How Free Dinners Can Cost Your Future

The steak is free. The advice isn’t. We pull back the curtain on the seminar ecosystem targeting people near retirement with glossy mailers, “nonprofit” classes, and polished scripts that funnel you into preselected products—often before anyone asks what you actually need. Along the way, we challenge celebrity talking points with precise rules that impact your wallet, including the real RMD ages, why half-years matter for penalties and QCDs, and how Roth conversions should be planned around tax brackets, Medicare IRMAA thresholds, and future rates rather than hype.

You’ll hear two real stories that hit hard. In one, a couple with a 7% income rider compounding for over a decade was convinced to remove it to “save fees,” wiping out a lifetime income base just as illness forced retirement. In another, a rider was placed on an account meant for heirs while being omitted from the IRA facing RMDs—fees paid where benefits wouldn’t be used, and protection withheld where it mattered most. These cases show how guarantees can vanish with a single signature and why the right feature on the wrong account is still the wrong plan.

We talk straight about how to protect yourself: define a clear purpose for each account—income, liquidity, or legacy—then let that purpose pick the product and features. Demand written plans that show fees, surrender schedules, conservative projections, tax implications, and stress tests. Verify fiduciary status, designations, complaints, and licensing. Be skeptical when a first meeting asks for every statement before goals are discussed. If someone recommends removing a valuable guarantee, ask for numbers proving why, and get a second opinion.

If you want a plan grounded in math, rules, and your goals—not marketing—tune in and take notes. Then share this episode with a friend who’s been invited to “dinner.” Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what high-pressure pitch have you faced, and how did you handle it?

To learn more about Brad Pistole and the Ozark Retirement Group, please visit www.ozarksretirement.com 

Transcript

Welcome And Mission To Protect

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Welcome to State Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Brad is a retirement income and tax planning certified professional, primarily serving clients in the Midwest, but he's sought after nationally for his expertise in helping people secure their retirement. Mr. Pistol is a licensed life insurance professional in approximately 20 different states, and he specializes in working with people who are near retirement and those who have already retired with wealth management, income planning, and asset protection strategies using life, health, long-term care, and annuity insurance products. And now, here to talk with you about securing your retirement, it's your host, Brad Pistol.

