standard join us to talk about a new approach to guiding agents on how to think about recommending FIA index strategy allocations. They share insights on how the Index Standard is helping to streamline the decision-making process for agents and consumers. The conversation covers the evolution of FIA products, the importance of trust in index selection, and the need for tailored strategies based on client personas. The conversation focuses on the significance of feedback in product development and the balance between providing enough information without overwhelming users. Listen to learn more: thatannuityshow.com
Join host Paul Tyler and annuity professional Sheryl J. Moore for an illuminating discussion on the transformation of the annuity market. From innovative product design to illustration challenges, Moore shares invaluable insights on making annuities more accessible to consumers. With co-hosts Tisa Rabun-Marshall and Bruno Caron. Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 5:13 - Current State of Annuity Market 13:54 - Monte Carlo Analysis in Retirement Planning 20:05 - Product Innovation and Complexity 24:05 - Future of Illustrations 30:19 - 2025 Industry Predictions Notable Quotes: "When I started working in life insurance 25 years ago... they were describing that soon we would have electronic signatures and straight-through processing. And here we are 25 years later, and people are still struggling with it." - Sheryl J. Moore "I've been working on rebranding annuities for 20 years. Just trying to make it so that it's not the naughty stepchild of financial services." - Sheryl J. Moore
In this enlightening episode, GBU Life's Chief Marketing Officer Lesley Mann and Wealth2K founder David Macchia discuss innovative approaches to retirement planning. They introduce the concept of a "defined benefit investor" and explore how new annuity products can provide guaranteed income for younger generations. The conversation delves into the challenges of modernizing the insurance industry, the importance of digital experiences, and the need to adapt products for changing demographics, particularly women. Mann and Macchia offer insights into creating personalized “pension plans” and the future of retirement security in America. Google’s LM Notebook podcast hosts pay a surprise visit to the show. Learn more at thatannuityshow.com
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler introduces a new chapter for the podcast, featuring co-hosts Tisa Rabun-Marshall, Bruno Caron, and Michael Celi, Chief Product Officer for Zinnia. The discussion revolves around the evolution of the insurance industry, particularly focusing on product design, innovation, and the importance of understanding consumer needs. Jan Buchbaum, Chief Product Officer for Nassau Financial Group shares insights from his journey in the insurance sector and highlights the entrepreneurial mindset at Nassau. The conversation delves into the challenges and opportunities in creating guaranteed income solutions, the shifting goals of retirement planning, and the role of technology in enabling growth within the industry. Predictions for the future of annuities and the importance of collaboration in driving innovation are also discussed. Learn more: https://thatannuityshow.com
In this episode of The Annuity Show, Paul Tyler, Ramsey Smith, and Tisa Rabun-Marshall interview Justin Wee and Jayant Walia from Gainbridge Insurance, A Group 1001 Company. They discuss the innovative approach of Gainbridge, a financial collective of companies focused on insurance products. Gainbridge aims to reach underserved markets, particularly tech-savvy and younger individuals, by providing accessible and transparent annuity products. They emphasize the importance of education and trust-building in the annuity market, as well as the need for a multi-channel approach to reach different demographics. The conversation also touches on the role of human interaction in the digital customer journey and the future model for selling annuities. The conversation explores the role of technology and APIs in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) annuity market. The guests discuss the current model of agent-stalled policies and the potential for technology to provide direct access to consumers. They highlight the importance of technology in providing tools for individuals to research and make financial decisions. The guests also discuss the evolving D2C model and the challenges of designing user-friendly products and experiences. They emphasize the benefits of APIs in reducing friction, cost, and security risks in the annuity application and servicing processes. Listen to learn more: Annuities issued by Gainbridge Life Insurance Company, Zionsville, Indiana. Products and/or features may not be available in all states. All guarantees based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company. The views expressed by [Narrators] do not necessarily reflect the views of Gainbridge®. Each entity is responsible for their own content. This communication is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be interpreted as individualized investment, legal or tax advice. To obtain such advice, please consult with an appropriate professional.
In this episode, Paul Tyler interviews David Czerniecki, Nassau's Chief Investment Officer, and discusses the impact of interest rates, AI, presidential elections, and global conflicts on the insurance industry and the global economy. They talk about the expectations of interest rate cuts by the Fed and the implications for the insurance industry. They also discuss the potential bubble in AI stocks and the long-term impact of presidential elections on the economy. Additionally, they touch on the economic toll of global conflicts and the changing dynamics of world trade. Takeaways The Fed is expected to cut interest rates, which will have implications for the insurance industry. The AI industry may be experiencing a bubble, but the long-term impact is uncertain. Presidential elections have a limited short-term impact on the economy, but long-term savings habits outweigh political changes. Global conflicts have a relatively small economic impact, but the changing dynamics of world trade are significant. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Discussion of Interest Rates 07:32 The Volatility and Potential Overvaluation of the AI Market 10:29 Presidential Elections: Long-Term Economic Impact vs Short-Term Rhetoric 14:19 Global Conflicts: Limited Economic Impact on Global GDP 17:47 Changing Dynamics of World Trade: Rise of Nationalism and Economic Competition 18:45 tas-closing.mp4
In this episode of That Annuity Show, the hosts discuss the latest headlines in Retiretech and interview Michael Kalen, the CEO of Covr. They explore the impact of technology on retirement planning, the role of annuities in financial planning, and the changing landscape of the industry. They also touch on the influence of regulation and the potential for AI in the future. The conversation highlights the importance of data, transparency, and innovation in solving the retirement income problem. Takeaways Retiretech is a growing field that focuses on developing technologies and solutions specifically for retirement planning. Annuities have become a preferred product solution for retirement income, and carriers are shifting their focus from product to solution. Technology, such as AI and data-driven tools, is playing a significant role in improving decision-making and enhancing the retirement planning process. Regulation, such as the SECURE Act and the DOL rule, has had an impact on the retirement industry, driving better disclosure and best interest standards. The industry is experiencing change and innovation, with new products, solutions, mergers, and acquisitions shaping the Retiretech landscape. The integration of technology, data, and transparency is crucial in solving the retirement income problem and providing better outcomes for clients. Learn more:
In this episode of That Annuity Show, the discussion revolves around the evolving landscape of workplace marketing for brokers, producers, and advisors in the insurance industry. The guests, Ash Rofail, Yuval Sternshos, and David Cohen, the management team of OneKonnect, discuss the role of technology, data, and AI in improving the user experience, optimizing benefits, and increasing sales in the insurance industry. They highlight the importance of automation, data monitoring, and predictive analytics in identifying life-changing events and offering relevant products to customers. The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by carriers in implementing technological changes and the need for a mindset shift towards focusing on existing clients. Takeaways Technology, data, and AI are playing a crucial role in improving the user experience and optimizing benefits in the insurance industry. Automation and data monitoring can help identify life-changing events and offer relevant products to customers at the right time. Carriers need to overcome challenges such as siloed data and legacy systems to implement technological changes and provide better insights to producers and brokers. The focus should shift towards existing clients, offering better well-being solutions, educational tools, and personalized recommendations. Adoption of technology is essential for brokers, producers, and advisors to stay competitive and provide a seamless experience to their customers. Listen to this and more episodes at
In this episode of That Annuity Show, hosts Paul Tyler, Ramsey Smith, and Bruno Caron interview Sheryl J. Moore, Chief Storyteller of Wink, Inc. and author of a new book on indexed annuities. The discussion covers various aspects of the annuity industry, including product complexity, consumer education, and common misconceptions about annuities. Sheryl shares her personal experiences and insights, offering a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the annuity market. Topics: Introduction and Sheryl's Background (00:00 - 05:07) Sheryl's journey in the insurance industry Personal experience with 401(k) losses Annuity Product Complexity (05:07 - 15:38) Proliferation of index options in annuities Challenges for consumers and agents Illustration and Performance Issues (15:38 - 23:52) Backcasting and unrealistic performance illustrations Balancing simplicity and flexibility in product design Consumer Education and Misconceptions (23:52 - 34:42) Common myths about annuities Importance of accurate information for consumers Future of Annuities and Closing Thoughts (34:42 - 37:45) Sheryl's new book and its impact Final messages about annuities and retirement planning
In this episode of That Annuity Show, the hosts are joined by Arun Muralidhar, an expert in retirement security. Arun shares his journey and insights into the retirement industry, including his fight against the privatization of pensions and the need for guaranteed retirement income. He introduces the concept of Selfies (Standard of Living, Indexed, Forward Starting, Income Only Securities), a bond-like instrument that provides a steady stream of cash flows in retirement. Arun discusses the benefits of Selfies, such as marketability, inheritability, and flexibility, and explains how they can be funded by the government. He also addresses the risk pooling aspect and the potential for insurance companies to offer annuities based on Selfies. The conversation explores the concept of Selfies (Standard of Living Indexed, Forward-starting Income-only Securities) as a solution for retirement income. Selfies are a financial instrument that provides guaranteed real retirement income by hedging longevity risk. The government can issue Selfies, which are backed by cohorts, to allow insurance companies to offer guaranteed retirement income. The current retirement products in the market, such as annuities and target date funds, are complex, making them unattractive to individuals. Selfies simplify the retirement income process by allowing individuals to determine their desired retirement lifestyle and receive cash flows based on that. Takeaways Arun Muralidhar fought against the privatization of pensions and advocates for guaranteed retirement income. Selfies (Standard of Living, Indexed, Forward Starting, Income Only Securities) are bond-like instruments that provide a steady stream of cash flows in retirement. Selfies offer marketability, inheritability, and flexibility, allowing individuals to make decisions based on their financial conditions and life events. The government can fund Selfies by replacing existing debt with this instrument, providing a low-risk option for retirement savings. Insurance companies can potentially offer annuities based on Selfies, leveraging risk pooling and diversification. Selfies are a financial instrument that provides guaranteed real retirement income by hedging longevity risk. The government can issue Selfies, which are backed by cohorts, to allow insurance companies to offer guaranteed retirement income. Current retirement products in the market, such as annuities and target date funds, are complex, making them unattractive to individuals. Selfies simplify the retirement income process by allowing individuals to determine their desired retirement lifestyle and receive cash flows based on that. Subscribe and tune in for a new episode every Friday: www.thatannuityshow.com
Join us as we revisit a panel discussion from Retiretech Vegas, April 2024: When should retirement planning start? How should the experience change not only for Baby Boomers but for Millenials, Gen Z, and Gen Y? We will talk about innovations in product and engagement that will change how the process occurs in the future. Moderator: Jonathan Kalman, EOS Ventures Speakers: Alison Susko, Asset–Map; David Macchia, Wealth2K; Farooq Sheikh, Unqork; Sri Reddy, Principal Financial Group Learn more about Retiretech by visiting www.imagine.nfg.com
Join us as we revisit a panel discussion from Retiretech Vegas, April 2024 Seeking Stable Growth - Designing The Next Generation of Annuities In the past decade, interest in fixed-indexed annuities has surged, grabbing a substantial market share. With ongoing innovation in indices and shifts in the macroeconomic landscape, various crediting strategies have emerged. Looking ahead to 2024, amidst persistent high rates and market volatility, what transformations can we expect in our products? And, crucially, how should advisors adapt their recommendations to navigate this dynamic landscape? Moderator: Branislav Nikolic, The Index Standard Speakers: Bobby Samuelson, Life Innovators; Tamiko Toland, Toland Consulting; Jason Fichtner, Alliance for Lifetime Income Learn more about Retiretech:
In this episode, Paul Tyler, Tisa Rabun-Marshall, Laura Dinan Haber, and Heather Brown discuss the challenges and opportunities of implementing AI in the insurance industry. They highlight the importance of making digital marketing expertise accessible for agents and the need for customized content at scale. The team shares their experiences with generative AI and the feedback they have received from agents. They also discuss the challenges of keeping up with the rapidly changing technology landscape and the need for continuous testing and learning. The episode concludes with predictions on the future adoption of AI in the industry. Takeaways Making digital marketing expertise accessible for agents is crucial in the insurance industry. Customized content at scale is in high demand. The rapidly changing technology landscape poses challenges in keeping up and requires continuous testing and learning. The adoption of AI in the insurance industry is expected to increase in the future.
Summary In this episode, Emma Roloff, co-founder of Roloff Consulting, discusses the power of personal branding and digital transformation in sales and marketing. She shares a three-step framework for digital growth strategies: educate, connect, and consult. Emma explains the different platforms and their target demographics, including LinkedIn for professionals, Facebook for older demographics, Instagram for a median age group, and TikTok for a wide range of age groups. She also emphasizes the importance of organic growth and personal branding in building trust and authority. In this conversation, Ema Roloff discusses the importance of authenticity and finding one's content pillars. She emphasizes the need for individuals to understand who they are and what they are passionate about in order to create meaningful content. Ema also addresses the challenges faced by those stuck in the 'rinse cycle' of IT projects and offers advice for both individuals and executives. Additionally, she provides content creation suggestions for Bruno Caron and Tisa Rabun-Marshall based on their unique backgrounds and interests. Takeaways Personal branding is essential for building trust and authority in sales and marketing.The three-step framework for digital growth strategies is educate, connect, and consult. Different platforms have different target demographics, such as LinkedIn for professionals, Facebook for older demographics, Instagram for a median age group, and TikTok for a wide range of age groups. Organic growth and creating content that resonates with your target audience are key to success. Investing in your personal brand and focusing on educating your audience can lead to more organic growth. Creating content pillars and organizing your content around them can help you show up consistently and provide value to your audience. Authenticity is key in content creation. It is important to understand who you are and what you are passionate about in order to create meaningful content. Individuals stuck in the 'rinse cycle' of IT projects should focus on understanding the reasons behind the current situation and finding ways to add clarity or impact their skill set to initiate change. Executives should listen to their teams and understand the challenges they face. Building digital literacy and setting realistic expectations are crucial for effective leadership. Community involvement can be a valuable content pillar. Sharing experiences and supporting organizations can make a positive impact and attract a wider audience.
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Jim Kerley discusses his report titled 'Shifting Distribution, Changing Mindset: Why Advisors Aren't Talking to Consumers About Life Insurance.' The report explores the reasons why advisors are not discussing life insurance with their clients and the implications for the industry. Kerley emphasizes that there is a demand for life insurance, with 102 million people in the US being underinsured or without insurance. The problem lies in the lack of conversation between advisors and consumers. Kerley suggests that changing the insurance mindset of advisors and making life insurance a part of their investment portfolio can help address this issue. Takeaways There is a demand for life insurance, with 102 million people in the US being underinsured or without insurance. The problem lies in the lack of conversation between advisors and consumers about life insurance. Changing the insurance mindset of advisors and making life insurance a part of their investment portfolio can help address the issue. Technology, such as AI, can play a role in making the conversation about life insurance easier and more efficient. Education and awareness about the benefits of life insurance are crucial in increasing demand and closing the protection gap.
Join us as we revisit a panel from Retiretech Vegas 2024: Consolidation has permanently changed the face of independent distribution forever. Or has it? We will explore the next phase of consolidation and new forms of distribution that may potentially evolve. Moderator: James Wong, Partners Advantage Speakers: Patrick Kelly, Signal Advisors; Tyler End, Retirable; Wes Severin, Symetra; Brian Lucius, Gradient Financial Group
In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler and David Czerniecki are joined by John Beshoory to discuss the energy sector and the impact of technology on the economy. They explore the fundamental changes happening in the energy sector, such as the shift towards renewable energy sources like solar and wind. They also discuss the role of technology, particularly AI, in driving energy consumption and its potential impact on productivity. The conversation touches on topics like inflation, the impact of politics on the economy, and the future of the energy sector in terms of dividends and growth. Takeaways The energy sector is undergoing fundamental changes, with a shift towards renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Technology, particularly AI, is driving energy consumption, especially in data centers, and is expected to have a significant impact on productivity. Inflation remains a concern, and the economy is likely to experience ups and downs as the Federal Reserve tackles the issue. The outcome of the presidential election and political dynamics will play a role in shaping the economy, but the impact may vary depending on the balance of power. Dividend investing in the energy sector is still in the early stages, with more focus on growth opportunities. Key indicators to watch for the state of the economy include inflation, the job market, consumer confidence, consumer spending, and household debt.
Merging the worlds of investment and income planning is no small challenge. Mark Shemtob, Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and CFP does this every day with his clients. Mark approaches retirement income from three perspectives: as an actuary, working with individuals, and working with retirement plans. He emphasizes the importance of diversification and the combination of investments and annuities. Mark explains that for most people, it is almost always better to have some guarantee of income in retirement. He also discusses the challenges of getting the investment world and the insurance world to mix and suggests that record keepers could play a role in offering retirement income options. Mark advocates for a centralized solution where people can collect their retirement savings and receive advice on how to best utilize those funds. Takeaways Diversification is key in retirement income planning, and a combination of investments and annuities can provide a balanced approach. For most people, having some guarantee of income in retirement is better than relying solely on investments. The challenge lies in getting the investment world and the insurance world to work together, but record keepers could play a role in offering retirement income options. There is a need for a centralized solution where people can collect their retirement savings and receive unbiased advice on how to best utilize those funds.
In this episode, Paul Tyler, Bruno Caron, and Ramsey Smith interview Alex Khassa, CEO and founder of Clients Black Box, Inc., about his success in helping financial advisors get more clients virtually using Facebook ads. Alex shares his backstory and how he transitioned from being a fractional CMO to focusing on helping financial advisors. He explains his unique approach to Facebook ads and the importance of creating multiple variations of ads to find what works best. Alex also emphasizes the need for collaboration with clients and the importance of focusing on the right target audience. He discusses the conversion rates and average case sizes his clients experience and offers advice for advisors with smaller budgets who want to generate customers online. The episode concludes with a discussion on the challenges faced by direct-to-consumer companies and the key factors that contribute to Alex's success. Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaakhassa/
In this episode of That Annuity Show, the hosts discuss the use of AI in financial advisory services with guest Jens Nordvig, CEO of Exante Data and co-founder and CEO of Market Reader. Nordvig explains how Market Reader uses AI to generate real-time market insights and explanations for various assets and events. The tool scans multiple sources, including news wires and social media, with the goal of providing concise and accurate explanations of market movements. The hosts explore the potential applications of AI in the insurance & financial industry, such as creating customized newsletters, improving portfolio performance analysis, and enhancing risk management.
Today's episode is a special keynote recorded at RetiretechTM Vegas on April 9, 2024, where host Paul Tyler welcomes Michele Trogni, CEO of Zinnia, to discuss the transformative impact of technology on the life annuity and health business. Trogni highlights how technology is bringing transparency, simplification, standardization, and productivity to the industry, revolutionizing the retirement sector. The discussion covers the importance of embedded distribution, enabling advisors to service clients efficiently and provide a seamless experience. Trogni emphasizes the need for companies to focus on outcomes and embrace data-driven decision-making to drive productivity and growth. The episode also explores the challenges and opportunities in adopting new technologies, with insights into leveraging AI, enhancing call center operations, and selecting strategic partnerships. Throughout the conversation, the focus remains on simplifying insurance processes, enhancing customer experiences, and driving industry growth through technological innovation. Learn more about RetiretechTM by visiting: Watch the full interview:
Join hosts Paul Tyler, Tisa Rabun-Marshall, Bruno Caron, Ramsey Smith, and guest Graham Clark from Alex Income as they delve into the pivotal role annuities can play in retirement planning. Learn more about ALEX.fyi: and ALEXIncome: Connect with Ramsey Smith, Founder and CEO: Connect with Graham Clark, Partner and Head of Product: Tune in to the full episode catalogue:
In this episode, we delve into the dynamic landscape of annuities and retirement markets, exploring the promising opportunities of 2024 amidst the evolving Retiretech scene. Join moderator Doug Roth of CT Innovations and industry experts Ray Jang from Primetime Partners, Marie-Christine Razaire representing Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, and Andrew Wegrzyn of SixThirty Ventures as they discuss strategies for making smart bets on the future of retirement. Discover insights on navigating the shifting sands of valuation resets and uncover the untapped potential that lies within the annuity and broader retirement markets. Gain exclusive access to expert predictions on which opportunities are primed for success in 2024 and which ventures are poised to attract funding. Subscribe now to unlock valuable insights and actionable strategies: This episode was recorded live at Retiretech Vegas in April 2024. Click to watch the full panel:
In this episode of That Annuity Show, recorded live at RetiretechTM Vegas, we delve into the dynamic interplay between technology, regulation, and innovation within the insurance industry. Our panelists, including Commissioners Andrew Mais from Connecticut, Nathan Houdek from Wisconsin, Kathleen Birrane from Maryland, and Troy Downing from Montana, along with moderator George Esposito of Zinnia, lead a discussion on the pivotal role of artificial intelligence (AI) in reshaping the landscape of insurance. Throughout the conversation, they stress the crucial balance between fostering innovation and maintaining regulatory oversight to uphold fair treatment of policyholders. With a keen eye on the potential risks associated with AI and machine learning, the panelists underscored the importance of financial literacy and ongoing consumer education initiatives. As the dialogue unfolds, technological advancements in insurance distribution emerge as a central theme, highlighting the transformative potential of AI-driven solutions. The panelists emphasized the need for collaboration among regulators, industry stakeholders, and consumers to navigate this evolving terrain effectively. Tune in as we explore the nuanced dynamics of insurance regulation and technology, offering insights into how industry players can adapt and thrive in an ever-changing landscape. Learn more about RetiretechTM at Watch the full panel: Insuring Tomorrow: Navigating the Regulatory Environment of the AI and Tech Revolution,
On April 8-10, we held our third RetiretechTM event...this time in Las Vegas. Joe Jordan joined us as a keynote speaker. The next day, we caught up with him in the expo hall of RetiretechTM Las Vegas and talked to him more about the future of purpose-driven retirement planning. Learn more: https://imagine.nfg.com/retiretech-2024/
Tamiko Toland and Michael Finke join us today as founders of Income Path. Income Path is a tool that visualizes retirement income paths and the impact of annuities on that journey. A conversation with Bill Sharpe in 2018 provided the spark for this new venture. The tool aims to shift the narrative from fear-based discussions to positive outcomes and flexibility. It allows individuals to modulate their annuity allocation and equity allocation to create the desired income path. The target audience for Income Path includes financial professionals and institutions, and the tool can be used throughout retirement to evaluate and adjust income plans. Takeaways Income Path is a tool that visualizes retirement income paths and the impact of annuities on those paths. The tool aims to shift the narrative from fear-based discussions to positive outcomes and flexibility. Individuals can modulate their annuity allocation and equity allocation to create the desired income path. Income Path is targeted towards financial professionals and institutions and can be used throughout retirement to evaluate and adjust income plans. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Guest Introductions 01:05 Genesis of Income Path 05:29 The Modeling of a Variable Annuity 06:52 The Value of Income Path and Annuities 07:22 Shifting the Narrative from Fear to Positive Outcomes 08:15 Coming Together to Create Income Path 09:18 Shifting the Perception of Annuities 10:12 The Flexibility and Offensive Role of Annuities 12:45 Visualizing Retirement Income Paths 14:17 Shifting Mindsets and Behavioral Inputs 21:43 The Impact of Annuities on Longevity Risk 23:08 Considering Healthcare Costs in Retirement 25:38 Target Audience and Launch Strategy 28:04 Inspiring Visualization and Flexibility 29:37 The Impact of Income Path on Advisors and Annuity Sales 32:47 Bringing Visual Tools to the Market 33:33 Closing Remarks and Thank You
217 - The Peak 65 Zone Is Here With Jason Fichtner Jason Fichtner, Chief Economist, Bipartisan Policy Center & Executive Director, Retirement Income Institute, Alliance for Lifetime Income joins us today to talk to us about his latest paper. Jason recently released the 2024 edition of “The Peak 65® Zone Is Here – Creating A New Framework For America’s Retirement Security". On our show, Jason Fichtner discusses this paper, the retirement income challenge, and the need for protected income strategies. He highlights the moment and the retirement challenges faced by the baby boomer generation. Fichtner emphasizes the transition from defined benefit to defined contribution plans and the importance of optimizing Social Security benefits. He also discusses the use of bridge annuities to convert retirement assets into a stream of income. The role of the workplace in retirement planning and the need for prescriptive advice are also discussed. The conversation explores the need for protected income products in defined contribution plans and the role of defaults in retirement planning. It also discusses the importance of educational tools and calculators for retirement planning and the impact of narrative framing and behavioral elements in retirement decision making. The narrative on retirement income strategies is changing, and there is a need to expand the message and address retirement security for multiple generations. Takeaways: The retirement income challenge is a significant issue, with many individuals struggling to convert their retirement assets into a stream of income that will last their lifetime. The Peak 65 moment is approaching, with millions of Americans turning 65 each year. This highlights the urgency to address retirement challenges and ensure financial security for retirees. The transition from defined benefit to defined contribution plans has shifted the responsibility of retirement savings and income planning to individuals. This has created a need for protected income strategies, such as annuities. Employers play a crucial role in retirement planning, as employees often trust them for information and guidance. Employers can provide education and resources to help employees make informed decisions about their retirement income. Protected income products should be included in defined contribution plans to provide retirement security. Defaults can play a role in retirement planning by offering options that fit the majority of the population, with an opt-out option. Educational tools and calculators can help individuals understand the benefits of delaying social security and bridge the gap in retirement income. Narrative framing and behavioral elements are important in influencing retirement decision making. The conversation on retirement income strategies is shifting towards a holistic approach. There is a need to expand the message on retirement security and address the challenges faced by multiple generations. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 00:47 Jason's Roles and Expertise 04:13 Peak 65 and Retirement Challenges 05:11 Financial Challenges and Trust Fund Insolvency 06:03 Transition from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution 07:25 Personal Experience and Retirement Savings 08:11 Optimizing Social Security Benefits 10:04 Bridge Annuities and Protected Income 11:29 Calculating Retirement Income 16:23 Role of the Workplace in Retirement Planning 21:50 Protected Income Products in Defined Contribution Plans 23:27 The Role of Defaults in Retirement Planning 25:17 Educational Tools and Calculators for Retirement Planning 30:20 Narrative Framing and Behavioral Elements in Retirement Decision-Making 35:02 Changing the Narrative on Retirement Income Strategies 38:03 Expanding the Message and Addressing Retirement Security 39:51 The Retirement Challenges for Multiple Generations Read more here:
In this episode, Paul Tyler and David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau, discusss various economic topics, including China's economic slowdown, energy prices, inflation, and global conflicts. They explore the implications of these issues on the global economy and provide insights into potential future developments. Takeaways China's economic slowdown has implications for the equity markets, interest rates, and global growth. Energy prices have remained stable despite conflicts and disruptions in shipping lanes. Achieving the target inflation rate of 2% has been challenging due to sticky prices in the services sector. Global conflicts, while tragic, have had a muted economic impact so far. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:05 China's Economic Slowdown 09:01 Inflation 14:06 Global Conflicts
Summary Ron Gura, the co-founder and CEO of Empathy joins us today on our show. Empathy aims to provide support and guidance to individuals who have lost a loved one, helping them navigate the administrative and emotional aspects of the process. He shares his personal journey and the inspiration behind starting Empathy. The conversation delves into the workflow and touchpoints of Empathy's services, the co-branded experience for carriers and producers, and the impact of Empathy's services on claimants. The episode concludes with a discussion on breaking the taboo around death and the value of experience over product in the insurance industry. Takeaways Empathy is a company that provides support and guidance to individuals who have lost a loved one, helping them navigate the administrative and emotional aspects of the process. The taboo around death and loss needs to be broken, and conversations about mortality and end-of-life planning should be encouraged. Empathy offers a co-branded experience for carriers and producers, allowing them to provide personalized support and resources to their policyholders and beneficiaries. Having conversations about death and end-of-life planning is essential, and individuals should take the time to discuss their wishes and make necessary arrangements with their loved ones. Experience and support are more important than the product itself in the insurance industry, and companies should focus on delivering a positive customer experience throughout the claims process. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Weather Update 01:03 The Importance of Life Insurance Claims 02:07 Introduction of Guest: Ron Gura, Co-founder and CEO at Empathy 03:06 The Taboo Topic of Death and Empathy's Mission 04:12 Ron Gura's Background and Journey to Empathy 06:26 The Impact of Personal Loss on Ron Gura's Mission 08:25 The Need for Conversations About Loss and Death 10:04 The Workflow and Touchpoints of Empathy's Services 11:25 The Co-branded Experience for Carriers and Agents 13:26 The Administrative Support Provided by Empathy 15:44 The Impact of Empathy's Services on Claimants 17:44 The Logistics and Timing of Introducing Further Business Relationships 19:02 The Importance of Breaking the Taboo Around Death 23:20 The Value of Experience Over Product in the Insurance Industry 31:10 The Right Time and Approach to Introduce Further Business Relationships 35:12 Closing Thoughts and Advice on Having Conversations About Death 38:33 Conclusion and Call to Action
Summary Andrew Unkefer, an industry legend joins us to talk about the importance of relationships in the industry, the impact of technology, the future of the producer and IMO space, the shift to virtual meetings, consolidation in the industry, the impact of regulation, and the integration of estate planning and financial solutions. Andrew also shares his personal focus and future plans. Takeaways Relationships are still a key aspect of the insurance industry and producers and IMOs that prioritize serving their producers and building partnerships will thrive. The industry is experiencing a shift towards virtual meetings, with some producers successfully initiating relationships and conducting business through platforms like Zoom. Consolidation is happening in the industry, and producers and IMOs need to adapt and concentrate their businesses to remain successful. The integration of estate planning and financial solutions presents a significant opportunity for producers to provide a higher level of benefits and services to their clients. Regulation is an ongoing concern in the industry, but state-level protection can help ensure consumer protection and maintain the integrity of the industry. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:22 Starting in the Insurance Industry 03:16 Educating People about Annuities 06:08 The Importance of Technology in the Industry 07:31 The Persistence of Paper Kits and Brochures 08:08 The Future of the Producer and IMO Space 09:05 The Shift to Virtual Meetings 10:42 The Importance of Relationships in the Industry 12:09 Consolidation and Changes in the Industry 13:31 The Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Marketing 15:03 Regulation and the Future of the Industry20:27 The Integration of Estate Planning and Financial Solutions 25:26 The Magnitude of the Opportunity for Estate Planners 30:35 The Importance of Celebrating Producers 34:09 The Impact of Regulation on the Industry 37:01 Future Plans and Personal Focus
Zinnia provides technology and administrative services to over 40 life, annuity, and retirement carriers. We had the opportunity to discuss the future of insurance service and technology with Michele Trogni, CEO at Zinnia and Operating partner at Eldridge, and George Esposito, General Counsel, Head of Business Development for Zinnia in their Greenwich, CT offices. As it just so happened, Zinnia announced that it will acquire Ebix Inc.'s Life and Annuity software assets shortly after we met. We quickly added a short interview with Michele to understand what it means for their company and customers going forward. Highlights: Michele Trogni, CEO of Zinnia and operating partner of Eldridge, discusses simplifying insurance through data and technology. Zinnia serves carriers, advisors, and consumers with the goal of modernizing the "rails" of the insurance industry. They are shifting from just a TPA (third party administrator) to a broader technology and data provider focused on carrier growth and better customer experiences. Zinnia has built an extensible data platform called Zahara to enable faster product development and innovation. They aim to facilitate insurance distribution through acquisitions like PolicyGenius. Pending acquisition of Ebix, will expand Zinnia's capabilities from back-office to front-end distribution solutions. Culture focused on collaboration, learning, and delivering value is key, as is having a bold vision to transform the industry.
