Annuity Pros, Cons, and What Are They Anyway?

Annuities seem to have a negative connotation within the financial industry, but do they deserve it? Are annuities good or are they bad? Because there are so many different types of annuities, it's hard to generalize that they are either good or bad. Each annuity should be evaluated independently based on each individual’s situation.

On episode 19 of The Retirement Power Hour, host Joe Allaria is joined by fellow Partner and Wealth Advisor of CarsonAllaria Wealth Management, Mark Allaria, CFP®, as the two discuss the pros and cons of annuities, as well as the different types out there.


Listener Question
What should I make of the U.S. debt ceiling issue? Should I be concerned?


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Disclaimer: 
All material discussed on this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as individual tax, legal, or investment advice. Investing involves risk of loss and investors should be prepared to bear potential losses. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Joe Allaria is an Investment Adviser Representative of , a Registered Investment Advisory firm. Information discussed on this podcast may be derived from third parties that are believed to be reliable, but CarsonAllaria Wealth Management does not control or guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of such information and disclaims all liability for damages resulting from such sources. Any references to third parties are provided as a convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.

Transcript

Joe Allaria: 0:00

Welcome to the Retirement Power Hour. My name is Joe Allaria, and this is episode 19. Today I'm going to be joined in just a bit by fellow partner and wealth advisor here at Carson Allaria Wealth Management, Mark Allaria. And Mark and I are going to talk about annuities: the good, the bad, the pros, the cons, all the different types, and what you should know about annuities if you own annuities, or maybe you're thinking about owning annuities in the future. So stay tuned for that. But before that, we have a listener question on the US debt ceiling issue that is transpiring right now. And before that, I want to remind everyone go to retirement powerhour podcast.com. If you have a question that you would like to submit, you can go there to our website, click submit your question, fill us in, give us the details, we'll respond to you, and we may share it on a future show as well. And you can also get a free retirement analysis by clicking work with me. Just go to retirement powerhour podcast.com. Click work with me. You know, the first step is just going to be having a conversation with me. And I'll ask you a few questions. I'll see if we could potentially be a good fit for you. And if so, we're happy to take you through a complimentary financial analysis so that you can see where you stand. Can you retire? Are you paying too much in taxes? Are you invested properly? We'll answer all those questions for you. If you just go to the website, click work with me, and we'll get started there. So our listener question today comes from Mike. Mike says, Hello, I'm concerned about the debt ceiling issue that's coming up. In the past, I recall that the market was extremely volatile when we have not come to an agreement on the U.S. debt ceiling. And I'm worried, on top of the bank struggles that we've seen in the economy, what this might do to the market, please help. Well, thank you for that, Mike. So here's my response on this the debt ceiling, uh, the even the bank failures, these are all things that we really don't know how they will play out. But a couple of things to keep in mind. I think that when you invest, you always want to invest and plan for the worst, hope for the best. Now, I guess that's a that's a loose definition because when I say plan for the worst, I just mean understand how much volatility you may have when you are investing in the market, in stocks, in bonds. Understand how much volatility you you may have given your stock to bond ratio, and just be aware of that. So we don't want to panic when we see volatility show up and become president. But on this issue, we have had this several times. And basically, the issue is if we don't raise our debt ceiling, then the U.S. would begin to default on some of its debt. And of course, some of its debt is owned by you investors that are out there listing that own U.S. treasury. So what needs to happen so that we don't default is that shocker, Democrats and Republicans have to come together and agree to raise the debt ceiling. Democrats want to do so, Republicans only want to do so with certain restrictions on future spending so that we don't keep increasing our level of debt like we have over the past few years. And so we'll see what happens. What could happen if an agreement is not made in a timely manner is like I said, we could start to see U.S. default on debt. Now, what has happened in the past? Has that happened? Well, in 2011, we were very far away on getting to an agreement between the two sides. And so we saw that there was volatility in the market around this time and a decent amount of it. And that also in that year, the SP standard impores cut the US's triple A credit rating to AA plus where it it remains today. And that was just amid concerns about the budget deficit that we have in our country, which was is a growing long-term debt burden, and then there's potential conflicts over, again, like we said, raising the debt limit. So that's where we stand. And what should you do as an investor, Mike? I think number one, you control what you can control. So whether it's the debt ceiling, whether it's bank failures, control what you can control. How are you invested? Because we may have some volatility. Am I saying to go sell all your treasuries? I'm not saying that. I'm not giving any advice. I'm just sharing my thoughts on this. I think the chances that we see a true default, I think is is very, very low. I wouldn't think that's very likely. And I don't think anyone thinks that's going to happen, but there would be some unintended consequences if we don't get to an agreement. And then we could have something called a technical default, or let's just say a delayed payment to investors uh that do own treasuries. What are the chances of a technical default? According to Tom Hollenberg of the Capital Group, who is a fixed income portfolio manager there, Tom thinks that the chances of a technical default would be about five to ten percent. So it's certainly not his base case, but it's not something that we can just completely ignore either. So as with many things, we hope that the government can come together and get to an agreement, the two sides can get to an agreement. But at the same time, you know, understand how much risk you're taking, understand the exposure that you have in that area of the market. And then, you know, another thing that's just like that alongside is these bank failures that are happening in the uh in the world that we've seen. So, what can you do to protect against that? Don't go above the FDIC insurance limit at your bank, which is up to 250,000. If you have less than 250,000, then you are covered by FDIC insurance most likely. You can make sure your bank participates. I'm pretty sure just about everyone I've ever seen does. So that's controlling what you can control. And at the end of the day, I would say don't worry about things that are out of your control. Control what you can control and don't worry about things outside of your control. You can do it if you want, but there are an endless list of things that you could start worrying about, financial, non-financial. And so why do it? It's not in your control. So let me be a let me be an encourager to you on that. And this is a this is not financial advice, but just advice for life and a better quality of life. Don't worry about what's out of your control. It won't help you, it won't put you in a better position. Just control what you can control and move forward. I hope that helps. And you know, these are trying times. I know this is just like one more thing on top of everything we've dealt with over the last couple of years, but you just stick with it and get a plan. If you don't have a plan, you need to get one, go to retirement powerhourpodcast.com, retirement powerhour podcast.com. Click work with me, start working on getting a plan. And talking to me will be the very first step. We'll have a 15-20 minute phone call and we'll get you started on the path to getting a retirement plan. Well, with that, I'm excited about going into an interview with Mark Allaria, who is a partner and wealth advisor here at Carson Allaria Wealth Management to talk a little bit about annuities. So I hope you enjoy this interview with Mark. Enjoy. Mark, thanks for joining us today on the show.

