Retirement Income Planners are constantly searching the landscape of conservative investments for their clients. The emerging choice is the Fixed Index Annuity. As reported by The InsuranceNewsNet, the “third quarter’s indexed annuity sales climbed to $8.6 billion – their second consecutive 8-year record – and hit a record-high 44% of fixed annuity sales.” And [...]
Warren Buffet – “If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.” by Rob Brinkman
I’ve been working with the below chart for several projects. It shows historical returns of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1900 to 2009. I started in the business in 1986, so I benefited from growing up during a raging bull market…an advance of 1,214% according to the chart. Not even I could screw that [...]
Warren Buffet –“ Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken” by Rob Brinkman
The Investment Company Institute’s most recent data showed that “ The U.S. Retirement Market” shrank for the second year in a row, down to $15.9 trillion. This shouldn’t be shocking given the erosion of the equity markets. I did find something interesting in the single largest component of the Retirement Market – IRA’s, which holds [...]
Fixed annuity product changes by Rob Brinkman
It seems every week insurance companies are making significant changes to their fixed and fixed index annuity products. Low interest rates have caused actuaries to have many a sleepless night, only to wake up grumpy and take their frustration out on the product development team. It certainly makes it a challenge for an advisor who [...]
Annuities in the Investment Pyramid
The article below by Bill Broich not only speaks to how investors look at the world today, but also that the advisor community needs to ‘sync’ up… The idea of an investment pyramid is based on building the foundation (the bottom) the middle (some risk but higher reward) and the top (high risk and high [...]
Upside-down pyramid by Rob Brinkman
I spend a lot of time studying our industry, in particular the top performers in how and what they did to become successful. While reading about guaranteed investment offerings this weekend I was reminded about the perspective one of the country’s top advisors shared with me back in the late ’80′s. He was (and still [...]
When the worm turns by Rob Brinkman
We had our monthly Ron Carson training call last week and as usually a burned through a page taking notes. One thing in particular jumped out at me. Ron said that the average Carson Wealth Management client receives a minimum of 100 touches per year and it’s not all statement notifications either. As I listened [...]
Pockets of Money by Rob Brinkman
I heard a presentation today that I really liked. It was given by a bank rep to local customers. She helped the investors designate their money in short term and long term, and understand the power of tax-deferral. The first ‘pocket’ of money she discussed were funds in the checking account. She would ask, “Is [...]
Gordon Gekko, really? by Rob Brinkman
I was driving with a friend of mine the other day to a weekend get together. I asked for some insight into the hostess, who turned out to be a financial advisor for a well know firm. “When you meet her, you’ll never guess that’s what she does.” commented my friend. “Why’s that?” I inquired. [...]
The CD buyer reborn by Robert Brinkman
I remember when I started in the business back in 1986, investors were receiving between 8-12% on their CD‘s depending on the duration. I was the ripe age of 23, armed with my American Funds ICA mountain chart and Louie the Loser brochure, trying to convince someone thirty years my senior that they would be [...]
