Variable Annuities - and Fees

Because your fees are ridiculous. And so he didn't realize that. And I'm like, well, why did you even buy this variable annuity? Why did you want it? Hey, John Stevenson here, the Guaranteed Retirement Guy. Let's talk about variable annuities and their fees. So variable annuities, they're notorious for high fees. Oh, and market risk, lots and lots of market risk. Although there are some that will give you like a guaranteed floor. I met a guy who was getting like guaranteed 6%, which that's, you know, that's good. You know, the funny thing was his fees were 6.3. Yeah. 6.3%. He had no idea. And he's like, John, why am I not making any money? I'm like, well, it's because your fees are ridiculous. And so he didn't realize that. And I'm like, well, why did you even buy this variable annuity? Why did you want it? He said, well, the guy that sold it to me said it was going to make all this money. You have all these sub accounts and it's in the stock market. And I'm thinking to myself, if you want growth, why are you in a variable annuity? Just put it in the stock market. You can put it in an index fund and make a lot more, in my opinion, and not be charged the fees. I mean, buy straight stock and bonds, you know, or even a mutual fund. Some mutual funds only charge like half a percent or even less. That's my opinion. If you are looking for growth, just go to the stock market. But anyway, so variable annuities, they do provide some guarantees. There are some that will give you a higher floor than an index annuity, higher than zero, right? But then again, even with an index annuity, there are some fixed accounts that you can get a higher floor as well. I just looked at one with a guy yesterday and it was like 4%. That's pretty good floor, my opinion. So he wanted income though. And we looked at his guaranteed income that he would get from this variable annuity, which a lot of them will have some sort of income benefit where if you activate it, it'll give you a guarantee. But it was way less. It was like double. It was ridiculous. And of course the fees, the income rider fee wasn't 6%. It was 1%, way different. And so when you look at that, I think he had like $1.3 million. And so the fees on him, even 1%, you know, it's substantial. I'd probably pay $150,000 in fees for fixed index annuity with an income rider. But the difference is, is he's making a, like another six, $700,000 in guaranteed income for the rest of his life. So it's just like, all right, well, $150,000 in fees for another $700,000 in income, is that worth it? I think yes. If you're looking for income, yeah, absolutely. It's worth it. Okay. A lot of these index annuities, they'll pay whatever the index pays. And then sometimes if you've got an income rider, you get like seven to 9% guaranteed growth for income, right? That's that's crazy. But yeah, they do provide that. So if you want to book a call, there's a link below this, this video and it goes straight to my calendar. And we'll chat about your unique situation. Okay. I'm not going to try to sell you anything. I'll just show you everything that's available and then you can decide for yourself what you want. Okay. So I'm not going to try to sell you anything, but I will be there. I will be in your corner. I'm not going to, I'm not, I'm not going to be unavailable after the sale. I will be available even after I get the commission. I know, I know a lot of advisors aren't. I will be. Look at this tree here. It's a, I don't know, it's just rotten. It's all broken down here. This is about 45 minutes South of Lake Tahoe. So it's a place I like to take my kids, my family. We've gone camping over here. There's a silver Creek right behind me. There's a, uh, it's a cabin. The Nelson cabins way, way back there. I really got the mining claim over there. So it'd make a lot of money mining. It's risky though, because you might not find anything with an annuity though, it's guaranteed. If you want guarantees as part of your portfolio, you should book a call. Just my opinion. Um, anyways, I appreciate you watching like share, subscribe, and we'll see you in the next video. Hey, thanks for watching my video today. So if you've got a question for me, please comment below because you know what? Annuities can be hard to understand sometimes. So I'm happy to help. Happy to answer your questions and the community loves to hear from you. Talk to you soon.