Summary In this episode, Paul Tyler and his guests discuss the Department of Labor's new rules and their implications for insurance agents. They explore the impact on independent agents and the potential migration towards the RIA industry. The conversation also touches on public policy considerations and the need for proper regulation. Michelle Richter-Gordon shares her insights and highlights the importance of understanding the new rules and their potential risks. The episode concludes with a discussion on advocacy and the resources available to navigate these changes. Takeaways The Department of Labor's new rules will have a significant impact on insurance agents, particularly independent agents. There is a need for proper regulation that takes into account the unique characteristics of insurance products and the role of insurance agents. The new rules may lead to a migration towards the RIA industry as agents seek to operate under an investment advising regime. It is important for agents to understand the new rules and their potential risks, and how to help address these potential risks. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:41 Introducing Michelle Richter Gordon 03:02 The Department of Labor's New Rules 05:06 Implications for Insurance Agents 07:58 Public Policy Considerations 10:05 Long-Term Impact on the Industry 13:36 Potential Impact on Unqualified Funds 15:33 The Definition of Investment Advisor 18:12 Democratization of Retirement Planning 19:52 The Purpose of Annuities 20:10 Michelle's Work and Future Plans 30:38 Advocacy and Seeking Help 33:08 Final Thoughts Show Notes: ARC Presents Critical Information for Annuity Fiduciaries recording: Q&A registration, for 2/14/24 at 3pm Eastern, for anyone who has questions about the provocative content in the recording above, here: NAFA Webinars: Axonic Insurance Solutions launch press release: Michelle's Letter to DOL:
Summary James Wong, our guest today, shares his perspective on the future of annuity distribution. The main takeaway…build strong relationships today in order to navigate the changing landscape of the industry tomorrow. The conversation covers industry associations, survey work, product innovation, acquisitions, and the implications for agents and agencies. James also introduces the concept of the Founder's Chair, which aims to support entrepreneurs in the insurance industry.
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Paul Tyler and Tisa Rabun-Marshall interview Marshall Heitzman, VP of Advanced Planning Consulting at TruStage. They discuss the role of annuities in comprehensive planning and the importance of understanding clients' values and goals. Marshall shares his personal experience with behavioral finance techniques and how they can help advisors connect with clients on a deeper level. They also explore the evolution of annuity products and the benefits of including adult children in financial conversations. The episode concludes with recommendations for further reading and ways to reach out for assistance. Takeaways Understanding clients' values and goals is crucial in comprehensive planning with annuities. Behavioral finance techniques can help advisors connect with clients on a deeper level and engage them in the planning process. Including adult children in financial conversations can strengthen relationships and ensure continuity of the client-advisor relationship. Simplifying the planning process and focusing on clients' values can lead to better client retention and referrals. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:18 Marshall's Career and Skills 02:15 Case Design and Solution Design for Annuities 03:35 Types of Advisors Working with Annuities 04:57 Overcoming Objections and Regulatory Changes 05:21 Behavioral Finance Techniques for Advisors 06:11 Time Objections and Building Relationships 07:49 Coaching Time-Pressed Advisors 08:18 Slowing Down and Having Conversations 09:47 Annuities as Estate Planning Tools 11:31 Evolution of Annuity Products 13:26 Behavioral Finance Conversation Techniques 14:08 Personal Story and Connecting with Clients 16:47 Communicating with Women in the Household 19:37 Better Client Retention and Referrals 24:39 Changing Advisor Mindset and Approach 26:11 Simplifying the Planning Process 30:09 Recommendations and Conclusion Paul Tyler (00:00.154) Hi, this is Paul Tyler and welcome to another episode of That Annuity Show. Tisa, how are you? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (00:08.246) Doing good, Paul. Good morning. Paul Tyler (00:10.578) It's good to see you and we've got another great guest today on our show, Mr. Marshall Heitzman, okay, who is the, an advanced planning consultant, vice president at TruStage. Marshall, did I introduce you correctly? Marshall Heitzman (00:27.793) That's it. Yeah, good morning. Paul Tyler (00:29.486) All right, well, for our listeners, I think we'll have some interesting conversation that a lot of our listeners will find useful. Do you wanna just sort of tell us, you know, who are you and, you know, what do you do at TruStage? Marshall Heitzman (00:42.568) Yeah, thanks. Marshall Heitzman, I am, as you said, VP of Advanced Planning Consulting at TruStage. I'm actually dedicated to their annuity distribution channel. So I'm doing advanced planning just on our annuity opportunities. And I think of it this way. I brought in as the strategy that leads to investment solutions. And so I'm kind of building out that strategy, talking the talk for. those who are maybe leaning more towards the planning side of the business. Paul Tyler (01:18.238) Well, excellent. And just maybe by way of background, you know, you've had a very interesting, you know, career, I think, working at a variety of different types of companies, right? I think you've worked at some fraternals. I know, I think you were at a large planning firm. Yeah, I guess, what, you know, skills do you bring to a role like this? Marshall Heitzman (01:45.216) Yeah, I would say that I've had kind of a diverse career a little bit a lot of sales support But I have done some roles in supervision and compliance And now back into sales support again, and like I said directly Dedicated to annuities at this moment, even though in the past I've done investment advisory and been on The the full investment planning comprehensive planning side of the business in the past Tisa Rabun-Marshall (02:15.586) So Marshall, can you speak a little bit about, I guess, either the case design or the solution design that you're working on as it relates to annuities? It sounds like you've either been brought in or come in recently to rethink the tools, right, and the solutions that the agents are offering. So can you just speak a little bit about, you know, what it is you're working on? Marshall Heitzman (02:37.856) Sure, as we've expanded our distribution primarily to independent advisors, bank advisors, in addition to our long history working with credit union advisors, we've realized there's approaches that are diverse, they're different depending on how, especially in the independent space, how an advisor wants to create their business. And we know that many are Doing more comprehensive planning, more what I would consider to be goals-based planning, and maybe it's taking just one step back from that annuity or investment solution and analyzing what are the objectives of the client, what are the goals, what are we really trying to solve here, and making sure that our solutions that we would recommend actually fit and advance them towards that goal. Paul Tyler (03:35.866) Maybe talk to us a little bit about the types of advisors you're working with. We talked about this just before the show started, but maybe give us your segmentation of the people you're working with to help sell or help introduce and make successful in the annuity space. Marshall Heitzman (03:54.824) Yeah, you know, you've seen it, our industry is changing before our very eyes, right? There used to be some clear delineations between those who used insurance products and those who didn't. And now, maybe regulatory changes, maybe we're just becoming a little bit more aware of everything else around us. There's many, many more advisors that maybe haven't used annuities so much in the past that are now. They're recognizing especially if they're doing goals-based planning And I'm gonna say in this best interest regulatory environment They're realizing well if the client says this is what I want Honestly, the best solution is this product and maybe I haven't used that very much in the past But if this is what the client is describing that they want and I know that this is the best solution I better be prepared to be able to offer that solution, right? Paul Tyler (04:57.742) Yeah, well you mentioned regulation and when the regulation gets more intense in a particular space, sometimes people don't want to get in. How do you get advisors today who may not necessarily consider annuities to be core to their business to either consider them or start a conversation with a client that leads to the sale of an annuity? Marshall Heitzman (05:08.125) Mm-hmm. Marshall Heitzman (05:21.992) Our firm, and I know there's a lot of firms out there, but our firm in particular is very interested in behavioral finance. We've adopted and applied our behavioral finance techniques really across the board. We have every one of our annuity distribution channel employees earn a behavioral finance certification so that we can show advisors what we're talking about, apply it to their... to their practice, to their goals analysis, and help them dig in to those client relationships. Really find what is most important to the client and are we aligning our financial goals towards those most important values. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (06:11.746) Do you find you hit objections from, Paul was sort of talking about getting agents or advisors to start working with annuities with this goals-based planning that you're describing. Do you find objections around the time? If they're sitting in a bank or just more transactionally focused, it sounds like to me, obviously, to share the level of detail you would need to, to understand goals and motivations and all that. It takes some time. It might be two, three, four appointments building that relationship. Do you find any objection on that side or is the kind of tool well received, value understood right away? Just curious what you might be hearing from agents or advisors when you're rolling this out. Marshall Heitzman (06:55.052) No, it's a great question and the answer is yes. We do get that objection a lot. You know, I don't have time for this. I've got a lot of clients. And let's face it, a lot of clients are transactional. That's what they want to be. They don't really want to dig into all the planning. But I guess part of the lesson that we've learned hearing back from advisors who have tried some of the concepts and applied it to their business is that playing that long game can really pay off. Longer, deeper relationships, not even with those clients, but also with their family. It's a great referral source. And to be honest, it connects with those clients who really would rather go to the dentist than sit down with their financial advisor and talk about their financial plan. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (07:34.134) Right, the referrals. Paul Tyler (07:49.498) So listen, Marshall, I'm an agent who, actually I'm a financial advisor. Yeah, I'm one of those time-pressed agents that Tisa just talked about. I want to drop a ticket and sort of move on. How do you coach me through the process of slowing down enough to have that conversation? And also tell me how you help me start to use some of these great behavioral finance techniques you have. Well, I want to learn a few tricks. Marshall Heitzman (08:04.085) Mm-hmm. Marshall Heitzman (08:18.524) You know, we've got, not tricks, not tricks. You know, this is a relationship business and I know that even our transactional clients, we have some relationship with many of them, right? We know what's going on and at least we're engaging in some small talk with what's going on in their lives and certainly we wanna earn more of their business beyond the one transaction that they walk in with. Paul Tyler (08:19.798) Not Shrex. Marshall Heitzman (08:46.768) It's all part about cultivating that relationship, asking them questions. And ultimately, the conversation we wanna get to is that values question. What is most important to you? And if they don't know, we've got exercises that we can introduce that helps them discover what their most important values are. And I'm going to add that a lot of advisors listening right now are probably saying, well, I already do that, I just ask them. A lot of times what we're hearing from advisors is that they go through these exercises and their clients kind of self-discover for themselves one or two most important values that they didn't really think about or working with their spouse. They realize something new about their spouse and how they're working together and what's their top values collectively that maybe they weren't feeding into or designing their financial plan. to deliver on. Paul Tyler (09:47.862) Well, so just pushing a little bit more on the plan. You know, sometimes you don't really... People don't really think of annuities as estate planning, but they can be. And we see that with, you know, some of our customers. And Marshall, I think of our products in buckets, and I'd say we've worked hard to try to get a product in a lot of these categories. My category... When I think about annuities from an estate planning perspective, I think, first of all, you're going in... You're starting, you're almost approaching those retirement years. You don't really know what's going to happen. You know, we need more money. I think the, uh, some of these growth annuities have played a very good role to sort of accelerate the building that nest egg. Um, uh, some products I see have, I would almost describe them as the Swiss army knives of early estate planning. Oh, you didn't have insurance or you didn't, you'd like a little more death. coverage. Okay, we've got enhanced death benefits. You don't have long-term care insurance like most people. We've got a long-term care rider. Oh, and there's some liquidity in case some emergencies come up and you need an emergency fund. And then you kind of get all the way out at the end. And I've seen these bonus annuities really take off as people said, you know, I bought annuity 10 years ago, but I'd really like some of the features. I like some of the withdrawal benefits, some of the lifetime income benefits. Let's sort of... move over to something and take advantage of these new class of products. Where do you see... did I miss a category? And where do you see some of the evolution taking place on the product side here to help for those conversations? Marshall Heitzman (11:31.476) Exactly what you've described, you know, there's that variety of products. There's been a lot of evolution in product design, especially recently, I would say, in the annuity space. So the challenge, I think, is for firms to keep it simple. And we've got products that have a lot of those features that you described, and how do you offer something that's sophisticated and advanced. but also keeping it simple enough for not only advisors to understand, but also to be able to explain to their clients. I think that's the real challenge. We are in that RILA space. And even though we've seen a lot of movement towards fixed annuities with interest rates rising so quickly, long-term, like I said, we play the long game. We think the... the advantage of having the RILA space, a little bit more growth potential, is what we're hearing most clients need. They want the protection, of course, but many of them, in order to reach those goals, need more growth than what our fairly flat interest rates have been delivering over, let's say, probably two decades. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (12:56.778) Marshall, kind of going back to the behavioral finance concept, you talked about discovering new values or new goals. I'm just curious if you could share a couple of like, it's a two-part question. One is, is that a fully guided conversation by the advisor? Is there any sort of pre or individual kind of self-assessment work leading into the conversation that the client would do? And then just an example of a question or two to sort of tap into or discover those new values. I'm just curious what that talk track might sound like. Marshall Heitzman (13:37.364) Yeah, we've created some scripting, or at least like an outline. And those familiar with planning, they're going to recognize that a lot of the scripting and the leading questions and so forth, are gonna kind of follow that financial planning model. In our pre-conversations, you guys invited me to share stories. So if you want me to share a very personal story about what really convinced me this works, I will. Paul Tyler (14:02.847) Absolutely. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (14:03.746) Sure. Marshall Heitzman (14:08.101) It's my wife, so I'll say up front, I have full permission to share this story. I do often, she's pretty proud of it. But connecting with those clients who really don't like to handle their finances and just kind of want to get it over with in the meeting, do what they have to do, and move on with their lives. I would say that's my wife. I'm in this space, I understand what we're talking about. I'm the technician. mathematics degree, this is how I think, right? Numbers, goals, progress. My wife is the opposite. She's a creative, she's an artistic. And so the numbers are kind of meaningless to her. The way she thinks about our future retirement is the dreams, the concepts. Tell me what I can do. That's what... behavioral finance opened up. I was preparing our own behavioral finance presentations. I practice on her. She's a great test audience. And I presented a behavioral finance presentation just to her. And it really connected. More than just evaluating my performance. She's digging into, in fact, she stole my laptop. She turned it around. She's... Tisa Rabun-Marshall (15:31.059) Yes. Marshall Heitzman (15:31.884) paging through the slides and the notes, and she's saying, this is really good. And what really convinced me that this was effective was she said, if we had an advisor who talked to me this way, I would become more involved. Well, that was the moment, literally, that sold me on this concept as a way to connect with those clients who'd... really don't wanna do this, right? They're doing what they have to do. But it connected with her. And I don't think she's very different than probably half the population out there. And if it connects with her, if it pulls her into the planning process, obviously she's gonna be more invested, she's going to be more committed to keeping that plan and following through with that plan if we just put it in terms that she can relate to. She doesn't care about the numbers or returns. or budgets, she doesn't care to see that zero-based budget. What she wants to know is, what does my retirement look like? What am I gonna be able to do? Put it in those terms for me, and she's engaged. Paul Tyler (16:47.722) So I'm really curious, thank you for sharing that story. What was it that really hooked her in? My wife, sorry, I'm not very, she, she's just, she kind of dials, she turns, she has a volume knob that kind of turns off, so Marshall, I should take a lesson from you here. So what was it that really was the hook? Was it a question, was it a picture, was it a story? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (16:57.634) Do you have permission, Paul? That's the first question. Paul Tyler (17:15.758) that pulled her into the presentation you're making. Marshall Heitzman (17:20.956) It was the description of the approach and the style. The fact that we were getting away from hard facts, hard numbers appealed to her. The conversation around having, and no sales in that entire first meeting. We're talking about engaging with somebody, peeling the onion, what is most important to you? How do we design your finances to help you live those most important values. What is most important to you? How do you see yourself living it? And then we design your plan to deliver on that. That connected with her. She understood the. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (18:07.218) Yeah, I like the story too because I think it's a pretty known fact that who decision makers tend to be in households are often ignored in the meeting with the couple. Paul Tyler (18:22.978) You can say it. Go ahead, Tisa. You can say it. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (18:29.638) We hold the decision power in many households, meaning women in a traditional household of a marriage between a man and a woman. And often that style, the thinking, and just purely engaging and connecting with that woman in that setting, it just doesn't happen, right? So I mean, I hear success for men and women thinking, dreaming, values, but I do think it appeals. generally speaking, a little more to whether it's the creative mind or just a profile of person who thinks that way, which I think generally maybe women more often. I'm generalizing here, so I'm giving lots of caveats. So I could see the success not only that as a connect and get the couple to dream and think differently and speak differently about retirement, but there's success for the advisor. because ultimately once they leave that meeting, who's making the decision in the car ride home, right, is, has been sparked, has been activated. So I just. Paul Tyler (19:37.55) So Marshall, does this open up better communications with the women in the household? I don't want to, again, don't want to suggest that this is, you know, primarily for women. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (19:49.666) That was a much more direct way of asking Paul thanks. Ha ha ha. Paul Tyler (19:52.598) Yeah. Yeah, does it give me a better chance of retaining a client after, you know, if I've had a relationship with a man in the house, does it give me a better chance to retain that relationship when he dies and his spouse now controls all the money? Marshall Heitzman (19:54.216) Yeah. Marshall Heitzman (20:07.892) We think absolutely, yeah. And I'll clear the air and just make sure that everybody understands this is not a gender thing. But Tisa, you're right. We know that the person who's actually the decision maker is probably not the one doing all the talking in the meeting, right? It's in the car ride home. So we get that. And to be honest, it's a way of connecting with both, getting them to... Tisa Rabun-Marshall (20:17.111) Right. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (20:26.89) Mm-hmm. Marshall Heitzman (20:37.104) at the start, make sure that they're in alignment with one another. We hear from advisors a lot of times that start down this path and they're working with a couple, the spouses kind of have one or two eye-opening moments just between themselves about what's most important to them collectively. But it is about engaging both because Paul, you're right. We know at some point one of them is going to pass away. And are you connected with the surviving spouse well enough to continue that relationship? And are you connected with them well enough where they wanna bring the kids in and make sure that they understand what mom and dad's plan is and what's most important to them? We think that it's absolutely great for connecting with the next generation and what happens when these clients are not around anymore. I also think it's great for referrals because my wife walks out of one of those meetings and guess what she's saying? That's the best financial planning meeting I've ever had. And who's she telling? She's telling all of her creative friends, look, it doesn't have to be that bad. I've got an advisor who relates to me and values what I value and designs our plan around what I want to hear. You got to meet. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (21:46.882) Mm-hmm. Marshall Heitzman (22:05.052) him or her, right? We think there's tremendous value in that. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (22:07.53) Yeah. The generational comment is interesting to me, Marshall, because often, for whatever reason, parents might be reluctant to share the hard numbers with their children, but including adult children in the conversations about values and dreams, softer, easier, and so I'll share a personal story, which is, I think it was a little bit, maybe it wasn't fully intentional, but it happened a little bit more. organically, my dad's advisor built a relationship with my brother and I. We didn't necessarily go to financial meetings with my dad, but we certainly socialized. He made some points of reaching out for some community events and unfortunately when my dad did pass a few years ago, he was well poised, right, to explain to us what was going to happen with our dad's assets, but both my brother and I now work with him. And it's because we already knew him. We did not meet him when my dad passed. We met him several years ahead of time and had some rapport. So it's kind of just connecting for me, thinking, hmm, that's a conversation you could include adult children versus the math side of things. It might be a little bit more private for whatever reason. So another use case there. Marshall Heitzman (23:07.392) Yeah. Marshall Heitzman (23:30.732) I love hearing stories like that. And we get them every so often as well from our advisors who maybe didn't even know the kids, but they had organized their clients so well, even with simple little worksheets about where everything is, all of the key documents, the key contact information, keeping that all in one place. We've got some resources that we provide to our advisors if they wanna use them. And then we get stories back about Tisa Rabun-Marshall (23:46.86) Hmm. Marshall Heitzman (24:00.044) the next generation finding that single sheet of paper that had the treasure map, if you will, to all of the documents, all the legal documents, all the insurance documents, who to call, for what, and they win clients that way. We've had beneficiaries say, look, any advisor who works with their clients the way you worked with my dad. That's an advisor that I want to work with. I know where everything is when dad passed away. Thanks to you. Love hearing those stories. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (24:34.443) Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Big moment of truth, for sure. Marshall Heitzman (24:39.039) Yeah. Paul Tyler (24:39.994) Right. I think Marshall, a lot of us in this business tend to be right-brain thinkers, and we want to start with the spreadsheet, not the conversation when it really should be the reverse. So listen, I'm a spreadsheet addict. I love this. Excel is me. Break me, Marshall. And what's the 12-step process or whatever it is to get me to rethink and have those type of conversations that Tisa mentioned? That your wife... Marshall Heitzman (24:46.303) Mm-hmm. Paul Tyler (25:08.77) said she loved. Marshall Heitzman (25:11.728) Yeah, we try not to make it too complicated. And a lot of advisors who hear this process say, yeah, I kind of do something like that. And it's worked for me. So I don't really want to pivot too hard into doing that much differently. But we do get plenty of advisors who say, OK, there's some great ideas in here that are really easy to implement. Taking one step back and just having that values conversation. It might take the whole first meeting. We might not talk about any business that first meeting, and that's a tough hurdle for a lot of advisors to get over. But play the long game, right? Invest that time with those clients. Those clients are going to be stickier. They're going to want to bring their other business needs to you as well. And they're going to want to bring their other relations in to talk to you as well. just because you take the time to understand who they are as people and what kind of values driven relationship can we have together? To me that's the way you just kick the whole thing off. You know after that we've got we've got a lot of scripting and ideas and leading questions that we can provide but it plays really well into that planning process that the planning model that exists and is out there right now. but it makes it simple. Simple questions, simple answers to common questions that your clients are gonna ask you. Ways to put those clients' mind at ease because everybody's nervous about something, right? There's always something that they're nervous about. And the whole process is about delivering to your clients the idea that, look, no matter what happens, we've got it covered. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (26:57.634) Mm-hmm. Marshall Heitzman (27:11.444) Right, we've got the plan. Somebody passes away earlier than we expect, we've got a plan for that. Somebody becomes disabled, we've got a plan for that. The markets don't cooperate the way we think, we've got a plan for that. Right, no matter what happens, we know where you're gonna get income, we're in the retirement planning business. We know where we can get income for you no matter what happens. We've got a plan built around that. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (27:37.166) I would also think too it's like a little bit of like Paul thinking like growth mindset for the advisors because it's not fully this or that, right? It's sort of like you likely have the analytical spreadsheet type of conversation down, but every client's different, everyone you know, process differently. So why not sort of expand? It's a versatility call to me. You can still work that way if it's working for the client, but if you wanna grow or track new different markets, maybe try this approach and see how it goes, right? It's an additive skill, being able to walk through this more values-driven conversation. You can always flip back to how you do it or how you've done it. So to me, it's more of a growth opportunity than it is like a full, you know, 180 of how you work. So that's how I would think of it if I was in the advisor seat of new skills not changing fully my skills. Marshall Heitzman (28:34.432) For sure, I can geek out on financial planning software and spreadsheets with the best of them. And I've talked with many advisors in my past who claim this is the way all of my clients want me to work with them. They do the same thing. And I've come around to believe that, well, you are finding the clients who want to work that way with you, but what about all those clients who don't? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (28:39.975) Hehehehehe Tisa Rabun-Marshall (28:57.023) Mm-hmm. Marshall Heitzman (29:01.148) you're missing out on them. If you're saying all of your clients want this type of approach, all the other prospects are not coming to you, right? Because not everybody wants to work this way. So who are you missing out on, was my question for them. And I think this process, the behavioral finance approach helps to uncover that. Who am I missing? Who's being left out? Certainly, my personal example, my wife definitely felt that way. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:01.215) Right. Marshall Heitzman (29:29.408) kind of wrote off the entire industry and just hoped that I would take care of everything because that's what I do. But now she's engaged, she wants to be involved, just because we're simply putting it in terms that she understands and can relate to. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:35.118) Mm-hmm. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:46.83) Great. Paul Tyler (29:47.794) Interesting. Yeah. Well, we're kind of at the top of the hour here. Marshall, any recommendations for good books to read, good podcasts to listen to, as Tisa says, grow a little bit more as an advisor? And then how could people reach out to you for assistance? Marshall Heitzman (30:09.876) Yeah, you can reach out to any true stage wholesaler you can call our annuity solutions team And they'll get you in touch with me or you can connect with us through true stage comm And connect with our team that way You know, we've done a lot of work I'll recommend Morgan Housel He has written a couple of books in this space. And in fact, we have him on we have like a quarterly webinar that We'll invite him every so often and give a one hour presentation on what's new. But it relates really well to the whole behavioral financial advisor concept and looking at the values in order to create the goals. That would be my recommendation. Paul Tyler (31:00.186) Okay, great. Well, Tisa, thank you. Marshall, thanks so much. It was great to meet you, great to have you on here. And if you're listening to the show, tell your friends, give us feedback and join us again next week for another great episode of That Annuity Show. Thanks. Marshall Heitzman (31:04.712) My pleasure, thank you.