Mark Allaria: 7:10

Joe, happy to be here. Thanks for asking me. This is a topic that's been more and more discussed with me and my clients here as of late. So I'm happy to uh to get on and have good dialogue about it.

Joe Allaria: 7:20

Yeah, and I know both you and I have seen lots of different kinds of annuities, and and both uh I don't know when you say you're an expert in this, but seeing so many different kinds, either one of us could give a presentation. But you know, I just figured I'll have you pretend to be a consumer, an investor, and ask some questions that many of those that are out there who get sold annuities or pitch annuities, a lot of the questions that they're asking, and they're asking to you and they're asking to me.

Mark Allaria: 7:48

Yeah, I think the the most common one I get is I've heard about them, I know what they are, I think, but just give me an overview of really what an annuity is.

Joe Allaria: 7:56

Yeah. So using the word annuity is a very broad term, and I compare it to using the word investment. That's a very, very broad term. Investments a little bit more broad, but there's a couple things about annuities. I think that when you Google search it, you'll see some recurring themes. And one of those themes is that they are financial products where you can invest your money. They are also contracts between you and an insurance company with certain provisions between you and an insurance company. So there's rules that you have to maybe abide by, there's restrictions, there's benefits. And another theme that we see is that they can provide guaranteed income for either a period of time or for life. They're not always used for that reason, but that's just one. So they're a contract, it's their place you can invest your money, and a lot of times they're used for income benefits.

