interest rates or inflation was at you know eight or nine%. So if in if if inflation stayed at 8 or 9% and you got a 6% fixed rate, it may not, you know, it may not have been such a great deal over time. And now let’s take a and we don’t know where interest rates are going to go in this case. I think ultimately anonymous I don’t think this is necessarily a bad annuity. The thing is is who knows what the next 10 years are going to bring. If you locked it up for 10 years in 2019, you would have been making about 3 4% and you would have been really bumming today. So that’s why I say don’t lock it up. Usually I say don’t lock it up for more than 7 years because if you locked it up for 7 years, you get s you got 6% for 10 years. Well, and again I’m speculating cuz I don’t know what annuity you got, but if you got a 7-year annuity, you probably would have gotten in the range a couple years ago of five and a half, five and three/4er. So for that extra half or quarter percent, you’re getting three years back on your, you know, god forbid if if rates didn’t go, you know, if rates didn’t go down and they went up, well then, you know, you wouldn’t have been tied up for and you’re only giving up a little bit of your interest. So that’s why it’s riskreward. So, in this case, if you want me to take a look specifically at your the terms, I’m happy to, but um but I mean 6% isn’t that bad. I just don’t I don’t recommend putting it out for 10 years. Um cuz I can I can usually if you give yourself 10 years, there are other ways where you can make more money without, you know, cuz then you have time you have time to make up for it. So, there are other ways to protect your money. Um, but that being said, I’m not saying you got a bad annuity. I’m just saying for me, my usual guidance is I usually don’t like annuities that are more than 7 years. That’s why because I don’t want to lock my money up for too long because in a way it’s too much risk from a time standpoint. That’s why. All right. Hopefully I answered your question, anonymous. Uh, the next question is okay. Um, could you explain more about uh Joe asks could you explain more on the differences between structured annuities and indexed annuities? Okay, indexed annuities, there’s no risk to your principal. The risk is to your interest, not to your principal. The interest is based on what the index does. If it’s the S&P 500, the S&P 500 goes up. you get whatever the index gets up to a certain point. Typically, it’s called the cap rate. Okay? If the market goes up beyond that, well, then you’re not going to get more than that because they’re taking the risk. Now, if the market goes down, you don’t earn any interest that year, but you also don’t lose any of your principal or any of your, you know, any of your earlier interest. your your once it locks in your account can go up. It’ll never go down. It’ll never go down below the amount that it’s at. That’s an indexed annuity. A buffered annuity is essentially you’re getting you’re taking a little bit more risk, but you’re getting a higher ceiling. So, the cap rates are usually higher. Uh sometimes there are no cap rates. You can get whatever the market goes on the upside, but you have some sort of protection on the downside. Now, okay. Well, wait a second. They’re going to give me downside protection, but they’re not charging me a fee. How do they do that? Well, you’re locking up your money for a certain amount of time. So they know that they have enough time to make up for it and they they figure out what their risk is going to be. So they’re going to they manage that risk for you and they know that over time the risk is the more time you give it to them, the less risk there’s going to be for them. And that’s essentially what they do is they’re managing the risk so that you can make a more you know you can make more money but then they can also min minimize their risk as well and they they’re they’re making money. So you know any relationship’s got to be win-win and certainly insurance companies got it dialed in that they’re going to they’re going to work out where usually they don’t lose. It’s our job to make sure that you know you win and you have someone who’s representing you. All right, so hopefully that answered your question, Joe. Um, all right. Uh, Mary asks, um, what about um, what about if I can I get an annuity with me and my spouse? Uh, absolutely. And you can do it where you can do an annuity with just yourself. You can also do it with you and your spouse. You can get one for each of you. It doesn’t matter. You could set it up any way you want. Typically, what’s going to happen is when you if you get it with income, well, then what’ll happen is it’ll go between both of your lifetimes. So, um you know, you it depends on what your situation is. If if your beneficial, you know, if your if your spouse is more than 10 years older than you, I would say for the most part, you know, it get it on get it on whoever’s life is going to pay you more income typically. You know, that’s usually what I would say. Uh that being said, you know, it depends on your personal, but yes, can you get it jointly held? Absolutely you can. So, alrighty. Uh, I don’t see any more questions here. Um, but I’m going to stick on for a few minutes longer if uh if anybody does have questions. Um, I realize that I’m at the hour mark. So, I usually try and cut these to an hour and and and value your time. So, I’d let you get back to whatever you’re doing this evening. Um, guys, I thank you for your uh I thank you for your time. Uh, and hopefully you got some information that you can take action on. So, with that, um, I’m going to be on I’m going to be, uh, I’m going to be on for a few more minutes to see if there are any straggler questions. Come on. I’ll also open it up if anybody wants to say hello. I’ll open it up for that as well. So, other than that though, have a good night everybody. Thank you for Thank you for joining us.