Summary In this episode of That Annuity Show, Bobby Samuelson, President of Life Innovators, discusses the current state of the annuity market and the challenges and opportunities it presents. He highlights the entry of new companies into the market and the different strategies they employ. Bobby also discusses the role of proprietary indices in annuities and the need for innovation in product development. He emphasizes the importance of technology in enabling advisors to tell the annuity story more effectively. Overall, Bobby provides insights into the changing dynamics of the annuity market and the evolving expectations of customers. Takeaways New companies are entering the annuity market, with many focusing on multi-year guarantee annuities (MYGAs) as an entry point. The annuity market is highly competitive, and companies need to differentiate themselves through innovation in product development. Proprietary indices have played a significant role in the annuity market, but there is a need for more innovation and a focus on the underlying product structure. The annuity market faces challenges in attracting and retaining customers, and companies need to adapt to changing customer expectations and preferences. Technology can play a crucial role in enabling advisors to sell annuities more effectively and reach new markets. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Focus of Bobby Samuelson 03:45 New Entrants in the Annuity Market 07:43 Competition and Innovation in the Annuity Market 13:42 The Role of Proprietary Indices in Annuities 20:31 Challenges and Opportunities in the Annuity Market 27:12 Changing Customer Expectations in the Annuity Market 30:44 The Role of Technology in the Annuity Market 35:37 Conclusion and Closing Remarks Paul Tyler (00:03.644) Hi, this is Paul Tyler and welcome to another episode of That Annuity Show. Tisa, good to see you. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (00:09.89) Good to see you, Paul. Good morning, everyone. Paul Tyler (00:11.708) Yeah, we're having a lot of fun at work these days. Paul Tyler (00:29.411) Ramsey Atlanta is like, I don't want to know. I'm not sure I want to know what Atlanta is like. Ramsey Smith (00:32.292) It's sunny. It's chilly, but it is bright sunny day. Can't complain. Paul Tyler (00:36.464) Okay. All right. Bobby, hey, listen, first of all, thanks for coming back. It's always good, you know, when guests, we have guests on once and they say yes to coming back. It's been a couple years, but we are lucky and fortunate to have Bobby Samuelson, President of Life Innovators, on our show. And Bobby, hey, just tell, it brings up the speed, you know, tell us, you know, what's your focus these days? Bobby (00:36.797) Same in Charlotte. Bobby (00:50.781) See you back. Bobby (01:02.789) Yeah, sure. So I've been doing, um, obviously worked at midlife Bright House for a few years. Less than 2017 started up a newsletter that I actually had done prior to going to Bright House. So I still do that called the life product review. That's, you know, three to 4,000 words every week on what's going on in the life insurance side of the world. Um, and then we also started up an annuity product development company. And so basically we serve as an outsourced chief product officer to small and midsize insurance companies. And so a lot of these newer entrants getting into the space. can't hire product talent, can't find product talent. And so they use us as their chief product officer effectively. And then we've also picked up, I'd say a few kind of insurance companies that are either doing other types of products and want to get into annuities or maybe are already doing annuities, but haven't done for example, an FIA or a RYLA or even a VA and they hire us to help them build those products. And then along the way with that, we kind of realized that wait a second, we're doing, you know the life product review, can we do something? on kind of what's going on in the competitive landscape on the annuity side of the world. And so we started a newsletter called the annuity edge. And that is basically a weekly digest of, you know, everything going on in the competitive side of the annuity world. And so we, we scan, we look at all the filings that come through the States and the compact, we look at all the stuff that comes through competitive scan. We look at stuff that comes through, you know, the various rate providers, plus the conversations we have with carriers. And we basically write all that up and sort of a, a narrative kind of format to try to tell the story of. What's going on every week in annuities. And, you know, look, we've had, we've had plenty to write about. Like there's tons of stuff having, it feels like every week there's something going on. New products, significant rate changes. We usually do like a market update every week because the rates have been changing so much. We also run every week a weekly index spotlight. So we go on and take, you know, there's 180, uh, engineered indexes. That's what we call them engineered indexes in the market. We take one every week and sort of dissect it. Talk about. why it worked well over a certain period of time, why it probably didn't work well in 2022, how it looks like the index is calibrated kind of going forward, and try to again, kind of tell the story. And so in our view, there's so many places in annuities where you can get rates, and there's places where you can get, you know, flyers, and there's places where you can get kind of raw materials, but our job is to craft all that into a story so that people can sort of digest it. And so we got six people on the Life Innovators team, we all kind of chip in different. Bobby (03:22.221) sections of the annuity edge. So I'd say most of what we've been working on these days, besides just product development, it's just cranking out that annuity edge, two or 3000 words every week on what's going on in the, in the, in the annuity market. And it's been, like I said, no shortage of things to write about. In fact, Nassau is going to be featured in next week's edition. The new income writer you guys released. Yes, we were just ripping it apart yesterday and we're going to write a little bit. So I'll probably, I'll send you a little draft before you, before we release that. So. Paul Tyler (03:45.44) Good. Paul Tyler (03:49.672) Oh, oh, tremendous. Well, yeah, first of all, thank you. And we, you know, we talk a little bit about the launch and kind of where this is headed. I'll lead off because wow, are there a lot of threads to pull in what you just talked about, but let's sort of talk about MyGa's new entrance. Like if I just stuck there, you know, and kind of look back at 2023. Man, do we have a lot of new entrants coming in here. I think, no, I think my guess, and it's not just about my guess, I think this was an easy entry point for new companies. You think we're going to see new names, a lot of new names this year, or will we see those new names now expanding into the FIA space? Bobby (04:15.31) Oh yeah. Bobby (04:31.973) Yeah, both. Um, you know, when we talk to companies that are not in our business, that are looking to get in our business, I'd say there's, you know, two or three different playbooks that they're all kind of executing on. Some of them are, are more asset oriented. Some are more operational oriented. They actually really want to run an insurance company. They like the insurance company economics, which, which makes sense to others are more liability oriented, they're trying to figure out, okay, if I take these assets on, for example, you know, longevity, mortality, morbidity, sort of the health. metrics side of the world, or even interest rate risk. Um, maybe they think they can do better with it. And so every, every new entrance has sort of a different angle on, on what they want to do in the insurance space. But for most of these companies, MYGAs is sort of seen as the natural entry point. And it's just such a commoditized market. If you come in with a hot rate, no one's going to, you know, people don't need to have like a 30 year relationship with an insurance company to sell a MYGAs product. You can kind of get in, sell a MYGAs, um, you know, call it a day. And so I think that's, that's. Ramsey Smith (05:26.348) Hmm. Bobby (05:30.481) the appeal of the market. I think it's also the danger of the market because it is so commoditized. So some of these companies have a hot rate and then all of a sudden it can flip to the other direction. And they end up kind of feeling the case usurped by other companies that get in the space. And so every company doesn't say most companies don't view my guy as their permanent strategy. They view it to your point as sort of like, get in, get the new business operations and tech kind of get the skids greased on that. And then once we get the get, get our Business sorted out, then we can start to pivot over to the real prize, which is, which is FIA and there's a variety of reasons why companies view that as the real prize. Uh, that pivot is really, really hard. So the joke that I make to insurance companies when they ask me about sort of how long do we need to wait until we go sell FIA, I said, well, listen, let me give you an example. So I can go out to this track in the school across the street from my house and I can, and I can run a 400. Okay. And you can run a 402. Okay. Neither of us are going to be in the Olympics. So even though we're doing the same activity as Olympians, we're not doing it to the same degree. So if you want to make the jump from my get an FAA, that's like you go into the track, my gets going to the track and running a pretty quick lab, selling up, you know, $8 billion a year of FIA is like being in the Olympics. And so every company comes in and says, Oh, well, we'll just going to do some my, and then we're going to sell a billion dollars of FAA. And it's like, yeah, that's like literally me going to the track and then trying out for the Olympics. Like that is a much harder, longer process. You know, then people think, so I think there is a little bit of realism now in the market on how hard it is to make that pivot from my God to FIA. That being said, when we get calls every week or an hour week, every month from some company that's either not in this business or it's kind of parallel ancillary to this business, looking to get into the space, buying a shell company, you know, buying one of the many companies that are on the block right now. And so I do think we will see more entrance getting in. Um, and I think that's generally a good thing. I mean, annuities are. Effectively a financial product. So more companies in more competitive rates, more competitive environments, probably pretty good for customers. Is it going to be great for all these companies and their own economics? That's to some degree a separate question. Like I think, I think the jury is still out on whether or not it's this playbook can be repeated over and over and over again, but, but there are plenty of companies out there trying to give it a shot and I think, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Ramsey Smith (07:43.616) So let me ask you this, and I've had the similar observation. I mean, my view is that the annuity market, MYGAs and FIAs, it's a pretty established market. It's very competitive. Leadership in the market sort of rotates as different companies decide they really wanna focus on it. So in some ways, it's a vibrant market, especially in the last couple of years, but it's, I guess, in sort of blue ocean, red ocean terms. Bobby (08:13.281) Yeah, it's red. Yeah. Ramsey Smith (08:13.32) Right? It's a place where there's already a lot of people. Yeah, it's very red. So I've been surprised as I talked to sort of aspirational players, I've been surprised at how many of them want to jump into this space. And I'm just wondering why you think that is, why they aren't looking for greener pastures. Bobby (08:33.957) think there's an established playbook, honestly set down by a theme that this can work. And by the way, I think NASAL is becoming another kind of proof point of if you stick with it long enough and you kind of are consistent enough, you can build a real franchise, you know, in this space, even though to your point, Ramsey, it's total red ocean. And so what I hear a lot of times, and this is kind of a joke, but it's not really a joke, is every time we talk to one of these guys and maybe you have the same experience. Ramsey Smith (08:44.405) Yeah. Bobby (09:00.945) They all say, well, yeah, but we do a great job managing assets. We're kind of better than everybody else and we've got some special stuff. And so there is, I think there's also a little bit of this. Maybe you call it arrogance, maybe call it optimism. Maybe you call it, you know, realist them that they've had a great track record. Some of these, especially as asset managers come in and sort of say, yeah, but we've got the secret sauce and our secret sauce works really well with, you know, annuity liability, uh, structures. And so, you know, we've got the raw materials and what we really need to do is just kind of package it up and cook the meal. And then everybody, all the diners are going to love it. And I think, and so I think everybody kind of has a view that they've got some sort of special ingredient that they're going to sprinkle into the, to the meal to make it work, but to your point, I mean, it's very much red ocean and that's why we, I try to communicate that to all of our prospective clients that this is really, really hard. And a lot of times I feel like I'm kind of the guy raining on everybody's parade in this conversation because everyone gets excited about the opportunity to be the next to theme. And my point is, yeah, but a theme was here 10 years before you were, and the world looked completely different back then replicating that playbook is going to take another 10 years. And so don't expect to show up and have success overnight. And by the way, you say you have special sauce. Everyone I talked to says they have special sauce. If they didn't think they had special sauce, they wouldn't be buying a life insurance company and trying to get into the space, because to your point, it is heavily commoditized. Ramsey Smith (10:13.862) Mm. Bobby (10:19.497) Over time, we'll find out who really has the right playbook. And by the way, I think it's a lot more than what most of these asset managers and private equity firms think they think we've got great raw materials, we're going to cook a great meal. Well, in order to do that, you've got to have a great chef. And what that means, and you know, Paul, from your vantage point is you got to have great distribution relationships. You've got to have compelling product. You've got to have a great marketing story. You've got to have great systems and processes. Your new business needs to be flawless. Your agent portal needs to be good. Your client portal needs to be good. There's branding. corporate story ratings. Like when you really think about it, yes, ingredients are a big piece of the puzzle, but the actual construction of the meal is where a lot of these firms, I think, kind of miss the importance of that. And so they come in thinking, well, I've got great raw ingredients. I'm going to be, even though it's Red Ocean, I'll make it work. Not realizing I've got to assemble a team to make this work. And that's where I think the jury's still out on some of these firms is do they have the staying power so that over the next 10 years, they'll figure out how to really come in. Kind of build that persistent business. Some will and some won't. And by the way, I mean, we've seen some fantastic examples of where this has worked recently. Like I would throw a speed out there. A speed is a great example of a company that kind of came out of nowhere and has built a brand and has fantastic processes, like they're sticking around very clearly. Um, I'd say, you know, I've Dex this is sort of showing signs of that too. Other firms are much more transactional and those are different paths, right? Those are different. They're making different choices. Paul Tyler (11:22.761) Yeah. Bobby (11:44.061) I think we're going to see that again, play out over the next few years and how that, how that stuff works out. Paul Tyler (11:49.784) Yeah, I've heard really good things about the speed of what Lew's doing there. I think it's a real interesting company. I think I saw it in some of our stats. I think they did like two billion dollars of sales or something last year. It's impressive. Yeah, Bobby, thanks for the high praise. It's hard. This business is a... It's a hard business. Now, I've had the opportunity to do this twice. Once with F&G when we rebrand, bought it from Old Mutual, took it to a certain point. team there has done a spectacular job taking it to the next level. Got the opportunity with TISA to do it a second time. And I think to your point, where are you starting from and when are you starting from it? Right? Like the starting point with F&G, you know, in 2011 was very different than, you know, Phoenix in 2016. And the market's changed, right? The distribution environment has changed. The product has changed a lot. Bobby (12:21.201) Yeah, they have. Paul Tyler (12:48.156) I do think the one thing that, you know, what remains constant, that's always a good opportunity, is to your point, it's persistence and consistency is incredibly valuable in this marketplace. Big splash, high rates, yeah. So, if we shift gears to product, maybe for a few minutes, you mentioned your focus on proprietary indices are a lot. We have a lot. We have quite a few in Bobby (13:00.217) Yep. Yeah, I completely agree. Paul Tyler (13:18.108) I would say the bloom came off the rose in the pandemic when we saw incredibly high volatility and then we started to see high rates, which allowed companies, yes, on the MYGAs side to offer high rates, but then also on the FII side, all of a sudden we could offer much higher participation rates on conventional indices like the S&P 500. Where are we headed this year? Bobby (13:42.349) Yeah, we, uh, we, as a firm draw a distinction between product development and index development. And those are two totally different things. Um, and so we, as a firm don't do much in the index space. We, we write about them. We watch them, but when our clients say, Hey, what indexes do you guys like? We go, we don't, whoa, whoa. That's not our business. You can put any index you want to into your FIA. And if you pick one that is optimized for back tests and is not going to work well in the future, that's. Kind of on you, right? We're not, we're not. So, so I think from our point of view, we're trying to be more agnostic. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people were not agnostic. I think there was a big story coming in really 2015 and kind of beyond, maybe even going back to 2012, this, this narrative that these indexes were going to completely change the economics of the product, illustrations, you know, kind of seemed to back that up when you got FIAs illustrating the top FIA right now illustrates at 33%. So when you think about a, a principal protected non-registered product, yes, that's real Ramsey. non-registered product illustrating at 33% returns. That is telling, we are very far away at that point from the traditional FIA story of downside protection, upside potential fixed income alternative. We have now stretched somewhere deep into this idea that FIA can be an equity replacement with no risk. And I think the FIA world effectively levered up on that concept. because of the illustration regulations and because of all the money to be made in those indexes and because advisors were looking for a new story to tell. There was a lot of reason. It wasn't just one cause where all these calls kind of lined up. And of course the banks and asset managers are more than happy to, to supply what is effectively an infinite number of indexes into the market. I mean, the joke I always make on stage is we've got 180 there in FIA and IUL products, what is the possible number of indexes that could be made? And the answer is what's infinite. You can create an infinite number of indexes. And so this is just a very small subset. The subset, by the way, that illustrates well and the back test well, and that, and that carriers felt like had a good enough story to put in there, put in their products. So I think, I think we as an industry levered up really hard on that. Um, and it worked great in a low rate environment because you could show the high par rates, even though people didn't realize, yeah, you get a higher par rate on an index that has very low intrinsic equity participation. And so the effective result is actually very similar to if you just got a true par rate on the S and P, but it was sort of gussied up and other, you know, the fixed income sleeve was adding some. Bobby (16:06.565) some alpha on the illustration. Like you kind of, your Sharpe ratio looks really high on these things. So anyway, we levered up on that. Yeah. 2020 was an issue for sure, but most indexes were actually positive in 2020. So at least, at least they sort of showed, okay, not compared to the West, where the S and P was, but they sort of showed, okay, 2022 to me was the year where everything sort of fell apart because all these indexes, most of them had pushed into long duration, fixed income that got crushed and then the equity component crap got crushed, you know, 21 comes around S and P has an amazing year. I'm sorry. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (16:17.422) Thank you. Bobby (16:35.729) 2023 comes around, S&P has an amazing year, but these indexes lag. Why is that? Well, because the way that it happened was you had a few stocks in the S&P that drove the return and a lot of these indexes were either multi-asset indexes or calibrated towards low volatility or maybe even equal market cap weighted exposure to equities, but that didn't work in 23. And, and at the same time we had rates going up for most of the year and most of them were allocated there and so they get crushed and so to me, 23, 23 is actually the year of like disillusionment. 2022 is everything went down and so did these indexes. Oh, well, 2023 is like. Wait a second. You know, we were supposed to have a great year this year and we didn't. Why, why did that happen? So what I've seen this year is all the, all the banks and as a managers have been coming out with kind of next generation concepts that don't use long duration fixed income and have higher volatility targets or use volatility overlays for their, I mean, sorry, use the duration overlays for the fixed income sleep. Like they're trying to sort of, or they just get out of fixed income all together and just use cash. They're trying to sort of say, it's sort of like when my kids don't apologize, even though they're effectively apologizing. Okay. So it's like an effective apology of saying, we're sorry for all this stuff we gave you in the past, we're going to fix it in the future with this new variant, solving the problem of 2023 or 2022, you know, for 2024 and beyond. Okay. Well, that just means there's gonna be new problems that these new indexes aren't contemplating that will show up in the future. And so from a product standpoint, you know, if you were to say what, you know, what was innovative over the last 10 years, so much of it revolved around those indexes. And That I think what we're seeing is that was not innovation that was reshuffling and creating new trade-offs that now are showing their teeth. And people are going to your point, Paul, like, well, why don't I just go back to the simple stuff like SMP 500 or like you guys have a NASDAQ sleeve, like why not just go back to a NASDAQ. Let's go back to the basics. And what's interesting is for a lot of the new indexes that we track, a lot of those indexes are going back to simpler structures. I was looking at one yesterday that. The old version of it used to be sort of a long duration fixed income equity allocation. Now it's just pure equities and cash. So effectively all it is just a par rate on the S and P 500 stylized as an excess return index with a decrement on it as something different. Well, all that is, it's just exposure to the S and P with potentially a slightly more stable, you know, par rates. And so anyway, that being said, like. Ramsey Smith (18:40.512) Mm-hmm. Bobby (18:53.573) I think that's not innovation. I think where we need to go as an industry is, okay, what does the chassis of the future look like? And I think that's where it's really, really hard. So one of the things we tell customers, our name is Life Innovators. Theoretically, that means we should do innovative stuff. We have built some really innovative products. They have had trouble selling in the market because at the end of the day, most people who sell annuities just want to drop a ticket and move on. They don't want to explain, they don't want to learn something new, they don't want to go figure out a new story, they just want to do what they've been doing and drop the ticket and move on. So I think... Part of the reason indexes were so attractive as an innovation substitute was it didn't require the advisors to change their story at all. But real innovation requires a little bit of work. And so I think where's the blue ocean kind of back to your comment, Ramsey, like it is an innovative products, but the challenge in our business is agents and IMOs don't want innovative products. They say they do, but they're actually don't because it messes with the system and the system works really well. And so. You know, like give me innovation on the very fine little edges. Give me innovation that makes it illustrate better. Give me innovation that pays me more comp, but don't give me innovation that actually forces me to change my story and educate advisors because that takes time, energy and effort, and I'd rather just keep dropping tickets and move on. And I think that's a little bit of the challenge here is like the blue ocean's hard to get because everybody's making so much money in the red ocean and they don't really want to go shift over to the new stuff. So that's a little bit of where I think we're at a break point is like we, the world has changed. Our products need to change too. That is not just index development, it's product development. And yet that's the hardest thing, frankly, this industry has to do. And it takes a long time for that to work. Ramsey Smith (20:31.784) Yeah, you know, I think that, sorry, Tisa, let me just, I wanna, I'll come back. But this, in my view, this ultimately mirrors some of the same things you see in the mutual fund industry, right? Like, you know, active versus passive, versus passive funds, thematic funds. At the end of the day, like, the storytelling part of it is just part of the ethos of... Tisa Rabun-Marshall (20:32.063) Yep. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (20:36.462) Sure. Ramsey Smith (20:58.844) of personal finance, I would argue even institutional at times, certainly personal finance. And so I think that, I think it's not unique to this industry. I think you see it sort of, you know, across the board. I would ask, you know, so what do some of these, what do some of these chassis of the future look like? So what is it that, what are some of the things you suggested that you think are a better solution but are a little bit early because people need to... Because the people that sell them need to better understand how they work. Bobby (21:30.277) Yeah, great question. And by the way, I completely agree. I love the active versus passive analogy for engineered indexes versus like the S and P 500. And I actually make the joke that these engineered indexes aren't even active. They're algorithmic, right? You set them up and then you're hands off. So at least with an active manager, they can change their strategy along the way, as long as they stay within the fund mandate, but these indexes, like you set it up in 2011 or 2012, you can't go in and change the index rules. You got to create a new version of it, but you can't go in and like, Ramsey Smith (21:39.132) Yeah. Bobby (22:00.005) So it's sort of, it's almost like a different category, but I totally agree. It's it's we've got ebbs and flows on that product chassis, you know, they're tricky because we have these defined categories in the industry. So let me give you one that I think is kind of interesting that we've seen more of, uh, this sort of idea that you can do is across between a my go and an FIA. And this idea of like a, we, we haven't got a good analogy on this. Everyone's calling a mafia, right? Like a multi-year FIA, multi-year guarantee FIA, make FIA. No one knows what to call it. Ramsey Smith (22:06.613) Yeah. Ramsey Smith (22:27.649) Alright. Bobby (22:28.297) But if you think about it, it's a logical concept. So for example, what is a my go? My go is a marketing term for a fixed deferred annuity with guarantee option periods. Okay, well, what do you call an FIA product that has, for example, a five year or seven year or even a 10 year guarantee on the cap level? That's a my go. It's a multi-year guarantee annuity. We're just guaranteeing the cap. We're not guaranteeing a return, we're guaranteeing the cap. So that's an interesting concept. You can't do that when interest rates are super low, the yield isn't there for it. With. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (22:28.462) Thanks for watching! Ramsey Smith (22:48.748) Hmm. Bobby (22:56.133) The current environment, you can get away with that. We see more and more companies doing things like that or combining sort of base guarantees with some sort of guaranteed index exposure on top. American Life has done this, Ibexas has done this. We feel the companies out there that have kind of done this. That's a category that sort of fits between. On the variable side, think about like a contingent deferred annuity. CDAs have been the next big thing for years. And there's all the logic in the world for why CDAs make sense, right? You can have separately managed accounts when you can layer a guarantee on top of it. Like if you describe that to an RAA, they would all say, I'd rather have a CDA than to talk about variable annuities. And yet CDAs never go anywhere because it's a change in process. There are some new rules built around it. Like, and people don't ultimately want to make the, yes, you're going to say something. Ramsey Smith (23:43.268) Oh, well, I'm going to say that that's a battle over who owns the assets. Right. So if it's a, if it's a CDA, then the RRA keeps the assets. If, if it's not a CDA, then the carrier has the assets and, you know, just. Yeah. So this chair has company does. And so, and, and my, you know, my only, I like conceptually, I like the CDA, but from a risk management perspective, I mean, you're, you're selling, you're just selling pure tail risk. Right. And, and, and so. Bobby (23:47.288) Yeah. Bobby (23:53.921) Insurance company, yeah, totally agree. Ramsey Smith (24:12.454) I like it less from a risk management perspective. Just my two cents. Bobby (24:14.777) It's, you know, it's interesting. We have a client who's done, yeah, we've done clients who've done CDA or has done a CDA and I say, if you do it right, the pricing actually looks a lot like a VA. It's not, it's not, it's not as much of a crop. There's not as much of just tail as you think, cause you can actually set up some structures on the, on the fund. Um, and, and also if he has a lot of cross-pollination between like the M&E, the fund expenses and the rider fee, whereas you have to be very explicit with that on the CDA. But to your point, it's a different structure. It's a different owner. It's kind of a different ownership mentality. Ramsey Smith (24:28.529) Yeah. Ramsey Smith (24:37.347) Yeah. Bobby (24:42.673) So I say that's one, you know, RYLA versus VA, we're seeing blurred lines there too, like equitable, huge in the RYLA space, where they are now adding RYLA funds to some of their traditional VA contracts. Like, again, why do we have a separate category for RYLA? Really all that is just a subset of variable annuities. So those are the sorts of things there. And then on the income side, you've got all these ideas of like, how do you get work-side income type products? How do you get sort of the built-in defined income features inside of group plans? Like... That whole world is trying to get traction. There's all sorts of issues there. I'll give you one that's personal for me. We built an FIA product that effectively has a lot of the characteristics of a RYLA, but it's a non-registered product. And so it's an FIA that allows you to have downside exposure without piercing principle. We call it a FYLA, right? It's kind of a joke, because it's not really a category either, but it's somewhere between an FIA and a RYLA. There's no trade-offs. Paul Tyler (25:33.088) Hmm. Bobby (25:37.893) So if you're a producer and you want to sell, you know, 0% floors, just like a normal FIA, you can do it. If you want to have negative floors, you can have access. So it's a technological advancement in that it gives you all the features and benefits of an FIA with some of the features and benefits of a RYLA with no trade-offs. And yet people are choking on the fact that it's just a little bit slightly different than a normal FIA product. And it's like, Yes, but it gives you this ability to have these annual reviews with clients where you can talk about risk appetite and you can allow, you know, clients who've had great gains can put some of that at risk, get way more upside and allows you to look more and more like equities over time. Like it opens up this incredible conversation from a planning standpoint customers and in terms of real returns, we have two academic papers showing that these outperform FIAs all day every day because of the larger risk exposure does not matter. Agents who get it love it. Most agents are like it, this, this is a little bit different. Ramsey Smith (26:11.052) Mm-hmm. Bobby (26:33.853) And I'm a busy over here selling like my normal FIA with this, you know, index that I like talking about. And so like, don't, don't bother me with any different. I'm, I'm busy. I'm happy to do what I'm doing. And that's, I think the challenge in this space is there are clear. Chassis improvements we can make. Um, and again, I even argue this NASL income writer you guys came out with. It allows us sort of higher upfront with a lesson to tail. Like that's a chassis improvement. North American control X chassis improvement allows multiple income streams all at once. Whether advisors care about it is completely a separate question. And whether they're going to take time to learn about it. Again, completely separate question. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (27:12.534) Thanks, Bobby. I want to go back. So let me just say, I like this restaurant analogy that you were playing with, special sauce and the meals and all of that. So I kind of want to go back to that a little bit where you're talking about new entrants into the market and why they were coming in and what they think they can offer. There's no special sauce. We're innovatish who are not really innovating. And talk a little bit about the customer. So I'm going to call the customer the diner, right? And can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing changing there? We've talked about what's constant and what's maybe not changing, but I'm curious what you've seen, maybe what you're advising your clients on. If it's not going to be product-based, what are their expectations? Are they looking for the line cook to become the personal chef? Where are you seeing this shift in what the diners, the customers, investors are looking for from these carriers outside of product? Bobby (28:04.205) Yeah, great, great question. Um, great question. So, so who is the customer? I think is always the operative question here. And I'd love to say that people buying the annuities of the customers, but y'all know that's not the case, right? The customers are the advisors who are selling this stuff. And then, and then in a lot of ways, kind of, and especially in our world, right? The IMO channel, it's, it's the upline on what's the IMO and, and they're the ones who are really kind of consuming, if you will, the meals we're creating. And I want to be clear too, I'm a believer in product innovation. And I do think that's a piece of the puzzle, but it's, it's the way you build long-term market share, not short-term market share. So, so I think there is always and always must be an innovative product angle to what you're doing, not because you're going to sell a lot of it out of the gate, but because over the next 10 years, Paul, to your point on persistency and consistency in the business and stickiness, that's how you build long-term stickiness, but you can't, you can't expect mass adoption, you know, on, on day one. So what do they, what do they want? What they, what I think they want. So increasingly it's changing a little bit. What I think they want is they want simple processes. Like we, as speed is just a great example of this. They have a fantastic new business process and their advisors who just love doing. Working with the speed of because of the process. And so I think, I think simplification of the process is part of it. Um, I think it's a big piece of it. I think, I think a corporate story matters too. