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Portfolio
Take The Fear Out Of
Investing
Eric G. Edwards
Published by FastPencil
This book is dedicated to God. Every blessing in our lives flows from
the throne of our creator. He is sovereign. This is why our company
name is Sovereign Asset Management. This book is also dedicated to
my father Greg Edwards, who passed away in 1995, my mother
who had to raise two teens, after losing her soul mate to brain
cancer, Rick Wallace who mentored me, my children Samuel, Erica
and Kadence, and last but never least my wife Lauren who has been
my advocate and best friend for the last 6 years.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all of the clients who have placed their
trust in me over the years. I would also like to thank my former
mentors Robert Goldsmith and Rick Wallace.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
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45
49
55
59
63
67
73
81
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15 The Best Annuity For Last .................................. 87
Chapter 16 Gold, Guns, God ................................................ 93
Conclusion ........................................................ 97
1
The Street Mentality
ents to actually sell and walk away with real money. Keep them
addicted. Do you get what he was saying?
He is saying the goal of a stockbroker is to make YOU broker
(excuse the improper English) and himself richer. He tells the
young broker that you will always have another bright-idea,
when the client wants to sell. Its smoke and mirrors. The mentality is, never let your clients gains become real. Always reinvest. Keep them at the table. Always have another bright idea, a
very special idea.
Does that sound familiar? Its a lot like the card dealer who
gets you to keep playing-at the card table. Stay long enough and
the house wins. Stockbrokers, for the most part, have no idea if
the market is going- up or down. To take another quote from
this movie, Nobody knows which direction the market is going
not Jimmy Buffet or Warren Buffet.I disagree Warren has
enough money to make the market move, nevertheless, its a
great point.
Do they say we need to sell now to make your paper gain real?
Not unless they need to sell you something else! If, however, the
market is down, and youre losing money faster than Barrack
Obama tells lies they say, Its just a paper loss. Its not real. Its
a lot like the casino with all those poker chips. If, instead of
poker chips, you had actual dollars on the table, chances are caution would abound. Its not real money until you cash in.
The fact is, though, it is real money. It just looks like cheap
plastic chips. I think the same applies with our debit cards. I bet
if we all carried cash around, we would spend less. Its genius.
The bad thing is, its genius in a way that hurts you. Your debit
card doesnt feel like money. Your account balance doesnt
show when you use your debit card. When you check your bal-
ance online or at the bank you say Where did all my money
go? The same applies with a paper loss. The out of sight out of
mind mentality is what Wall Street is using to keep you in the
dark. Wall Street is full of crooks. Its time to call a loss a loss.
When you have a paper loss of say $25,000, thats a new car
you could buy. Those were a few great vacations you could have
gone on. Life comes down to two things, memories and the
money it takes to make memories. When your broker tells you,
its a paper loss, the chance to make those memories just went
right down memory lane.
smart choices. The idea behind this book is to help you do just
that.
2
Whats My Why?
Whats My Why?
I had my dad until I was 15 years old. The brain cancer came
back 7 years after his miracle. He died April 13th, 1995. I was
torn apart by his death. I always thought God would heal him
again. God chose to take him home to be with Him. I had 7
additional years with him that doctors say shouldnt have been.
A couple of weeks later, a man named Rick Wallace came to
our house. He sat at the kitchen table with my mother and me.
He was a friend to my father. He was also something else. He
was his life insurance agent and financial planner. Rick pulled
out a check addressed to my mother for $150,000. He helped
her create a plan to make the money last. At that moment, I realized what I wanted to do for my career.
I asked Rick to hire me. Rick told me, I cant hire you son.
When you turn 18 years old, give me a call. I bet old Rick didnt
expect me to follow through. The day I turned 18 years old, I
put on the only suit I owned and called him. He invited me to
come to a training event he was holding one Saturday morning.