Okay, let’s see. I’m going to let Oh, if you guys do if you do want to say hello, just um you’re very welcome, Mary Ellen. Uh good to see you. All right. Uh let’s see. And if you do want to say hello, you can basically just hit there’s a there’s a there’s a little menu at the bottom of your screen in the lower leftand corner. There’s a little microphone. You can hit the microphone and it will uh it’ll allow you to talk.
You’re very welcome, Brandon.
Yep, I do see it. Kimberly, I I’ll follow up with you and I’ll uh I’ll make an appointment with you.
By the way, I didn’t say hello to you earlier. Eveina,
hello. Welcome. Uh, Aura, welcome. R, good to see you again. You’re a regular here. Um, Sue, welcome.
Anyone else I missed? Welcome. Okay, I didn’t see that. Hey, Sue. Hey. So, yeah, I got distracted. Yeah, I don’t know when I I know I need to talk about um I uh I actually just had a my quarterly thing with my financial advisor and asking what to do about you know uh the person previous to her um who is my person sold me this variable annuity and I and you know anyway it’s I’m not thrilled um and uh we talked about it yesterday and So, I guess I would I’m still not even sure. It’s a a deferred variable annuity anyway. And I I’m well past the period of time that I have to keep it, you know, but um it’s just annoying because I I remember reading through this uh multi-page document trying to figure it out, you know, and I’m I’m college educated, so I understand things, but it was so comp it was so complicated, so complex. I you you need a you need an actuarial degree and a law degree to a lot of times read those contracts. Yeah. Well, I I’m a I’m very good at what I do. I’m a musician. Okay. Well, hey, and I’m but you know, that was like So, yeah. And it’s not exactly uh the most exciting reading in the world. So, thankfully I you know, I do it all the time. So, I translate uh lawyer and actuarial stuff. So, yeah, if you ever want me to take a look, the real one page you everything you need to know about that annuity is typically on one page. Oh, on the front. You mean my statement because I have that, you know. No, it’s the contract page. But from your statement, I could probably get a lot of the information. But if you have a copy of the contract that they originally sent you, there’s a there’s a contract page that’ll give you all the details of your, you know, the surrender schedule, which you said you’re already beyond the SK surrender schedule. Um, the thing you really want to know with a variable annuity is you want to know what the fees are. Yeah, I know the fees are horrible. I’ve looked that up before. And so when you’re doing, I’m going, “Yeah, I got everything. I’ve got the worst possible thing because I know I’ve got tons of fees. Um Okay. And so, you know, that’s the kicker. Um now, what did the what did the new You just met with your advisor yesterday. What did they say about it? Oh, she said, ‘Well, if I don’t need the money right now, um, I’m living off social security and my $1,200 a month from United Airlines from my husband. Um, you know, after the bankruptcy, things didn’t go well. You getting any money. Um, but, you know, my house is paid off. You know, I don’t I pay off all my, you know, I don’t owe anybody anything. Um, so she said, “Well, if you don’t really need the money, you know,” she said, “Leave it in.” She says otherwise if you want you can roll it over into something else. That’s what she said. But she said for now um you know but I am I am curious as to what it really you know she said well there’s so many different products. See she inherited this from Bonnie my the one who the lady who sold it to me who I trusted. We played on a volleyball team for many years together. So, you know, um I didn’t and she knew my kids and anyway, but then I go, “Okay, yeah, she was making money off me on that thing.” Um, so I It’s necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s Listen, nobody works for free, but there’s got to be value. like you got to get something out of it beyond like and and you got to know what you’re getting and know that you’re getting value for what you’re giving up. So, you know, I’m not opposed to fees per se, but they got to be reasonable, one, and two, they got to be able to get you something of value to make sure that you’re getting, you know, cuz otherwise any relationship if if if if I win and you don’t, well, then that’s not, you know, that’s not going to be a relationship that you’re happy with. Yeah. You know, and that’s that’s