Welcome to How to Retire on Time, a show that answers your questions about all things retirement, including income, taxes, Social Security, health care, and more. This show is an extension of the book, How to Retire on Time, which you can grab today on Amazon or go to www.how to retire on time.com. My name is Mike Decker. I'm the author of the book, How to Retire on Time, but I'm also a licensed financial adviser, insurance agent, and tax professional, which means when it comes to financial topics, we can pretty much discuss it all. Now that said, please remember this is just a show.

Everything you hear should be considered informational, as in not financial advice. If you want personal financial advice, well, just request your wealth analysis today from my team by going to www.yourwealthanalysis.com. With me in the studio today is mister David Fransen. David, thank you for being here today.

Yeah. You're welcome.

Now David will be reading your questions, which you have submitted, and I'll do my best to answer them. You can send your questions in right now or anytime during the week. Just save this number. Save it right now. 913-363-1234.

That's 913-363-1234. Or you can email them to hey mike at how to retire on time.com. Let's begin.

Hey, Mike. How can you recommend annuities and call yourself a fiduciary? They are full of fees and make insurance companies rich while you get little, if any, back.

Those are fighting words. Yeah.

But you don't notice here.

Yeah. So funny. How can you call yourself a fiduciary? Well, the word fiduciary is interesting because right now, the the DOL is meddling with the word and, technically, an insurance agent. I I believe and this could change.

So, you know, double check current regulations as we record these shows and leave them out there in perpetuity. But you could call yourself a fiduciary if you're helping someone roll over assets of a 401 k into an annuity and give you the the lifetime income that we talk about and how we say you probably don't want to do that. So the word fiduciary is being muddied. It's becoming more confusing. This person is either referring to fiduciary in one of 2 ways.

One way is that all only securities people with the series 65 can call them fiduciaries. And that's one interpretation of it. I think there's a lack of understanding with that statement because a securities person and look up the Tony Robbins interview when he was doing his money book where he explored this. I know this is old data, but

okay

he looked up all the the securities people in there and he found that a very small percentage were quote unquote fiduciaries people that were legally bound to put the clients interest out of their own. Yeah. But he kept digging. And I I do appreciate Tony Robbins for doing this. Yeah.

He then discovered in the shadows of this industry that you can get a series 66 license, which is also the quote unquote fiduciary license where it's fee only advice. But you can also have a series 7 license, have a brokerage license as well. And you you would have dual hats. So I can wear I can wear my fiduciary hat then take that off and then put on the brokerage hat and sell you something then take that off and and so on. Oh.

And then when you when you blend securities and insurance, you start having multiple hats, and things get complicated. So in our ADVR Advisor disclosure agreement, which we have to send everyone that we do business with, we clearly state that our fiduciary responsibility supersedes everything else. We make it very apparent that in all things that we do investment insurance and tax that the fiduciary responsibility that we have to legally do what's in your best interest. We're very upfront about that. And so, for someone to say, well, how could you call yourself a fiduciary if if you sell annuities?

Well, why would I not have every tool in the toolbox to offer you? Why would I not get licensed to be able to talk about things? I mean, would you be upset if I were a series 65 financial advisor that couldn't give tax advice and so I also wouldn't tell you about Delaware statutory trust? Let's say you're a real estate investor and you're going to sell your home. Do you want me to say, well, based on my licensing and regulations and disclosures, I can't tell you about something that would allow you to defer all of your your taxes, put a 100% of the assets basically into another real estate asset class, Delaware Statutory Trust, that continues to pay your cash flow and continues to appreciate your asset, and you don't pay any taxes on that.

Would you be upset if I couldn't tell you about this? Or I couldn't tell you about qualified opportunity zones and how when you sell your business that might be a way to defer a lot of the taxes. Or if you're selling a business and how you could use oil and gas partnerships in a way to basically offset the gains that you just incurred. I mean, wouldn't you be upset if I limited the tools in my toolbox that I could talk to you about?

Indeed, I would.

An annuity is just a tool. And in my definition, you can use it in one of 2 ways. You can use it to transfer longevity risk to an insurance company that's not financially in your best interest, that is living within your emotional limits, that you just need guaranteed income for life, at least covering your basis, to sleep well at night. Some people need that. It's not about the maximum dollars and becoming the richest person in the graveyard.

It's emotional stability. And for those, that's the tool to use. And then you shop better, more competitive annuities than other ones. And then some people also use annuities as a bond or CD alternative. Because when the markets go up, the cash value, assuming you you do your research and get the one without the fees and all the other crap associated with it, that it has upside potential when the markets go up, it participates with the up, and then when the markets go down, it doesn't lose value.

So it's a way to hedge against market crashes or flat market cycles. So let's define tools as they are and then determine if you want to use the tool or not. Though I don't take offense to the question and I appreciate the bold question as it was worded, if my job is to do what is right for the client I need as many tools in my toolbox as possible to then give you access to those tools

that would seem to make sense

but when someone comes to the office and this does happen from time to time and I'll ask them what they want they say no tell me what you got I say, I think this call is over. I can't help you. I'm not gonna sell you a product. I'm gonna consult you and figure out what you want when it comes to your lifestyle and legacy. And then I'm gonna make recommendations, a blend of strategies, investments, and products that would help you accomplish your goals, and then we fine tune it from there.

