Are Income Riders Always the Best Approach?

Presented by David Corwin In my opinion, Income Riders are not always the best approach.  I will agree that they do give the client some satisfaction in knowing how much their income would be.  However, the power in the knowing I don’t think mitigates the fees, coupled with the outrageously long surrender periods that are sold most of the time.  What happens in most cases is that the agent presents only one product and doesn’t look at the different options that would lessen the surrender period, thus giving the client more choices at some point and not locking them up for 16 years or longer. It’s an absolute certainty that if you show more than one option you will make more sales and the client will be more satisfied with their decision.  Now, I will admit that it might be a slower sales process, but shoving a product down their throat doesn’t do them any favors either. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.  I ran a top carrier product with the highest bonus and rollup rate on a 50 year old male with $100,000 and let it cook for 10 years before I started income and came up with $9,845.59 in annual income.  A green to red apple comparison with the same income rollup without a bonus would only reduce the income in 10 years to $8,950.54.  That’s less than $900 and the kicker would be that the surrender period is reduced by 6 years. It is also widely known that an indexed annuity without a bonus performance should, and in most cases, does outperform bonus indexed annuities.  With that in mind, the client will undoubtedly have more money in the long run anyway.  All I’m really talking about is choices.  Give your client choices and they will make the right one the majority of the time, and you will have a more satisfied client.