the thing. any relationship whether it be advisor, client or friends, you know, friendship or family or, you know, whatever, romantic, anything. Whenever you have a relationship, it’s got to be mutually beneficial for both people. Otherwise, it’s not going to work. So, with that, um, yeah, if you ever want to Where are you located? Are you in California? I’m Yeah, I’m in Union City. I’m, you know, okay. Yeah, I’m in I’m just north of the airport. Yeah. Oh, you’re you’re what? I’m local. I’m uh I’m in I’m in San Francisco. So, my airport? You’re technically San Bruno or somewhere else. I am. I’m in South San Francisco. I’m in Oyster Point. Oh, okay. No, that’s because my husband worked there for years. So, I Yeah. Anyway, and we spent many of time like flying Well, not flying, driving there in the middle of the night, as the kids would say, to get on a space available flight. Anyway, yeah, I hear you. Um, so yeah. So, um, being said, if you ever want me to come, I mean, I go down to I go to the East Bay all the time. In fact, uh, ne, uh, next week I got to be in, uh, late next week I got to be down in Castro Valley. So, I go over there all the time, you know. So, if you ever want, you know, if you want to come to me, you’re happy to come to my office. If you want to do Zoom, we can do Zoom. If you want me to come to you, I’m happy to come to you, too. Okay. All right. I got to dig that up. I mean, I know. I read it and I go, I don’t know where it is right now. And um I had some pretty serious spine surgery a year and a half ago. They u I’m 513. Okay. Uh and they I had um with severe scolios, they they basically attached from the nape of my neck all the way down neck all the way down to the tailbone. Um, and so and it’s not that that’s been an issue, but somehow it kicked off arthritis and did all this other stuff and I can’t get my Yeah, usually that’s what happens with things like that. Yeah. Well, yeah. I can’t, you know, I’m working on my quads, but apparently when you’re long and lengthy or long and lengthy, then you know that’s you don’t do as well at that. So, me getting around, I mean, I’m not even driving. I don’t know if I’ll be able to drive again. So, it would have to be you coming to me. I’m telling you. Okay. Yeah, I’m happy to do that. um or or Zoom. And I got to find I’m telling you, I got to find that contracted. And like I say, I’ve got to I have somebody coming in a couple times a week because I cannot reach down. I can’t get things. Um and I think I know what box it’s in. I could, you know, dig it out and you know, but um anyway, um yeah, and it may not happen in the next month because theoretically I’m my kids are dragging me off to Santa Cruz. I don’t know how that’s going to work. Um but how old are your kids? Oh, well, kids. Um, let’s see. 44 and 41. So, you know, with the grand I’ll always be your kids. Well, yeah, I know. But I mean, the point is, you know, the grandkids and all that stuff. I hear you. So, um, anyway, so I have your I have your email and and all that. So, I need to I need to find that because, you know, I I’m the type of person who prepares if I’m going to do it. I don’t want to at least photocopy something. So, you’ve got an idea what it is. Well, if you do have your if you do have your statement, we can call the annuity company. As long as you’re on the line with me, we can get the I I know what questions to ask, get the details we’re looking for. Um, you know, we can easily call them um and get the information to do a review. It doesn’t take very long other than, you know, depending on who what annuity company is it? This is Alons. A L L I Alian. E. Yeah. All right. Aliance is a big company. They’re a They’re a big German insurance company. Oh, German. Uh, a lot of people call us Alian. We’re actually Alliant. Well, no, I hope you are. I know. No, I know. But but I in fact this this same webinar I was, you know, I come on early and let people say hello and do all that. And some people said, “Oh, yeah. I’m I’m new to Alons.” you know, I’m like, well, we’re reliant, but you know, we get it all the time. So, yeah, Alian is there. So, the good news is they’re not some fly by night company that could be, you know, that’s in Florida or Texas that could be gone in, you know, a year or two if you know, if something happens. Aliance is a they’re a very, very large insurance company. So, the good thing is it’s safe. So, you don’t have to worry about that. Um, if you do have a statement, we can, you know, we can do it via Zoom or I can come down and