The reality is that people are living longer, and, therefore, there’s more pressure on consumers to invest in ways that will ensure they can live comfortably until the end. As an agent, you have the job of explaining the different options to customers, helping them realize that their retirement plans might have been intended to last from their sixties to their eighties, but they could live to be 100 or more. Help them understand that it’s not enough to count on a pension payment each month (even if they will retire from a union or public agency). Educate consumers on annuity specs so they will protect their futures.
Get the Facts on Annuity Specs
We understand that agents can represent annuities from different companies, but consumers need that same level of education. They want to read clear product specifications and features before they choose an annuity. You can help them to make comparisons between fixed annuities and indexed annuities with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits. Fortunately, there’s a service that will generate reports and appropriately benchmark the annuities that are currently available on the market, which will significantly reduce the time that agents like you spend on rate committee preparation. If you’re looking for a resource that can provide the most advanced search engine in the annuity market and side-by-side product comparisons, we can help. This annuity product management system delivers product and rate information to the clients on your annuity distribution list or via your own web portal. And, the best part is that it is easy to use for you and for your clients.
Facing the Facts
Many workers will add retirement benefits from multiple employers over their lifetime, and this may include a combination of public-sector and private-sector employment. These workers are ripe for selling annuities because they want to have enough to retire on. According to Forbes’ Northwestern MutualVoice, “A Towers Watson study found that from 1998 to 2013, the number of Fortune 500 companies offering traditional defined-benefit plans (such as pensions) dropped 86 percent, from 251 to 34. One significant factor: cost.”This is where people become responsible for beefing up their retirements.
Who Needs Your Information
Think of the Florida teacher whose average wages in 2015-2016, according to the estimates of the National Education Association, were $49,199. This salary is the third highest in the Southeast, but lower than those of the top three most populous states: New York, Texas, and California. As a professional working in the country’s fourth most populous state, she could work into her sixties or beyond. Her state retirement plan offers a choice between a fixed pension payment based on the last five years of earnings or the state’s contributions on her behalf into a private mutual fund portfolio. It’s likely that the fixed pension benefit payment won’t meet her needs. If she chooses the mutual fund option, she might not have contributed enough over time to the point that it would cover all of her living costs in the golden years. She is a perfect candidate for logging into your website and making comparisons between fixed and indexed annuities. She knows that she must save more, but your system can help her decide how to do it.
If teachers and other workers in every sector with lower wages are smart, they will take action now. Help your consumers invest more now instead of waiting until their fifties or sixties. Their best bet is to contribute even more than IRS regulations allow and deal with the federal taxes. If you choose an annuity product management system that highlights the features of all your products, regardless of the brand of each, you can help this teacher make her comparisons more quickly and with greater confidence. You could sit with her face to face or assist her over the phone. In the end, your clients will be happier if they can make annuity specs comparisons and have more for retirement than their existing mutual fund or pension projected monthly benefit.