He hired me. I worked under Rick as a non licensed marketing
person for about a year, just learning the business. I was 120 lbs.
soaking wet. I looked 15 and was studying for my insurance
license. For nearly a year, Rick went with me on every appointment I set. I didnt have the confidence looking like a high
school student to give people financial advice. This man whose
income was close to $400,000 a year took me under his wing
and mentored me personally. I will forever be grateful to Rick
Wallace and the Wallace family. A year later I passed my Series 6
and Series 63 tests.
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Whats My Why?
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3
The Game Is Rigged
If you are asking about too big to fail and can what happened in 2008 could it happen again, the answer is yes, it
absolutely can happen again. If anything, too big to fail is a
bigger problem because the biggest financial institutions
are more concentrated today than they were. Dodd Frank
did not solve too big to fail.
FORMER CEO OF MERRILL LYNCH
JOHN THAIN
Your stockbroker doesnt know which direction the market is
going. A stockbroker can make a guess, and 50% of the time
they might be right. Its a rigged game of the richest of the rich
getting richer. Before $500,000 software made most of the
trades, you had a chance. Its called High-Frequency Trading.
Before almost all of the activity in the market was driven by large
institutional investors, you had a chance. Now in 2014 there are
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a small group of ultra wealthy players who can cause the market
to implode or rise. How is that possible? Well, the market is
supply and demand, and 90% of the worlds wealth is controlled
by 1% of the population. That 1% of the population decides
when the market will crash or rise. The key is to make sure you
dont have any idea. Thats not a difficult task when that 1% of
the population also controls the media. If they want people to
dump their money into the market, the news will say the market
is growing. If they want a massive sell off, the news will cover a
scary story about the economy. You can take advantage of this,
if you want to spend hours upon hours learning to day trade. In
addition to this, you will most likely be wrong more than youre
right at first. Chances are, you dont have that kind of time.
People usually make investment decisions for one of two reasons: greed or fear. The problem is, these emotions are highly
inaccurate. The big players, like the casino, make investment
decisions with cold hard facts.
To make it-even worse, Wall Street isnt playing with any substantial risk. Take a look at the 2008 crash. The very same
players who caused the problem were bailed out, given huge
bonuses, raises and promotions. The president might hop on
television and tell you we fixed that with Dodd Frank, but thats
completely false. Since when did he tell the truth? Its not just
this president, to be fair. Every president has had Wall Street
advisors. The president is acting in their best interests. Who do
you think he cares about? You? Some person hes never met or
the Wall Street big shot who is funding his party?
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The bailout didnt fix things. The bailout just delayed the
bomb from blowing up. It also made the bomb bigger. This
country at some point is going to have to face the music. We will
have to get spending under control and pay down the massive
debts we have accumulated, the sooner the better. The only
thing we have done so far is place a band-aid on a fatal gun shot
wound. It looks better. The media is saying the economy has
recovered. The raging bulls in the market make that recovery
look real. The very deceptive unemployment numbers make it
look even more convincing. The massive crowds beating each
other to death over $99 50 inch flat screen televisions on Black
Friday make you think the American consumer is back, and
crazier than ever. In reality, it shows the desperation that penetrates many Americans today. Our consumer-driven culture is
on the verge of collapse. We dont make anything as a country
anymore. I like pens, Cross pens to be exact. Cross is the oldest
luxury American writing instrument. Cross pens are now made
in China after decades of being made here in the U.S.A.
I challenge you- go through your house and find things you
bought the last 10 years that are still made in the U.S.A.. China
is manipulating their currency to devalue it. We are doing the
same thing. Instead of cracking down on China and making
them stop, we are following suit. Since when was the United
States the follower and not the leader? Did you know China is
now the worlds largest economy? America is 2nd. We grew up
in an America that was number one is so many categories. Category by category, we are losing our edge. We owe China a sum
of money that will most likely never be repaid. If it is repaid, we
will devalue the dollar so much that the dollars the loans are
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repaid with will be worth nothing compared to those we borrowed. Its robbery. Its robbery of your savings accounts. Its
robbery of your 401k accounts. Its robbery of your childrens
future. Its sad. I still have faith though. I have faith this country
can be even greater than we were. Our only hope of being
restored to that level of greatness is to return to our strong
moral foundations. If our leaders have no integrity, we cannot
hope to be great. A ship goes the direction of its rudders. A
plane the direction of its tail. Horses have bits in their mouths. A
nation who forgets God is soon forgotten. Ronald Reagan
warned when he said Only our deep moral values and our strong
social institutions can holdback the jungle and restrain the darker
impulses of human nature. The Bible warned us.