Mark Allaria: 8:51

So when you talk about that, Joe, explain maybe some different types of annuities. Because there are there are different types, you know, fixed and variable and fixed index. Maybe just give an overview of the of that.

Joe Allaria: 9:02

Yeah. So just to first talk about this negative connotation where people say annuities are bad. Well, I mean, can't that's like saying investments are bad or mutual funds are bad. Are there bad ones out there? Yeah, but they're not all bad. And I think it's also important to first understand what's unique about annuities. What can they do that regular investments maybe can't do or don't do? And I just try to make really, really simple. It's you know, it comes down to guarantees and longevity risk. And like I said, when you talk about providing uh lifetime income, like a almost like a pension, meaning it doesn't matter how long you live, you can just keep getting a certain amount of income. An annuity can provide that. Where a stock and bond portfolio, it may be able to provide that, but might not, because your stock and bond portfolio can go to zero. So there's other guarantees like minimum interest rate guarantees that you might have on an annuity for a period of time. And so the guarantees, the ability to address living a long time, those are a couple of things that are unique, unique, Mark. But the first one, the most simple one that I'll say is this single premium immediate annuity. And that's one where you just like it sounds, you put money in one time, single premium, immediate annuity, and it just immediately starts paying you some sort of benefit. Once you purchase a single premium immediate annuity, it's like you went out and purchased a pension in a way, in that you don't have a lump sum anymore. You have an income stream.

Mark Allaria: 10:36

I think that's a great point, Joe. We often run into clients who have a pension, they worked a job a long period of time, they never necessarily had an account balance that they were building, but they were funneling money, them and their company, into a pool of money. And when they retire, it becomes annuitized, they get a pension stream for the rest of their life. So that's almost identical to what you're speaking about in a single premium annuity, losing your liquidity or lump sum value.

Joe Allaria: 11:01

Yeah, and like Social Security too. You don't you have Social Security benefits as an income stream, but you you don't have a balance. There's no account balance that you can go and take extra from or pull from or you get when you pass away. It just it is what it is. Now, we're talking about lifetime benefits and and of and I should say too, there's there's five types of annuities I'm going to talk about. So the first type is the single premium, immediate annuity. You you don't have to get paid out for life, but you can. And then if you're married, you could get paid out for your life and the life of your spouse, just like a 100% joint and survivor pension. Now, unlike a pension, maybe you you could also go shorter than your lifetime. So you could go a 10-year period certain, a 20-year period certain. And that just means that that thing pays out for if it's a 20-year period certain, it's going to pay out for 20 years, and then after that, it's done. And so you you you play through the different possibilities because people kind of ask, well, like, well, what's the downside of this? Well, if you get a uh lifetime benefit, you know, if we start go back there at the start, a single life benefit. And let's just say I'm married, Mark, and I start collecting benefits for two years and then I pass away. Well, what happens after that? My spouse doesn't get anything. So that's why a lot of people do joint life. So now it goes for the for the life of both of us. What if me and my wife, God forbid, something happens to us both, you know, after two to two to three years of starting this annuity, and we just have a joint life payout. Well, it goes away again. It's a lot like that pension in a single premium immediate annuity. The more flexibility you give yourself, the less money you get in that payment.

Mark Allaria: 12:44

It just all comes down to the annuity company, the actuaries behind it. You know, the biggest challenge in all of this, if if we all knew when we were going to stop needing the money, right? And we were gonna pass away, or when our spouse is gonna pass away, it'd be an easy decision. That's the one factor we we don't know. On the uh annuity carrier side, they have actuaries and they're basically all going off life expectancy. So that's the biggest challenge with selection. So that's why analyzing the annuity always comes with looking at the whole financial picture that we're dealing with with every client, right? Yeah.