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:20.203) easily. Bobby (29:26.181) You know, feeling like they're connected to the company, feeling like there are people there that they like, like this is a thing today, a relationship business that matters and that counts for a lot. Um, and then I think they are looking for stories to tell in terms of product to fill niches that they may not fill. Today are kind of around the edges. Um, but look, that's not, that leaves a lot of open turf that I think is grabbed by the incumbents. And so that's why, even though yes, the top five are always trading share, the top five are pretty stable. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:32.59) Thank you. Bobby (29:56.633) Right. In the FIA world, it's, it's kind of a theme, Allianz American equity. Like, you know, those companies stay up there kind of for a re Sam and like, they stay up there for a reason, which is they've already got the mind share on all the, like all the main dishes are covered. We're, we're dabbling in the appetizers, the desserts and the cocktails, but, but they're sort of cooking the main dishes. And I think that's a little bit of where, you know, for a lot of companies, they kind of realize where they are in the meal. Um, and recognizing that going in and trying to say, like, don't sell Allianz is, is very, very difficult. versus having something that tells a nice story for the customers where Allianz is not a fit. And that's where I think most of these companies were kind of trying to say, okay, how do I work kind of work around some of this stuff? Yeah, competing heads up against Allianz and Athene is just exceedingly difficult, especially Athene these days, it's almost impossible, frankly. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (30:31.523) Thank you. Yeah, around that. Paul Tyler (30:44.004) Yeah. Well, Bobby, I know we're kind of close to the top of the time. We will not do this topic justice, but technology. And first of all, thank you so much for coming out to our Retar Tech event, April 8th through 10th in Las Vegas. This will be great. Great to see you in person and have you on our panel talking more about this. So people listening want to hear more about it, come out to Las Vegas, join us in person. We'll do a couple of shows out there live as well. We'll have to get people involved. So you mentioned process with Aspida. Now, where does technology fit in this process? Now, I'm not going to go deep into our product because I also want to make it easy for our compliance department, not to have to review this stuff, but we're doing something different. You kind of said that. Now, how do you get agents to do something different, make it real easy? I would say we've got a three-prong strategy here on the tech side. So we've got an interesting partnership with Life Yield. He's been sort of managing this where You've got an advisor who's more of a financial planner. We've got a tool where our product kind of plugs right in. You know, Sheryl Moore saw it. She really liked it. The other end, we've got these retirement checks. Like I can email you a check to Bobby Samuelson, show you viscerally, here are two checks you'll get. Higher amount on this date, lower amount on this date. And we've got something in the middle, which is a generative AI platform. Ties and I are having just a fun time working it through our risk management department, but... which will help you look, you're going to do a lot of emails and content. How do you position this and super easily sell a product? Where do you see tech fitting here? You know, for again, our looking, I'm going to look at our customers as agents for this conversation. Bobby (32:25.949) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, what you just described are ways to help them tell the story more efficiently and more effectively. And I think that's a big piece of it. I think for a lot of companies though, it's just literally not screwing up the application process. Like, don't ever complicate it. It's having good EAP, it's having good reporting, it's having a way for them to go check in on a case status, it's having a way for them to see what's going on with the 1035 exchange. It's a lot of blocking and tackling, and that's where I think a lot of companies kind of. Like you got to get that stuff right first before you can do all the things you guys are talking about. Um, but that being said, yeah, I do. I am a big believer that tech is a part of the enablement process here. On the flip side of that, a lot of these agents are 55, 60 years old. Their clients are 55, 60, 65 years old. Like tech, you know, you gotta, you gotta kind of do tech on their terms. And I think that's a little bit of the dance here is like, how do you create tech that is attracted to them and that they can get their arms around without over, overburdening them to some degree. Um, With some of this stuff, what gets me excited too, is thinking about new markets for our products. And I see this on the annuity side and the life side too, like how does tech get you to new markets? And I think that's the part of the industry is just now starting to kind of figure, figure out. Um, and it is not traditional advisors. It's, it's younger advisors. And look, younger advisors do business differently than older advisors. When I talk to younger advisors, most of them have, you know, virtual practices that unimaginable to advisors that are 60 plus years old. to think about that back when they were in their thirties. And so there's just a very different feel for younger advisors. And I don't think most of those advisors are working with on the annuity side, annuity customers yet, right? Like if you're 35 years of working with people your own age, there's some exceptions to that. That's where we see, so on the life side, I see a lot more of this sort of tech sort of integration and enablement going on because it's younger customer, younger advisor that's coming for annuities. It's just going to be a few years out. And I think. The investments you guys are making and other companies are making is laying the groundwork for that going forward. I mean, if we pin our hopes on independence, insurance only agents, selling annuities forever, that is a kind of in the old school way, that is a shrinking market. It'll always be there, but it's a shrinking market. These are great products. These do fantastic things for families and for people. We need to get the story out. We can't be wedded to distribution that works a certain way. We've got to broaden that. I think. Bobby (34:45.285) You can't do that without thinking about tech enablement. Um, and so that does get me excited as a product guy. It's not really in my wheelhouse as much, but it does spur some interesting questions about, okay, if we know innovation kind of hits the wall, sometimes with traditional advisors. If you switch to more tech enabled, can you do things in product that used to be kind of unimaginable, but we'll work in these new environments. And I've got a couple of clients where that's exactly the market strategy is use tech with different products that would not fly in the normal space. Ramsey Smith (34:53.812) Hmm. Bobby (35:12.601) But will fly when you kind of go after new distribution, new customers, new advisors, new technology, and you can tell that story effectively. And we're seeing that, yeah, that works. Like they don't come in with preconceived notions. And when they come in without the preconceived notions, they're willing to hear new ideas and tell those new stories. And it's, it's very cool to see that kind of stick with some of these folks in a way that would not happen with traditional advisors. Paul Tyler (35:37.904) Bobby, this was tremendous. Hey, listen, we're at time. Thanks so much for coming. Ramsey, thank you. Tisa, Tisa. And I think we lost Bruno, unfortunately. I think the internet just did not cooperate with us. Blame it on the snow and the cold here. So we'll get him back next time. But hey, thanks so much. Hey, listen, and if you like this show, share it with your friends and be sure to tune in again next week for another... Ramsey Smith (35:46.176) Pleasure as always. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (35:49.45) Thanks, Bobby Yeah. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (35:55.71) Mm-hmm. Paul Tyler (36:04.849) episode of That Annuity Show. Thanks so much! Bobby (36:08.23) guys.
“208 - Improving the #AnnuityUX in 2024 With David Hanzlik" Summary In this episode, Paul Tyler, Ramsey Smith, and Dave Hanzlik discuss the annuity industry and the changes that occurred in 2023. They talk about the rebranding of TruStage, the growth in annuity sales driven by the rate environment, and the success of fixed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. They also explore the potential for growth in niche markets, such as deferred income annuities, and the role of registered index-linked annuities (RILAs) in the industry. The conversation highlights the importance of making annuity sales easier for advisors and the potential impact of AI in the industry. The episode concludes with final thoughts and tips for annuity sales professionals. Takeaways The annuity industry experienced significant changes in 2023, including rebranding and growth in sales driven by the rate environment. Fixed annuities and fixed indexed annuities performed well in 2023, with advisors recognizing the value of the guarantees they provide. There is potential for growth in niche markets, such as deferred income annuities and registered index-linked annuities (RILAs). Making annuity sales easier for advisors and improving the ease of use of annuity products should be a focus for the industry. AI has the potential to play a role in improving operational processes and making the industry more efficient. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:30 Recapping the Holiday Season 01:44 Changes and Rebranding in 2023 03:24 Annuity Sales in 2023 07:27 Growth in Niche Markets 08:08 Renewed Interest in Annuities 09:37 Behavioral Finance and Market Ups and Downs 11:08 Deferred Income Annuities and Income Solutions 12:04 The Role of RILAs in the Annuity Market 13:41 White Space in the Annuity Business 16:33 Expanding the Target Audience for RILAs 20:01 Making Annuity Sales Easier for Advisors 22:29 New Year's Resolutions for the Industry 25:15 The Role of AI in the Industry 27:06 Retire Tech Innovation Event 28:29 Final Thoughts and Advice 30:32 Closing Remarks Paul Tyler (00:01) Hi, this is Paul Tyler and welcome to another episode of That Annuity Show. Ramsey, good morning. Ramsey Smith (00:08) Good morning to you. Great to be here as always. Good morning to you. Paul Tyler (00:11) It is, and we've got a great guest, a returning guest, Mr. Dave Hanzlik Vice President, Annuity and Retirement Solutions at TruStage, formerly known as CUNA Mutual Group. Dave, welcome back. Dave Hanzlik (00:25) Hey, thanks guys. It's great to be back. How was your holiday? Paul Tyler (00:30) You know, it was too short, too short. And I'm paying for it now, paying for it now as we get ready for our upcoming sales conference here that I'm looking forward to. Ramsey, yours. Dave Hanzlik (00:34) Yeah. Ramsey Smith (00:44) Good holiday. We actually spent some time in New York, which is sort of our historic home, which is fantastic. During the Christmas season, it was so, so busy. Frankly, it's great to see what looks like a really great strong recovery for the city over the course of the last year or so. So it's just great to see that kind of energy in the city. So it was fantastic. And other than that, college applications. So busy. Paul Tyler (01:09) I don't know. Judging from the sketches on your wall, I don't think you're quite there, Dave. Dave Hanzlik (01:14) No, not yet, although these are several years old. So, yeah, yeah. Paul Tyler (01:18) Okay. Yeah. Hey, well, listen, we actually had a chance to catch up in person at the Limerick Annual Conference, which was great. But, Liz, it's hard at the beginning of the year not to look back and then look forward. You know, looking back to 2023, it was a big year in the annuity industry and also, you know, a big year for your company. Do you want to talk about the changes and the new name, maybe? Dave Hanzlik (01:44) Yeah, yeah. I mean, 2023, as you mentioned. true stage. We went to market and changed our name and brand in 2023. If anyone has done this before that's listening, they know this is a lot of work and wonderful, wonderful dedication from a bunch of talented folks. But it's really about for us, you know, we had a family of brands and we recognize that we want to over time really connect. Paul Tyler (02:05) Oh yes. Dave Hanzlik (02:21) across all the life stages of our customers, the financial services solutions that we can bring in. A huge part of that is our annuity and retirement solutions that help people as they're getting to and living through retirement. So I'm very excited about it and happy that we're through the first phase of it. Brand changes, there's always some things that trail for some period of time, but we think it's going to be a great thing for our annuity business. true stage business in general. Ramsey Smith (02:56) Fantastic. So look, we're coming off to Paul's point, a great year in annuities. A lot of that's been driven by the rate profile. And so curious to hear your thoughts, you know, one on sort of what segments you saw doing well and why you think they did well in 2023. And then we can sort of shift gears 2024, what that's like, what that's probably going to look like based on what could be. higher rates for longer or maybe things sort of pull back a little bit. So tell us a little bit about 2023 for starters. Dave Hanzlik (03:30) Yeah. And, you know, Paul, you and I saw a lot of this when we were together at the annual meeting. First of all, as we entered into 2023, we're coming off a historic year for the annuity business in general, over 300 billion of sales in 2022. And we're probably going to end up 2023 over 350 billion of sales. So another 20 plus percent year over year growth number. You know, yeah, Ramsey. and Paul, we heard this, the rate environment is a big, big mover of this. And I think it's, you know, a couple of things we've seen, like one is it's helped, you know, recapture the imagination of advisors recognizing, you know, where annuities can help their clients. And in particular, we've seen the fixed annuity space, the MYGA multi-year guarantee annuity space has done extremely well. And fixed index news did really well. And those are, I think a lot of that was driven by interest rates and advisors identifying that this was the value proposition was really hard to ignore for their customers. We also see the, what I saw in 2023 was a continuation though of growth and a number of other categories as well. The registered index links annuity space and another year that is over 10% growth. and probably going to reach 50 billion of sales in 2023. So although it was around rates, I think what we were seeing is just advisors understanding and recognizing that the value of the guarantees that annuities can provide and really bringing it more to their customer base and taking advantage of how the rates and guarantees were showing up. vis-a-vis what we'd seen in the past decade plus of the low rate environment. Paul Tyler (05:31) Yeah, it was hard not to have a conversation at LIMRA about rates. And, you know, it was a blessing, it was a curse. I mean, the blessing in that you could sell, you know, the products are able to, we're able to show bigger rates, bigger interest rates, higher cap rates. You know, challenges, it was the speed at which it increased. I think a lot of companies had challenges, you know, repricing those MiGAs. I mean, David, we, you know, we would... go out thinking we were going to be number one and number two. And by the time the rates hit, we were like in fourth place. It was, it was a crazy, crazy year. And then when the business did come in, did you have enough people in place, uh, to actually process the business? And, and, uh, I think, uh, we as a collectively, as a whole in the industry, I think we did a pretty good job, but I know that, you know, there were, there were service issues along the way. Dave Hanzlik (06:05) Right, right, right. Yeah, I think one of the, yes, there was a blessing and curse, you know, helping a lot more people using annuities, but stressing the operational administration framework of the industry. So, but I also think that's going to be a positive as you move forward in 2024 and beyond. I think as an industry, we were recognizing that there are some ways of looking at technology, data and... the service models that could be advanced to take on spikes in business, more business. And it's just sometimes a crisis forces involvement and advancement. So I think that's something that we're going to see as a major. And she's continuing to get better at service and administration and processing of business. Ramsey Smith (07:27) So one of the things you and I talked about a bit, Dave, independently was some other areas that have seen growth that have been sort of smaller markets. So we had talked about Diaz in particular. Is that, and again, it will unlikely ever to be as big a market as FIAs or RILAs, et cetera, but there is a market. Is that an area that you think will continue to see growth and attention? I can say that certainly, I've received inbound calls on them in a way that I hadn't in the past. So I'm curious if you're seeing any of that in your business sort of profile and if you think that might be part of the future as well. Dave Hanzlik (08:08) Yeah, I do think, you know, Ramsey, as we move into 2024, there's, you know, there's advisors and clients are going to take a renewed interest and look at annuities in general, not just my guys or fixed index annuities. They recognize like, well, there's value here and that the higher rate environment has kind of been an impetus for looking at. So for example, deferred income annuities. I think, I think you and I talked, I think part of it was like, hey, look, because of the rate environment, there's could just, this could actually just help people identify that there's, there's a deal here. And you know, there's something that we haven't been able to tap into for a few years because how low rates have been. I think just generally though, like income has been something that in 2022 and 2023, a lot of people weren't focusing on. And, but I think as the latter parts of 2023, we started to see more interest in it from an industry perspective. And I think you can continue to see that. And if you look at industry data, it hasn't really gone away. It's just the accumulation side has just exploded. And the need's still there. I'd also be curious, Ramsey, and it kind of was adjacent to our discussion, was part of it is... Ramsey Smith (09:24) 100% Yeah. Dave Hanzlik (09:37) a number of discussions, plenty of these discussions in 2023 where people are like, well, rates are so great. This is the time we should, there's a deal here. And so, you know, and part of, for me, part of it's like, well, that this is part of what annuities are supposed to help people with, which is help them like not get swayed by ups and downs in markets. So Ramsey Smith (10:04) Mm-hmm. Dave Hanzlik (10:05) there is a little bit of a lot watching behavioral finance play out where people like rates look so good. Now I'm going to jump into this, you know, universe. So that is something I think as we move into 2024, you know, again, looking at like, how are people looking at plans, their long-term plans, and, you know, I think a crisis can help people kind of re-examine what their long-term goals are. You know, someone feels like they could be all in equities and then, you know, markets drop 30%. Maybe they really can't be. But I think that's something that will be a really interesting topic and item to kind of navigate in 2024 is kind of get back to – and partly I think rates are going to level out a bit here. And as they do, now are people going to kind of start looking about what is the financial plans that we're putting in place for our clients? what are the solutions that can make sense? And income, I think, is one of them. Ramsey Smith (11:08) Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, it was an interesting discussion I had with this client, ultra high net worth individual. And so liquidity was not an issue. It was really a matter of, so the issue of a deferred income annuities, you essentially have a loss of control of the assets you allocate to it. And so liquidity wasn't an issue for this client. It was very much this idea of creating some sort of counterpoint, some diversification into a portfolio that otherwise was risk loving, is probably not the way I'd put it, but risk comfortable. It was a very sophisticated investor. And so that's why I thought it was interesting. And to your point, like pricing levels were very attractive, both because of rates and because of appetites relative to longevity risk, you know, at that moment in time. And so I think it worked out well for all parties involved. Dave Hanzlik (12:04) Yeah, I think, you know, when you look at income today, the industry has, you know, learned a lot of lessons during the Great Recession and, you know, now has deferred income annuity is a great tool, right, Ramsey, for those that don't need the liquidity. But I think the pricing and the creativity around solutions, whether they be in the variable annuity space, the redshift, and the annuity space. fixed the next news was in the fixed annuity space, which are almost very close. There's fixed annuities with income options that are very close to deferred income annuity except with liquidity, right? So I think there's a lot of great options out there. And I think the industry has done a really good job of setting up the solutions that can be appealing to customers, as well as, you know, we've got... we have the risk return, risk management piece down really well. Paul Tyler (13:08) And Dave, I guess, where do you see the biggest white space in the business? I mean, there are ones where if you look at the reports, you say, okay, well, how do we increase penetration in the RA channel? Ramsey, your topic, how do we get more annuity sales in the workplace? The numbers are low, the opportunity is big, but it's also the barriers are really high. I mean, if you sort of think of your CEO of the industry. Where would you say we should be putting our bets here over the next few years? Ramsey Smith (13:39) That's a great question. Dave Hanzlik (13:41) Yeah, I mean, I think those two topics as well as if you think about the topics of, you know, income and retirement plans and the solution that, you know, what's consistent in all of them is the complexity of trying to, you know, have a technology stack and operational stack that can fit within how those marketplaces work. because they weren't created to accommodate the kind of guarantee solutions. And so I think that's the big challenge to, I think all three of those are really interesting opportunities. But if you're asking me like, okay, Dave, like next few years, where do you think the white space is? I mean, this is no surprise given kind of what our company focuses on. I still think registered index link annuities is a... wonderful solution because it captures the, you know, addresses the need. Everyone, you know, people are using news because they want downside protection. And then with RILAs, they have the upside potential that they need. And now it's had a lot of discussions and there were discussions at the Limmer meeting, Paul, like, well, you know, because of where rates are, does this mean like RILAs aren't as important? And you still saw... double-digit growth in RILAs in 2023. And when I talk to my counterparts and other companies, everyone has a RILA or is looking at it, you know, because I think it's just a really creative solution that can kind of bridge a gap of, you know, because people need to continue to grow their asset base, right, but they also, guarantees are a wonderful way of kind of helping them navigate risk and, you know. of control their behavior risk as well as stabilize the portfolio. And even like, it goes back to Ramsey when you're talking about your higher net worth client that was like part of using like a deferred income annuity, it stabilizes part of their portfolio that allows you and them to work on taking risk in a fashion that makes more sense for their needs. And so, Ramsey Smith (16:02) Mm-hmm. Dave Hanzlik (16:13) A lot of, so I really think RILAs are, they'll continue to see them become a bigger and bigger slice of the NUIDI product. Ramsey Smith (16:21) Can I just sort of extend that a little bit? Just curious, and I have a follow-up comment. So RILAs are interesting. RILAs are registered. So a different, potentially different type of advisor has to sell it, right? And so I guess my question is like, so is there beyond just the fact that it has practical implications for the customers, does it open up a new target audience? Has it opened up a new target audience for you in terms of advisors that you are or could work with? Dave Hanzlik (16:33) Right. Yeah, we've seen it in two fashions, Ramsey. One is, we found that with, you know, it is registered. So, but, you know, some advisors that are registered tend to work with, you know, tend to work with fixed annuities more, fixed index. They tend to work, you know, we found that this has kind of helped them open up, you know, a better way of getting after upside potential with their customers. Ramsey Smith (17:08) Yeah. Dave Hanzlik (17:19) with a customer base that tends to be more conservative that they say, oh they want to manage accounts or they want to be in mutual funds, but then as soon as there's a market correction they want to run back into CDs and fixed annuities. So this has been able to help those advisors and have a more logical solution to help their customer base. The other place is, and this is I think, is folks that advisors that just really weren't using annuities, right? Because they're very comfortable with efficient frontier optimization. And this is something we have many conversations with. We're like, how do you do this? Conversations where we had to kind of like, how does the, how do you, are you sure this makes, you know, advisors are really, maybe have your background, Ramsey, that they really understand how it how insurance companies construct these solutions. I think it could be something that could help us with the RIA space, traditionally a space that's more focused on just not using guaranteed solutions as much. So those are the two places we've seen as our company, where we've seen some build bridge out into some new space that we weren't seeing before. Ramsey Smith (18:29) Yeah. So part of the reason I bring it up is I recently was asked by a family member, a friend actually, to take a look at a portfolio that somebody who was retired had and it was run by sort of a name brand advisor shop or a wirehouse type. And I looked at the asset allocation and 10% of it was allocated into what they called alternatives. But essentially they were structured notes. I looked at the structured notes and it's like... these structured notes have the same risk profile that a RILA would have. They were really, you know, twin with what are, other than the fact they were written on a bank's paper, as opposed to written on the paper of an insurance company. So I think that sort of the aha moment for me was that, like, there's already use of very similar products already in there. Sometimes they're based on sort of central asset allocations. Some, you know, maybe they're, made at the company level and the advisors just sort of take what the investment they're supposed to do but it's my way of saying that like there are there are places where things that are close enough to Rila's already exist and are being allocated that might be a business opportunity for you and for others in the space. Dave Hanzlik (20:00) Right, right. Paul Tyler (20:01) Interesting. Well, you know, we've had Joe Jordan on a couple of times. I worked with Joe back at MetLife way back when, and Ramsey, well, he always said was, how do you get somebody to do something new as you make it look like something they already do? So, and I think these products that we put out, as much as we think and talk about consumer value, it's, whoever the independent agent, the registered rep, the independent financial advisor, kind of be, they have to, the product has to be one that they feel comfortable selling it probably as close to the process they've already done. Ramsey, I'm presuming you had probably a relatively easy discussion saying, look, you already own these bank structured notes. Look at this product over here. It's kind of similar and maybe it's a little more efficient. Ramsey Smith (20:48) Yeah, so I was evaluating, I wasn't selling this. I was just trying to help them understand what they had. But I think it's that balance between pattern recognition, like the advisor understands it well enough, but your offering as TruStage is unique enough that they understand that it's different than the other things that they recognize enough that it's in their comfort zone. And that's the balance that you... Paul Tyler (20:52) Yeah. Dave Hanzlik (21:15) Yeah, I really like this question. It does remind me of one of the things that as an industry we really need to continue to focus on, whether it be in new spaces that we have under-penetrated like RIAs or just our current spaces, our current broker-dealer partnerships, how do we continue to make it as easy as possible for the advisor and client to use our solutions because it's a highly regulated... industry. There's a lot of complexity of just trying to pull sources of funds and all that. And that continues to be, you know, and it's always a topic at our industry conference. There's multiple topics on this and it's something that we continue to focus in on in terms of our investments and the industry in general. And that's one of those things that I, you know, I continue to encourage my peers to like, where are we finding ways of Ramsey Smith (21:46) Sure. Yeah. Dave Hanzlik (22:10) collectively trying to make this better for those that we're working with. It's not about, we're trying to just help make this solution more widely available, more easily usable in the different fashions that clients are getting served around their financial and retirement needs. Ramsey Smith (22:22) Yeah. Paul Tyler (22:29) So what would you put? It's January. We're still pretty close to the first New Year's resolutions for our insurance industry to do exactly that. They make it easier for advisors to explain these things and communicate the value. Dave Hanzlik (22:45) Can you say that again, Paul? Sorry. Paul Tyler (22:46) Well, what would you, you know, if you had a new year's resolution list for the industry, you know, what would make the top of the list there to make it easier to sell products to clients? Dave Hanzlik (22:59) Yeah, I think it would really be a focus in on working with the distribution partners. you know, how the solutions are, you know, seen and evaluated. And it kind of goes back to think what you, you know, Paul, you and Ramsey were kind of talking about before, like the pattern recognition and I was really working hard on with our partners, how this is similar to where this is similar to things that they're comfortable with and how do we kind of fit them within that technology and operational and process stack and say, Hey, like it's, it's not the same as what you have. It has some. advantages, you know, that provided, you know, allow it to be, you know, another arrow in the quiver. So I think the focus on like education of, you know, how this is similar and then how do we make it as easy as possible to kind of fit it within the process. Because I think that's oftentimes what we see in terms of what we get in some pretty specific discussions with our distribution partners. It's like... lot of it's like they like this when they understand this solution they like it and then it's just like well there's all sorts of things that we all these roadblocks to make it harder you can make it hard for an advisor to potentially use it and it's not to say like a news or that much there's so much more hard harder to use there's always like some like mutual funds management there's always things that can kind of get in the way of using them for a variety of reasons but that's what I would focus in on Ramsey Smith (24:25) Mm-hmm. Agreed. Well, I think when you sort of peel back the onion on virtually any financial product, even, and I say this sometimes, that even index funds are, I think, are more complicated than people think. It really ultimately comes down to sort of comfort and familiarity. I think that ultimately is what makes the world move, make this world move. Yeah. Paul Tyler (24:44) Okay. All right, so I got a double click on this here, Dave. So, you know, I was there at LIMRA on this platform, this panel talked about Ramsey Smith (25:10) Uh oh. Paul Tyler (25:15) AI, general, genera of AI. Boy, great for pattern recognition, great for, is that, what kind of role is that gonna play in 2024 in our industry, do you think? Dave Hanzlik (25:15) Yeah. Well, I think every single company in the industry is looking at it and trying to figure out, because I think we've all seen the applications of it. Hey, look, it'll write a term paper in 10 seconds. It'll take a... create a 40 slide PowerPoint for you in 10 seconds. So, us and our peers are all looking at where are some places that it can be used. But it's one of those things that there's a host of other issues that you have to navigate, because all of our companies are handling very sensitive information. And so, part of what we need to do is make sure we're... We have it in the right spots and really understand and test through it. But I think for us again, in 2024, I think the industry, it will be more around how can we make operational processes more efficient and then, you know, and then just kind of watching like, okay, are there other places we can extend it and how can we fit that within appropriately within privacy, security, regulatory frameworks? Because again, This is really, there's definitely sensitive stuff here that we all deal with, and rightfully so. How about you, Paul? What do you think? Paul Tyler (27:06) Oh, I'm bullish on it. In fact, don't get me started. No, I, listen, you know, I, everything you say I'm living, living the dream with our internal groups, but we've got some interesting sort of pilots, uh, in the works here. Ramsey knows some of them. Um, I do think we're going to have a great event Ramsey, if you want to talk about it in April, April 8th out in Las Vegas, talking about retire tech innovation in retirement, David, hope we can get you out there and your team. Um, Ramsey Smith (27:08) You're going to get him started. Don't get him started. We won't have time. Dave Hanzlik (27:10) Hahaha! Paul Tyler (27:34) send you some information on it, but this would be the third event that we've held. Ramsey, I think, yeah, you've been... let's see... Ramsey Smith (27:41) This will be two out of three. So the first one was in Hartford a couple years ago and I was traveling so unfortunately I couldn't make it. You guys sent me a nice message. You sent me a short video letting me know I was missed. So I definitely appreciated that. And then the last one was earlier, I want to say earlier this year, no it was last year. It was March of last year, sponsored by Capgemini. You guys put together a great space with them. That was fantastic. And now we're going on to the big stage. We're going to Las Vegas. So you know. Dave Hanzlik (27:44) Mm-hmm. Paul Tyler (27:52) Ha ha ha. Ramsey Smith (28:10) must be doing something right. That's fantastic. Glad to be part of it. Paul Tyler (28:12) Yeah. So it was great to have you on here. I don't know, any parting thoughts, advice for people actively selling annuities and having these conversations with clients on a daily basis? Dave Hanzlik (28:29) Yeah, you know, maybe we kind of touched on this before, but two things. One is like, do you think, you know, we should always navigate through recency bias? Like, it's been a high-rate environment, but you know, like, I think a lot of the opportunities are around, you know, with annuities in particular, it's like, hey, like, there's some great innovation that's happened and continuing to kind of explore how it can help from an income perspective, accumulation perspective. That's one layer. It's just continue to challenge like, you know, what solutions you're using and how that fits in with the longer term plan that you're working with your clients. And then the second one is I think this theme that we're kind of getting after like, you know, and one that we'll continue to work on and focus on is like, how are we trying to make the process of working with our industry as simple as possible and how are we like looking at tools like AI to kind of make this. These solutions and the partners we're working with make it as efficient as possible to help serve clients. Those are the two things that we'll continue to zero in and focus on. We're coming off, again, probably it'll be a historic year. I think that lays a great foundation to continue to help people with these solutions and things we can do as an industry. Paul Tyler (29:56) All right, this was great. Ramsey, any final thoughts, questions? Ramsey Smith (29:59) Oh, that's, I look, I just want to, I agree with Dave, ease of use. Ease of use is a growth, is a growth area for our industry. And I say that from somebody that touches the industry in many, many ways, distribution, my risk management from my former life as a board member. I think ease of use is, uh, ease of use is, is really going to be a, uh, an important and valuable growth area for, not just for the clients, but also for. You know, the, all of us that work in the industry, I think it will be. Paul Tyler (30:07) Hahaha! Ramsey Smith (30:29) think it will be universally beneficial. Paul Tyler (30:32) Annuity UX. What do you think about that, Ramsey? Is that a hashtag? Dave, you like that? 2024, hashtag Annuity UX. All right, Dave, hey, thanks so much. Look forward to having you back. And well, listen, we'd love to catch up with you later in the year. Ramsey, thanks. And thanks to all our listeners. Join us again next week for another great episode of That Annuity Show. Ramsey Smith (30:36) Sure, yes. Dave Hanzlik (30:39) It's great, Paul. You're the Chief Parking Officer, so... Ramsey Smith (30:40) Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. and Sure. __ Paul D. Tyler | CMO ptyler@nfg.com https://nfg.com M: 914-356-2138