The Mailer Machine And Seminar Economy

Credentials, Fiduciary Duty, And Red Flags

Calling Out Bad Actors And Lawsuits

Dave Ramsey’s Roth Conversion Clip

RMD Ages Clarified And Why It Matters

How Funnels Predetermine Your Products

Contact Info And Book Offer

Real Client Case: Income Rider Removed

Why They Pushed Removing Riders

Another Case: Rider Put On Wrong Account

Broader Scam Warnings And Next Steps

Closing Guidance And Disclaimers

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Well, hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us again today on Safe Money Radio, or as some people call it, Smart Money Radio. You know, I'm about to leave on a trip after recording the show today, and I walked into a local store, and when I walked in, the guy there always recognizes me and knows me, and he's been listening to me for more than 10 years, and he said, Hey, it's the smart money radio guy. And I go, hey, I like that. It's actually Safe Money Radio, but I like smart money radio too. And as a matter of fact, that's going to be the topic of discussion today. So whether you're listening locally on the radio or whether you're listening to the podcast, maybe you're on YouTube, maybe you're on Spotify, Apple, wherever it is, we're glad that you're joining us. We're listened to all over the country. I'm licensed in more than 20 states. I've been doing this for almost two decades now. It's one of the longest running financial planning shows in the United States. I've recorded over 800 different shows, and so we'll hit that thousand show milestone here soon. It's a lot of fun. I'm grateful to bring this information to you every single week. Now, I'll tell you that today's going to be a little bit different. If you're listening on the radio, we're not going to have a lot of breaks. We're going to just continue through this information because we're on the cusp of a very changing time in this country. Now, when I started this business almost 20 years ago, there weren't a lot of dinner seminars and events and things like that. I mean, people did them, but it wasn't oversaturated the way it is right now. So if you're 60 years or older and you're listening to this, guess what? The all-seeing eye in the sky has all your information. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, obviously the all-seeing eye in the sky is Uncle Sam and the state and the U.S. Postal Service and UPS or FedEx or whoever else, whoever else that may be, they've got your information and you know this because you get things in the mail every single day, and you're probably like, how did they get my information? How do they know I'm retirement age? How do they know I'm about to start Social Security? How do they know I'm about to apply for Medicare? How do they know I've been thinking about retirement? How do they know I have a 401k? How do they know I've been thinking about converting to a Roth? Because you get every mailer under the sun. Come to our event, come to our free dinner, come to our educational event at a college. It's put on by a nonprofit. On and on and on and on. And I know that I talk about this on the show quite a bit, but I will tell you why. Because the basis of me doing this show for nearly 20 years has been to protect you. It has been to make sure that whether or not it's our organization, it's with our firm locally or another firm across the country, that you make sure you align yourself with someone who knows what they're doing. There's a big difference in sounding like you know what you're doing, or having a really good commercial, or having someone write a really fancy script for you for the radio, and you just get on and regurgitate and repeat what someone else wrote, and you sound like you know what you're doing, but then the evidence after you work with the clients and the products that you put them into in the accounts, that's when we realize no, they don't have a clue what they're doing. And then there are people like me who have to undo those messes for people all across the country. And so this year, 2026, as we begin a new year, it will continue to be my mission as a certified financial fiduciary. Not just any fiduciary, everybody throws that word around. Oh, are you a fiduciary? Oh, yeah, I'm a fiduciary. I'm a certified financial fiduciary through the National Association of Certified Financial Fiduciaries. I'm also a retirement income certified professional and a tax planning certified professional through the American College. Folks, these designations are legit. Just look them up. I'm going to be talking about why it's so important to me to protect our listeners. It's because I hear the sob stories of all the people who call in, honest, good-hearted people who've worked so hard all their life to build up their nest egg, only to be taken advantage of by someone who's in one of two situations and neither one of them are good. Either they don't know what they're doing, and they acted like they did know what they're doing, but they didn't. They were just doing it for a commission or for the ongoing fees or for their income, their livelihood. And then they put you in something that doesn't fit you, that's not what's best for you, and then you end up stuck and screwed, and that is not okay. Or there's number two, they just did it on purpose. They did it because they're a churner of business. They know that if they do enough seminars and if they do enough events on college campuses, they do enough TV shows, they do enough radio programs, they put enough ads out there, they do enough Facebook things, they're going to get about three to four out of every ten, and that's going to make them enough money to continue to move on to the next city or the next event. Sometimes they host them just locally, but some of these people travel all over the country and host events in big demographics, and they'll do a couple of uh night events and then they'll move on to the next town and you'll never hear from them again. But I really want to be talking today about people who are doing it locally and just say, hey, there are some of them that do a good job, and there's some of them who don't have a clue what they're doing. And I it's it's borderline aggressive to say this, but I'm telling you, some of these people need to be in prison. They need to be held accountable because I can see how many of them have had formal complaints filed against them. I can see how many of them settled out of court, which means what? They're guilty. They had a complaint filed against them, they settled out of court. Or they're being sued currently. And so they have no option but to deal with that, and that's public knowledge. But these people don't stop their events. They keep right on doing the seminars, they keep inviting you to the free dinners, they keep inviting you to the free courses. Some of them didn't go that far. They weren't in trouble yet, but here's what they did: they surrendered their license and then allowed their LLC to keep taking commissions that they were making from these events they were doing, and they hired staff under them, and their staff closes the business and writes it with you, even though you don't know they're not licensed because they're the president and the CEO and the head of the LLC. Um, but remember, they give up their licenses because they were about to be exposed and be in trouble. But since they own the LLC and they have people working for them under them, they