The only saving grace for this country is the energy industry.
This president has done his best to prevent growth in that sector
through over regulation. Sarah Palin was made fun of when she
said, Drill, baby, drill. President Obama said, We cant drill
our way to lower gas prices. Here we are, December of 2014,
and gas is below $2.00 a gallon. Its due to domestic drilling and
a few other factors, none of which our president can take any
credit for.
Under the Obama watch, things have not really improved.
The fact is, the real unemployment number is above 12%, and
thats a national emergency. The labor-force participation rate is
the lowest its been since BEFORE women started entering the
work force. There are more Americans on some form of Welfare
than ever before. There are millions of people working jobs well
below their education and ability levels. When you have airline
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4
Even Steven
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You might say you would tell me you dont have a Mercedes,
but if you did, imagine the difference in reaction. The point is:
its about return of your investment, not just return on your
investments. Patrick Kelly makes a great point in his book Stress
Free Retirement when he says the best investment advice ever
is, Dont take a loss.
Id like to take this time to introduce you to a fictional character named John. John currently has a portfolio of $1,000,000
USD and is heavily invested in the stock market. Back in 2008
John lost 40% of his then $950,000 portfolio. His stomach
churned, his palms dripped with sweat, and he felt like the world
was ending when he opened his IRA statement after the crash.
John now has $1,000,000, and he thinks hes doing great. He has
a little pep in his step. He is great. Hes doing great because he
has a million dollars, but his returns are beyond dismal. John
also has a short-term memory. He has had so much going on in
his life that he forgets that his portfolio was worth $1,000,000
way back in 1999. Then in 2000, 2001, and 2002 he lost almost
50% of his money. He stuck it out, and it grew all the way back
to $950,000 in 2008. Then he lost 40% of his money. John
stayed in the market. He is now sitting a $1,000,000 again. I
dont have a crystal ball but, if history repeats itself, what is
going to happen next?
Whats the definition of insanity?
The point is, in my opinion, over the past decade the market
has been a terrible investment. The bad news for the rest of us is
Even Steven
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that John is one of the lucky ones. He didnt pull out and panic
when the crash happened. In spite of being emotionally tied to
his money, he didnt budge. The fact is its too late after a crash
to avoid one. The other side to that is once a crash occurs, it
could get worse. It depends on the underlying economic conditions that created the crash- investor confidence and other variables.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is cross your fingers and
hope for a recovery.
The S&P 500 over the last 13 years has returned around
3.5%, and thats not very impressive. The S&P 500 has had
some very impressive years during those 13 years. It has also had
some disasters. What if there was a way to get part of the gain
every single time the S&P 500 went up and get none of the loss
when it went down? In other words, what if you could go into a
casino and lets say make 60% of the winnings on every winning
hand and then never lose a hand. Would you ever leave?
You can. Well not in the casino, but in the worlds largest
casino:The New York Stock Exchange. This isnt some fly-bynight investment strategy I am speaking of here. Its one created
by the worlds largest insurance companies. Its called a Fixed
Indexed Annuity. Before you close the book because you dont
like annuities, remember that all things change. Annuities have
grown up a lot in the last decade. Fixed indexed annuities are
basically brand new. In my opinion, theyre the greatest retirement account invention ever devised.
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Even Steven
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2008 -38.49%
2009 23.45%
2010 12.78%
2011 -0.00%
2012 13.41%
2013 29.60%
Based on the numbers above, you would have made around
3.55% per year. Now, if you made every negative year a zero,
what would your returns looks like?