we can just get them on the phone and get, you know, get the information. That’s not going to be a problem. Yeah. Well, I know I’ve got them on the phone before when I was um uh you know, reading through all this stuff and wanting to get it clarified. And I have all these notes and now if I looked at the notes, if I could find them, I won’t even know what they said. So, Anyway, yeah, there’s, you know, Yeah. Okay. I’m happy to help if you ever want to or if you want to do a plan, I’m happy to, you know, we don’t charge. We don’t charge for any of that. So, yeah, I’m here to help. Okay. So, so I’m going to do this. I hear you’re you got a lot of activity over there with other calls and quacks and whatnot. So, I’ll let you go, Sue. And then So, I want I’m just curious. Are you still there? Yeah. So, usually, you know, I hate that alien thing. So, is there a way for me to So, can you You can’t see anybody. That’s how it’s set up. Is that it? What do you mean? I can’t see anybody. So, I can use I can see you, but when they show me like right now when I’m talking, they show that little alien thing because you didn’t put on your camera. You can put on your camera. I don’t see where it is. I usually know it’s at the bottom of the screen. There’s a little uh there’s a little video. No, it’s right next to the mute. Right next to the microphone is video. Click on that. No, it’s not. There’s mute. Raise hand. chat question and answer show captions. More is it more? Nope. No, it’s over from Okay, there’s you see participants. You see the audio? The little microphone that you clicked on. I see a microphone. I clicked on that earlier. Okay. Right next to that microphone should be a video. Well, there isn’t because I usually find it and I know. But it’s okay. Curious if I just didn’t there. No, that’s just telling me what it is. That’s telling me who you are. That’s Nope. All right. Well, anyway, sometimes when you click on more, it’ll let you give you some options as far as that. Yeah, but normally it should be right next to the right next to the audio microphone. There should be a little camera. There usually. No. So, more just gives me captions and translations or disconnect audio. Okay. Nothing there. Anyway, I was just curious because like, well, how come you’re you know? Okay. Well, anyway, um All right. So, uh so you I guess you have my name and email and all that stuff so you know who you’re talking to. So yeah, I’ll uh I’ll shoot you an email if you and uh you’ll have on my email will be a link to so if you you know if you don’t really have the you don’t know what time you want to make right now um I’ll shoot you an email and on the email will be a link to my calendar as well where you could just click on that whenever you’re ready and then just make a time that works for you. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. I went I came to one of yours before and there was you know I go oh it’s this guy he knows what he’s talking about and you know um and I didn’t start last Tuesday. No no no no you didn’t and and my husband started at United Airlines in 1975. So Whoa. Yeah. So we were when it was United Airlines Credit Union, he would walk in, you know, to the big the Yeah. maintenance base in San Francisco and there’s an actually actual office and you’d get checks and bring the checks home and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I was uh I got here two years after they closed all our branches. I was actually just at the airport on Friday because uh they had the international international flight attendance day. So I was there as a partner because yeah, we started off as United Airline Employees Credit Union back in 1935. So we were we were with a line we were with United since the beginning. Yeah. Um you know but uh after 9/11 they figured hey you know what it may behoove us to serve more than just airline employees. So they changed their name to Alliant and now United Airline Employees is still by far our biggest our biggest market segment. But in addition, we’re also the credit union for Kaiser Permanente, Google, Tesla, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and uh and Susie Orman. So, like all of Susie Orman’s acolytes were also their credit union as well. So, there you go. All right. Well, thank you. I’m gonna call my daughter back. We So, that’s who that was. All right. You’re very welcome, Sue. Thanks for uh thanks for reaching out and uh thanks for attending and I look forward to seeing you soon. Okay. All right. Thanks. Bye. Have a good night.