Here's a fun analogy. This is a bit of a rant. I feel like, tirade Tuesday. That's a local program here that's kind of fun. Okay.

On on the, the the radio station that we're on. So okay. David. Yeah. If you were to ask a butcher what they thought about the benefits of the vegan diet, what do you think you're gonna get?

He probably or she the the butcher probably doesn't know or care anything about the vegan diet maybe here.

The butcher sells meat. Yeah. There's a bias. K? If you were to ask a Toyota salesperson what they thought about Chevy trucks

Mhmm. What do

you think you're gonna hear?

It's it's not gonna be pretty.

Is Toyota a good or bad company? No. They're they're a company. I happen to prefer Toyota out of personal preference. It doesn't make them better or worse.

It's just a different company offering slightly different products than Chevrolet. Yeah. But there's an incentive to favor 1 or the other. So if you were to ask an insurance agent what they thought about the market, they're gonna tell you something to the effect of, oh, well, that's Wall Street, and Wall Street's dangerous, and do you really wanna risk your retirement? Why would you retire unless you can guarantee your income?

There's a bias. If you were to ask an investment adviser who sells funds, let's say, a portfolio of mutual funds and ETFs and so on, what do you think they're gonna tell you about annuities? This is actually a true story. I was explaining how an annuity worked to someone. They wanted to use it as a CD alternative because in in this situation, we believe that it had more growth potential than a CD would, even with today's rates.

And we went through and we we looked at and researched it and found a couple of that would qualify for that that projection. And then he goes back to this major company and says, well, hey, what do you think about this? And they said, and I quote, oh, don't do that. You could earn nothing in annuities for for the 10 years or the 5 years that you're you're gonna put money in there. Well, in theory, you could make any claim.

And what was interesting is this securities person, who did not understand how annuities worked, failed to also recognize that the markets that he sold, the stock market, goes flat for 10 plus years every 20 years or so. Now, I've never seen an annuity go flat for its entire duration. Never seen it. I have seen and have data showing that the market going flat making no returns for 10 plus years. So the manipulative, biased opinions from people who don't understand what they're talking about creates so much confusion, and when someone is in a fear based position, they can't critically think and it makes it difficult for the average person to actually make a good decision.

Do you all need annuities or money in the market or CDs or no. There's more than one way to skin the cat. But unless you can clearly define the tools that are available to you, it's really hard to understand what you're working with. Let me tell you a quick story. This hopefully, you get a kick out of this.

Alright, David?

Alright.

2 guys are golfing.

K.

K. 2 guys are golfing. 1's a Catholic, and the other is a proclaimed atheist. Now the Catholic brings up the Bible and the atheist says, oh, don't bring the Bible in in here. I don't I don't believe in that.

Then the Catholic asks, well, have you read the Bible? And the atheist says, no, I haven't. After a long and intellectual conversation about religion and theology, the Catholic says, you're not an atheist. You're just a lazy idiot.

Yeah. And

then the Catholic explained that an atheist needs to be a religious scholar who has spent a considerable amount of time studying the bible and other world religions and their books found all over seeking to understand them and then determine if they are true or not. It's okay if you are an atheist. Yeah. It's not okay if you're choosing to be an atheist because you just didn't wanna put in the work, and you wanted to live a certain lifestyle and then rationalized it. There's a journey that kind of should be had.

Now religion aside, and, yeah, it was a fun taboo topic to bring up here. But if you haven't explored and asked questions and be able to understand what investments or products make sense, how they work, it's really hard to make good decisions, in my opinion. For those who are deferring saying, I I know that I don't want this even though I know I don't know how it works, I would believe that would be operating with ignorance, and ignorance is only bliss until it's not. Mhmm. For those who say I don't need to protect some of my assets, ignorance is bliss until the markets go down.

For those who put all their assets in annuities into fixed income, ignorance is bliss until inflation erodes, taxes go up, and you're now stuck trying to figure out a tough situation. There's no such thing as a perfect investment product or strategy. There's no way, in my opinion, go all in on anything. And this is why it's important to take a step back, define the purpose of your money, define what your plan looks like, your lifestyle legacy plan, to then discuss these strategies associated with that plan when the markets are up, when the markets are down, when inflation gets out of out of hand, when health care costs may be an issue, how do you self insure for that? Go down the list Mhmm.

Of what you're planning for. And you may or may not know these risks and how to plan for them. And then at the end, talk about investments and products, define them correctly, and then pick and choose what makes sense to you. Everyone is different. Every plan should be different.

But it's important that you're you're at least working with someone who can explain it to you. So even if you don't have a financial background, you understand how it works. Because you should never, in my opinion, never put money into something that you don't understand. But let's work to become comfortable in articulating what's available to us. This is not happening in the industry, in my opinion, and based on my observation.

And it drives me crazy. Yeah. If you want to really understand what's out there, to really understand how you could potentially lower your risk while increasing your overall growth potential. It is possible to do that. Text analysis right now to 913-363-1234.

Again, that's analysis. To 913-363-1234. Or go to yourwealthanalysis.com today. This analysis could really open your eyes to see truly your lifestyle and legacy potential. Go today, yourwealthanalysis.com, or text analysis to 913-363-1234.

Won't cost you a dime, but really could open your eyes. We look forward to having that conversation with you soon. That's all the time we've got for the show today. If you enjoyed the show, consider subscribing to it wherever you get your podcast. Just search for how to retire on time.

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