Episode #1

Bryan Anderson, founder of Annuity Straight Talk, speaks with Ashok Ramji, a financial consultant with TOP Planning LLC, an independent asset protection and retirement income planning firm serving retirees and pre-retirees alike.  In this conversation, our hosts do a deep dive into Bryan’s journey in the investment world and how certain people and events contributed to his “annuity evolution”.

Bryan and Ashok extrapolate their respective backgrounds in the annuity business to the multifaceted nature of the field itself. They explain that different advisors have different approaches to their specialty due to a combination of their personal biases and compensation models.

They also touch on two different schools of thought in financial planning: the safety-first or insurance-based approach, and the probability-based approach.  Bryan and Ashok then give their thoughts on why annuities tend to be put to the side by advisors and how they can have more productive conversations with their clients concerning their best options.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [01:48] How Bryan and Ashok got into the annuity business
• [04:37] The two factors that set different financial advisors apart
• [06:00] What Bryan learned about success from his Uncle Gary
• [10:14] A unique approach to advising clients in the investment world
• [11:27] Two different schools of thought in financial planning
• [14:35] The early years of Bryan’s career
• [18:47] Why annuities tend to be relegated to the corner by advisors
• [21:09] How advisors can factor in trade-offs around annuities
• [26:16] Witnessing the evolution of the financial sector in the late 2000s
• [30:02] Determining the best option for individual clients

Key quotes:

• “Two things we always need to think about when working with an advisor: Number one would be our biases, which are shaped by our version of truth. […] The other aspect that shapes our thinking is our business model.” ~Ashok
• “There are two different schools of thought in financial planning: One of them is safety first, which is more of the insurance-based approach; the other one is probability-based.” ~Ashok
• “Another reason why people don’t buy annuities is because they don’t know what questions to ask. You or I can look at something and say, ‘Okay, this is the best option.’ But how do they know that we’re telling them the truth?” ~Bryan

Call Annuity Straight Talk at 800-438-5121 or schedule a call at AnnuityStraightTalk.com