Joe Allaria: 13:17

Oh, yeah, definitely. When we start talking about one type, I want to encourage all listeners out there, don't start putting all annuities in this category. Sure. There's still four other types we didn't talk about yet. The next one is a lot like it's just a deferred income annuity. So a single premium immediate, the big part, immediate. So I want income start right now. A deferred income annuity works very similar, except I'm gonna not start income right now. I'm gonna defer it for a set amount of time. So I'm gonna defer it for three years. Again, it's a contract, and I set it and I'm starting income in three years. And the big thing about those first two types, they're usually irrevocable. So you set those contracts in place, it's done. You can't undo it. So immediate annuity starts today, deferred annuity, deferred income annuity starts whenever you say you want it to start, but you have the same payout options, single life, joint life, period certain. You got all those same options. You might have a cost of living writer or a return of premium, something like that. But those are all kind of add-ons that you could look at for a single premium immediate annuity or a deferred income annuity. Because sometimes, you know, people are concerned that, well, what if I don't live long enough to at least even get out what I put in? I want my family to at least get what I put into this. So those are the first two types. The next type is a lot like CDs. Now there are different than CDs, but it's a fixed annuity or a multi-year guarantee annuity because it looks similar in the components. You have a term, you have an interest rate, you put your money in, it earns that interest rate for that term. It's not in the market, it's just gonna earn that interest rate for that amount of time. And generally with these annuities, you do have an account balance. The first two, your account balance goes away. These next three, you're gonna have an account balance. And that means you can withdraw potentially, but they also come, you have an account balance, but you also have a surrender schedule.

Mark Allaria: 15:15

Give me an example of maybe an age or a time period somebody would look at something like a demographic that would fit this type.

Joe Allaria: 15:23

Well, most annuities are purchased closer to retirement, but one main component for anyone who's looking at an annuity, whether young or old, is you got to be aware of this 59 and a half rule because whether it's an IRA or not, annuities have that same restriction or limitation, even when it's not an IRA. So you got to be 59 and a half to take your money out of the annuity without paying any penalties. So that's something to be aware of. And that's why I say most people purchasing are closer to retirement, maybe 60, 65 in that age range. So a fixed annuity is for someone that says, I want a safe investment, it's not gonna fluctuate at all. I just want to know what I'm gonna earn. A fixed annuity or a multi-year guarantee annuity can do that. Now, you're probably not gonna get what you maybe could get in the market, but you know exactly what you're gonna get. There's not any guesswork there. Now, with that type, and with most types or all types of annuities, you can annuitize and turn that into an income stream, and now you're back to the same joint life, single life, period certain, all those different options for payout. But that's one type of annuity where people use that to grow their money, not only just to take money out. The next one, uh similar, Mark, is fixed indexed annuities. So we had fixed annuities. Number four is fixed indexed.

Mark Allaria: 16:45

So you turn on the radio, right? And you'll hear these commercials or you know, there's people talking about doomsday of the market coming, and you can participate in market highs and not deal with market lows.

Joe Allaria: 16:57

Yeah. So a lot of times those are indexed annuity commercials, and you do hear that. They'll say you get the upside of the SP with no downside risk, and that it's just not true. And this is a huge issue and a hot button for me because I do see these sold way more often than they're bought. And people are out there going this to get a free dinner at a nice local restaurant, and someone is putting on a seminar and they're trying to sell these types of annuities, or they're doing a radio show, and they're just really stoking fear, Mark. I mean, you've seen it, right? You've heard it on the radio. Oh, sure. I'm sure how easy is it? How easy is it to get someone to panic about the market?

Mark Allaria: 17:38

And as you talk about that, not that these are all bad. I think that they can be placed in a position in some ways portfolio that does make sense. Unfortunately, I think that sometimes they're just they're oversold based on some fear.

Joe Allaria: 17:51

I don't think anyone should ever say that every kind of whatever investment is bad and every kind is good, or vice versa, because you have to be able to understand and discern the benefits, the costs, and there are lots of these annuities out there. There are lots of mutual funds out there, there are lots of stocks out there. You have to be able to evaluate each one. So my point is it's so easy to try and influence someone to fear about what's going to happen in the market.

Mark Allaria: 18:17

Oh, sure.