gather in all the money and it pays through and flows through to the LLC, which is them, and then they pay salaries out to the people who work under them and they keep profiting off of it, even though they aren't legally licensed to sell you anything. Do I have your attention yet today? Well, good. Friends, this is Safe Money Radio. More than 800 episodes dating all the way back to 2010. And I've been working with the EdSlot, Master Lead IRA Advisor Group, the best in the nation, America's IRA expert, going all the way back to 2010. I have five different financial designations for a reason. And if you Google us or look us up, and I invite you to, please do it. You will find out there's never been one single formal complaint made against us. I've never been sued, I've never been in trouble, I've never surrendered licenses. We are legit. We will do what is in the best interest of our clients at all times, and that's exactly what we're going to be doing today by helping expose scams, helping expose people who are on the take, who churn business, who provide events just to put you in something they knew they were going to try to put you in before they ever met with you. What does that mean? It means they don't care one iota what the purpose is for your money. They have a marketing funnel and they know they're either going to put you in an annuity or they're going to put you in a life insurance policy, or they're going to try to sell you a trust, or they're going to put you into managed money, or a combination of the two. They want that annuity and upfront commission money, but they also want you in manage money to continue to get that asset under management ongoing fee. They already know what they're going to tell you to do before they ever meet with you. And friends, that's not what's in your best interest. So as you listen today, since we're not going to take a lot of breaks, I'm going to give you a number and a website. You can always go look us up. We are the Ozarks Retirement Group. That's Ozarksretirement.com. Just go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on the contact us button. You can set up a free financial consultation at any time. You can also call us at 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. I'll give you a copy of my best-selling book, Bulletproof, that's been read all over the country. It was the number one bestseller on Amazon. My good friend, America's IRA expert Ed Slott, wrote the forward to the book. And it is bulletproof, the safe and secure retirement income plan. And the questions at the end of every chapter are life-changing questions. It's not just reading information. I will actually have you do the hard work where you walk through the questions about the information we just went over in the previous chapter and have you ask yourself the hard questions. Are these things you're doing? Are you preparing for this? Have you thought about this? Is there a plan in place for this? So I will give you a copy absolutely free. If you come in and meet with me, I'll give you a signed copy. Bulletproof, the Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. Call us anytime, 866-780-7233, or just go to the website, Ozarksretirement.com. Now, friends, as we continue the show today, I realize I'm going to ruffle some feathers, and that's okay. Sometimes some feathers need to get ruffled. I don't mind mine being ruffled. Come at me. If you want to see whether or not uh it holds merit, just bring it at me, and I will let you know whether or not it's true. We'll let the facts lay everything out. All right. So here's the thing. I'm going to share a name today that a lot of you hold fond and dear in your heart. The name is Dave Ramsey. Good old Dave. Now I'm one that does not throw out the baby with the bathwater, so I will say this. Dave has helped a lot of people get out of debt. He is very, very good with young people, with developing a budget, sticking to the budget, not purchasing and buying things they should never buy, helping you get your homes and your cars paid off. He's really good about that. He's also really not good about a lot of other things. And so in the industry, most people who are in the financial profession either love or hate Dave Ramsey. Well, I don't know that I hate him. I definitely love him as a person created by God. I dislike a lot of the things he does, but today I want to share something with you, and I don't want to burst your bubble. But before we jump into some real life stories, that's why I want you to stay with us. Real life stories about things that have happened to my clients who were my clients when they got invited to someone else's dinner seminar and they went because they just thought they wanted the information about why they needed to trust. What happened to them, we're going to share it today. It's heartbreaking. Stay with us. Before we get into things like that, though, I want to share with you an example about why it's important who you listen to. Because when you hear Dave Ramsey, you think, oh, he's a billionaire now. A billionaire with a B. Surely he knows what he's talking about. Well, you know, sometimes God gives us these gifts in life. And here recently I was on YouTube because I have hundreds of videos on YouTube. Just go to YouTube anytime, type in Brad Pistol, and you'll be able to watch true and accurate information about the kind of things that Dave Ramsey shares, inaccurate information about. And I'll prove it right now. So I was on YouTube doing some stuff, and you know, algorithms pop things up, and this video popped up with Dave Ramsey there. And it was the Dave Ramsey show. And the title of it was, You can go look it up, Should I Convert My Retirement to Roth? That's it. Should I convert my retirement to Roth? Because again, I always say this: check me out. Don't just listen to what I'm saying and think that it's absolute gospel truth. Because I'll tell you, you'll hear same same type of things on this radio station and other stations from people on the radio who will tell you things that aren't true. Just because you hear it doesn't mean it's true. Go check it out. So on this video, should I convert my retirement to Roth? A caller called in. And I'm going to give you some approximates, pretty close. I'm going to give you some quotes. But here's approximately what the person said who called in. He said, The question I have today is one I can't find the answer to in any of your books. Now, before that, he had said, I'm a lifelong follower, I've been listening to you for years. Both my wife and I, we have our house paid off, to which Dave said, that's great. He said, We we've taken all your advice about budgeting and all that. He shares all that. But he says the question, we've bought all your books, we have all your information, we've taken your course, which is exactly what Dave wants. What's his motivation? How did he become a billionaire? Well, all of you listening who follow him and buy his books and participate in his peace university and all these things are a big part of why. And you listen to what he says as the gospel truth. So here's what the person said. The question I have today is one that I can't find the answer to in any of your books. Hmm, imagine that. Because it's really cream puffy stuff for the most part. He said, I went to a class that was taught at a local school, and the teacher was talking about doing Roth conversions. Now, here's this is where we're going