Summary Ema Roloff, Co-Founder and Principal Consultant of Roloff Consulting, discusses the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in the annuity and broader insurance industry. She emphasizes the importance of addressing legacy systems and the education gap in digital literacy. Ema provides insights on how to start building digital literacy and recommends finding reliable sources for learning. She also discusses the fear associated with AI and the need to overcome it by focusing on the benefits and practical applications. Ema highlights the power of video content and authenticity in marketing and suggests becoming the favorite teacher to build trust with customers. The conversation concludes with a discussion on reaching the right audience with video content. Takeaways Legacy systems and the education gap are key challenges in digital transformation in the insurance industry. Building digital literacy is crucial for individuals and organizations to leverage emerging technologies effectively. Overcoming fear and focusing on the benefits of AI can help drive adoption and build trust. Video content and authenticity are powerful tools for marketing and building connections with customers. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:18 Ema Roloff's Background and Expertise 03:01 Legacy Systems and Digital Transformation 05:32 Education Gap and Digital Literacy 06:21 Starting Point for Digital Literacy 09:15 Finding Valuable Insights and Lessons 10:09 Trial and Error in Finding Good Sources 18:13 Overcoming Fear and Building Trust in AI 20:59 The Next Wave of Adoption and Perception Change 23:29 Importance of Educating People in the Company 25:31 Understanding the Problems and Bottlenecks 27:52 Completing the Puzzle in Digital Transformation 30:43 The Power of Video and Authenticity 36:15 Reaching the Right Audience with Video Content 39:37 Becoming the Favorite Teacher and Building Trust 40:59 Closing Remarks Paul (00:06.752) Hi, this is Paul Tyler and welcome to another episode of the That Annuity Show. And in fact, it's the first That Annuity Show recorded in 2024. Ramsey, good to see you. Ramsey Smith (00:19.441) Good to be back. It's been a minute. Yeah. Paul (00:21.668) Been a minute. Yeah, Tisa, welcome. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (00:25.85) Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Happy New Year. Paul (00:28.968) Yeah, well, we're off to a very interesting start this year, and we've got a great guest, Ema Roloff. I got to know Ema, I don't know, I think Ema, probably maybe a year and a half ago, I think, two years ago. Yeah, and you were working at that point for a software company, really doing, I think, and you correct me if I'm wrong, it felt like you were really kind of a leading spokesperson for the company. Ema Roloff (00:42.018) Sounds about right. Paul (00:54.608) Definitely did a tremendous job creating a presence on LinkedIn, various social media channels. And then you basically are now you've got your own company and you're helping bigger companies think about technology, change transformation, and also helping people figure out how to market in a rapidly changing world. How did I do for an introduction? Ema Roloff (01:18.658) Pretty good. I'm actually impressed. Most people do one or the other and you got both. So I have a content brand that is focused on, I would call leading change and transformation as a whole. Um, and the name of that is leading change, surprise, surprise. Um, so I do interviews and live episodes on LinkedIn from that series and do speaking engagements all attached to transformation. And then on the business side, my husband and I started a consulting company because we were both salespeople that were selling in a very different way than our peers. And we thought more people should recognize the benefit that comes from updating and modernizing their sales process and taking advantage of things like social media and other digital outlets to really change the paradigm of sales and sell the way that people actually want to. Paul (02:13.42) Excellent. All right. Well, now we have, you know, a very diverse audience within a very focused market of people who care a lot about annuities. I would say two groups who should listen to the show today very, very carefully are people inside Carriers who are responsible for driving technology changes or technology. E-Apps, you know, illustration systems. I think we've got another group of people who listen to our show who are actively building businesses, talking to clients, delivering solutions, trying to think about how are they finding next client. I think both of those will should both of the if you're in any of those categories listen carefully. And I don't know Ramsey, which one do you think we should start with first? Ramsey Smith (03:01.409) I think, why don't we start with people that are on the inside? Because at the end of the day, one of the things that we see is, even though sometimes there's been some innovation on the front end in the distribution process, it's sooner or later it ends up, sooner or later somewhere in the chain, there's some sort of legacy system that ultimately ends up sort of coming into play and that can kind of slow things down. So I'd love to, why don't we start there and talk about that. Paul (03:27.276) Yeah, and maybe, you know, generative AI has got to be, Ema, the biggest wave coming over both groups. And, you know, agree or disagree here for 2024. Ema Roloff (03:35.126) Mm-hmm. Ema Roloff (03:39.718) say that it's definitely one of the top conversations that's happening across our industry and beyond. And it's going to hit every single person within the insurance landscape, whether they're on the vendor side, at the distribution level or on the carrier side, but it'll look a little different for each kind of persona, so to speak. Um, and, and some of it will go off of what Ramsey just talked about where when we're looking at, especially some of the larger companies in the carrier side, there might be a steeper. Incline to adoption strictly because of some of the foundational items that we didn't address during what I would say is kind of like the first wave of transformation and things like these legacy systems that are still looming or maybe that like. intermediate step that carriers took to go from their homegrown legacy system to something that's a bit more modern, but it took them 10 years to go through that process. So they feel like they just did it, but their system is now 10 or 15 years old again, and they're back in that legacy spot and it's time to kind of start evaluating what that next transition looks like. Those foundational items, especially when we start looking at how those platforms manage data, how clean the data within those systems are, that all impacts drastically how useful generative AI and these emerging technologies can be when we bring them into the organization. And then I would say kind of across the board, there's the dynamic that you and I talked about, Paul, when I had you on Leading Change recently, is the education gap and technical, or what I call digital literacy. that might be lacking at all of the different stages of our insurance ecosystem life cycle, so to speak. And that is on the broker side, on the carrier side, on the vendor side. And so we could certainly talk more about that. But I think that that's going to be a big challenge for a lot of people is kind of overcoming that chasm over the next year or so. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (05:56.13) Ema, do you have any tips or advice for the person listening to this inside a carrier or not? Just kind of where to start. For someone who doesn't have as much digital literacy, savviness, all of the topics, all of the terms, all feel new, all feel big. Where to start? Break it down. Where should one start? Ema Roloff (06:17.826) Mm-hmm. Ema Roloff (06:21.762) So this is where maybe this conversation isn't gonna be quite as polarized as we were talking about. And maybe this is where you guys start to see how all of these ideas are a passion of mine. I would say the first place to start is find some really good people on YouTube or LinkedIn or TikTok, Instagram to follow that are spending time educating people on how to use these technologies. And also just kind of like the basic foundational understanding of technology. So, Paul, you mentioned when I was selling core technology, one of the things that I did was I recognized that a lot of my buyers didn't know what the hell I was talking about when I used certain terms or acronyms. And that also came from me stepping into the technology and insurance landscape without any background in that. So I started as a teacher. And when I stepped into business, the amount of acronyms that came flying at me in every single industry was like, dizzying. And then I got into technology and realized how many of our terms we shift and we change and we're constantly like doing this that make these things that make it really difficult for our consumers to actually get a solid grasp of what we're talking about. And so I started a series on TikTok and LinkedIn that was explainer videos, just breaking down like, okay, what is AI? Let's do a one-on-one lesson. Now let's go. Ramsey Smith (07:45.853) Thanks for watching! Ema Roloff (07:49.806) Now we've done that one-on-one lesson. Let's talk about the differences between AI and machine learning, or what are all of the different subset technologies that bubble up to the umbrella term of AI. And let's break it down and plain English in less than three minutes so that people can get this bite-size information that makes their next meeting slightly more meaningful to them because they've got that foundational knowledge. And I'm certainly not the only one that's creating that kind of content. And. Whether it was, you know, now I'm video heavy and that's where I do a lot of my learning because I like creating that kind of content and I like consuming it. But when I first started digging deep into this stuff, podcasts, reading articles on any blog that I could get my hands on, we could even go down the path of starting to use generative AI to teach us these things and sit down and ask chat GPT, here's my role, this is what I do. Can you help? give me a list of 15 technology terms or ideas that I should know the definition of and give me those definitions. There's lots of different ways to gain access to this information, but the first step is kind of taking the initiative to start building it if your company isn't helping you build that digital literacy somehow through like a specific training program. Ramsey Smith (09:15.633) So are you finding that it's easy to find sort of good sources? So one of the interesting challenges in learning online is actually everything that you need to know is there. And in some sense, there's probably not a whole lot of new ideas because somebody said it somewhere. But finding the people that actually are really like yourself, but finding people that actually Ema Roloff (09:41.262) Thank you. Ramsey Smith (09:42.981) Finding people that can actually teach you effectively and efficiently can sometimes be a challenge. So I'm just curious how, you know, other than your own work, but as you do, you know, outwardly, like how do you filter, how do you filter through, you know, all the various carnival barkers to get to, to get to what you think are people that are providing valuable insights and lessons? Ema Roloff (10:00.822) Hehehehe Ema Roloff (10:09.422) I would say some of it is trial and error. I can't tell you how many times I've like found a new podcast and tried listening to one episode of it and been like, oh, this is not it for me. And some of it is just like what your learning style is, how you like to consume content. My husband is like a tried and true book reader and like his office is lined with all of his books that he reads. And for me, reading business books is like torture. So I have to listen to everything on audio book. Like I'm a big reader, but like it better be a fantasy book or something else other than, than business. So like, I know that doesn't work for me. So part of it is like tapping into how do you learn best and then trial and error across like some of the top podcasts that are out there in the space of technology. Ramsey Smith (10:42.55) Mm-hmm. Ema Roloff (10:59.114) I mean, I could certainly make some suggestions. When I first started, I kind of started at the very beginning of like, OK, I'm going to go listen to Harvard and MIT's business podcasts and just see what they're talking about and what ideas and who their guests are. And then I'm going to follow some of those guests that said really insightful things on LinkedIn or YouTube. And then you probably, I mean, naturally what happens is you're going to find your favorite teachers. We'll get to this idea a little bit later, but that's kind of the philosophy behind updating your sales process is becoming your clients or your prospects favorite teachers. But you start to find the people that communicate the way that makes sense to you, and then you can double down on their content and really lean into like learning in that mechanism that works best for you. Paul (11:52.46) Yeah, it's interesting. I think education is incredibly important. I mean, Ties and I are running an AI committee here at the company, Ties. So we have our next meeting tomorrow, right, with our group. And Ema, you're spot on. The education's critical. I mean, it's just critical. Ramsey, you're right. It's hard. Now, you think about the last wave of technology. Hey, could I actually, oh my gosh, fill out a form online? and submit business to a carrier. It took us a long time, Ema, a long time. And I wouldn't say, you know, people say, oh, the insurance industry is so slow. It's not really, I, Tisa, I want you to weigh in on this one is I don't think it's slow. I just think that, you know, really highly regulated business with lots of systems to connect, it just takes a lot of time to sort of get this machine rolling. And Tisa, I'm thinking this company, the predecessor company of NASA, I think was client number one or two for insurance technologies, now Hexure and Salesforce. Okay, I think we were maybe averaging, you know, when I joined, I think we had what, maybe 10 or 20% of our annuities coming through on Eapp maybe that was 2016, now we're at 85%. This is, am I 10 years later? So Tisa, what was it that... Tisa Rabun-Marshall (12:55.19) in Salesforce. Yeah. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (13:10.266) Yeah. Paul (13:18.844) If you look back there and say, okay, education was required, what are the differences between that technology versus AI sweeping in your opinion? And why does it feel harder? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (13:33.563) I mean, you know, kind of speculate a little bit, just, but I think what may make it feel harder is that prior to now, technology was more around like, efficiency and process. And AI can play a role in that, but it almost, it feels more like first people have to get over the hurdle of like, and maybe they felt like this before, but it's gonna replace people, or it has this, for whatever reason, the comments that I've heard is that, unlike other technology, nobody ever called Eapp a person or a mind or a mythical creature. It didn't feel like a thing. And for whatever reason, I guess the intelligence part of it is part of it. It feels like it's something more of a tangible. Ema Roloff (14:10.807) Hehehehe Tisa Rabun-Marshall (14:23.17) than any other technology. So you're sort of overcoming that, maybe it's fear, or fear of the unknown first, whereas before it was more so resistance to like, I don't want to change the way I work, which AI is really a tool, right? It's changing the way you work. It's changing the way you arrive at a decision. It's changing the way you gather information. But for whatever reason, it's not being viewed that way as previous technology has been. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (14:52.642) E application that just felt like a shift in behavior. But AI feels like maybe a shift in how we like fundamentally function as a society and people are more, I'll say resistant, until they learn about it and understand it. So to me that's the biggest difference, which it actually shouldn't be viewed that way. It should be viewed just as other previous technology has been, that it can drive efficiency and drive scale and things like that. But for whatever reason, it's not being viewed that way. at this moment. Ema Roloff (15:24.366) I think that you just tapped into something that's really interesting that I had never really thought of in this context. But it is the way that we've presented AI to the world feels different than the way that we've presented other tools. But the part that really gets me is in our personal lives, I don't know a single person that isn't interacting with AI, but they just don't maybe realize it. And going back to that idea of how we position it and how we put it in front of people, Tisa Rabun-Marshall (15:46.349) already. Yeah. Ema Roloff (15:54.27) Nobody thinks of Netflix as AI, but they have massive amounts of AI operating in the background to be able to deliver you exactly the show that you want to watch, but we're not intimidated by that. That's nice. So it is a little bit of like probably how we've positioned it in the past, but I think that fear associated with AI, you know, when we talk about like polarizing content and stuff like that, Paul, like. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (16:07.61) Mm-hmm. Ema Roloff (16:21.302) When I've created content about not having fear of AI and rather looking at it as a tool that's gonna help us reach new heights, the comments that I get sometimes are like calling me like a propaganda mouthpiece. There's people that have like come after my appearance because I dared say that they don't need to fear AI. You know, like it's something that gets a visceral reaction out of people because there is a lot of fear associated with it because there's these headlines. that come out about how many jobs it's gonna remove, how many people it's gonna replace. But if we looked at like what the internet did over time and tried to do a tally of how many jobs the internet removed, we'd probably be talking about the same statistics because nobody's talking about the other side of how many jobs were created and how much productivity was unlocked by these tools becoming available. And so it's probably a lot of how we talk about it and the narrative that's put in front of people that causes that fear. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (17:07.686) Mm-hmm. Ramsey Smith (17:19.161) Yeah, I think part of the challenge is a lot of the sort of doomsday narrative is happening through channels that are sort of certainly outside of the control of this podcast, this industry. And, you know, they do tend to sort of border on that border. They're, they're, they're couched in sort of existential terms, whether it's Elon Musk, or it's Sam Altman and OpenAI and everything. So it's Ema Roloff (17:30.542) Hehehe Ramsey Smith (17:46.645) That's going to be a hard thing to overcome, but I think that maybe the opportunity is where do we find ways to help people use AI in their day-to-day life, in their business, so something they can make money on, where they feel some sense of control and it's helping them do their job in some better way, because that's ultimately where the trust is going to come from. You know, in your work, whether your current work or your past work, where do you feel like you've had a breakthrough where you actually showed somebody something and it really delivered for them and they turned the corner? I mean, are we there yet? Are we still fighting for that first win? Or have you seen some of those? By the way, and it would make sense that we, we're still fighting, I'm still fighting for that first win. So, but I'm curious like what your experience has been so far. Ema Roloff (18:40.382) Yeah. So in a past life, um, I sold process automation platforms and tools. And I would say, I mean, I've been out of that position for over like a year and a half, two years and, um, so three, four, five years ago, we were selling AI solutions, but we weren't calling them AI. Um, so things like optical character recognition. that has intelligence built into it to be able to recognize what information is being extracted off of a document and where to place that data. There is intelligence built into those tools, but we call it intelligent document processing or optical character recognition, because these are tools that have been around for a long time and had these layers of artificial intelligence built into them, into these existing platforms that we've worked with. Same thing with something like the idea of process mining, where we're taking huge, huge amounts of data and looking for the most effective process route that we can take. Those tools, depending on the approach that you're taking to that process mining, might have computer vision associated with them. They might be using other elements of AI to recognize those patterns and be able to create an output that we then use. to enable other software platforms. So there have been these wins, but they haven't probably been packaged with the label of AI the same way that we are now, everything is slapped with AI because that's the biggest fanciest nicest marketing term that any company can use. And that being said, where I think we're gonna see kind of that next wave of true adoption, and probably some of that like, perception changing is going to be core platforms, bringing AI in and showing people what AI is capable of within these software platforms that they're already leveraging today. Because that's going to be, again, a smaller, it's going to be a more incremental step for them to get used to. And now we're packaging it with that AI term associated with it. So it's going to help like the... Ema Roloff (20:59.662) It's going to do a nice little PR campaign for AISO whole. Um, and then we'll start to see people more comfortable with the idea of something like a company rolling out their own large language model tool that they can leverage or, you know, maybe some of those things are being pulled into core systems. I think that's going to be where some of the perception starts to change because people are going to realize this isn't replacing me. It's taking away the four steps that I really hated doing in the first place. Ramsey Smith (21:01.795) Mm-hmm. Ema Roloff (21:29.342) And then there's going to be more of like, well, what else could we do with this? Where else could we go? And it's going to have kind of that, like, if you give a mouse a cookie effect, they're going to ask for a glass of milk and they're going to want to know where else they can go with it. Paul (21:41.388) Yeah. Well, I want to pivot over to sales in a second, but just to sort of give you one last question, you know, Ema, that we all, I think, Tisa, I want your opinion, Ramsey, which is the people, what's the people equation here to make an AI implementation successful? You know, my experience, Ema, and it's just where, you know, what you've said just totally resonates with me. Tisa, you'll, I know you'll dodge your head. Oh. hey, we're gonna bring a new email system in. Oh, we're gonna bring a new CRM system. The only time those work, in my experience, has been when you have somebody, you're reassigned to do this, or you got somebody matched up against the software platform. If you just buy the thing, sign the contract, as hard as that is, to go through the procurement, you'll just sit there, right? Okay, so here are some things, Ema, that have been thrown out. I've literally heard these tees in the last, like, what, three months here. Oh, we need to hire a prompt engineer. Oh, we need to go hire a coder. Well, we already have a coder. We already have people to answer questions. Oh, we need a... What do we need? What do you need as a company here, if you're gonna say, yeah, I wanna like pull AI into my business. Is there a good list of who to shop for? Ema Roloff (22:59.522) So I would say in terms of, I don't necessarily, I mean, taking a half step back, going back to this idea of digital literacy that I mentioned a moment ago, it's probably not that you need to go out and hire people with drastically different skill sets than you already have. You probably need to spend time educating the people that are already within your business that have the institutional knowledge of how your business works. and know where you have opportunity to improve to get a better understanding of how all of these technologies can come in and make a difference. And when you start that education process, I've seen some companies do this where they started with their executive team and had their LMS had almost, they didn't call it digital literacy, but they had this track of education focused on what is AI? How is it? helping our industry, what are the types of things it can do for you? They had this education path set up for their executives and then started rolling it out at the, across the entire company as a way to recognize where and how they should be bringing in these emerging technologies into the company. Because going back to this idea of like people then process, then technology, if your people don't understand how to leverage the tools. they're never going to come to you with ideas of where there is opportunity. But if you teach them, they're going to come to you with where there are opportunities. You can look at the process that they've brought forward as an opportunity, address what you'd like that process to look like in the future with that knowledge of how technology can support that new process. And then you can go shop for technology and you'll have a really strong understanding of exactly what you need to bring into the company to enable those people and that newly envisioned process to be effective. But if you don't take that step of that education at the front end, then your people don't know where to bring forward those opportunities. So then what ends up happening is somebody comes in with a shiny object and says, this is going to make your life really easy and your Ema Roloff (25:15.554) caught in this wheel where you're bringing in technology based off of the use cases that vendors have identified for you, as opposed to having your people in your process identify your need and bringing in the right tools. Ramsey Smith (25:31.453) So that strikes me as just such an important point, in part because people that come in selling, they bring some, it is a shiny object, it surely has some great functionality, and people are very quickly attracted to this idea that my life is gonna be easier. But you're absolutely right, unless you actually figure out upfront, what are the bottlenecks, you may end up having an unsatisfying outcome. So that's why, as... You know, Paul, as you asked that question, you know, I was just thinking there's really a lot of stakeholders, but you have to sort of deal with the people that sort of deal with the problem day to day, understand what their pain points are. Because if you solve their pain points, one, you actually build trust and confidence in using technology, but two, you're probably also focusing on the right issue. And people in leadership matter as well, because at the end of the day, people in leadership have to focus on what are the aggregate outcomes of all these systems we have. And so whether it's keeping shareholders happy or policyholders in general, et cetera, that needs to be done there. But I think you really, really have to make sure that you understand the problems at a basic level. So Ema, to your point, yes, I think you need to, you need to focus on the people that are actually doing all the inputs. Because guess what? If you bring in the wrong system, those folks will still have to do the same things in the most difficult way and they'll be upset, yeah. Ema Roloff (26:56.938) And they're going to be, and they'll be skeptical the next time that you bring in technology or they'll think that you don't care what their employee experience is like, and there's one piece, you know, Ramsey, before we started recording, we were talking a little bit about this idea of like, how does a company end up with 200 different technology systems? And how have we, and like, that kind of goes hand in hand with this idea of like, Ramsey Smith (27:00.645) Yeah. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (27:02.362) Right. Ema Roloff (27:24.366) How have we been at digital transformation for 10, 15 years with still having, depending on the statistics you look at, 70% to 80% failure rates? It's because we bring in these pieces without taking a step back to look at the entire puzzle and figure out exactly where those pieces need to go to complete the picture and actually improve the process, because you can improve this little tiny piece of the puzzle. but then you're just pushing the bottleneck back to a different point or creating another problem somewhere along the line for yourself. So then you don't even get the return that you were hoping for on these tools that you're bringing into the company. Paul (28:06.329) Yeah. Tisa, what do you think? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (28:08.366) I mean, what I'm hearing is something that we probably, take a step back and pause and think, like some basics, right? We listen to the front line, talk to the folks on the front line that are doing the work, that are interacting with, whether it's the clients or the producers or whatever the use case is. And so really in this next wave, it's sort of like not losing sight of that, so that you're solving real business problems, you're understanding where the problems are, straight from the mouths of those dealing As far as bringing in new technology, I think that... when I think about senior leadership, obviously they have to make the decisions of where you're gonna direct and where you're gonna invest funds to bring in technology. But I think the thing that connects it all is understanding that if you bring in the right technology at the right time to solve the right problem, it really truly is a differentiator in the marketplace. So the value across the enterprise is for the person on the front line to be more efficient and do their job better, feel like they're at a place that listens to them, gives them the tools they need to be successful. But ultimately, out in the marketplace, it can make you the winner, whether that's the company with the best customer service experience or the company that can get business process the fastest. And that's the win-win for everyone. But getting there is connecting all the dots. But I do think the company that figures it out, it's a big thing to figure out and probably with some time constraint. Either want to be the first or the best. can make a difference long term as far as winning out in the marketplace and being the place that folks decide or choose where they want to buy from, where they want to place their business, who they want to work with. So I think there's branding, you know, there's just, there's a lot to win with it, figuring it out quote unquote, right, but there's obviously a lot to lose if you take the wrong steps along the way. And, and Tisa Rabun-Marshall (30:07.898) you know, having the trade-off be sort of the employee piece of it, the employee satisfaction piece is a big thing to consider in how you approach it. Paul (30:18.412) Yeah, this is a tough one. I think it's, yes, it needs top-down support. Probably even like, I'm seeing a lot of companies actually being pushed into Gen. AI by the board of directors, not even the CEO. It's interesting. And at the same time, you need that top-down support to do introduce something like this, Ema. Wow, the people on the front lines are the ones who are going to give you the use cases. It feels like this will end up being more of a process re-engineering. Ema Roloff (30:43.874) Mm-hmm. Paul (30:47.964) exercise at the end of the day than it will be pure technology because a lot of this AI stuff is free. It's open source. Now there's a lot of work stitched together, right? Put it in these systems. But let's talk about marketing. I'll say we, Tisa and I demoed some stuff to one of our distributors. Yes, we called it AI, but Tisa, I don't think we really promoted it as such and it was AI driven marketing. Ema Roloff (30:57.512) Mm-hmm. Paul (31:17.601) and technology created by AI. I mean, how would you describe the response there? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (31:23.874) I think was overwhelmingly positive. I think it's a combination of two things, probably, to your point, Ema, like what we called it, the way it was presented, the perception of it, right? But also, we happened to be talking to a distributor that is also investing in technology, kind of understands the role. So it was a positive conversation. And immediately, additional use cases were identified in the one or two that we showed. But I think back to what I said a few minutes ago, it's kind of solving the same problem with a different piece of technology. So would you rather get like. template which is like literally would you rather get a word document with a template with fill it You know fill in here insert here, or would you rather have that sort of be more interactive? Conversational pick a few prompts spit out the thing you need. Oh wait go back two seconds later I'd rather have this tone spit out the next you know version of a marketing asset that you're looking for so I think we've always had from a marketing perspective we've always had like toolkits and templates and and a PDF with a fillable fill in my name. But if it can present differently, have more interactivity, and give you more choice more quickly to solve the same need, I think people would lean towards that second use case or that second description. And that's what we got in the room when we talked through what we're looking to build. Of course, they would rather use that. So I think we're heading in the right direction. Paul (33:02.886) Okay, so imagine you're talking to these distributors now. I'm in sales, I'm in marketing. I mean, what should I be doing differently in 2024? Ema Roloff (33:14.466) See, I'm going to take this in a different direction than generative AI, and it's going to be because of generative AI. And I'm going to say every single company should have some sort of video strategy associated with how they are marketing. And at the very minimum, if not a video strategy, a very, very strong education-based content strategy. Um, so not everybody likes being on video, but the reason that I'm so bullish about it is because. Now that we've hit this point where a lot of people have figured out how to use AI to create collateral or do marketing. There is going to be for lack of a better term, a thirst for authenticity. And video provides individuals and organizations if it's done right. the opportunity to truly connect and provide that like authenticity and human trust that comes through like relationships in a different way than other content. So if you're writing a blog post as a human without the assistance of AI, or even with the assistance of AI, It has the opportunity to get lost in the sea of all of the different blog posts on that same topic that are being generated using AI. Um, if you create an image or like, you know, I still hope, and I believe in my heart, but like humans will also still create art and whatever else, but like, if you go and you get this really cool image, it's still competing with images that have been generated by AI. At least at this point, the AI generated videos with like the dobovers of your mouth still lack that like natural authenticity that comes from somebody actually showing up in that avenue. And so I'm pretty bullish that we're going to see even more video content and even more of that like thirst for true authentic content, because of the push of how much AI is going to be coming at us over the next couple of months. Ramsey Smith (35:09.905) Hmm. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (35:30.51) Yeah, well, and AI makes it easier to produce those videos, right? Like the editing side, the production side is making it easier, even finding the right on-screen talent that people can connect and identify with. It's making it quicker and easier to make those videos. So I agree with you. Paul (35:30.888) Yeah, I... Ramsey Smith (35:45.285) So probably the only thing that I wonder about in that space is you can create things that are substantively very good. In other words, essentially they give the information that meets sort of in a particular educational need. But obviously the way one wins in that space is through reach and people actually watching your stuff. So the question is how much of it Paul (35:45.646) Yep. Ramsey Smith (36:15.057) I mean, do you have to be the Mr. Beast of this space, right? So how do you come up with the right strategy, assuming you get the content right? What is the best way? I know we're sort of coming up on the end of time here, so maybe this will be a prompt for a follow-up conversation, but what are the ways you do, in your view, how do you help people get that message? Ema Roloff (36:24.596) Mm-hmm. Ramsey Smith (36:41.905) to the right people, the decision makers that can actually drive your business. Ema Roloff (36:46.314) So I think there's two ways to look at this. There is, are you trying to be an influencer or are you trying to sell? And those are two different things in my mind. Yes, influencers can sell, but just because somebody has a big following doesn't mean that they're speaking to the right people and converting the right people. being a seller that uses these tools, you're speaking to a very specific audience. So you may not have the biggest reach in the entire world. You may not have the impressions of a Mr. Beast or anybody else, but because you've tapped into your specific focus and you're solving a specific problem, you're going to find more revenue from that. Then you would the giant brand that is speaking to no one in particular. And, you know, I was actually just having this conversation with my husband yesterday, because like, as we got to the year end, everyone's posting their like impressions on LinkedIn. And, you know, I have some friends that I'm so excited to see them get these like just absolutely monstrous, you know, 8 million impressions and all of the rest of it, and they've had follower counts that have increased much faster than mine, but I speak to a very specific audience. And I've got a really engaged audience that wants to interact with the content that I'm creating. And so we've seen, you know, with the launch of our business, we are practicing what we preach and we have not sent a single cold email or made a single cold call. And now we have more business than we know what to do with because we spent the time tapping into exactly who we were speaking to the problem we were trying to solve and helping educate people in that space to build trust. And so like, again, I might not have, they might have 10,000 followers more than me, and they might still be tapping into the right audience and generating revenue. I don't know that off the top of my head, but that 8 million impressions doesn't automatically transition to conversions. So I think if we, going back to this kind of teaser comment that I made before, if you as a seller or a marketer can stop and think to yourself, if I were a teacher, Ema Roloff (39:01.598) what subject would I be teaching? And get really, really clear on exactly what subject you're teaching. And then think about who exactly would be in my classroom. And you start creating content for that specific classroom and those specific people, you'll find that there will be leads that come back to you because you've helped tap in to becoming that favorite teacher and that resource that people come back to, to learn from and trust to solve their problem when it's time to buy. Paul (39:30.848) Love it. Love it. Hey listen, we're right at the end of time. We could go on. Ema, we have to have you back here. And maybe you can bring Kenny G with us too. That was... I loved your cameo you pulled in. Ema Roloff (39:37.927) Name a time. Yeah. Okay. No, it's on my list. So when I grew up, my dad always played Kenny G's Christmas album as like the announcement that we were allowed to come out and come to the Christmas tree. So I have, I'm one of six. So like my six siblings and I like that, or like the six of us, that song is like Christmas to us. And I realized this year that Kenny G does cameos where he'll play Christmas music. Ramsey Smith (39:44.125) Is that an inside joke? Ramsey Smith (39:54.834) Yeah. Ramsey Smith (40:09.481) Ah, okay. Ema Roloff (40:10.026) So I went on a probably three week campaign to get my husband to agree to let me buy a cameo from Kenny G as our Christmas card this year. Ramsey Smith (40:18.393) Wow, okay. Nice. Paul (40:19.82) Yeah, but that's, the reason I bring that up is there's lots and lots and lots of average content out there. And I think, you know, bad misuse of Gen.AI will be average. You don't get average responses. But I'm going to take somebody like you to say, let me sort of take these new technologies, put it in a way where, you know, it's not average. It is authentic. And it speaks exactly to the people I care about. You know, I don't care about. 100,000 people in North Korea. Well, actually, they could be South Korea. I guess North Korea would be shut off. But I want this audience in my room that I'm talking to, right? So, I think this is something to stay the same forever. Forever. Ema, how do people find out? How do people connect with you, learn more about you, and what you might, and ways you might be able to help solve some of their problems? Tisa Rabun-Marshall (40:53.81) I'm sorry. Ema Roloff (40:59.084) Mm-hmm. Ema Roloff (41:14.794) Yeah. So, um, our company's name is Rolloff Consulting. So Rolloff is a great way to get into contact and learn a little bit more about again, kind of our approach to digital sales, um, or find me on LinkedIn. The one tricky part is my Ema is spelled with one M so it's E-M-A Roll Off. Um, and I'm on active, very active on LinkedIn. So you'll find me there very easily. Paul (41:37.868) Yeah, excellent. All right, Tisa, Ramsey, thank you very much. Tisa Rabun-Marshall (41:42.502) Thank you. Ramsey Smith (41:43.493) Great to see you guys. Happy New Year. Paul (41:45.508) Happy New Year to everybody and join us again next week for another great episode of That Annuity Show.
We can’t believe we’re near the end of the fourth quarter already. Today we sit down with David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau Financial Group. We cover interest rates, geopolitics, inflation, and AI. Interested in learning more? https://
It's hard to escape a news show, magazine or newspaper without reading about AI these days. How will it affect our business? That's what we explore today with David Macchia, CEO and Founder of Wealth2K. Learn more: Gain additional industry insight:
As the market heads into its final quarter, we thought you would enjoy hearing Tamiko Toland's take on trends in 2023. In this episode, we talk about the 401(k) market, retail annuities, and the consulting firm that Tamiko is building next.
Our world is filled with risks today. At a personal level, we've spent a lot of time talking about risks in managing retirement. Today, we explore how those risks overlap with those of carriers with Tamara Burden, Deputy Chief Risk Officer of National Life Group.
David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer of Nassau Financial Group joins us today to talk about the economy. In this episode, we cover a cooling economy in China, improving outlook for our supply chain, a steadying job market, and the current cost of climate change.
Leads really are the lifeblood of many retirement practices. However, changes in regulation both in the annuity and Medicare space may put an end to the market for leads as many agents know it. Danny Greeson and Josh Solomon from Introz join us today to talk about the changes agents will need to make in the future to find new clients. Links mentioned in the show: https://introz.com
What's changed in our business? What hasn't? Today, we have a great conversation with industry veteran Scott Stolz, Managing Director of iCapital. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-stolz-cfp-ricp-64a0102/ https://icapital.com/
Most retirement plans start with Social Security. However, very few people actually understand how their payment is determined or what their check could be. Jeff Quigley, Vice President at LifeYield joins us today to discuss his mission to change this and how his company is actually doing it. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.lifeyield.com/
In the retirement industry, we're living through a lot of change. Who could be better to help us put the challenges in perspective than Jim Kerley, Managing Partner at Clearview Partners. Jim has played a leading role at startups, at carriers, and at industry associations over the years. Listen today to get great insight into what might happen next. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkerley/
Have we gotten any smarter about retirement and annuities since 2008? That was the year in which today's guest Kerry Pechter, first released his book, "Annuities For Dummies". Kerry joins us to talk about his new version that the series just released in 2023. As it turns out a lot has happened in the world of annuities over the 15 years. However, people are still asking some of the same basic retirement planning questions as Kerry explains. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.dummies.com/article/business-careers-money/personal-finance/insurance/annuities/annuities-for-dummies-cheat-sheet-208928/
Emerging augmented reality and virtual reality technology present an interesting opportunity to create memorable experiences for clients. Panos Leledakis, President & CEO at IFA Academy joins us today to talk about his insurance practice and how new technology has driven growth in his business across two continents. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/panos-leledakis/
The insurance industry has a tortured relationship with leads - we desperately need them but seem to rarely like what we receive. Maybe the problem isn't really about the lead, but rather about understanding the actual intent of the prospect. Today, Jay Wolff, Chief Revenue Officer of Kerv.AI talks about his company's solution to the problems that applies AI and dynamic QR codes to video on television and on the web to collapse our sales funnel and potentially change our conversion economics. Links mentioned on the show: https://kervit.com
It's not often that people create new products that aren't annuities to increase late-in-life income for seniors. It's even rarer to design one intended to complement the sale of traditional annuities. Today, we'll explore one new company working to offer precisely that. It's called Savvyly and we Dario Fusato, the CEO on to explain exactly how the product works. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.savvly.com/
David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer of Nassau Financial Group joins us again this quarter to provide his assessment of market trends and the overall economic outlook.
Two weeks ago, the Alliance for Lifetime Income held a summit in Washington D.C. for its members. Ramsey Smith and our guest today, David Macchia participated in the panel discussions. They give us a recap of the event and the insights they gleaned from the two days there.
How do you explain the turmoil in the financial markets to your clients? Today, we're replaying a presentation that David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau Financial Group recently gave to some of our top independent producers. Joe Jordan joins us as guest host introducing the topic. To see the slides, watch the video version of this on our website.
Earlier this year, we hosted our second innovation in retirement event called Retiretech 2.0. Scott Hawkins, Managing Director and Head of insurance research at Conning delivered a keynote address on macro trends driving the annuity market today. We play his presentation on this show today.
With the passage the SECURE Act 1.0 and 2.0, agents and advisors have a greater opportunity than ever before to help individuals navigate the complexities of their 401(k) plan. Today on our show, Bonnie Treichel, Chief Solutions Officer at Endeavor Retirement, discusses the wide variety of advice and education we can provide and the requirements to enter the space. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnietreichel/ https://endeavor-retirement.com/
Returning guest Barbara Matthews, Founder and CEO of BCMStrategy, Inc joins us for a timely discussion of public financial policy and the ability of machine learning to separate signal from noise. We cover crypto-currency intermediation, SVB, interest rates, COVID subsidies and the early insight that her machine learning model provides. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaracmatthews/ https://measuringpolicyvolatility.substack.com/ https://www.bcmstrategy2.com/
Volatility seems to be the word of the day. Volatility in fuel prices. Volatility in the market. And of course, volatility in interest rates. David Czerniecki, the Chief Investment Officer of Nassau Financial Group joins our show today. He discusses current events and explains the difference in risk profiles between banks and insurance companies.
Sometimes very basic questions can be hard to answer when it comes to annuities. One example - How much exposure does a specific vol-controlled index actually have to the market? Josh Mellberg joins us today to show how to use simple match to estimate relative exposure across different indices at one given point in time. The question may become more common as clients looks for ways to make up for declines in 2022. Links mentioned in the show:
We know both consumers and agents want and expect a different buying experience today. The industry has made significant strides in the last few years. However, the journey isn't over yet. Josh Elohim and Reid Tattersall from Back Nine Insurance Services give their recommendations for innovation that carriers should support. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.back9ins.com
In a turbulent economic time, recommending client allocations in FIA indices has never been harder. Our friends at The Index Standard, Branislav Nikolic and Jay Watson join us today to talk about the latest iterations on their rating models. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.theindexstandard.com
Do Monte Carlo simulations cause more harm than good? David Macchia, Retirement Income Strategist, Entrepreneur, and Founder of Wealth2k explores this topic and more today. We cover the politics of pay, why "sales" seems like a dirty word, and our upcoming Retiretech 2.0 conference in NYC. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macchia/ https://www.fa-mag.com/news/why-monte-carlo-simulations-for-retirement-income-should-be-banned-71909.html?print https://imagine.nfg.com/retiretech-forum-2-0/
We have spent a lot of time talking about rules of thumbs for managing saving in retirement. However, what are the rules we should be giving to our kids for saving into the future. Today, financial planner and author Dale Alexander joins us to share his rules that he believes all young people should follow. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-alexander-2a500511/ https://dalealexander.com/httpsdalealexander.comthe-talk.html
The use of annuities by RIAs continues to grow. David Lau, one of the leading pioneers in the space, joins us today. David is the founder and CEO of DPL Financial Partners. We talk about the opportunities and challenges of "poking the bear" - and creating better retirement plans for clients in the process. Links mentioned in the show:
Our guest this week is Joe Jordan. Do I need to say more? But I will. In today's episode, we discuss how the insurance industry has progressed from a focus on sales to a focus on planning. Joe explains why he thinks the next step will be to focus on helping create purpose for our clients in retirement. Links mentioned in the show:
Last week we looked back at 2022. This week we're looking ahead at 2023 with Scott Hawkins, Managing Director and Head of Insurance Research for Conning. Scott will also be a keynote speaker at our upcoming Retiretech conference in NYC on March 27th. More details will follow. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-hawkins-b787bb1a/ https://www.conning.com
We covered a lot of topics in 2022 with many of the leaders of the retirement and annuity business. We thought it would be worthwhile to take a look back at the shows that stood out last year. And at the same time, think about what issues may be very important to discuss in 2023. As we plan our schedule for the coming year, please reach out and give us your suggestions for guests and topics.
Our emotional relationship with money is complex. How we feel about it often shapes how we spend and how we save it. Joining us today is Jamie Hopkins, Managing Partner of Wealth Solutions at Carson Group and co-author of "Find Your Freedom - Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose". Jamie talks about how advisors and clients need to rethink goals and processes for a successful planning outcome. We also sneak in Jamie's great perspective on the recently-passed SECURE Act 2.0. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.carsongroup.com/news/financial-planning-for-a-life-on-purpose-jamie-hopkins-ron-carson-release-new-book/ https://www.jamiehopkins.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-hopkins-esq-llm-cfp%C2%AE-chfc%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-ricp%C2%AE-022a502a/
Indices continue to proliferate within the fixed indexed annuity market. Yes, choice is good for the client but it can create a complicated environment for the agent or advisor. Laurence Black, Founder of the Index Standard and Branislav Nikolic join us again to talk about how their company makes providing good advice easier. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.theindexstandard.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurence-black-664918/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/branislav-nikolic-8a71b657/
Dementia presents a growing risk for all of us as we age. Research shows that even mild cognitive impairment makes it hard for people to manage their money on their own. Today we speak with Marti DeLiema, Naomi Karp, and Steve Vernon about a project designed to help. It's called the Thinking Ahead Roadmap. It's free on the web and intended to start important planning conversations today. Links mentioned in the show: https://thinkingaheadroadmap.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marti-deliema-95323535/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-karp-728355b/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/svernon/
Today, we catch up David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau and get his perspective on the economy. We continue our discussion from last quarter about inflation, interest rates, market volatility, and the supply chain. In addition, we discuss of the current state of the digital currency market.
In part 2 of 2 Michelle lays out her proposal for revamping the web of state and federals rules and laws to make in-plan annuities a vibrant market in the future. Here's the full text of her discussion: Heads up to SOA, NAIFA, IRI, any other industry group- mark this moment as the point where contacts you have at these organizations should start listening. Big bold assertion #1: Non-codification of verb sales in insurance means that intellectual property (inventions) can’t have value in insurance Why is this true? Assertion 2. The above-mentioned fact (Ip can’t have value in insurance) is true because of the intersection between how products sell and how trademark law works. I will explain further in a moment. Assertion 3. IP having value is fundamental to the functioning of capitalism. Assertion 4. In a demutualized world where insurance manufacturing is now entirely vertically disintegrated from distribution, IP can only come to have value by codifying insurance advisement as a scalable, oversee-able, nationally regulated discipline So we are proving assertion 1- IP has no value in my domain- by proving assertions 2-4 So let’s start with assertion 2 part 1: how do products sell. To understand this, we need first to define both the word “product” and then the word “sell.” Products are nouns. In the context of insurance and financial services, products are issuable containers, and their distribution is highly regulated. Products are issuable legal contracts within which IP can be embedded, and in exchange for the distribution of which compensation can be paid to an FP in respect of either, but never concurrently, a or b. A is from inside the noun in direct respect to sale thereof (this refers to agency and brokerage) whereas b is charged upon the AUA/AUM thereformed following a product’s intro into an advised portfolio (b refers to RIA channel). Now that we know what product means, we move on to sell. Sell means the exchange of remuneration in direct respect to [x- x is a verb in the RIA channel and it’s a noun in the agent/broker channels]. Wholesalers are people who so routinely sell wholes that we can describe their identity by putting an r at the end of the verb that they routinely perform. (By analogy, runners routinely run, we don’t call someone a runner who once ran across the street) All wholes are nouns. The human mind cannot conceive of a whole verb. So wholesalers sell nouns, and nouns sell when they have wholesalers selling them. Wholesalers work for either a noun manufacturer, or a noun seller. An organization that sells nouns will not switch which noun it has its wholesalers focused on selling unless the new noun is more profitable than is the incumbent noun portfolio. A product concept thus cannot have value, because what is valuable about the product/noun is the seller’s prior investment in manufacturing and/or wholesaling infrastructure., not clever IP that does not have higher profit margins than does the incumbent product set. Now we define the second half of assertion 2, which is about trademarking. Trademark (the application of which differs for IP protection relative to much easier to defend in court brand/name protection)- in this case I’m talking IP protection- requires that the IP be noun-embeddable, whereas servicemarked requires the IP to be verb embedable. If you google “trademark definition”, when applied to IP defense as opposed to brand defense, you too will become aware that the definition of this word requires the IP owner to be able to either manufacture or to sell (remember what sell means from above!) the noun. Insurance provides for minimization of liabilities (or contra-assets). Insurance advisor is not a defined term. Financial advisor is defined, and it means person who holds the authority to sell verbs (person who has an RIA affiliation, which means they can sell verbs. RIAs sell verbs only. Agents and brokers sell nouns only.) Financial advisors provide ongoing asset maximization advising and they frequently receive their compensation by advising upon, and thus billing upon, AUM accordingly. This asset max advising is a service. IP embedded in Services, for example, the managed account services provided by Morningstar Inc, are servicemarkable, thus they have been servicemarked, not trademarkable, because they’re verbs (services), not nouns. Absent codifying insurance advisement so that insurance professionals can also sell verbs, by which i am saying: Absent popularizing a billing approach like benefits under advisement or income under advisement, there can’t be value to intellectual property in our field, because you can’t defend it via servicemark (because there’s no framework for scalably selling services in our domain) and you can’t sell it as a noun because an organization can only monetize a trademark in insurance from previous investment in manufacturing and distribution. an incumbent will only do this if the new product has higher expected profit margins than does its existing portfolio. Not likely in today’s fee conscious environment) So again, because my prior words are true, Not having a scalable advisement frame for liability reduction means intellectual property that is servicemarked in our field also cannot have value, because it can’t be sold (to sell again means to exchange remuneration in direct respect to x. Non-codification of insurance advisement means we can’t scalably sell verbs in insurance). So concludes my proof of assertion #2, that IP can’t have value in my field. Assertion 3: The impossibility of IP having value in my field is an offense about which utter outrage is merited. It is a direct affront to the very principles of capitalism. Capitalism as a governing frame relies heavily upon IP being protectable and monetizable so as to encourage invention. Thus I question: Why is mine the sole field in this country to which capitalism is not permitted to apply, and why are other members of my community not apoplectic about my potentially true words? Consider the implications that not codifying verb sales in my domain has now that post-SECURE, annuities are permitted in plans. Plan advisors, like all other fiduciaries in America, are inherently taught that asset maximization is the only valid lens through which financial advisement can occur. Yet i believe that consumer financials occur not only on the left side of the consumer balance sheet, but also on their income statement, their statement of net worth, their cash flow statement, and the right side of balance sheet, which is where insurance plays. Plan advisors don’t know annuities and vice versa. Advisers can’t begin to imagine why we insurance people believe our solutions have value, because they are taught to see the world through the lens of asset maximization and are not taught about liability minimization as a valid entry point to a consumer finance worldview. Annuities in DC will only take off if we band together to fight for their place. Actuaries used to have a role in asset liability matching when we as a society had DB plans. There isn’t a natural spot for an actuary in DC plans because liability consideration is not yet required so as to advise in DC, because DC, which relies on AUM as a billing base, even though ERISA includes the words “Retirement Income” in the acronym, naturally emphasizes asset maximization. Why not IUA? The Society of Actuaries, NAIFA and IRI must all strongly consider the possibility that my words might be true, and if they feel they might be, they need to begin acting yesterday. Representatives of any of these industry organizations, or other industry organizations that can help change what I believe to be the true circumstances that i have just described to you are invited to email me at mrichterfis@gmail.com and request a deck that further explains my perspective and the dangers to both our industry and our society more broadly that follow logically therefrom. Lastly for this diatribe, I hold that Insurance advisement should be a National field (since it is not about noun placement but about contextual advisement, it is not per se corollated to an individual contract the way some state insurance law allows annuity consulting to occur, thus the field would not make sense to be state regulated) it should be policed similarly to how RIAs are overseen. To achieve this framework is my career goal. 27 years remain until I begin taking social security at age 70. It thus follows logically that I will not stop truthfully communicating my concerns on these matters for at least 27 more years (unless they’re resolved in less time than that). Thank you for your patience both in allowing me to read that today, and in helping me along in my communicative journey towards hopefully making this point understandable to at least a few people!
The SECURE Act reinvigorated interest in expanding the market for in-plan annuities. However, we need to make many more changes to really drive adoption. In part one of a two part series, Michelle Richter and Mark Chamberlain of the newly renamed firm, Annuity Research & Consulting, share their roadmap for future success. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-richter/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-chamberlain-33349a14/
Can a mutual fund create new income potential for investors by sharing mortality risk? The answer is "yes", starting in Canada. Fraser Stark, President of the Longevity Retirement Platform for Purpose Financial joins us to talk about his company's novel product. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.retirewithlongevity.com/ https://www.purpose-unlimited.com/home https://www.linkedin.com/in/fstark/
What will the future of face-to-face distribution look like in the coming years. Today, we talk with someone who has always built a business five years ahead of the rest. Paul Blanco, Founder and CEO of Barnum Financial joins us to talk about the future of advisors, insurance agencies, wealth management and technology. Links mentioned in the show:
For those of us in the business, it feels like interest rates have been rising every two weeks. Fixed rates and guaranteed income have gone up. However, other competing fixed income options have risen as well. How does this new environment reshape how we evaluate recommendations for our clients? We explore this topic and more with Michael Finke, Professor at The American College and David Blanchett, Head of Retirement Research at PGIM. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blanchett-b0b0aa2/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-finke-8134808/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wealth-managed-with-michael-finke-and-david-blanchett/id1533084522
For those of us in the business, it feels like interest rates have been rising every two weeks. Fixed rates and guaranteed income have gone up. However, other competing fixed income options have risen as well. How does this new environment reshape how we evaluate recommendations for our clients? We explore this topic and more with Michael Finke, Professor at The American College and David Blanchett, Head of Retirement Research at PGIM. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blanchett-b0b0aa2/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-finke-8134808/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wealth-managed-with-michael-finke-and-david-blanchett/id1533084522
Many people will experience shock when they open their 401(k) statements this year. Will the growing awareness of market risk open the doors for more in-plan annuity offerings in 2023? Today, we explore the challenges and opportunities of creating income protection inside 401(k) plans with Matt Wolniewicz, President at Income America. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewwolniewicz/ https://www.incomeamerica.com/
Many people will experience shock when they open their 401(k) statements this year. Will the growing awareness of market risk open the doors for more in-plan annuity offerings in 2023? Today, we explore the challenges and opportunities of creating income protection inside 401(k) plans with Matt Wolniewicz, President at Income America. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewwolniewicz/ https://www.incomeamerica.com/
Social Security remains the starting point for many client conversations. It takes a lot of work to stay current with the changes in rules. Martha Shedden, Co-founder, President at NARSSA, joins us today to talk about the tools agents can use. In addition, we cover answers to many common retirement questions that clients are asking today. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthashedden/ https://narssa.org/
Social Security remains the starting point for many client conversations. It takes a lot of work to stay current with the changes in rules. Martha Shedden, Co-founder, President at NARSSA, joins us today to talk about the tools agents can use. In addition, we cover answers to many common retirement questions that clients are asking today. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthashedden/ https://narssa.org/
As is often the case in this industry, what is new is old. Today, we're seeing regulation re-emerge that the industry successfully challenged over 10 years ago. Kim O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice joins us to talk about the new regs and court challenges her group currently leads. We also take the opportunity to get her perspective on a number of industry trends. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-o-brien-4483a55/166 - Keeping Annuity Regulations Rational with Kim O'Brien Thanks to our sponsor, The Index Standard!