Joe Allaria: 18:17

That's incredibly easy. And it's incredibly difficult to help people remain calm when you have the media, the financial media, you know, just turn on the news. It'd only take about two minutes to start feeling really, really terribly about what's going on and maybe what might happen in the future. But that's what I see on these. It's a fixed index annuity. You have a fixed rate that you could still invest in, just like the last type that we talked about, the third type. But you also have these other index options. Uh, the SP 500 is an index, the the NASDAQ is an index, the Dow Jones is an index. So these products will have different index options. And here's what they'll say is really common. Here's an SP 500 index where you can earn up to a cap of fill-in-the-blank because these cap rates will change. But let's just say it's 7%, up to a cap rate of 7%. So if the SP 500, the market goes up 25%, you're only going to get seven. So you don't get anything above that. But if the market goes down 25%, your worst case is zero. So that's what they'll say. But the problem with that is when you evaluate historical returns, one thing you don't always realize is when the market goes up 20%, 30% in a year, you need those years to get an average of seven or eight percent. You need all of that upside. And the market goes up more frequently than it goes down. So you need all the ups to get that average. So what happens when you start capping yourself at what you feel is a good average return? Well, now you're not going to get that every year. So you're probably going to get somewhere in between what you would have received in the market and zero. It certainly does narrow your outcomes, but that's what I see with those types.

Mark Allaria: 20:10

Those four out of five. How about the last one?

Joe Allaria: 20:13

So the last one's variable annuities, and that's where you can invest in sub-accounts inside of these annuities that act a lot like mutual funds. And so you do have the upside of the market, the true upside. You do have the downside of the market as a possibility as well. Variable annuities are kind of known for higher fees a lot of times. Now they don't all have higher fees, but generally they're gonna have higher fees than fixed indexed products, they're gonna have probably higher fees than fixed annuities because there's more things baked in. So you have a fee for usually there's some type of death benefit in a variable annuity. Typically, it's baked in. Then you've got fees for the mutual funds or the sub-accounts. I'm calling they're not mutual funds, but they're sub-accounts that operate like mutual funds. And then you you might have a rider fee on that income writer or different types of riders that might be available. And then lastly, it's some administrative fees could apply too. Now, variable annuities, index annuities, fixed annuities, all of those could have income riders that are added on to those as well. So, like I said, I as we start to get through all these types, Mark, it's like I thought I'm understanding, but the more I learn, the less I feel like I know about annuities because you can throw the you can throw an income writer on an indexed annuity and use it for lifetime income. And so if you're considering this, it's really hard to find someone who is unbiased to give you an unbiased opinion on on these things because usually the person that's telling you about them is wanting to sell you one. And we're not saying that that's automatically a bad thing, it's just a little bit hard to take their word for it as if it's an unbiased opinion. So we're here to answer questions if you have annuities out there. Maybe you purchase an annuity and you're wondering if you can get out of it because you don't think it's good. Give us a call, go to retirement powerhour podcast.com and click work with me or click submit a question. You can do that right through the show and then we'll answer it. We'll respond to you, but we'll potentially also share it on a future episode just to help others that are out there and listening. Mark, some of these people are being pitched annuities. It might help to talk about what to look for. So a couple easy things. What's the surrender schedule? Meaning, if I put my money in, can I get it back out? Usually the answer is no, at least for a period of time. So when could I get all my money back out? If you want to take your money out sooner, a lot of times these annuities carry really steep surrender charges.

Mark Allaria: 22:40

Why explain why there are such high surrender charges in these annuities?

Joe Allaria: 22:44

Well, I guess because they can, but the annuity companies are trying to provide these unique benefits, guarantees on interest rates. To many people using these for income, they're providing lifetime income. So, how are they able to provide these benefits? One way is they make these pretty restrictive. If you're going to give them money and they're going to start issuing guarantees to you and other people based on the money that you gave them, they're probably going to need to hold on to that money for at least a little bit to invest and to make make some money off of that themselves.