2000 -0.00%
2001 -0.00%
2002 -0.00%
2003 26.38%
2004 8.99%
2005 3.00%
2006 13.62%
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2007 3.53%
2008 -0.00%
2009 23.45%
2010 12.78%
2011 -0.00%
2012 13.41%
2013 29.60%
As shown above, it would be a 9.62% return. Thats the power
of making zero. Obviously, there is no perfect investment. If we
take all the risk away, then some of the return would have to go
away as well. Lets say instead of making the full return, you
could make a max of 8% when the market went up. How would
that look?
2000 -0.00%
2001 -0.00%
2002 -0.00%
2003 8.00%
Even Steven
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2004 8.00%
2005 8.00%
2006 8.00%
2007 3.53%
2008 -0.00%
2009 8.00%
2010 8.00%
2011 -0.00%
2012 8.00%
2013 8.00%
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5
Whats an a nudity dad?
Eric G. Edwards
Hopefully, the title of this chapter gave you a good laugh. I
walked in while my son was watching television with his cousins
a few days ago. He was saying to his cousins something about an
annuity. At least, I thought he was. Hes only 7 so I thought, I
have a child genius! I started to explain and he then says, so
partial a nudity is what you do for your clients? I started
laughing. I say no. I then look up at the TV, which has a rating
for a video game that he wants to download, and it says it has
partial nudity. I am now almost rolling on the floor, turning
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An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company. You pay for that contract in either single or multiple payments. The length of the contract is usually 5-10 years. That
means you must keep your money, or at least part of it, in the
annuity for that length of time. In return, for keeping your
money invested with the insurance company, they make certain
legally binding promises. Most annuities will allow you to withdraw a certain percentage of your total account value each year
with no penalty. That amount is usually 10% yearly. Some
people dont like the idea of locking their money up for 10
years. There are now annuities which will return your money
after one or two years (without penalty) if you want it back. If
you plan on spending all of your retirement savings in less than
10 years ,an annuity is not for you. If, however, you dont want
to run out of money in 10 years, an annuity might be just what
you need. If you did spend all of your money in just 10 years,
chances are you would not only need to get a new job, but
would also donate a large part of your money to Uncle Sam. I
am all for being patriotic, but I dont want to give the IRS my
money. Annuities enjoy many benefits such as tax deferral.
Also, they may avoid probate, they can provide income for the
rest of your life guaranteed and they can still pass on any
remaining money to your heirs, to name a few.
Annuities can also act as a form of life insurance for those who
cannot be insured otherwise. Many annuities will increase by a
set percentage rate during the contract. At the death of the
owner, all of that money would pass on to the beneficiaries.
What are the types of annuities?
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ance company takes all of the risk. The difference between a traditional fixed annuity and a FIA (Fixed Indexed Annuity) is in
how interest gets credited to your account. This book is focused
on showing you benefits of a FIA. I will explain in detail later.
Basically, your money is tied to a stock market or some other
type of index as an outside bench mark. Your money isnt
directly invested in the market. When the index goes up a portion of those gains are credited your account, and locked in that
year. There is a limit to how much you can make on many fixed
indexed annuities. For example, lets say the limit or cap as we
call it in the industry is 8% yearly. If the index had a gain of 10%,
you would only make 8% that year. If, however, the index went
down 10%, you would make zero. In addition to this, any gains
you had made in previous years would still be there because of
the power of whats called the Annual Reset.
For now, thats what you need to know. I want you to focus
on the simplicity of an Indexed Annuity with a cap. If you want
an indexed annuity without a cap, there are a few new annuity
products that dont have a cap, or ceiling, on what you make.
They use whats called a spread in most cases. A spread simply
means the amount the index must make before you start earning
interest. For example, if an annuity had a spread of 2% and the
index made 12%, you would make 10%. If it only made 2%,
you would make zero. Basically, a spread is deducted before
your earnings are calculated, but thats only in years when the
index goes up. The spread is not charged in years when the
index goes down. If thats confusing, I will clear it up later. If an
annuity has a spread, chances are it does not have a cap. They
usually have one or the other.