to pick back up later in the show today. He went to a class taught at a local school, probably a college campus. It was probably marketed as a not-for-profit organization that 100% has a local financial advisor teaching the course. They won't share his name because it has to be done under the umbrella of a local nonprofit. They happen in Springfield, Missouri all the time. If you're listening in Tim Buck 2, they're going to happen where you're at all the time. This non-for-profit for profit event, because the financial advisor is going to teach for two or three weeks, depending on the way it's set up. They're going to target high net worth homes. That's who's going to get the mailer. They're going to spend$10,000 to$15,000 on these mailers, sending them out and putting this event together and renting the rooms and providing the information so that at the end of the course on the last night he can say, if you ever have any questions about all this, we would be willing to offer you a free consultation. What's the whole point? To get you in, to find your assets, to hope to become your advisor, to sell you annuities and life insurance and get assets under management. Period. That's the bottom line. Of every single dinner seminar, of every single event where someone hosts it, they're not doing it because they're some great human individual, or it may even be free at a library. Same bottom line, they want to make money off you. Same reason that Dave's doing these shows on YouTube. So the person writes in and says, I'm a follower, I've paid off my home because of you, I've got a great budget system because of you, but I can't find this Roth conversion information, you know, more complex, detailed tax information in any of your books. But I went to a class and this person said I should convert part of my 401k to a Roth, and he even discloses, I have about 600,000 in 401ks. This is why I'm gonna pick on Dave Ramsey today, because he exposed himself as a fraud. He did. Listen to what he says. This part is a quote. Dave says to this person, in regard to whether or not he should convert his 401k to a Roth, which he says you probably should, he then says, You can leave it in there growing tax-free. Where if you don't, you've got to begin the required minimum distributions, known as the RMDs, at age 72 and a half, like the person told you. Now, hang on a second. Let's back up. So he's talking about if you leave it inside a 401k, it's gonna grow tax deferred, and then at some point, age whatever the RMD age is, which we'll get to in a minute, you'll have to start taking the required minimum distribution out. But he says if you convert it, you know, you won't have to deal with those RMDs. He talks about that later in the show. But here's the thing you can leave it in their growing tax deferred, where if you don't, you've got to begin the required minimum distributions, the RMDs, at age 72 and a half, like the person told you. Now, I don't know if Dave misheard him from a part of the the call that was edited out, but Dave thinks he heard this person say that the teacher said, I have to start taking these RMDs at 72 and a half, or Dave just randomly pulled that number out. And I will just let you know. Dave repeats that. Later in the show, he says it again and he mentions age 72 and a half again. And I will tell you this there never has been and there never will be an age 72 and a half RMD. It does not exist. For forever and a day, it was 70 and a half. It was the only RMD age we knew. You had to start taking a required minimum distribution from any tax-deferred account at age 70 and a half. Then through Donald Trump and the Secure Act, it changed to age 72. It was age 72 for one year and one year only, because Joe Biden came in and changed it with Secure Act 2.0 to age 73, which is the current required minimum distribution age. And he also, Joe Biden, in Congress and the administration, has already set forth a time in the future for anyone born after January 1st, 1960, their RMD, required minimum distribution age, will be age 75. Now, did you get all that? Now I get it. Poor Dave, he's a billionaire, he owns properties all over the world, he's got classes and YouTube videos and books, and he's got a lot to do. So it's hard for him to keep up with this stuff. But it's kind of important to keep up with this stuff if you're going to give advice to people. So he says twice on this clip, should I convert my retirement to a Roth, that the required beginning age is age 72 and a half. And it's not. It never has been, it never will be. Now you might be thinking, oh Brad, what's the big deal? It's just a half a year. Well, if you think half a year is not a big deal, let me just tell you something you should try to see. Go take distributions from your 401k at age 59. Those of you who are knowledgeable regarding retirement planning know what will happen if you take a distribution at age 59. What's going to happen? Ding ding, Uncle Sam's gonna slap you with a 10% early withdrawal penalty because you took it out before age 59 and a half. Well, is the half year important? You better believe it's important. Uncle Sam will look for the date and the timestamp to know whether or not you took that distribution after the and half. If you don't believe me, just go take some money out of a tax deferred account at fifty nine and find out. Half years matter. Here's another one. If you don't think a half year is important, go try to do a qualified charitable contribution known as a QT QCD at age 70. Because the current legal age to do that's age 70 and a half. And if you take it out and think you took that out tax-free and gave that away to a charity and you won't owe tax on it, wrong ding, ding, ding. Uncle Sam's going to hit you for a fully taxable distribution because you took it out a half year early. So I will just say this, and we're going to talk about it later in the show. Be really careful about listening to these so-called financial gurus who like to kind of dumb things down and do things as a one size fits all. Everyone deserves the exact same advice no matter their situation. And they like to kind of gloss over and act like they know all these retirement rules and distribution age rules because they don't. Because I will tell you, if you do go look up the should I convert my retirement to Roth video with Dave Ramsey, you will find out that later in the show, it's a five-minute segment, he says near the end, but you've got the required minimum distribution beginning at age 72 and a half. So two times in this video, he talks to this person about whether or not they should convert to a Roth, and he tells them, if they don't, they're going to have to start taking required minimum distributions at age 72 and a half, which is a totally, completely fictitious number. It never has been, it never will be. Don't get your Roth conversion, tax planning, financial planning advice from Dave Ramsey. He is a TV and radio personality, not a financial expert. Take it or leave it. I'm just telling you the truth. I'll prove it later in the show. Friends, we want you to be safe and protected. My good friend, America's IRA expert Ed Slot, says there are four freedoms he wants you to experience. And one of the freedoms is freedom from bad advice. And that's what we're focusing in on the show today. If you want some good advice, keep listening to the show. We've been doing this for almost two decades. There has never been one single