Best of the Best

I am frequently asked which Annuities I sell.  I do have some favorites, but I do my best to shop the entire market to find the most competitive product to suit each individual planning situation.  Consistently, however, a few companies stand out with high quality products that offer the most Safety, Flexibility, and Profitability- the guidelines we live by and break down in detail in The Annuity Report.

I’ll highlight those companies in a minute, but first, let’s recap the guidelines.

	Surrender Schedules
	Interest Rates
		Guaranteed
		Current Yield
		Yield to Surrender
		Renewal Rate History
	Free Withdrawals
	Bonus Rates
	Issuing Company Credit Rating

In short, these companies offer the best blend of Safety, Flexibility, and Appreciation for your own situation.

Now, no one company or product is a fit for everyone.  That’s why I struggle recommending anything in particular until we understand your situation entirely, and you know just what you are looking for.  That’s why selecting annuities is hard- there is no single right answer for everyone.

But with good guiding principles and a good sense of what you want (and equally important, what you don’t want!) you can make a good decision.

Many online sites simply list the highest rates that are offered on the market without giving a lot of thought to the underlying characteristics of the particular companies.  In the world of annuities, safety is the ultimate goal and that objective can be met without giving up the slightly higher returns offered by the industry’s weaker players.

As with most things, be wary of the flashy lights and the glitter of gold!

In selecting these companies, we have deliberately excluded any company who will benefit from the government intervention in the financial industry.  Our reasoning is that those who accept capital injections from the Fed needed it because of poor risk management policies in the past and will be constrained by stiffer regulations in the future.

We knowingly choose companies who have stayed true to their core conservative investment principles.  Those companies have seen continued growth and maintain an enviable level of stability in spite of the financial crisis.

So, the following is a list of the type of businesses we feel are worthy recipients and trustworthy stewards of your precious retirement investment dollars, and our view of WHY these are good companies to work with:

Guardian Life Insurance Company

• Has paid a dividend to policy holders every single year since 1868
• Posted a record dividend in 2008 and was awarded a credit rating upgrade
• Currently maintains a 3% minimum guarantee on annuity contracts while many companies are reducing that rate to 2% or lower
• Extremely reasonably surrender schedule of seven years that starts at a 6% charge and decreases from there
• Free withdrawal provision that allows for 10% without penalty and 20% if no withdrawal was taken in the previous year
• Death benefit attached to each policy that increases proceeds distributed to beneficiaries that exceeds principle and interest up to a predetermined level

***Similar companies to Guardian in the mutual insurance category would be Northwestern Mutual, Mass Mutual and New York Life

Jackson National Life

• One of the largest issuers of annuity contracts
• Maintain extremely competitive rates across a wide variety of products
• Many products that offer 15% free withdrawals that provide additional liquidity to certain investors
• Excellent record of success over their 73 years history and a very stable financial position with cash reserves that are nine times higher than regulatory requirements dictate

***Similar companies to Jackson National in the stock insurance category would be American National and Integrity Life.

A conservative and calculated investment strategy is my main focus.  With that in mind, I offer only companies with outstanding records.  I also put this entire website up to illustrate in detail HOW I chose a product or company, so you can VERIFY what I, or anyone you work with, is telling you.  This is YOUR money, so it is critical that you fully understand not only my bias, but also my values.

Also, we have a long list of companies that we choose to stay away from at this point in time, often for the same reasons we like the ones listed.  Since we are not here to denigrate any business, we will not publish that list on the site but we’d be happy to make any recommendations and share those concerns with potential clients.