Mark Allaria: 23:15

As a listener, what what am I what do I need to be thinking about? Okay, maybe I am a potential fit or this person's potential fit for this reason.

Joe Allaria: 23:22

Well, it's really the next thing that I had on here was just benefits, the benefits of the things that we talked about. What can it provide that maybe a regular portfolio can't provide? And when you start talking about insurance, any type of insurance, really, you're talking about big risks. And you pay an insurance company to help you protect against that. And in the financial world, when you if you live a long time, that's actually a risk because now you have to fund more years of your retirement. So that's actually a risk. It's great to live a long life and have a great quality of life, but how do you fund that? So for people that maybe have a history of longevity, or maybe they do have a risk of running out of money. That's one profile that's good because maybe, maybe we're a little bit concerned that if they live too long, they're gonna run out of money. Well, what they can do is instead of just when you run out of portfolio assets, you just got to live off Social Security. You can add to Social Security to say, well, when I run out of assets, I'll at least have Social Security and I'll have this income from this annuity. You can change your floor to include and add on to. And some people have pensions, like we said, you might have Social Security pension, and you want to add some annuity income. But some people don't have any pensions, and they're pulling out all of their income in retirement from these non-guaranteed risky assets, assets that can fluctuate, can go to zero, meaning if you're taking money out, they can go to zero. And so it's just about diversifying a little bit. And the other one, Mark, is just people that are more conservative. This is a more conservative thing. And it actually has uh been shown through different studies to increase retirement satisfaction. And I'm sure you've seen that. Whenever folks come in, whether they have annuities or a strong pension, when they have monthly income and it's guaranteed for life and it's not tied to the market, so they really don't have to worry about the market as much, they are way happier than the folks that you know are pulling all their money out of the market, typically. Do you see that? Have you ever found that? 100%.

Mark Allaria: 25:23

I think as we talk all the time, behavior is a key component to having good investment experience. And those clients who have a fixed income coming in and they don't have to worry about the ups and downs of the market, and they tend to look at the volatility of their other assets under just a different lens, as opposed to having all their money in the market. So certain types of clients with certain behaviors, annuities can be a really, really good fit and complement to their other assets.

Joe Allaria: 25:52

So it's it's just do I want a probability-based plan or do I value safety more? Because when we do retirement plans and use stock funds and bond funds and all that sort of stuff, we try to do that in a way that gives clients the highest probability of success, but we can never use the the G word guaranteed. Right. Because it's just not guaranteed. Now, we've got a really long track record and a lot of historical market returns that makes us feel very, very confident in that approach. And that's why we use it. And it gives us the most upside, we feel too. But we can never use the G word. So if you're someone that just needs more safety, that could be a good use of some of your portfolio. If nothing is ever, I'm gonna go 100% into annuities. You you really can't even do that. Annuity companies wouldn't let you do that, but you can put a portion of what you have in there to maybe just pay my fixed bills. Yep. So I know that as long as this insurance company stays in business, which is something you know, we talk about guarantees, it's only as good as who's making the guarantees. So make sure you have a strong insurance company. As long as they stay in business, I'm I'm good. I don't have to worry about the market and the Fed and uh wars and things like that that are going on that are affecting the market.

Mark Allaria: 27:04

Last question, Joe. You brought up the comment about the Fed. So the Fed's been raising interest rates lately. How does that affect annuities or does it have an effect on annuities?

Joe Allaria: 27:14

Yeah, it does because annuities are interest rate driven. You have to understand that when we give money to these insurance companies to purchase an annuity, they have to go invest it. But they're most likely going to be using a lot of safer, more predictable investments. And so whenever rates are going up, it's improving annuity benefits and improving annuity offers, income benefits. You can get more income for less today than you could get even a year ago or two years ago, certainly two years ago when interest rates were very, very, very low. So rates do change and fluctuate. But right now, we're we're doing this, it's May of 2023. So rates have been going up and they're at a about as high as we've seen in recent history. So it looks good for annuity offers right now. But like I said, uh just things to keep in mind. What's the surrender schedule? What are the benefits? What are the fees? What's the strength of the insurance company? Do I have an account balance? Do I have a death benefit? What happens if I pass away or my spouse and I both pass away? What happens? You have to understand all those questions. And you shouldn't ever get pressured into doing something like an annuity and purchasing it because they can be hard to unwrap. They're not known for being flexible, which is a con and a pro for doing it the old-fashioned way of a stock and bond portfolio, is there's more flexibility there. It's not set in stone. You've got more flexibility. You can take more money now, maybe put it on pause for a while, take more later. Annuities are just so rigid that they're pretty much set in stone. Not a ton of flexibility. So if you value that flexibility more than safety, then you got to be real sure before you do an annuity that it's it's the right thing for you.