person take our advice and then later say, you know what, that guy's a fraud. Those people don't know what they're talking about. I'm going to report them, sue them. You won't find it because it's never happened. One of the things you will find people saying is, I wish I would have met you 10 years ago. And people were saying that to me when I've been in business for two or three years, and I would just have to say, well, I wasn't in business 10 years ago. But I am now. And we're grateful to be here serving the Ozarks and you all across the country. We're thankful to have clients in more than 20 states. So just go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on the contact us button. You'll see a lot of our videos there. You can also go to YouTube, just type in Brad Pistol, and you can see interviews that I've had with lots of people all across the country. I would say the greatest retirement experts in the country have been on the show over the years, and we're grateful for it. So call us anytime. We will meet with you free of charge. We'll look at your situation, and guess what? If you're in a good situation, I'll shake your hand and say, you know what? I don't think you need to change anything. You've done a really good job. Your advisor, wherever you were before, wherever you are now, they've done a great job. Keep doing what you're doing. And if they have it, like is often the case when I meet with someone and do a free consultation, I'll review your existing annuity, I'll review your life insurance policy, I'll look at whatever statements you have, and we will say with our team, this either is or is not a great situation for you. Here's where it can be tweaked, it can be changed, it can be improved, or maybe you need to scrap it and stall or start all over together. That's what we will do. 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. There's always someone standing by to take your call. Friends, I've been promising since the beginning of the show that I would use a real life example of what can happen when you go to that free event, that free dinner seminar, that free college campus event. Maybe you heard someone on the television and they sound so smart and so polished, even though they're probably reading off cue cards, just pay attention, they always are. Someone else wrote the information for them. They don't even look at the camera, they're reading it from cards, but they did a great job and they tugged on your heartstrings and they got your attention. And you went in to meet with them because they offered a free consultation and they're telling you you should do XYZ. Well, I want to share with you a story of one of our heroes. Our clients are our heroes. They've worked all their lives, they've broken their backs, they've made sacrifices from their family and the things they want to do to work 40 and 50 hours a week to build their life savings, only to sometimes be taken advantage of at free dinner seminars and free college campus events. Here's an example. These clients, and this is shared with permission, uh, were clients of mine starting back at age 63 and age 60 in 2012. They came to me still working and said, hey, we plan to work long into the future. We're not going to retire at age 65, but we've got some money built up in our 401k. We've heard your radio program, and we want to do something to protect it, to keep it from being at risk. And they knew because they listened to my show that most of the time when you're above the age of 59 and a half, you can do something called an in-service withdrawal or also known as an age 59 and a half withdrawal. I write about this in my best-selling book, Bulletproof, The Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. I wrote a whole chapter about it because it's such an important landmark event in time. You have to check with your HR department or your custodian of the 401k, but just say, hey, I'm above the age of 59 and a half. Do we allow for in-service withdrawals, meaning I'm still in service, I'm not quitting, but I don't really want all the risk and the limited options inside the 401k. There may only be six or eight options. I'd like to roll it over to an IRA and have someone help me maybe put it into a better situation for me for the future. I'm too close to my retirement. That was the case for these uh clients, this couple. So we found out they could do the in-service withdrawal. They told me what their primary purpose was, which was future lifetime income. Neither one of them had a pension. So they knew that when they did retire and their goal was age 70, that the only thing they were going to have was Social Security and whatever was in these 401ks and IRAs. So we rolled over part of their money, not all of it, but part of it, into a fixed indexed annuity with a great company. I own two fixed index annuities with this company. And way back in the glory days of 2012, we put a 7% income writer on that account. We attached it to the fixed index annuity for half of a percent fee, a what they call five tenths of a basis point. One half of one percent. They were paying pennies on the dollar to have this account grow and roll up at 7% guaranteed. Now, that again, this is an income writer, it's income account value, not their cash value. But the beauty is that they put in$158,000 back in 2012. And in 2025, when they were invited to a free dinner seminar about trust planning, their income account value had grown to$443,058.32. Does it sound like I did something good for them? They put in$158,000. They never had any market risk. And yes, the market did go on one of the biggest bull runs of all time during that time period, but their income account value, which was their number one purpose to build our income up so that we could take big distributions off of it in retirement, was now close to half a million dollars in that 12-year period, 13-year period. But here's what happened. They got invited to this seminar. They didn't think twice about contacting me and saying, hey, Brad, should we go? You don't need my permission when you're my client. Go get all the education you want. But they had heard and thought, you know what, we might need a trust, so we're gonna go to this free seminar and get a free dinner and go listen. And when they went, they got offered a free consultation. And when they went to the free consultation, oddly enough, this estate planner and person who was going to build a trust for them asked to see their financial statements. Now they paused a little bit, but they thought, well, that makes sense because as he's explained, we need to take some of your assets and put them into the trust, the trust that we're going to build for you. So they showed him all their assets. And this person saw their annuities, and guess what advice he gave them? He said, you need to remove the income riders from those accounts. Now, with some annuities, you can't remove the income writer, but with some you can. I would say it's probably close to 90%. And friends, I know what I'm talking about. I've structured more than 2,000 annuities during my career, and I'm a certified annuity specialist through the Institute of Business and Finance. I literally have a financial designation regarding the structuring of annuities. About 80 to 90% of the time, companies will allow you to remove the income writer, but here's the thing. Once you remove the income writer, it's gone. You can't add it back. You can't say, hey, take