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Myth #2- If I take income from an annuity the insurance company will keep the rest of my money.
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never stop coming in. You can just keep on going and enjoy
retirement, while you spend with confidence! Dont you feel
better about annuities now?
Now that you have an understanding of what an annuity is,
and the types of annuities out there, lets move along.
6
Hybrid Retirement Plan
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annuity using the annual reset method may credit more interest
than annuities using other methods when the index fluctuates
up and down often during the term.
4. You can add riders to the annuity to generate income and
other key benefits.
Lets look at an example in the next section of this chapter.
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Year 0 January 1st- Year zero meaning the day you invest in
the annuity.
$100,000
Index goes up 20% to 1,200 points by January 1 of 2015.
Year 1 January 1st
$108,000
We meet to review the first-year results, and I say, The good
news is the market went up 20% the bad news is you only made
8%. Your $100,000 is now worth $108,000. You are happy to
make money but send me a very cheap Christmas card that
year.
Year 2 January 1st
Index goes down 30% to 840 points by January 1 of 2016
$108,000 is still there
We meet to review the 2nd-year results, and I say, The bad
news is the market went down 30% this year, and you didnt
make anything. The good news is you didnt lose a dime and all
the money you made last year is still there. You now love me.
You give me 25 names of everyone you know and invite me over
for Christmas dinner.
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7
Who cares about 1%
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8
Never Ending Income
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security, etc., can make sure our clients dont ever face those
horrible choices.
What is an Income Rider?
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9
Dont Despair Over Long
Term Care
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Shocking Statistic #1
The average cost for a semi-private room in a nursing
home is $239 per day.
Shocking Statistic #2
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Lets say Thomas takes income of $36,250 for five years, but
then develops health issues. Thomas never thought he would
end up in a nursing home, but lets pretend he does. If Thomas
goes to a nursing home, his guaranteed lifetime income will
double to $72,500. I dont know what you call that, but I call it
financial security.
Use the blank space below to outline your plan for long-term
care. It wont happen to me, IS NOT A PLAN.
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*No plan is fail proof, but we can create one thats as close to
it as possible. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.
10
Death With Benefits
What if you dont need the income? I have a client who has
$2,000,000 invested with me. He doesnt need income from his
money. He has an income from several sources. His main concern is growing his money safely in order to pass it on to the
kids.
This is where the Death Benefit Rider can help. Most wealthy
people dont want to buy life insurance. I dont see why not. Its
a great way to pass on money tax free. I learned early in this busi59
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ness: You can win an argument with a client, or you can help
them reach their goals, but not both.
You can still use money from the annuity while youre alive.
You just cant use the amount in the Death Benefit Rider. You
get to use the actual Safe Index performance. If you also have an
Income Rider attached, you can use that pool of money. However, you should have a plan. You are either going to spend the
money while youre alive, or youre not. You cant predict that
with 100% accuracy, but you should have a general idea. If
growing the money for your use is more important, utilize the
Income Rider. If passing the money on is more important, utilize the Death Benefit Rider.
My point is: You cannot spend all your money and leave it all
behind. The Death Benefit Rider rates are currently around
4-9% on the best annuities. If Thomas, from our earlier example,
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your money is. Then, together, you can create the perfect plan
for you. If any of this is confusing, call me, and I will point you in
the right direction. My direct number is 817.704.8707. You can
also email me with questions @ edwardsfinancialstrategies@gmail.com.
11
Stretch that IRA all day
The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now?
Billy Graham
What if I told you that your IRA is probably not set up in the
best way possible?
What if I told you that the government is going to decimate
your IRA with Required Minimum Distributions and then when
you die a third of it is going to be eaten alive by taxes?
What if I told you theres a way to stop them from killing your
nest egg by spreading the taxes out?
Lets go back to discuss this client of mine with $2,000,000.