As is often the case in this industry, what is new is old. Today, we're seeing regulation re-emerge that the industry successfully challenged over 10 years ago. Kim O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice joins us to talk about the new regs and court challenges her group currently leads. We also take the opportunity to get her perspective on a number of industry trends. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-o-brien-4483a55/166 - Keeping Annuity Regulations Rational with Kim O'Brien Thanks to our sponsor, The Index Standard!
We usually have a good idea of where our interviews will head. However, sometimes we discover a more interesting story the longer we talk. That happened today. We thought we would we would be discussing advisory fee structures. Instead, we learned how Andy Panko, owner and financial planner at Tenon Financial built a half million dollar a year practice starting with a private Facebook group in 2019 and a strong commitment to fair pricing. Take good notes! Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypanko/ https://tenonfinancial.com/
Rising inflation and rising rates have created a challenging environment for retirees. At the same time, our industry is poised to offer significant protection. Today, we cover the waterfront with David Macchia, Founder & CEO of Wealth2k. We also talk about David's project to deliver free financial planning services for underserved communities. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macchia/ https://www.project6000minutes.com/
The annuity industry reported record sales in the first half of this year. Leading the pack was none other than New York Life. Today, we meet Todd Taylor, Head of Retail Annuities for the company and discuss the state of the industry and what we might expect the rest of the year. Links mentioned: https://www.newyorklife.com/products/investments/annuities https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-taylor-907aab13/
If you can't find the price of an asset, model, or index, does it really exist? If it's on the Nasdaq Fund Network you know it does and you know the price. Today, Aidan Shue and Ben Jones with the Nasdaq Fund Network join us to talk about discoverability and the needs and opportunities of an ever-increasingly digital world. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-shue-b97a1a126/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-jones-9024b213/ https://www.nasdaq.com/solutions/nasdaq-fund-network
Today, we look back to exactly one year ago when we met with Sheryl Moore to discuss the landscape of the annuity industry. How much has changed? Have you downloaded the latest Wink Intel report? Find Wink's reports and more, here: --- Summer is almost over. What's the outlook for the annuity industry as we head back to our (virtual) offices? Sheryl Moore is the perfect guest to provide us with predictions and savvy forecasts. She graciously joins us today to talk about changes in carrier ownership, product design changes and regulatory evolution. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Sheryl and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.winkintel.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryljmoore/
Today, we look back to exactly one year ago when we met with Sheryl Moore to discuss the landscape of the annuity industry. How much has changed? Have you downloaded the latest Wink Intel report? Find Wink's reports and more, here: --- Summer is almost over. What's the outlook for the annuity industry as we head back to our (virtual) offices? Sheryl Moore is the perfect guest to provide us with predictions and savvy forecasts. She graciously joins us today to talk about changes in carrier ownership, product design changes and regulatory evolution. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Sheryl and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.winkintel.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryljmoore/
This week, we revisit an impactful and very relevant episode from this past year. Join us as we hear from our friend, and renowned retirement expert, Tom Hegna about creating more happy clients on their retirement planning journies. How can we create more happy retirement planning clients? Tom Hegna joins our show today to share his insights on how to make this happen in your practice. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Tom and other guests of our show? Go to and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show! Links mentioned in this episode:
This week, we revisit an impactful and very relevant episode from this past year. Join us as we hear from our friend, and renowned retirement expert, Tom Hegna about creating more happy clients on their retirement planning journies. How can we create more happy retirement planning clients? Tom Hegna joins our show today to share his insights on how to make this happen in your practice. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Tom and other guests of our show? Go to and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show! Links mentioned in this episode:
This summer, Nassau Re/Imagine hosted the first annual Retiretech Forum. Nearly 100 attendees representing industry decision-makers, and insurtech, fintech, and retiretech startups, joined us in Hartford, CT. Six-panel discussions with over 25 speakers took the stage at the Retiretech Forum, exploring sales & marketing, service & operations, product innovation, risk management, climate risk, and core advisor software. Today, we’re sharing our panel on Product Innovation hosted by none other than our new co-host, Bruno Caron. We called it “How Will Key Product Categories Evolve over the Next Five Years?” We had some great speakers from PlanGap, Nuovalo, AM Best, Vitech Systems Group, Lincoln Financial Group, and The Index Standard. For more information on the event and access to the panel recordings, go here: https://imagine.nfg.com/retiretech-forum-2022/
Most of us will need long term care at some point in our life. What if we could purchase insurance that would help us and our caregivers navigate the process? Tom Beauregard, Founder and CEO of HCG Secure joins us today to talk about the insurance and services his new company offers retirees. Links mentioned in the show: https://hcgsecure.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-beauregard-90203317/
You will probably receive a statement by the end of the month from your 401(k) provider that includes a Lifetime Income Illustration. What does the projection actually mean? If you aren't certain, you are not alone. Jack Towarnicky, HR, Total Rewards, Employee Benefits Subject Matter Expert joins us today to explain the assumptions and the gaps in the mandatory disclosure. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-towarnicky-5878787/
The proverb that it's harder to climb down a mountain than go up is true in every sense of the word. Here's a gruesome stat - between 1921 and 2006, 56% of deaths above 8,000 meters occurred on the return trip and 17% died turning back. Just 15% died on the way up. The rest died of other causes. Similarly in financial planning, as hard as asset accumulation proves, planning for retirement is much more complex. Today, we talk with David Rosell who happens to be both an experienced climber and financial planner. Links mentioned on the show: https://www.davidrosell.com/purchase/ https://www.davidrosell.com/podcast/ https://www.davidrosell.com/purchase/ https://www.rosellwealthmanagement.com/
This episode is for producers only. One of the biggest pain points in explaining annuities is describing the nature of the product guarantees. Most state laws prohibit agents or carriers from proactively discussing state guarantee associations with clients during the sales process. However, in an age of Google and best interest standards, does this rule still make sense. Today we have two guests who recently wrote a story for ThinkAdvisor on this exact topic. Links mentioned on the show: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/05/16/let-the-guaranty-fund-genie-out-of-the-bottle/ https://www.financialverse.com/ https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/MDL-520.pdf https://www.nolhga.com/
Inflation, war and the risk of a recession is weighing heavily on everyone's mind. In this special episode, David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau joins us again to share his perspective on the state of the economy.
A home is typically one of the largest individual assets we must include in a retirement plan. However, it's also one of the most illiquid ones. We've had several episodes exploring the role of home equity loans in solving the problem. Today, we look at a second option - selling part of the equity in your house to a third party. David Shapiro, Founder and CEO of EquiFi Corporation explains the new product and the benefits it potentially offers. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dshapiro1/ https://www.equifi.com/
In 2034 or 2035, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted. Much has been written about the significance of the event. Kerry Pechter, Editor of the Retirement Income Journal joins us again on the show to discuss why this fear is overblown. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-pechter-1b05705/ https://retirementincomejournal.com/
Commissions v. fees? Low fees v. high fees? Almost everyone has a strong opinion today about the best way to get paid. At the end of day, we all agree the approach should best align to the client's best interests . Sara Grillo, The leopard of LinkedIn marketing for financial advisors and Scott Salaske, CEO at Firstmetric join us for a spirited discussion on the topic. Along the way, we also talk about direct indexing and whether commission structures cloud the offering. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://saragrillo.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgrillo/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsalaske/ https://www.firstmetric.com/
It's hard to believe we're living in a world with high inflation, MYGA rates over 4%, and a stock market that feels like a Disney ride. How did we get here and what comes next? That is t he topic of today's discussion with returning guest David Blanchett, Managing Director and Head of Retirement Research, PGIM DC Solutions. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blanchett-b0b0aa2/
Too often, investment advisors focus on "reverse dollar cost averaging" strategies for retirement planning and ignore longevity risk. All too frequently, women - who happen to live longer and earn less than men - find themselves at the most risk in this scenario. David Macchia, Retirement Income Entrepreneur, Founder of Wealth2k and author of Constrained Investor and Lucky Retiree joins us today with guest host, Bruno Caron - Associate Director at AM Best to discuss in depth. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macchia/ https://davidmacchia.com/ https://www.constrainedinvestor.net/ https://www.amazon.com/Lifetime-Income-Retire-Strength-associated-ebook/dp/B08W2GWYNJ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=bruno+caron&qid=1652878959&sprefix=bruno+caron%2Caps%2C307&sr=8-1
Financial planning seminars. "The king is dead. Long live the king." In person seminars ground to a halt in 2020. Now they are back - but probably forever changed. Brad Swineheart — SVP of Business Development at White Glove talks with today about how firms successfully pivoted during rough times and what success will look like in the future. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradswineheart/ https://www.whiteglove.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/be-advised-leading-with-value/id1522693623
How can companies and governments offer lifetime income for groups of employees or other individuals when annuities may not be available? Richard Fulmer, CEO of Nuovalo and founder of Nuova Longevita Research offers a platform to do so. It's not a tontine, but it leverages the power of longevity credits to reduce risk in retirement. We discuss use cases outside the U.S. and applicability here. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-fullmer-b4b00a2/ https://www.nuovalo.com/
Some elements of financial planning for retirement will not change - market risk, health risk, and lifestyle plans. Today, we talk about some recent curveballs with returning guest, Marguerita Cheng. Those surprises include rising inflation. And we spend time talking about what you can't put in a spreadsheet - the emotional pushes and pulls that clients face in later years. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margueritacheng/ https://twitter.com/BlueOceanGW https://www.blueoceanglobalwealth.com/ https://margueritacheng.com
People are living longer. Much longer. How should that change how we plan for retirement? Steve Vernon, President at Rest-of-Life Communications and Consultant for the Stanford Center on Longevity joins us today to talk about the financial and emotional issues we all need to consider. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. https://www.linkedin.com/in/svernon/ https://longevity.stanford.edu/steve-vernon/ Don't Go Book in Retirement: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985384662/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_BE3F5M8D695A629S086H
Planning for retirement should not be just about figuring out how to pay the bills when the paychecks end. Planning should be about finding a new identity, purpose, and direction that is fulfilling in later years. Don Ezra, investment expert and author joins us to talk about his own journey into retirement and the guide he has created to help people learn from his own experiences. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in the show: https://donezra.com https://donezra.com/life-2/
Everything in marketing changed with the pandemic. If you don't have a digital presence, you will not grow in the future. However, the first place to start is usually on improving your core business processes. Greg Dinetz, Co-Founder of Lone Beacon joins us today to talk about how examining your customer experience will uncover the most important digital holes for you to fill first. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-dinetz-1a532218/ https://www.lonebeacon.com/
In this business, we have all heard about the ability of annuities to create a guaranteed income in retirement. Today, Michael Finke, investments/retirement professor and Frank M. Engle Chair of Economic Security Research at The American College joins us to bring the actual numbers into sharper focus. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-finke-8134808/ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=57590 https://www.thinkadvisor.com/author/profile/michael-finke/ http://www.michaelfinke.com
What role should an industry association play to support the growth of the life insurance and annuity business? This week's guest, David Levenson has invested a lot of time of energy answering this question. As President and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA & LLGlobal, Dave has redefined the mission, structure, and operations of our major industry association during a period of crisis and rapid change. Today, he gives us an update on the group's future direction and his perspective on major industry trends. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnlevenson/ https://www.limra.com/
Should your client pay off their mortgage as they head into retirement? Today, Jason Fichtner joins us again to talk about the risks inherent in answering this question with confidence. Jason is Vice President and Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Senior Fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/jason-j-fichtner/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfichtner/ https://www.protectedincome.org/about-us/ https://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/readers-see-pros-cons-to-paid-off-mortgage/ https://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/boomers-repairing-their-mortgage-finances/ https://squaredawayblog.bc.edu/squared-away/pre-retirement-debt-is-rising-over-time/ https://cfsrdrc.wisc.edu/project/wi19-10 https://cfsrdrc.wisc.edu/project/wi20-10
Inflation is the topic of the day. How high will it go? How long will it last? In a special episode, David Czerniecki, Chief Investment Officer for Nassau Financial Group shares his perspective on inflation and the global economy.
Indices continue to proliferate inside fixed indexed annuities. Some of them stand by brand name and reputation alone. The Nasdaq-100 falls squarely into that category. Today we have two representatives from Nasdaq on to talk about their index. You may be surprised about what you learn. We welcome Efram Slen, Head of Index Research and Mark Marex, Head of Index Research & Product Development for Nasdaq. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in the show: https://www.nasdaq.com/nasdaq-100 https://www.linkedin.com/in/efram-slen-6a377818/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-g-marex-cfa-4a763560/
Since passage of the SECURE Act, we've all been talking a lot more about the institutional annuity market. However, Tamiko Toland with CANNEX has been working hard to build this business for a long time. Today we talk with her about the real opportunities and obstacles to bringing guaranteed income to a wider segment of the population. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamiko-toland/ https://www.cannex.com/index.php/services/quantitative-research/income-annuity-education/
How many times have we discussed, debated, and loved the retirement rule of thumb known as the "4% Rule"? Today, we had the opportunity to speak with William Bengen, the creator of that exact rule. And as we learned, there are very good reasons why a seemingly simple concept like this continues to guide retirement planning today. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-bengen-21b159196/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/0975344838/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_59EPK0MHHYCJYAQ6JD2E
Yes, markets do run in repeating cycles. However, the best traders ask themselves, "What's different this time?" Byron Boston, CEO of Dynex Capital explains that this is the very first rule his firm uses when plotting how to navigate their portfolio through changing times. However, two large exogenous events - the pandemic & now a war - pose large risks for baby boomers hoping to turn assets into income. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.dynexcapital.com/about-us/leadership-team/default.aspx
We opened our digital papers a few weeks ago to read an article in AM Best News entitled, "Annuity Providers See Growth Opportunity in US Retirement Plan Changes." Who was quoted but none other than two regular guests - Martin Powell, Head of Annuity Distribution for CUNA Mutual and Bruno Caron Associate Director at AM Best. It's a big prize. Even converting a small share of the $7.3 trillion in assets in 401(k) plans to annuities would prove transformational for the industry. We decided to "double click" on the article and bring in both experts to continue the discussion. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://news.ambest.com/newscontent.aspx?refnum=239183&altsrc=114 Martin Powell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-powell-4790b01a/ Bruno Caron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-caron-68a303/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08W2GWYNJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
Few days go by without a mention in the media about the potential financial crisis faced in the next 10+ years by the Social Security system. In 2034, the surplus in trust funds is expected to be depleted. How will our government respond? Today, we speak about this challenge with David Duley, CEO and Founder of PlanGap. PlanGap empower insurers and reinsurers help consumers sleep better at night with the knowledge that their Social Security is protected. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-duley-ab7528/ https://plangap.com/
We're all fortunate to work in an industry with a wonderful mission. How do we create more opportunities for people of color to experience the same rewards. That's the topic of today's conversation with Martin Powell, Head of Annuity Distribution and Gina Riepel Director of Strategic Accounts at CUNA Mutual Group. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: Martin Powell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-powell-4790b01a/ https://portfolio.bisanet.org/Article/providing-inclusivity-and-confronting-unconscious-bias Gina Riepel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-riepel-a0588741/ Industry Associations: https://www.bisanet.org/page/Diversity https://portfolio.bisanet.org/Article/providing-inclusivity-and-confronting-unconscious-bias
Why do we help people build retirement plans? To optimize cash flow? To minimize asset risk? Yes. However, these should simply be the tools that allow people to pursue their purpose in later life. Joe Jordan, speaker and best-selling author joins us again today to talk about his message that crosses countries, languages, and cultures. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephjordan2/ https://www.josephjordan.com/ https://www.josephjordan.com/super-saver
Language is powerful. It's exceptionally powerful in the highly regulated world of retirement planning. Michelle Richter, Principal at Fiduciary Insurance Services joins us today to give us a lesson in regulatory grammar and how recent new rules from the Department of Labor may change them. Also, do you want to get regular update s on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-richter/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michelle-richter_smaller-firms-may-not-be-ready-for-dol-fiduciary-activity-6894979699173666816-Ymo5 https://fiduciaryinsuranceservices.com/fis-glossary/
The cast of That Annuity show is proud to report that our retirement podcast, was recognized as one of the “Fifteen Must-Listen Podcasts” by . We really want to thank all the great guests in 2021 who made this possible. In particular, we want to give a big shout-out and thanks to , Annuity Gator for nominating us for this honor! Thanks to our sponsors, The Index Standard, CUNA Mutual Group, SE2 and Nassau Financial Group. And thanks to you, our listeners. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Subscribe to our newsletter, below. Links mentioned in this show:
Someone once told me that finding an answer is easy. Coming up with the right question is not. In a complex process like retirement planning, the questions our clients ask and those we ask of them can prove more powerful for the outcome than the answers we actually receive. Today, Jason Fichtner joins us to talk about the importance of framing retirement time questions properly to optimize decisions about taking Social Security. Jason is Vice President and Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Senior Fellow for the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned today: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/jason-j-fichtner/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfichtner/ https://www.protectedincome.org/about-us/
Retirement planning conversations can easily focus only on traditional savings vehicles - 401(k)s, IRAs, money market accounts and stocks. However, home equity is an important asset that shouldn't be overlooked. Today, Don Graves, a best-selling author and President of the Housing Wealth Institute explains why every agent should be knowledgable about reverse mortgages when building plans for clients. Rapidly rising home values in the last 18 months only makes this information more valuable. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Links mentioned in the show: www.housingweath.net askdongraves@gmail.com
Regulation never sleeps in our business. More states continue to enact the new NAIC model regs. And now the Department of Labor suggests it may come out with new fiduciary standards as well. How should the industry successfully navigate the shifting currents? Today, we get some great guidance from Hayley Maldonado and Eric Marhoun from the legal department at Nassau Financial Group. Hear how they view the changes and how they have started to address the changes at their company. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We want to thank our primary sponsor and my employer by day, Nassau Financial Group. We're "working harder to be your carrier of choice." We support you with best-in-class service. We seek to keep things simple and will have your back in the years to come. We’re headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut with $27 billion in assets under management and serve over 500,000 policyholders. We have been doing this a long time - 170 years - but we remain humble enough to always try to improve. We hope you enjoy the show.
Yes, building a retirement plan can feel daunting. However, do you really have a good plan if you don't have a purpose? Today, we talk with Gary Sirak, Owner of Sirak Financial. Gary is also the author of "How to Retire and Not Die". Gary shares his approach to helping clients find a purpose and discover their passion in retirement. And of course, he then helps them build a retirement plan that supports their mission in later life. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Gary and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We want to thank our primary sponsor and my employer by day, Nassau Financial Group. We're "working harder to be your carrier of choice." We support you with best-in-class service. We seek to keep things simple and will have your back in the years to come. We’re headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut with $27 billion in assets under management and serve over 500,000 policyholders. We have been doing this a long time - 170 years - but we remain humble enough to always try to improve. Links mentioned in the show: Hear more from Gary: The Summit FM - The Link to your Life & Lyrics show!
Got Milk? Enjoy eating the Other White Meat? Today, meet Cyrus Bamji, Head of Communications for the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Cyrus and his team are on a mission to retell the story of annuities in an even more powerful way than those memorable ad campaigns. Get the inside story on how the Rolling Stones found the Alliance. And get the first preview of results from one of the most extensive consumer research projects in 2021. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Cyrus and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We want to thank our primary sponsor and my employer by day, Nassau Financial Group. We're "working harder to be your carrier of choice." We support you with best-in-class service. We seek to keep things simple and will have your back in the years to come. We’re headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut with $27 billion in assets under management and serve over 500,000 policyholders. We have been doing this a long time - 170 years - but we remain humble enough to always try to improve. We hope you enjoy the show.
Any conversation about retirement ultimately revolves around health care needs and expenses. Products for seniors continue to rapidly evolve. And Medicare premiums continue to rise. What advice will you give your clients this year? Today, Jesse Slome the Director of the American Long Term Care Insurance Association, Medicare Supplement Insurance & Critical Illness Insurance Association joins us to offer his perspective. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Jesse and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in today's show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseslome/ https://medicaresupp.org/ https://www.aaltci.org/
Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to money, savings, and planning for retirement. Today we're joined by Carson Hewett, Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Everfi and Jon Rosborough, Financial Professional Program Director for the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Live at the Rolling Stones concert in Atlanta, we talk about the great work both organizations are doing to help bring education to kids and adults. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Carson and Jon and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in today's show: https://everfi.com/ https://www.protectedincome.org/ https://www.protectedincome.org/for-financial-professionals/
Can a fintech solution help your clients keep their cash safe but grow it faster than a bank? Today we talk with Michael Nelskyla, founder and CEO of SAVE about his solution. Michael was a pioneer in creating custom indices for insurance products and will talk about the overlap in customer needs and expectations will change in the future. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Michael and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in today's show: https://joinsave.com/ref/N8499ED
Prior guests on the show have expressed a desire for someone to objectively talk about the retirement crisis and the positive role annuities can play in solving it. That person has arrived. Today, we talk with Doug Orchard, an independent film maker who is about to release "The Baby Boomer Dilemma" at a theater near you. And our guest host this week is none other than Bruno Caron. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Doug and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in today's show: http://dougorchard.com/wp/
What's the first thing we do today when we're about to meet with someone for the first time? We Google them. What do your clients find when they Google you? More often than not, your profile on major social media platforms like LinkedIn will come up before your own website. Today, Robert Knop, CEO of Assist You Today, joins us to talk about the steps you should take to put your best foot forward in your potential client's search results. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Robert and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in today's show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertknop/
Brace yourself for another few months of continual Medicare ads on television during open enrollment. I can almost guarantee these ads will cause one of your clients to call you with questions about their coverage. Can you answer the question? Today’s guest is Ryan McMillan, Vice President of Sales for Senior and Individuals at Bankers Fidelity Life Insurance Company. Ryan will prepare you to at least help your client ask better questions this year and help them sort through a wide range of options. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Ryan and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show.
Many older clients who need life insurance can also benefit from annuities. However, many life insurance agents feel they lack the expertise to integrate annuities into a comprehensive plan. Today, Jeff Affronti, President of FSD Financial Services shares his thoughts on how to best help life insurance agents identify opportunities for annuities and effectively present solutions to their clients. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Jeff and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show.
Registered Index-Linked Annuities or RILAs have taken the broker-dealer market by storm over the past several years. David Hanzlik, Vice President, Annuity and Retirement Solutions at CUNA Mutual joins us to reflect on the recent growth of the product and how it may evolve over the next 2 years. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about David and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show.
How can insurance carriers build an empathetic relationship with policyholders? How do we drive innovation in a stressful time within our companies and practices? Industry veteran Maria Ferrante-Schepis joins us today to share her view of the present and her hope for the future of the business. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in the show: Maria's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-ferrante-schepis-03b4031b/ Flirting With The Uninterested: Innovating In A "Sold, Not Bought" Category: https://www.amazon.com/Flirting-Uninterested-Innovating-Bought-Category/dp/1599323699/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1632963818&refinements=p_27%3AMaria+Ferrante-Schepis&s=books&sr=1-1 Maddock Douglas: https://www.maddockdouglas.com/our-team/maria-ferrante-schepis
Today, we catch up with one of our first guests, H. Adam Holt, CEO of Asset-Map to discuss a wide variety of topics. He gives us a sneak peak of an algorithm his firm will release that will find the hidden gaps in your client's retirement plans. We also talk about the commitment that Adam and his firm have made to supporting diversity and inclusion in the retirement advice platform ecosystem. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in the show: Adam's company: https://www.asset-map.com/ Adam and Derek's podcast: https://rethinkfinancialadvisorpodcast.blubrry.net/2021/07/01/1-rethink-change-is-coming/
Last week, we explored the psychology of building a retirement solution for a client that not only delivers results, but also adapts to the personality traits of your client. This week, in part 2 of our discussion, Dr. Wade Pfau and Alex Murguia explore how advisors and firms should change their engagement strategy and even their service offerings to meet the exact needs of each client. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Wade, Alex and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: The Retirement Income Advisor Challenge on October 25 and 26 will allow advisors to learn more about what the RISA is, to take it, and to learn how they can incorporate it into their firms: http://risaprofile.com/challenge Wade's new book is the Retirement Planning Challenge. The RISA is discussed in Chapter 1: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Planning-Guidebook-Navigating-Important/dp/194564009X/ General website for the RISA: www.risaprofile.com/
What makes a retirement recommendation not only work but also stick for you client? Could it be a combination of personality traits and beliefs about the market? We were really fortunate this week to have Dr. Wade Pfau and Alex Murguia on to discuss their research on the topic. They walk us through the tool they have built to help decode what exactly makes our clients tick. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Wade, Alex and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: The Retirement Income Advisor Challenge on October 25 and 26 will allow advisors to learn more about what the RISA is, to take it, and to learn how they can incorporate it into their firms: http://risaprofile.com/challenge Wade's new book is the Retirement Planning Challenge. The RISA is discussed in Chapter 1: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Planning-Guidebook-Navigating-Important/dp/194564009X/ General website for the RISA: www.risaprofile.com/
Carriers spend a lot of time talking about building strong policyholder relationships but how many actually have? Molly Black, Chief Product Officer at Life.io joins us today to talk about how her company makes those relationships a reality. What can we learn from their software design that we can apply to our own practices today? Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Molly and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you to our show sponsor, ! Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.life.io https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-morgan-black-56b1832a/
Summer is almost over. What's the outlook for the annuity industry as we head back to our (virtual) offices? Sheryl Moore is the perfect guest to provide us with predictions and savvy forecasts. She graciously joins us today to talk about changes in carrier ownership, product design changes and regulatory evolution. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news about Sheryl and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.winkintel.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryljmoore/
How do you create more income with less market risk and lower fees and income taxes than traditional retirement income plans for your client? Jerry Golden, President & CEO at Golden Retirement joins us today to talk about Go2Income and the service that his tools provide for advisors that do just that. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Jerry and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Special thanks to Bruno Caron for joining us as a co-host! Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.go2income.com/IncomePlanning.html https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrysgolden/ Find Bruno's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Lifetime-Income-Retire-Strength-associated/dp/1082296244
Healthcare typically is the biggest expense facing retirees. However, can you help you help your clients navigate the complexities of Medicare, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement plans? I'm sure we will all get a lot of questions from clients as open enrollment begins in a few short weeks. To get a little smarter on the topic, we invited an expert on the industry to our show. Terence Martin, Head of Life, Annuities, and Healthcare Research at Conning joins us today to talk about consumer choices and macro industry trends in the senior healthcare market. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Terry Martin and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.conning.com/insurance-research
The regulators make us attest we know our clients. However, do we really know what makes them tick? Dr. Preston Cherry joins us today to discuss personality models and how they can improve how we deliver advice. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Dr. Cherry and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.uwgb.edu/csb/faculty-staff/preston-cherry/ https://www.concurrentfp.com/financial-planner-dr-preston-cherry
How can we create more happy retirement planning clients? Tom Hegna joins our show today to share his insights on how to make this happen in your practice. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Tom and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show.Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show. Links mentioned in this episode: https://tomhegna.com/
Many times when planning for retirement we often try to lock onto a specific date. However, it may be more productive for some to focus on their actual level of preparation for retirement. Today, Sheila Jelinek and Peter Sun from Milliman join us to talk about the genesis of the RISE tool which does exactly that. They explain how to get either your score or that of your client, and more importantly, how to use it to improve your plan over time. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Sheila, Peter and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Links mentioned in this episode: Learn about the methodology behind the RISE Score: https://frm.milliman.com/-/media/frm/pdfs/3-17-21-frm-milliman_rise_score.ashx Access the RISE Tool here: https://alex.fyi/rise/ https://www.therisescore.com/ https://www.protectedincome.org/rise-calculator/ - The Alliance for Lifetime Income - client version https://www.protectedincome.org/rise-calculator-fa/ - The Alliance for Lifetime Income – advisor version
The next few years promise to bring more change to our business than the last 50, according to our guest Jim Kerley. He should know. Jim has worked for carriers, launched businesses, and played a leading role at LIMRA. Today, he is managing partner of Clearview Partners and shares his perspective of change not only in the U.S. but around the world. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Jim and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show.