backs, uh change my mind, tag your it. Let's uh remove that letter that I wrote you saying take that off and I want to put it back on and give me back that$443,000. Nope, it's gone. Now they asked the uh financial advisor, who is charading around and acting like an estate planning person who said that they wanted to teach them about trust, but they're really a financial advisor. And they said, Why are you suggesting that we take the income writer off the account? Because our advisor, we we trust him, he knows what he's doing. He put this on there. I think he did it because it's good. And they said, Yeah, but look at this fee you're paying. You've been paying this fee all this time. And when the first person dies, which it's normally the man, we're older and we die first. And in this case, the man is older and he probably will die first. He's currently not healthy, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And so here's the ongoing sad part of the story. He said, When you pass, we want to make sure we leave as much money as we can to your wife, and you're paying a fee for this writer, and if we remove it, that'll stop the fee and she'll inherit more money. That's verbatim what they were told. So they did. They removed it. And then when they came in for their annual review and we looked at their statement, we said, Hey, something's changed on your account. Your income account value, which was this beautiful almost half a million dollars, is now not there. And they kind of looked down and kind of looked a little sheepish and looked at each other and said, Well, we we we hate to tell you something, but we've got to tell you something we think we've made a terrible mistake. And I said, What's going on? Well, we went to this dinner seminar and we thought it was about learning about trust, but then they told us that they wanted us to remove the writer from our annuities, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's back up for a second. And we walked through all of it because I could already I already knew what was gonna happen. And they did. They removed them. And of course, their first question was, can we call the company back and have it put back on? No, I'm sorry, you cannot. Here's the thing about income riders on annuities. You cannot add one once the annuity's been opened, and you can't put one back on once you've taken it off. You have to put the writer on from the beginning, and if you ever choose to remove it, it is gone, it is done. The fat lady is saying, the house is burnt to the ground, the glass has been shattered, you cannot undo it. Cut open a pillow and throw the feathers and the stuffing up into the air, you can't go catch it and gather it back up and put the pillow back together. And so they knew that this was bad news, but they didn't realize how bad. Because you see, the husband in this situation is now 76. As I said, he has terminal cancer. He has to stop working because of it. They were ready to trigger the income rider. I had the notes on what his payout would have been had they left the income writer attached. It was a 6% payout of his value, meaning they could have received a$26,583 payment for the rest of their lives, no matter how long they live. But now that writer has been removed. And if he were to take out that same amount of money and just start taking it as a distribution, that account would be completely out of money in about eight years. Because it's based on cash value. Now they've removed the income account value. Now, here's a question. And those of you who are listening, if you've stayed with me, I'm glad that you have because you probably have six dinner seminars invitations sitting on your kitchen counter right now. Why is it important to think about what you do? Well, because this individual went, from the goodness of his heart, thought we probably need a trust for our children to protect our estate. But it wasn't about that at all. It wasn't about them needing a trust. It was about that advisor finding out where their accounts were. And why did he have them take the rider off? Here's where we're going to get into the weeds a little bit, but you need to know. He had them take the rider off because he knows as a financial professional, not an attorney, he knows that you can't move an annuity to another annuity called a 1035 exchange. If their cash value and their income account value are like$200,000 apart, there's no way it is financially suitable to remove a rider for someone who's paid a fee for 13 years. It's not suitable to advise them to do that. They're not a fiduciary. They're doing something that should be illegal. They should go to jail for it. They literally stripped this couple of their retirement income for life. Why? Because they knew if they took the rider off the account, they could come back in a month later and say, hey, you know what? We found something we we think that would be better for you, and we need to move that account. Because, see, the annuity is 12 or 13 years old now. Now its surrender value is 100%, it's at zero. They can move 100% of it and move it over into whatever they want, manage money, a new annuity, whatever it is they're trying to sell, which is what they were trying to do at this free dinner seminar. And they knew that they could only do that if they remove this income writer. Because if you tried to pitch that to any other type of company, they'll see the income writer value at almost half a million dollars and say, there's no way we can move$250,000 in cash value and have them lose this$200,000 income benefit and it would get rejected. They know that. And they're sharks. They have to have the money from the dinner event that they paid for for everyone that was free, right? But they spent a lot of money on that free dinner for you, and now they've got to sell as much as they possibly can to make sure they first break even, but they hope to make big money off of it. Friends, you will always hear the truth from me on this show. When you go to that free Social Security dinner planning seminar, they're gonna want to find out where all your money's at. When you go to that free dinner seminar about should I convert to a Roth, they're gonna want to find out where all your money's at. When you go to that free event to find out whether or not you need a trust, they're gonna wanna find out where all your retirement accounts are. Because it's about in today's world, everything's an all-in-one shop. Oh, yeah, we're state farm. We specialize in homeowners and car owners, uh, insurance, and all these things, but we're also financial advisors, and we want to talk to you about your 401k and your IRA. It doesn't matter where you go, they do it all. And your Medicare and your estate planning and your trust. That's why so many financial advisors have CPAs and estate planning attorneys in their office, even though if you'll pay attention, they probably only do like one day a week. They're in cahoons with them and they're churning business to each other. You you promote me to your clients, and I'll promote you to my clients, and we'll make it look like you're in my office all the time. And when they come in, I'm not going to just get their financials, you're also gonna do their taxes, and you're also gonna sell them a trust. You see the way it works, friends? That's why I've always stayed away from all of that. We have one primary purpose, and I don't hide that. We want to help you with your financial