He has two children who both make a great income. His main
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12
Become Heir to a Fortune
What if I told there was an asset class only the super rich had
access to until recently?
What if I told you Warren Buffet invests sizable amounts of
his fortune into this asset yearly?
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What if I told you large banks have long invested in this asset
to create secure returns?
What if I told you this asset doesnt care if the market is up,
down, or sideways?
What if I told you this asset doesnt care about interest rates?
What if I told you it was backed by some of the largest and
strongest companies on earth?
What if I told you only 1% of those who invested in this asset
ever lost any money?
What if I told you this asset averages a double-digit yearly
return on investment?
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pany (the one I work with) will buy his life insurance policy at a
discount. Lets say they offer John $2,000,000 for his $5,000,000
policy. John accepts because he wants money now instead of
after hes already dead. He can no longer afford the premiums,
and if he tried to keep the policy, he would have lost it all. The
insurance company would love John to let his policy lapse. We
cant let that happen. My company now owns Johns policy, and
we have paid 3 years of the premiums on it. I mention to you
that I am going to sell part of his policy to outside investors. You
decide to buy $100,000 of Johns life insurance policy. Since we
paid $2,000,000 for it you now own 5% of a $5,000,000 policy.
When John dies, you will get $250,000 or 5% of $5,000,000.
Your only risk is if John lives a really long time. The average rate
of return for this type of investment is in the high double digits.
We have averaged a 30% return on senior life settlements with
very little risk to your money. Only 1% of all transactions have
ever returned negative. Source: An audit by an outside firm. I
hesitate to include those numbers because they are so high. I
dont think you should expect 30%. Thats the average. You
might make much less. You could make more, but thats rare.
To lose money, John in this case, would have to live to around
age 100. Past performance doesnt mean you will get the same
results. Our goal is to make 10% and above. Can you lose
money in this type of investment? Yes. Is it likely? Not at all.
* Life settlements are only offered to accredited investors. You
must meet certain requirements to purchase. This includes investment experience and net worth.
There are many other considerations when looking at these
types of investments. A major one is that the money held in a
life settlement is not liquid at all. Until the person dies, your
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Create A Tax Free Estate
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The more money you have the worse this option is, in my
opinion. Why? Because of estate taxes, income taxes to your
beneficiaries, etc. These taxes are designed to kill your financial
legacy when you die. Life insurance is designed to keep your
wealth in your family.
Why wouldnt you want to do that? If its because you want
your heirs to make their own way, I can respect that. A properly
set up trust can make sure they dont go spend their inheritance
quickly. It can also make sure they dont get so much money at
once that it ruins them. It will only provide an advantage. Who
doesnt want their kids and their grand kids to have an
advantage?
Now, as Ive shown you earlier, life insurance is not only a
good investment for future generations, but since its your
policy, you can sell it just like its your house. This means if
those wonderful children of yours make you mad, you can sell
your life insurance. Hang that over their head when they dont
help with the dishes at Thanksgiving! I am joking here. Life
insurance also build cash value inside of it. The cash value can
generate tax-free income, when taken properly. There is a whole
book dedicated to this subject called Tax Free Retirement by
Patrick Kelly. I suggest it.
So
Is life insurance a good investment for me?
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Example:
Client age: 66
Premiums per year: $18,000
Coverage: $1,000,000
Premiums are less than 2% of the benefit per year.
If the client dies at 71 years old, the annual IRR is 94.77%; 76
its 36.44%; at 81 his life expectancy is 15.17%, at 86 its 8.97%
and at 91 its 6.23% and so on.
This doesnt even take into account the tax equivalent yield. A
tax-free yield of around 5% is equal to a taxable yield of around
8% assuming a 28% tax bracket. I dont know about you, but I
like sticking it to the IRS LEGALLY.
Yes, youre correct that you will not personally see the benefit
of this. Let me tell you what I love to do for clients who want to
have their cake and eat it too.
Those clients who want to spend their money but also want
to leave it all behind.