Mark Allaria: 28:57

So I'm not necessarily hearing you say annuities are all good, and I'm not hearing you say annuities are all bad. I guess what I'm hearing you say is that they couldn't be good in the right situation. You just need to make sure you're analyzing everything. Right.

Joe Allaria: 29:08

Absolutely. Anyone who says any different, they're just they're not being honest. If they say all annuities are bad, I think what my opinion on this is that there's this group of people out there that are pushing annuities really hard. And to be honest, they're insurance salesmen. Let's not confuse things on that. They're insurance salesmen. So they're pushing annuities because that's how they get paid. They get commissions. And by the way, I don't think there's anything wrong with a commission, but they're not fiduciaries and they're pushing products and selling them to people that maybe don't need them or selling more of them than they need. And that has caused annuities to have a bad name. And then you have some people on the other end of the spectrum who grew up in the investment world, investment purists who say all annuities are terrible because look at all those guys slinging those annuity products. And look at that, they make those high commissions. They're just all terrible. Well, you're not really being honest either. And the guy that's slinging them who says annuities are the best thing since sliced bread, everyone should have one. They're not being honest either. So I think we got to come somewhere in the middle because there's actually a lot of academic research out there that talks about how annuities can be beneficial in the right product, in the right amount, at the right time, providing the right benefits. There's research out there from the academic world. You know, they're not selling anything. And we're talking all financial stuff, but I mentioned before retirement satisfaction. That's a real thing too. You know, Mark, I don't know what's more important, have more money at age 100 or your retirement satisfaction level for the next 30 years being higher. These are non-financial things that really should be considered and thought out. And annuities can play a role in that. That's right. I would say if anyone out there again is listening and has questions, maybe you have an annuity and you don't like it, you want to get out of it. Don't make any rash decisions. Reach out, tell us what you have, let us evaluate it. Maybe you're thinking about one, maybe someone you know has one and you're thinking about one, reach out to us. We are happy to help you answer some questions. And you can do that at retirement powerhourpodcast.com. Again, retirement powerhourpodcast.com. Submit your question. If you want to get a free retirement analysis from us, you're looking for an advisor, you can click work with me. There's a process on that page that tells you how that works. But the first step is just having a simple phone call with me and uh allowing me to ask you some questions about where you're at and what you're looking for to see if we're a good fit. If so, we'll take you through a complimentary analysis process and tell you where you stand and give you an idea of what it would be like to work with us. So, Mark, thanks for joining me on this episode. Annuities, it's kind of like no one loves the word, I don't think, but it's an interesting topic, but it is much more prevalent. So I think it was good timing and it's good to have someone to kind of bounce these things off of. Absolutely. All right, with everyone else, don't forget to join us on the next episode of the Retirement Power Hour, where we help people invest wiser and retire better. Take care. We'll see you next time.

Speaker: 32:26

Thank you for listening to the Retirement Power Hour Podcast. All material discussed on this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as individual tax, legal, or investment advice. Investing involves risk of loss, and investors should be prepared to bear potential losses. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Joe Allaria is an investment advisor representative of Carson Allaria Wealth Management, a registered investment advisory firm. Information discussed on this podcast may be derived from third parties that are believed to be reliable, but Carson Allaria Wealth Management does not control or guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of such information and disclaims all liability for damages resulting from such sources. Any references to third parties are provided as a convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.