The Most Important Question!

In general, you cannot purchase an annuity without the involvement of an insurance agent. Insurance agents make their living by selling insurance products for a commission.

Every sale that is compensated by a commission has an inherent conflict of interest. So, the natural question is, “Can you trust the advice of a salesperson to be in your best interest as a consumer?” Sadly, following my two decades in the financial services world, I would have to say your odds of getting advice in your best interest are quite slim.

The more informed you are, the better your chances are of ending up with the right investment product. I know this article will make a lot of annuity agents angry with me. I don’t mean to say that all annuity agents are evil. They are not all evil, even if some of them are. There are many extremely ethical and honest annuity agents in the industry that do an excellent job for their customers.

But my question still stands. With an inherent conflict of interest, will the advice you receive be in your best interest? That is, will the insurance agent act as a fiduciary when advising you on whether or not to purchase an annuity and if so which one? This is why your education is critical.

An annuity agent is not a fiduciary to his customers and is not held to a fiduciary standard by the insurance department of his State and, at present any way, even if he is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER practitioner, he is not held to a fiduciary standard by the CFP Board of Standards when engaging in a sales process as opposed to a financial planning process.

Insurance salesmen are held to a suitability standard, not a fiduciary standard. If you want to be sure the recommendation is in your best interest, cough up a few bucks to a Fee-Only Financial Advisor to evaluate the situation for you before you make any purchase.

To find a Fee-Only fiduciary advisor, go to www.napfa.org, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA). All NAPFA Registered Advisors are required to annually sign a fiduciary oath. They have no compensation from product that is sold, that is, no commissions to be a conflict of interest. Be sure to ask if the Advisor has the expertise to evaluate an annuity. Not all do since many of them have not come through the insurance business.

Again, I know annuity agents will deeply dislike this article because even if their advice is good and proper, it will slow down their sale and their pay day. I understand, but I am not writing this to support annuity agents, I am writing to protect the general public through greater understanding and through knowledge of how to act rather than being acted upon. My intent is to put you, their customer, in control of the process instead of the sales person.

The Most Important Question

Before taking any action, you should ask yourself one simple question and be sure you have a logical and complete answer to it, “Why are you considering the purchase of an annuity?” or, in another form, “What are you trying to accomplish with this money?” If you don’t take the time to precisely answer this question, then you are leaving yourself open to “suggestion” by some annuity sales person’s presentation.

A good sales agent will introduce all sorts of bells and whistles and convince you that you can’t live without them. Truth be told, all the bells and whistles may have little, if anything, to do with the true reason you would be considering the purchase of an annuity…if you stopped and took the time to carefully think about it. This is the most important question! As a general rule, you waste money when you buy bells and whistles. When it comes to saving and investing, wasting money is the last thing you want to do.

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