What Changed My Focus

Over the last fifteen years, my focus on annuities shifted in a big way. I started seeing more and more people come to me who were already in an annuity, and it was the wrong one for them. Some had been sold products with fifteen-year surrenders they did not understand. Some were paying fees that were eating up most of their gains. Some had never been told about better options that could have doubled their guaranteed income at retirement. They had been served by well-meaning agents. Some of those agents had done the best they could with what they had access to. But the outcome was still the same. The family was stuck in a product that was not doing what they thought it would do. That is when our agency, Real Impact Financial, made a real decision. We were going to focus on doing this the right way. That meant three things. One. Rescue people from bad annuity situations when we can. Not every annuity can be moved without a big penalty. Some should stay right where they are because the surrender charges would cost more than the improvement is worth. But many of them can be moved, and the improvement is significant. Higher guaranteed income. Lower fees. Better long-term care riders. Real gains in real dollars. Two. Only recommend an annuity when it is truly the right fit. If the person in front of us should not own an annuity at all, we tell them. If a MYGA is a better fit than the fixed index annuity that would pay us more, we recommend the MYGA. That is what an advisor is supposed to do.

Three. Represent the top carriers in the country. Not one company. Not five companies. The top A rated carriers across life insurance, longterm care, and annuities. Because you cannot recommend the best fit for a family if you do not have access to the products that would actually be that best fit. That last one changed everything. Here is a real example from a few weeks ago. A financial advisor referred a client to us. His client, a 69-year-old man, had bought a variable annuity years earlier so he could turn on guaranteed income at age 75. The advisor manages the client's other money but does not do annuities, so he asked us to run an audit.

We looked at the contract. Then we looked at his statements. The variable annuity was fully invested in the stock market. It was paying about 2.8% in total annual fees. That is on top of whatever the market did in any given year.

In 2024, this annuity lost him $66,000. He is 69 years old. He was six years away from turning on his income. And his account had just dropped by a year and a half of his intended retirement paycheck. He was not sleeping.

Here is what we did. We ran a comparison against the top guaranteed annuities from the top carriers we represent. We compared guaranteed lifetime income at age 75. We compared fees. We compared surrender charges to move. We compared carrier ratings. The result was a new fixed index annuity with a strong income rider. Higher guaranteed monthly income at 75 than his current variable annuity was projecting. Principal that cannot go down. Total fees under half of one percent, instead of 2.8%. And it fit his timeline.

We moved him last week. For the first time in over a year, he is not checking the market every morning. He knows what his paycheck at 75 will be. He knows his money cannot go down. He is done worrying about it. Stories like his are the reason our focus is where it is today. The old annuities that gave the category a bad name could not do what his new annuity does. The new generation is different. Principal protection. In the right annuity, your account balance cannot go down because of market losses. It goes up in good years. It stays flat in bad years. It never goes backward. Guaranteed interest rates. In a MYGA, the interest rate is written into the contract. It does not change if the Fed changes rates. It does not change if the carrier's investment returns change. You know exactly what your money will earn. Guaranteed income for life. With the right income rider, you can turn on a paycheck at a future date that is guaranteed to keep coming until you die, even if the account balance runs out. Long-term care coverage built in. Some newer annuities include a rider that doubles or triples your income if you cannot perform two of the six activities of daily living. This is a benefit that did not exist in the old products. Shorter surrender periods. Modern quality annuities commonly have surrender periods of five to seven years, not twelve to fifteen. Your money is not locked up nearly as long. Transparency. The best carriers in 2026 spell out fees, caps, and participation rates in language you can actually understand. If a contract still uses hieroglyphics, that is a red flag.

An annuity is an amazing vehicle for the right person. Not everyone should be in one. But for the person who wants guarantees, safety, and a paycheck for life, the right annuity can be one of the most powerful tools in retirement. Let's go through the annuities that exist so you know what you are actually looking at.

PART II

THE ANNUITIES, IN PLAIN ENGLISH

There are five main types of annuities you will run into. Each one does a different job. This part explains what each one is, how it works, who it is for, and who it is not for. No jargon. No

fine print buried three pages down.