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Happy New Year and sincere thanks to everyone who so generously shared their expertise and knowledge to help a newby!
Re. Guaranteed Minimum Living Benefits - Income Benefit requires you to annuitize. Well, guess what .. that's why annuity was invented so you could annuitize. Annuitization is the BEST feature of an annuity.
Withdrawal Benefit doesn't require you to annuitize but if you withdraw more than what's allowed you're messing up the guaranteed bucket. If your actual contract value is really low compared to your income bucket, it works just like income benefit.
Accumulation Guarantee depending on the carrier guarantees your principal if you don't touch for 10 years and some guarantee double your principal if you don't touch for 20 years.
I don't sell VAs because it's the best option but because it's the ONLY OPTION for those who want to participate in the market but for some mysterious reasons don't want to lose any money either. All in all both FIA and VA with Guarantees are just an illusion designed to fill the needs of idiotic investors (aka the general public). They are idiotic because you CAN'T have both the high returns and safety of principal at the same time. Both FIA and VA with Guarantees will give you about the same as Fixed Annuity will give you (maybe less) but the idiots don't want low FA returns. They want bigger returns but don't want to lose any money either. Well re-arrange and shuffle and they get what they want - an illusion. Sell Fixed Annuities because 99.99% of population will go broke "trading" mutual funds but if they insist on something that doesn't exist (high returns with safety) sell them FIAs and VAs with Guarantees. It's still infinitely better than abandoning them in a mutual fund pit.
The same idiots who eschew using a financial advisor and instead try to "DIY" their nest eggs with Vanguard index funds because they're cheap?
Frank, it's just another reminder that people buy into hype and make decisions based on emotion. Remember that we as a human race still share 99% of our DNA with monkeys and apes and maintain animalistic instincts with regards to making decisions.
This is kind of why I don't like to sell VAs - because I know a client can get upside market potential with guaranteed protection using an FIA. In the case of the FIA though, the client gets upside and guarantees without having to use expensive 50 bps riders that force a client to draw from an income bucket for life.
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Out of your list, I've only listened to and watched Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey in their discussions on financial planning, insurance, and securities.
Both are idiots.
Their broad, sweeping generalizations and refusals to explore both sides of every product is a disservice to the public and also makes financial advisors look bad. "But Biggity why are you showing me Whole Life even though it makes the most sense for me being that Suze Orman was on TV last night and said she hated Whole Life?"
Again, we as sheeple make decisions based on emotion and psychology. My very own sister told me she doesn't need an FA because she reads Suze Orman (lol). She still doesn't know the differences between a Roth IRA and Traditional IRA, or why it's important not to rely on a 401K. But hey, she definitely can tell me that she trusts Suze Orman because Suze is on TV, radio, and writes books, therefore Suze can do no wrong and give great advice!!!!
Celebrity Financial "Advisors" don't need licenses to give advice because they don't collect fees or commissions from products sold. They make their millions by selling TV airtime to advertisers like Vanguard Funds (no load index funds), selling books to the masses, and collecting ad revenue from their websites.
I am tempted to surrender all my licenses so I can go ahead and write a book too, hype up common sense but claim credit for it, and be able to give securities advice without a license and certainly without the interference from compliance or FINRA
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