Do you recall when I said you cant spend all your money and
leave it all behind? Thats true, but you can spend most of it and
leave all of it behind. How?
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Why A Trust Is A Must
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For example, lets say you want to leave your money to your
son, Willy. Willy marries a girl named Silly. You have life insurance and when you die, Willy gets $1,000,000. Silly sees that
Willy has just hit the big time. She files for a divorce and takes
$500,000 of that inheritance. Shes a Nice Girl. You wanted
the money to be passed on to your grand kids if Willy wasnt
there. Instead, half of your money went to Silly, and she spent it
all in three years on cars, plastic surgery and vacations. Willy is
heart broken and spends the other $500,000 bar hopping.
Tragic isnt it?
If you had a trust that was set up correctly, that would not
happen. You see, Willy wouldnt inherit $1,000,000, the trust
would. Since Silly is not married to the trust, she cant divorce
Willy and take his inheritance. The trust also designated a
trustee and a successor trustee for the benefit of Willy and his
future children. This can also prevent Willy from blowing a million dollars on Silly while they are still married.
Seriously, you need a trust. When Willy (or your heirs)
inherits a million dollars (or any substantial amount), Silly or
his or her spouse might really run off to some island with your
money, honey. However, you will set up a trust if youre smart,
and in the end Silly and Willy stay married. Your grand kids are
raised in a two-parent home, and Willy never develops a
drinking problem. All because you set up a trust. Im being a bad
comic here but in reality, this isnt that funny. The fact is,
divorce divides fortunes even several generations later.
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After all, its just your legacy, your life savings and your hard
work that created your estate.
15
The Best Annuity For Last
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Gold, Guns, God
With the exception only of the period of the gold standard,
practically all governments of history
have used their exclusive power to issue money
to defraud and plunder the people.
F.A. Von Hayak
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folio into such assets if you can. Real estate is also a good option
if gold isnt your thing.
By guns, I mean guns. I believe in the right to bear arms.
Guns protect all the other rights we have, such as freedom of
speech. In Texas, for example, we have a much lower crime rate
than states where gun control is in control. In Texas gun control
means using two hands. If someone breaks into your house in
the middle of the night, you can stop them from killing you,
your wife, or your children far faster than the police will arrive.
In addition, guns tend to appreciate in value. Many guns have
lifetime warranties and are very easily sold. In this way, I think of
guns as savings accounts with benefits.
One last thing: vote Republican in 2016! We must stop the
liberal assassination of America, its values, and its constitution.
We dont have a perfect Republic but we have the last beacon
for freedom on earth. May it ever be so.
So as we say in Texas
God Bless Yall,
Eric G. Edwards
Conclusion
In summary
The market is rigged. Your stockbroker is probably not interested in your benefit. Fixed Indexed annuities can make you
great returns with zero risk to your principal, and protect each
years gains as well. If you need income for life, you should look
at an annuity with an income rider. If you want to pass on
money to your kids, add a death benefit rider to the annuity, or
buy life insurance. You can always do both. You need a trust.
A will is not enough. Too much stock market risk past the age
of 55 will probably bite you in the end. Life insurance can create
a great tax-free estate. The IRR of life insurance makes it one of
the best investment choices in the world, in spite of what Dave
Ramsey tells you. I like Dave Ramsey, but his advice is geared
towards younger couples. I work with primarily older high net
worth couples. Two separate worlds.
Life settlements are an amazing investment. They carry some
risk, but not the kind of risk stocks have. They have better
returns than the market historically, with much lower risk.
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Last but not least, put God first in your life and He will put
you first on His list of people to bless. I believe that. It may not
always be in material ways, but God knows what we need.
Id love to sit down and talk sometime. Give me a call and let
me know if you loved or hated my book.
Eric G. Edwards - Wealth Manager
Member of the National Ethics Association
Senior Vice President
Sovereign Asset Management
Owner
Edwards Financial Strategies
www.sovereignassetmgmt.com
817.704.8707
777 Main St. Suite 600
Fort Worth, TX 76102