planning. That is how we get paid. But we're not trying to do and sell every product under the sun. That's why I don't do dinner seminars, haven't and won't. That's why I don't do estate planning events with local attorneys. It's why I don't uh do educational events on college campuses. Back in my early, early, early days, I did those things. And you want to know why I did? I had to. I didn't have enough client base yet. That's how I got in front of people. And I can tell you this if someone's doing those right now, they're doing them because they have to. They don't want to, they don't want to work at nights, they don't want to work on the weekends, but they do it because they don't have any other way to gain clients. They've got to coerce you by offering you free food, something, some free gift, something fancy. Come to this, listen, but there's a twist. We want you to come in for a free consultation so we can advise you to take a$250,000 income writer off your account that you've been paying for for 12 to 13 years and remove your guaranteed lifetime income from you so we can hopefully gain that access to that account on down the road. And we don't care if we screw your family over while we're doing it. That's exactly what happened to these clients. Friends, if you stayed with us for this long, we've only got a few minutes left. I want to give you our information so you can contact us. 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. You can also go to our website at Ozarksretirement.com. You'll be able to see the kind of people we do business with. You'll be able to read our referrals, you'll hear and see what clients say about us. You'll see the type of people that we've interviewed on YouTube. Just go to YouTube and type in Brad Pistol. You'll see what it's like to work with a certified financial fiduciary who always has your best interest at heart. Friends, if something's good for you, I'll tell you, yeah, that's good for you. And if it's not, it w I won't. I will say, you don't need to do that. You need to not touch that with a 10-foot pole. When we come back, I'm going to share one more story with you about something that happened to another client that called us. But unfortunately, just like in this story, this client lost their income writer. They can't put it back on. They didn't move forward with that advisor, thankfully. They still have their assets with us, but now I can't wave a magic wand and put the income writer back on. Now this family will struggle for their income for the rest of their life. Why? They took the guarantee out of the guaranteed product, and that is a heartbreaking thing. So be very, very careful. How much is that free event going to cost you on down the road? In this case, it cost this client$26,583 a year for the rest of their life in guaranteed lifetime income. Do you think that free Golden Corral was worth it? Friends, I don't. Go to ozartsretirement.com and click on contact us. We will gladly meet you, find out where you're at, and help you to the best of our ability. Friends, as we wrap up the show today, I want to um give you another warning. Be careful. Be careful of the Dave Ramsey's out there. He's great with budgeting. He'll help you get out of debt, but he'll also tell you that your required minimum distribution starts at age 72 and a half. If you don't believe me, just go to YouTube and type in should I convert my retirement to Roth and listen to him tell a client that two times. Your required minimum distribution starts at age 72 and a half. It does not, it never has, it never will. RMD ages have been 70 and a half. It's been age 72 for one year. It's been age 73 currently, and it will be age 75 for anyone born after January 1st, 1960, and beyond. If you go to free dinner events, if you go listen to the information, I hope that you're not like 65% of most people in this world. It's estimated that 65% of people respond to negative marketing that says the glass is half empty, that says the sky is falling, the world's about to end, the dollar's about to crash, you better own gold. What happens when your dollar's not worth anything? And people rush out and they buy these things that they don't know how to do anything with. I can't tell you how many times people have called me and said, I bought gold for$20,000, and now it's Toward 40, and I'm like, fantastic. Great move. Why'd you do that? Well, Sean Hannity told me to. Great. Or whoever it was told me to. Great. Fantastic. And how are you going to use that gold in your retirement? And they give me this starry glass look in their eye, like, what do you mean? Well, I mean, like when you go down to Walmart and you're going to pay for your groceries, you're going to pull that beautiful gold out and use it. Do they take gold bars down there? Are you going to pull your pocket knife out and shave part of it off and give them some dust to pay for your bread and your eggs and your milk? I'm just, I'm just trying to like visualize how are you going to make that benefit you in your retirement. You see, we do a lot of things based on the advice of a lot of famous people, the financial gurus, the Dave Ramseys, the Susie Ormonds who says, and I quote, never, ever buy an annuity. They're terrible. She goes on and on and on about why you should never, ever, ever buy an annuity. Under no circumstances should anyone ever buy an annuity. Now she's retracked back and said, because she's gotten a lot of heat for that, and said, well, maybe the fixed kind, the ones that are CD-like. Oh, so income riders don't matter. Guaranteed lifetime pensions don't matter. Uh having a doubler on an account, a rider that will do what we call impairment doubling if you can't perform two out of six ADLs, activities of daily living like walking, eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, mental continence, those kind of things aren't important. Long-term care benefits aren't important. Um she does not know what she's talking about. If so, she would say, hey, annuities are terrible. You should never own one. Take the pension your company offered you and give it back to them. Because guess what? It's an annuity. Hey, you know that social security payment you and your wife get? Take it back. You don't want that. It's an annuity. Don't ever own one. No, she just means I'm in cahoons with all the people who sponsor my shows and my events, and they're not insurance-based, protection-based people. They want your money and assets under management and that sort of thing. So don't ever buy any of these products. That's what she really means, but can't say online. Friends, one last story from someone who went to a dinner event. Now, this person did not become our client. They just came in for a free review, which you can do anytime you want. You can call us and say, hey, I've bought an annuity, I've been to one of these events, I've I've bought a life insurance policy. I have my accounts at wherever. And I just want to see whether or not I'm doing what I should do. These clients did that. They came in, they showed me their accounts, and I looked at them and said, Oh, American Equity, bonus gold. I know that product. Well, I've owned it. My father owned it. I wrote it for a lot of people. This is a great company, a great product. Now let's find out whether or not this product is right for you. Because that's what's important. It's not a one size fits all. It's not an everyone should or everyone should