When to take Social Security could arguably be the single most important decision you will make in retirement. Jack Sharry, EVP and CMO for LifeYield joins us today to talk about technology's role in helping us all make the optimal call. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Jack and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy the show.
Are you ready to take a step out on the risk spectrum? Special guest Byron Boston, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Dynex Capital, joins the conversation to share insights on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): another potential source of income in retirement. Do you want to get regular updates on news from Byron and other guests of our show? Subscribe to our newsletter under the Receive Updates section, below. We hope you enjoy our conversation!
What prevents clients from earning higher interest rates on their savings? Three factors - awareness, apathy, and inertia create road blocks according to Gary Zimmerman, Founder & CEO of MaxMyInterest.com. Gary joins us today to discuss the savings problem he solved for himself and is now sharing with clients and their advisors. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Gary and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy our conversation.
Can we learn what may lie ahead for our industry from regulatory changes in Australia? Will RILAs and MYGAs prove to be the winning products of 2021? How must we change how we explain our products to consumers? We discuss answers to these questions and more this week with Harry Stout. Harry has headed carriers in the U.S. and Australia. He has worked for IMOs and investors in the U.S. This year, he released a series of books on savings, investing, retirement and annuities titled The Financial Verse. You can learn more about Harry and order his books at https://www.financialverse.com/annuity-agent. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Harry and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you enjoy our conversation.104 Adapting Our Annuity Business to Changing Regulations, Markets, and Consumers
Fixed Indexed Annuities in the U.S. market now offer crediting strategies that include over 100 proprietary indices. How should agents and advisors conduct due diligence in this environment? What factors really matter? Today, Laurence Black, founder of The Index Standard, shares his perspective with us on this very important topic. Also, do you want to get regular updates on news from Laurence and other guests of our show? Go to https://thatannuityshow.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Hope you enjoy our conversation.
Michelle Richter, Principal at Fiduciary Insurance Services, joins us again to cover a wide variety of important industry topics. One of many that jumped out in today's conversation was the need for structural change in how the annuity industry services RIAs in the future. Some of these involve technology, other products, and probably not surprisingly, how we better provide training about how to use insurance in financial plans. However, who will pay for training and how will it be delivered? Join us today for these topics and more. Also, keep up with news from our guests and sign up for our email list at . Useful URLs for Retirement Plan Advisers from IRIC include: ______________________________________________________________________ Welcome to our show sponsor, Fixed Index Annuities and RILAs are getting more complex and technical just when fiduciary rules are getting stricter. How do you choose the right index and allocate to them? is your answer. They are an independent provider ratings and forecasts on all indices and ETFs used in the US insurance space. Their process is systematic and unbiased, identifying robust and well-designed indices. We all know finance is complex and The Index Standard has a clear ratings system and uses approachable language to demystify this complexity. Visit theindexstandard.com for more information.
You may be one of those who says a SPIA is just a SPIA. Just don't say that in front of Tamiko Toland, Head of Research At CANNEX. In today's show, Tamiko talks about the wide variety of SPIAs available on the market. And, she discusses how we need to place them thoughtfully inside the financial plans of our clients. We also cover a few other unordinary topics like the need for better product packaging, digital currency, and blockchain. Join us for the conversation today. Also, keep up with news from our guests and sign up for our email list at thatannuityshow.com. Follow Tamiko and CANNEX on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ndFrYfCvLCT9RUI9K4Igw.
In an annuity market driven by indices, interest, and volatility, we often focus on the numbers and not the lives we touch. Joe Jordan, speaker, writer, & industry veteran joins us today to help us remember the purpose in the good work we do. To quote another Joseph, "People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive." Join us for the conversation and follow Joe at www.josephjordan.com. Also, don't forget to sign up for our email list at thatannuityshow.com.
The CBOE was founded in 1973. However, it wasn't until 2002 that the investment community could actually trade on the VIX - the volatility index - thanks to the work of Devesh Shah. Devesh joins us today to talk about how this opened the door for the creation of today's annuities and what may lie ahead. Please go to our website at thatannuityshow.com and sign up for our email newsletter. In the next few weeks, we will be sending a short weekly email with news, ideas, and updates from our guests.
How do independent investment advisors solve the retirement puzzle for their clients? Today, Yale Bock, Owner of Y H & C Investments offers his perspective after 30 years in the business. Yale contributes frequently for US News and Seeking Alpha.
We all have our own unique story about how we found our way into the annuity business. Today, we'll share a very unique story that started behind the Iron Curtain, before Perestroika became reality in the heart of the Ukraine. This story belongs to David Novak, the creator of software that may arguably reshape our practices over the next five years called Annuities Genius.
Cyrus Bamji and Colin Devine from The Alliance for Lifetime Income join us today to talk about a number of pressing topics in retirement. We cover the 4% rule and whether really it should be 3%. Colin talks about the uniquely high risks that market downturns present for women. And, of course, we examine the value that lifetime income creates for all Americans. If you didn't know it, The Alliance was the sole sponsor for the last two years for the Rolling Stones U.S. Tour. Here are the links mentioned in the show: https://www.allianceforlifetimeincome.org/ https://www.protectedincome.org/
We're living in remarkable times with the release of an amazing range of both paid and open-source tools to help us stress-test retirement plans. Curtis Cloke, Owner and Principal of CurtisCloke.com joins us this week to talk about how to maximize the impact of our tools by focusing first on listening to the needs of clients. We discuss his process used to construct customized income plans for his clients. In addition, we talk about recent M&A activity, digital sales, and the potential of augmented reality to create vivid pictures for client.
Annuities are insurance, not investments. However, we need smart, passionate people to challenge us on how we build our products. Simpler products, lower fees, smaller minimum deposits will benefit everyone. Join us for a thoughtful discussion on these topics and more with Ethan Schwartz. Ethan has worked as an investment manager and financial services executive for 21 years. He was a special assistant to the deputy secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration. He also is a proud owner of at least one multi-year guaranteed annuity. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
How does one educate college students and clients about the importance of the time-value of money in the middle of our virtual age? Matt Carey joins us to talk about both challenges in his role as investment advisor at Blue Spark Capital Advisors and as Director of Financial Market Studies at Iona's Hagan School of Business. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Pioneering a new way to sell annuities to the public requires guts and patience. Josh Mellberg, President of J.D. Mellberg Financial joins us today to share with us his journey from a holding seminar a week to generating millions of leads on television. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Private equity continues to drive investment and mergers & acquisitions in the insurance and RIA market. Scott Hawkins, Direct of Insurance Research at Conning joins us to share his team's insight on the impact to product, distribution, and consumer value. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Should every advisor ask their client the "mortality question" when they build a retirement plan? Bobby Samuelson, Executive Editor of The Life Product Review, says we all should. Join us today as we explore the complementary roles that life insurance and annuities can play in retirement planning. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Yes, parts of the country are fortunately beginning to reopen for real life meetings. However, virtual planning will remain an important part of many successful agents' practices for years to come. David Wright, Executive Director of Practice Development at M&O Marketing joins us today. He discusses how he has helped agents jump the virtual divide and how some will use what they learned to remain successful in 2021. Reach David at 248-784-1213 to get the complementary annuity review he mentions. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Your practice can't be defined by a zip code in today's digital age. Derek Notman, founder of Intrepid Wealth Partners and Conneqtor talks to us today about how to build a niche that could open the door to a successful virtual planning business. Derek likens it to process of designing and building a Lamborghini. Every part of your practices needs to contribute to building a unique business in a very crowded market. For more information about Derek, go to: . Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Since March 2020, seniors have quickly grown comfortable shopping online. They have learned how to connect with family, church, and community via web calls. And they now research retirement products like never before. However, how to keep their confidence on the web? Yes, we need to be vigilant to protect their accounts through cyber security. How can we help seniors become even more digitally- savvy and protect their accounts from cyber criminals? Edward Chan, Assistant United States Attorney Paul Mackay, Chief Technology Officer, Nassau Financial Group Paresh Nana, Google Timothy Zeilman, VP, Global Product Owner – Cyber, Hartford Steam Boiler Ken Goldstein, Clinical Instructor of Risk Management and Insurance, University of Hartford, Moderator
How do retirees juggle between between the many unknowns they face, such as longevity and health concerns? Bruno Caron, a Senior Financial Analyst at AM Best offers a great framework for solving the problem in his recently released book, Lifetime Income to Retire with Strength. The book is available on Amazon here: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
A recent study suggests that starting a conversation about equity market risk may not be an effective way to start a dialogue about annuities. Learn more about the research from Tamiko Toland, Director of Retirement Markets at CANNEX Financial. Connect with Tamiko at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamiko-toland/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Prior to the pandemic, seniors proved to be the highest growing user segment for Facebook. As a result of the pandemic, they now know how to use a variety of video conference tools like Zoom and FaceTime. They search the Internet aggressively to learn more about our products than sometimes we do. How will this allow carriers to cultivate customers and agents and advisors to serve more clients? Panelists: Farron Blanc, Founder and CEO, Gerry Cathy DeWitt-Dunn, President, DeWitt & Dunn Rhian Horgan, Founder& CEO, Silvur Manish Malhotra, Founder & CEO, Income Discovery Seth Rachlin, Chief Innovation Officer, Capgemini (Moderator) Anil Sanwal, Vice President Business Initiatives Lead, RGAX Connect with Nassau Re/Imagine: Website: LinkedIn: Instagram:
For people ages 55 to 65, the pandemic presents enormous risk in retirement. Siavash Radpour, the Associate Research Director of the Retirement Equity Lab at the New School joins us today to discuss the unique economic pressure faced by this cohort. In the discussion, we reference a policy recommendation for the incoming Biden administration found here: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
We know from the study of behavioral finance that if we help individuals create a positive vision of their future selves, they will be more likely to start saving today. In a post-COVID world, what changes? Traveling on a cruise ship every year sounded like a great second chapter in life. Spending your last 20 years in an active senior community with common facilities and great care may have been a dream. Creating new positive visions for retirement proves challenging in a social distant environment using conventional approaches. Can digital engagement bridge that divide? Forum Panelists: Jaqueline Bamman, Nassau Financial Group Jon Cooper, Founder and CEO, Life.io Debra Jasper, Mindset Digital Matthew Thomas, Infosys Retirement Center of Excellence Victor Ricciardi, Washington & Lee University Rohit Puranik, Infosys (Moderator) *The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation. Connect with That Annuity Show at Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on or Visit on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. Connect with Nassau Re/Imagine: Website: LinkedIn: Instagram:
If annuities can solve the critical problem of not outliving one's assets, why don't we find them in more retirement portfolios. David Hanzlik, Vice President of Annuity and Retirement Solutions for CUNA Mutual joins us today to offer his perspective. In addition, we learn how agents and advisors working with credit unions managed to adapt to our new environment. Connect with David https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhanzlik/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Where will investors place their bets on the retirement industry over the next three years? We asked a distinguished panel of venture capitalists their perspective at a virtual forum we co-hosted with That Annuity Show host Ramsey Smith. This is the first of five special edition episodes, cut from Nassau Re/Imagine's 'Reimagining Retirement Forums'. Forum Panelists: Andrew Lerner, IA Capital Cole Riccardi, Aquiline Doug Roth, CT Innovations Farron Blanc, Meet Gerry Harry Monti, Symetra Kathy Fuertes, Technology for Vanguard, Infosys Startup Pitch: Richard LaVoice, Symetra Connect with Nassau Re/Imagine: Website: LinkedIn: Instagram: The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. Where will investors place their bets on the retirement industry over the next three years? We asked a distinguished panel of venture capitalists their perspective at a virtual forum we co-hosted with That Annuity Show host Ramsey Smith. This is the first of five special edition episodes, cut from Nassau Re/Imagine's 'Reimagining Retirement Forums'. Forum Panelists: Andrew Lerner, IA Capital Cole Riccardi, Aquiline Doug Roth, CT Innovations Farron Blanc, Meet Gerry Harry Monti, Symetra Kathy Fuertes, Technology for Vanguard, Infosys Startup Pitch: Richard LaVoice, Symetra Connect with Nassau Re/Imagine: Website: LinkedIn: Instagram: The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
We think the elections have a great impact on the market. However, do they really? In today's show, Charles Sizemore challenges those assumptions. Charles is the Chief Investment Officer of Sizemore Capital Management LLC, a registered investment adviser based in Dallas, Texas. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Charles - Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
What will 2021 bring to the retirement planning industry? Last year, we made our predictions. This year, we brought in the big guns. In this episode, David Blanchett, head of retirement research for Morningstar Investment Management takes us through his six predictions for major changes in our market. Connect with David at http://www.davidmblanchett.com/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Two weeks ago, we talked about the macro economic challenges of supporting the "Sandwich Generation". This week we talk to Marguerita (Rita) Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, a practitioner who addresses these issues every day with her clients. She shares her approach to addressing these tough care issues with both parents and their children. You can visit her site at https://www.blueoceanglobalwealth.com/.
Changes in federal laws - the CARES Act, the SECURE Act, The Paycheck Protection Program - have all had a major impact on the advice we give our clients this year. What if we had the inside line on what really will get passed by Congress or regulated by the government? Barbara Matthews, Founder and CEO of BCMstrategy, offers an automated service that promises to do just that. Her service find gaps in reported news and actual policy action occurring deep within Washington. She joins us today to look back at 2020 and predict what structural changes we will face in 2021. For more information, visit her site at https://www.policyscope.io/.
Have your prepared your clients for retirement so they aren't a burden on their kids in later years? The answer to that question can have an incredible impact on the physical, emotional, and financial health of their daughters. Sheila Jelinek and Suzanne Norman of Milliman return to our program with their colleague Janet Jennings to discuss their recently released study. Entitled "A very expensive sandwich - How multigenerational care affects women's health costs" the study dives deep into these issues and more. Download the paper at . Connect with Milliman team at https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-norman-cima%C2%AE-19079846/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
We all need to reconnect with clients in today's stressful world. However, Marie Swift, CEO of Swift Communications says it's more important to back up, pause, and focus on the distinct niche where you can be an expert. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation. Connect with Marie
How do you connect the dots with election and the market for your clients who ask what's coming next? Jane King, Founder and CEO of LilaMax Media LLC, a multi-platform provider of video content on consumer and business news gives us great perspective and advice. Connect with Jane at @marketjane Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Do you used LinkedIn on a regular basis? Your clients, or more importantly, their kids most certainly do. Making certain your profile reflects your personal brand has never been more important that it is today. Debra Jasper, founder and CEO of Mindset Digital walks us through best practices to build a great online profile. Connect with Debra at https://www.linkedin.com/in/debrajasper/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Can you find new business by sharing great ideas? Teresa Leno says the answer is a definitive "yes". Teresa is a former financial advisor turned entrepreneur and the Founder of Fresh Finance. Teresa started Fresh Finance to solve the problem of outdated client communication solutions for advisors to maintain relationships and grow business in a global economy. Connect with Teresa Leno at Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Do you have a go-back ready with all your critical financial files? Can your family recite the emergency drill in case a market or job catastrophe hits? Nancy Doyle, author, speaker and high net worth advisor joins and talks through the plan to get to a plan. Connect with Nancy at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancydoylecfa/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Some of your most overlooked prospects in the pandemic may be the female members of the couples you have helped over the past several years. Kathleen Burns Kingsbury talks to us about how to better cultivate your relationship with the female members of the families you serve. Kathleen is a wealth psychology expert, founder of KBK Wealth Connection, host of the Breaking Money Silence(R) podcast, and the author of several books, including How to Give Financial Advice to Women and How to Give Financial Advice to Couples. Connect with Kathleen at Breaking Money Silence® podcast – Subscribe and listen to the Breaking Money Silence® podcast () Advisor Gifting Program - - Want to show a female client that you care about her and her career? Give her the gift of learning how to effectively negotiate with Kathleen Burns Kingsbury's course, Breaking Money Silence ® on Negotiating this holiday season. Advisor coaching and training - Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Professor Moshe A. Milevsky, a finance professor at the Schulich School of Business and arguably the godfather of modern retirement planning theory joins us today to discuss how to really understand retirement assumptions. Spoiler alert - you may want to brush up on your coding capability. Connect with Moshe at https://moshemilevsky.com/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Matt Carey, Co-Founder & CEO of Blueprint Income joins us today to share his journey learning how to bring retirement solutions more efficiently at scale to individuals. Along the way, he has proven that people will find and purchase annuities through a digital channel. Also in this pandemic, demand for our product may not be down at all. Matt thinks we just aren’t wired as an industry to meet clients on their terms during this digital-first marketing environment. Connect with Matt Carey at https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewrobertcarey/ Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Learn how to build better connections with clients and their family, make complicated concepts simpler, and conduct more business over a camera on the web. However, this requires study, practice, and experience. Charles Samuel shares his years of learnings with us on this episode that could dramatically shorten the your learning curve. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Nick Gerhart, insurance executive, regulator, innovator and champion for positive change joins us today to discuss the outlook for consumers, products, regulation, distribution, and innovation in the retirement space. Connect with Nick at Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Jamie Hopkins, Managing Director of Carson Coaching and Director of Retirement Research for the Carson Group, joins us to talk about how the pandemic and the possibility of negative interest rate reframe retirement challenges. Connect with Jamie at jamiehopkins.com or Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Lindsay Goldwert, Editor-in-Chief of Zeta, successful podcast host, joins us on our podcast today. We talk about how to make people feel safe about opening up and sharing their retirement fears and hope. Connect with Lindsay Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Jeff Levine, self-confessed “nerd of nerds” walks us across the retirement legislative battlefield that agents and advisor must cross today. Trust us when we say we’re confused at times, too. Connect with Jeffery Levine at www.kitces.com. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
at joins us to talk about the importance of planning for Social Security distributions before you actually retire. Too many times, people only solve for the highest possible monthly payment. Ash discusses the many different problems that early, thoughtful planning can potentially solve for both middle-market customers and high net worth clients. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
How do you actually build, manage and monitor an income distribution plan for your client? The founders of , Sheryl O'Connor, Phillip Lubinsky, and Tom O'Connor talk about the problem faced by advisors when they take on this task. They also walk us through the solution they have created to put advisors and agents at the top of the game. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
George Castineiras, Principal at Brewer Lane Ventures, joins us to discuss product innovation, workplace marketing, and emerging businesses in the retirement market place. George shares his advice for agents who want to shift their practice to capitalize on new opportunities. Connect with George Castineiras: Website: Email: george@brewerlane.com Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Ads for retirement planning typically focus on boats and vacations. In reality, the first concern in retirement should be funding healthcare. Jack Towarnicky from the American Retirement Association joins us today to talk about the reason advisors should address this funding need first. Connect with Jack Towarnicky: Email: jacktowarnicky@gmail.com Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Today's virtual advisor model creates a new opportunity to educate more people than ever about basic financial concepts. We explore both challenges and opportunity with Norm Champ, Author of Mastering Money. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
In today's virtual world, authentic communication creates real connections with your prospects. Ho hum content makes them unsubscribe. Sara Grillo won't tolerate the latter. In today's show, she offers great advice on how to develop your own voice and amplify your presence on the web. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Sheryl Moore, Chief Storyteller of Wink, Inc. and industry guru joins us to talk about the state of the annuity market. Yes, sales are down. But Sheryl finds some bright spots and suggests ways we can adapt our products and sales processes to succeed over the next 12-18 months. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Marc Lamoureux, CEO of Veriday, shares his perspective on the opportunities the pandemic has created for virtual advising. He has over thirty years of management and executive experience, growing multiple technology and consulting organizations. As the co-founder and CEO of Veriday, he has led the organization through two product launches and over ten years of progressive growth, including several landmark projects for Google. Prior to joining Veriday, he was Chief Operating Officer at ThinkWrap, and a senior executive at both AT&T IT Solutions and Montage-DMC. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Kerry Pechter, Editor of the Retirement Income Journal brings his unique perspective as journalist, author, industry executive, and entrepreneur to the microphone this week. Join us as we walk through the state-of-the-state of the industry and we learn that change we currently witness is nothing new for our business. Connect with Kerry Pechter: LinkedIn: Sponsored Message: head to to get started and see how AgeUp can help you guarantee supplemental income for yourself or a loved one living past the ripe age of 90. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Sheila Jelinek and Suzanne Norman join us today from Milliman to discuss a recent paper they wrote entitled, "The Case for More Female Advisors". Advisors are serving a more diverse client base than ever before and, as more women control assets, there is an increasing demand for advisors who can help them with their goals. By working together to inspire more women to join our ranks, we can create inclusive workplaces and potentially better outcomes for clients. Check out Connect with Sheila & Suzanne: LinkedIn: Sponsored Message: head to to get started and see how AgeUp can help you guarantee supplemental income for yourself or a loved one living past the ripe age of 90. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Bruno Caron, Senior Financial Analyst at AM Best Company, shared with us his unique perspective on product design and the health of our industry. Bruno is an actuary with more than a decade of experience spanning various sectors of the life and annuity industry: consulting, life insurance company, start-up company, sell-side equity research and credit rating. Sponsored Message: head to to get started and see how AgeUp can help you guarantee supplemental income for yourself or a loved one living past the ripe age of 90. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Don Graves, Principal of HECM Advisors Group, joins us today to discuss how both annuities and reverse mortgages can create more opportunities for retirement. Sponsored Message: head to to get started and see how AgeUp can help you guarantee supplemental income for yourself or a loved one living past the ripe age of 90. Connect with Don Graves: Website: Email: askdongraves@gmail.com Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Blair Baldwin, Founder and General Manager of AgeUp, introduces us to his company's first annuity just recently released to the public. It effectively allows a person to contribute a small amount of money each month to create meaningful income protection in very late retirement - from age 91 to 100. Sponsored Message: head to to get started and see how AgeUp can help you guarantee supplemental income for yourself or a loved one living past the ripe age of 90. Connect with Blair Baldwin: Website: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Today, we talk strategies, trends and client needs with Cathy DeWitt Dunn, a pioneer in the digital advice arena. Connect with Cathy DeWitt Dunn: Website: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Faisa Stafford, President and CEO of Life Happens joins us today to discuss the rise in awareness of the need for insurance in 2020. She talks about the stories, outreach, and the future projects designed to motivate people to protect their families and their retirement. Connect with Faisa Stafford: Website: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Michelle Richter, Managing Director of Retirement Enhancement Solutions at Milliman, joins us to share her insight on changes in product, distribution, and the consumer market. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Industry legend Joe Jordan joins us today to talk about surviving and thriving through the current pandemic. Now is the time for agents and advisors to truly live a life of significance. Connect with Joe Jordan: Website: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Norm Trainor, founder and CEO of the Covenant Group joins us today to impart both some wisdom and advice on how to move your practice forward during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Connect with Norm Trainor: Website: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Angus Shillington, a long-time emerging markets equity expert, joins us to talk about disruption in markets by technology and external catalytic events. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Wade Pfau, the founder of Retirement Researcher and the Professor of Retirement Income at , joins us today. We discuss the problems with using a 4% as a safe rule for withdrawal planning in retirement. We also explore why annuities work better than bonds in creating higher levels of predictable income in retirement. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Given the pandemic, we decided to shorten the distance of our own rear view mirror. Ramsey, Mark, Will and Paul look back on their predictions made in January and see just how much has changed. Maybe they deserve a Mulligan. What do you think? Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Mary Beth Franklin, Contributing Editor at InvestmentNews, former senior editor at Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and public speaker on Social Security & Retirement; CFP joins us today to talk about Social Security. She shares some of her expert advice for advisors and their clients. And we talk about the potential impact of COVID-19 on Social Security. How will 20 million unemployed workers and senior taking early retirement stress the system? Connect with Mary Beth Franklin: Website: Twitter: Email: mbfranklin@investmentnews.com Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Today, H. Adam Holt, CEO of Asset-Map joins us to talk about the company he founded to help clients visually understand their goals and how they will reach them through their investments and insurance products. Along the way, he has helped many financial professionals build larger practices, that help more clients and with less travel time. Check out Asset-Map: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Annuity agents have received a stream of announcements from carriers and state regulators over the last two weeks. How has this impacted sales? Get a first hand look from Mark Fitzgerald. We also continue our discussion on how to best adapt insurance practices to meet clients in a virtual world. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
If you purchased or sold an annuity before February you should be dancing in the street. Anyone who is remotely considering purchasing an annuity should the inherent power when the market declined. Now, how do you tell more people about the value of our guarantees in a tactful manner? Listen to our discussion on this topic. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
We’re living in a grand, unplanned experiment where we all need to conduct business without direct human contact. How will this impact annuity sales? How must we adapt? Ramsey, Will and Paul explore a number of solutions on how to keep your practice intact. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
Today, we continue our conversation on the how Covid-19 will impact the annuity market in 2020. We explore a number of very interesting threads in the bond market environment with Ramsey Smith and our special guest, Chris White, CEO of BondCliQ. The answer, as you may expect, is complicated. Spoiler alert: The long term outlook remains positive. Connect with Chris White: Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.
The spread of the coronavirus has occupied all news broadcasts for the last several weeks. How could this health crisis impact the annuity market? Will, Ramsey, and Paul discuss the implications on consumer demand, rates, and the overall economy. Real Vision recently profiled Ramsey in an episode called “The Merchant of Simplicity.” As a bonus for our visitors, Ramsey gave a complementary link to the show: . Be sure to give us feedback on the show. Connect with That Annuity Show at https://twitter.com/ThatAnnuityShow, https://www.facebook.com/thatannuityshow, Visit our website at https://thatannuityshow.com. Visit Nassau Financial Group on the web at Connect with Ramsey Smith on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseydsmith or https://twitter.com/RamseyDSmith1. Visit https://alex.fyi on the web. This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of any insurance product. The discussion is not meant to provide any legal, tax, or investment advice with respect to the purchase of an insurance product. A comprehensive evaluation of a consumer’s needs and financial situation should always occur in order to help determine if an insurance product may be appropriate for each unique situation.