not. Never, ever, always. You got to be careful with statements like that. And so I looked at it and I found out that this person had put a lot of money into it. Almost a million dollars, half a million into each. One was what's called a non-qualified NQ cash account. They just stuck cash into it out of the bank. One, they rolled over a 401k into an IRA. And I looked at it and I said, Well, this is very interesting. I'm glad you brought this into review. The bonus gold offer a uh income writer that you could attach to the account. And I noticed that one of these accounts has an income writer and one doesn't. Do you know why one does and one doesn't? And he goes, Well, that's just the way this person uh set it up. And I said, So you went to the dinner seminar, he met with you, offered a free consultation, you went in, he found out where your money is, he suggested this company, this product, and then he put you into these, and one has an income writer and one doesn't. Is that correct? Yes. I said, Well, I've got good news and bad news. He said, Okay. I said, good news is great company, great product back in the day. It's not now. They don't even write it anymore, but it was back in the day. I said, but here's the thing he put the income writer on the wrong account. He put an income writer on your cash account and he put he left an income writer off the required minimum distribution account, the IRA account. He goes, Well, what do you mean? I go, Well, you told me earlier in the meeting the purpose for the cash account was you don't need that for income ever, right? Correct. Your purpose was what? To leave that to my kids and grandkids. I said, okay. Well, he put an income writer on the account that you plan to never use. And he's, you know, got a fee on that. And so you've been paying a fee for something you're never going to use. You're never going to trigger it and you're never going to turn it on. The whole purpose is to pass that money on to your heirs, and here's the bad news. That income writer is for income only to the owner of the account. All that value it shows on your income account value, it does not pass on to your heirs. Only your cash value does. It's not a death benefit. So in other words, you're paying a fee for something you're never going to use. And here's the flip side: bad news. He didn't put an income writer on your IRA. And when you hit, at the time I met with them, age 70 and a half, you're going to have to take required minimum distributions. He said, Yes, I know we're we're already taking them. I said, yes. Well, at some point, that percentage of the amount of money that you're going to have to take out of that account, it's going to exceed what your payment would be for the income writer value. And long story short, there's a way to sweet spot it and trigger income and make sure that you never run that account down to zero, which is what Uncle Sam wants you to do. He wants you to run that account all the way down to nothing. He wants his tax money. But even if you did live long enough to draw all the money out because of the required minimum distribution, if you triggered the income writer that should have been put on the account, then you could have received a payment off this account for the rest of your life and you could have passed it on to your spouse after you died. But he didn't put an income writer on that account, the one that you're forced to take distributions from. And that's because the person who hosted the seminar was a salesman and not a financial professional, not an expert, not a certified financial fiduciary, not a retirement income certified professional or a tax planning certified professional. And I can guarantee you, because I know that less than 1% of all people who want to sell you an annuity, and they all want to sell you an annuity, trust me, less than 1% are certified annuity specialists. Friends, we covered a lot of information on the show today. Sometimes it's going to be upbeat and positive and happy, and it's going to be let's go attack the world. And sometimes it's going to be you better protect yourself. Have you ever seen more scams than you see right now in our country? Every place you check out, anywhere in the world, wants you to round up. Round up for what? Where's that money going? It's going to billions and billions and billions of dollars that can't be verified. And they're taking the money and doing whatever they want to, but they'll tell you it's for charity. You gotta watch your back everywhere you go. How many spam emails do you get every day asking you to verify your password, asking you to do whatever? They just want access to your Amazon account or your credit card account or your bank account. Or they may even have you come to a free dinner seminar so they can get access to all of your retirement money. Do they know what they're doing? Are they true financial experts? Friends, I ask you again, how much do those free dinner seminars and events cost you? Do your homework. We live in a yo-yo economy. That means you're on your own. Make sure you're working with qualified financial professionals. If they don't have designations behind their name, do your research and find some who do. Make sure they're educated and receive ongoing education to help you and to give you the advice that they're giving you. Twenty years almost on Safe Money Radio, more than 800 episodes. We're here to serve you. Just go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on the contact us button, or call us anytime at 866-780-7233. Ask for a free financial consultation when we get together. I'll give you your planning guidebook. Bulletproof, the safe and secure retirement income plan that will keep things like this from ever happening to you. Well, I'm about out of time, and I would like to thank you for listening to Safe Money Radio. If you're serious about your financial future, give me a call, and together, we'll get your retirement savings on the fast track to accumulation while reducing exposure to market losses. Thanks for listening, and until next time at the same time, I'm Brad Pistol, reminding you to stay safe so you can step into a secure future.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

You've been listening to Safe Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Find out how to contractually guarantee that your hard-earned money is safe while avoiding market loss so you can have the retirement that you deserve. Call Brad Pistol now for your complimentary safe money book and safe money information kit at 866-780. That's 866-780-7233.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

Stafe Money Radio!

SPEAKER_01 49:01

The preceding information does not represent tax, legal, or investment advice. Surrender charges apply to base contracts. Optional lifetime income benefit writers are used to calculate lifetime payments only and are not available for cash surrender or in a death benefit unless specified in the annuity contract. Fees may apply. Guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the insurance company. No information presented today should be acted upon without meeting with a qualified and licensed professional. Obviously, by calling us now, you are just taking the first step towards protecting your retirement. It's important that you read all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a purchase decision. Rates and returns mentioned on this program are subject to change without notice.