The Single Most Important Question You Can Ask Your Clients | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast |Ep 205

On today's episode, we're going to talk about the single most important question you can ever ask a client.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode. I am Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach, owner of Retirement Realized Financial. Retirement Realized Agents Academy. What are those two companies, Caleb? Retirement Realized Financial. We can help you write business like we write business because you're under our organization, Retirement Realized Agents. If you're not part of our organization, we still train you like you are. You're still part of the family. You may be the, you know, long lost prodigal son or daughter that's way out there, but we're still going to help you. We still love you and, and we'll be happy when you come home. But, you know, we just. When I started these companies years ago, my thing was always, I want to help people no matter where they are. That's really what it comes down to. Because my heart is always to help agents promote our industry better. In other words, make sure we're representing ourselves in a way where they're saying, oh, you're the annuity salesperson, are you? You're the life insurance guy. I don't want that. And really, honestly, annuity is no longer a four letter word. It is, it is really something that is respectable. It's a lot more in the mainstream now. We are known as safe money. And people say something. Well, I used to hear annuities were bad, but now I'm thinking they're right for me. And I hear that all the time now.

A lot of product changes, a lot of, A lot of great evolution in the products.

One, I would like to hope that our training organization was part of helping change that name because we've been doing this for over six years now.

We have.

Well.

And what I love about both Retirement Realized Agents Academy and Retirement Realized Financial was that both were birthed out of a place where we saw a need. So the Academy, it actually started before the FMO because we realized there is a major gap in training here and not just a gap in training. Agents need to learn how they can produce more. Produce more with ethics and integrity. So it's the combination. Yeah.

You mean I can be ethical and honest and still be a good producer?

Yeah.

What?

Yeah, I know, it's crazy.

Wow. Who would have thought that?

So it's like when we, when we.

Say somebody every time takes that little, that little snippet right there. Here's what Chad said. Yeah, what? Sarcastically, Play the whole thing. You'll see. Okay, go ahead.

But no, seriously, like that was. That was the need that we saw. So we filled the need. Then as we're actually interacting with and working with agents, we realize, oh, my gosh, there's major holes in the IMO space too. And so out of those needs, people we partner with.

If we partner with an imo, it's because we know there's no holes. They've done a great job. So it's important to understand that.

Yeah. So, single most important question you can ask your. Now, there's a few qualifications I feel like need to be made on. On this type of episode.

So we're talking about the single most important question, but now you're going to talk about qualifications on how it wouldn't be.

No, I'm going to say that it is the single most important question, but that does not mean that it needs to be the only question.

Asked.

Well, that's a no dust statement, but.

That'S why I just want to qualify that. If you're doing a full fact find. Yeah, a full fact find. Every question is a critical question, but there is one that will determine vastly more than just about every other question.

I have a feeling I know what that question.

What is that question, Chad?

And it probably has to do with the importance of money.

Yeah.

So what is the job of the money? So in other words, do you want to plan for living or do you want to plan for dying? In other words, what's the purpose of the money? Because to me, I am right. Right?

Yeah, that's it.

I mean, if you said I was wrong, I would have said you're wrong.

Yeah. Let me tell you why. Yeah, exactly.

Because I know that's the most important. Because you cannot help a person with anything till you know what the purpose of the money is.

Right.

Now there are some people who say, what's a little of both? I said, I totally agree, but you have to make sure your income is taken care of first. You have to make sure you have enough money to live off of. And I say this all the time. If you started to run low on money, do you think little Bobby and Susie, son or daughter, would pitch in money, say, hey, mom and dad, we're going to take care of you. Most of the time I ask that question, it's a yeah, right? Or yeah, they're in bad situation. Every once in a while I get something. They go, yes, absolutely they would. And so when it comes down to it, most the time the parents or the people that I'm talking with, it is up to them to make sure their Finances are taken care of.

Right.

So they can want to do. For example, my grandmother was a perfect example of this. She was known as the candy lady in church. She would blow so much of her money buying little gifts and candy for the kids at church. So much so if she never had enough to live off of, fortunately my uncles would go in and slip a hundred dollar bill in the microwave. They'd put. They'd just leave money laying around for to where. I mean I feel she probably didn't realize, hey, how did I get a hundred dollar bill here?

Sure.

You know, as her candy money. Yeah, there's her candy money. But they made sure she was taken care of. Most people that is not the case. Yeah, you know, I remember. I mean my mom was an assisted living. My father in law isn't. Excuse me, My mother ended up in long term care. My father in law is in long term care. My natural father ended up should have been in assisted living. But just out of sheer will and stupidity wouldn't you know, he just like I am going to die in my own place. And you know, fortunately had a wife that took care of him. But then she ended up having cancer and she was in a bad spot and she should have ended up in assisted living of some sort and she just ended up dying in the rv. I mean it's, it's. You know, this may sound harsh, but to me death is a finality. Living is the thing that's important. You know, once you're dead, you're dead. There's nothing you can do about it. Right. But you know, when you're alive, you can choose how you're going to live. Yeah. And so to me, death is death. I just, I just look at it that way. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. It doesn't mean it's not a big deal. But how I choose to live now is far more important than how I'm dead. I mean once I'm dead, doesn't matter how I died, I'm dead. Right. You know, I think one of my movies I've seen so many times is Last Samurai. And so Tom Cruise goes up and how he's a samurai and he's a top gun pilot and he's. It's amazing what that guy can do. He's this missions impossible guy and. But anyway, so the, the warlord. Not warlord. He was actually the last of the samurai that was standing up against the move of the west into their culture and, and he died. I mean it was a crazy battle. I don't Think it's historically accurate, but it made for a really good movie. So the emperor goes to Tom Cruise and he goes, you know, Tom Cruise is kneeling down before the emperor and he goes, tell me how he died. And Tom Cruise, I'm going to tell you how he lived. And that's how I really think about it. I don't care. Don't. I'm probably going to die of something stupid. That's a reality. I mean, that's just probably going to happen that way. But I want people to go, this guy lived life to his fullest. So when we're asking the questions, it's important we get down to the purpose. And when people are thinking about it, they're not generally thinking about how much they're leaving when they're dead.

Right.

They're thinking about how they lived. And, you know, I mean, you've been. I've known you for years. You're my son in love. I mean, the one thing, what do you see? Am I trying to pour a whole bunch of money into you guys to where when I'm dead is gone, or do I try and create memories right now that we can enjoy and do memories, vacations, time as family, you know, whatever we can do to create memories now? Because that's the thing that lasts, you know? Now I trust every single one of my kids with money from the standpoint of I know they're not going to just go and blow through it. So it's not like I'm going to go and leave millions of dollars to them. I have to worry about, oh, my gosh, they're just going to go buy whatever, whenever. I don't have to worry about that. But I also want to make sure that, man, we really get to enjoy life together now with the memories. And so for me, it's a plan for living right now based off of how I spend and by the business I have, there will be plenty left for a plan for dying. But my focus is making sure the plan for living is first.

Yeah. So you need to be asking that because without it, you can't make a plan that actually fulfills the needs.

No.

You don't know what they are to even fulfill.

No, I mean, if. So example, if I say I want to plan for living, what's the likelihood of me having an income rider on that?

That's.

Yeah, yeah. If you want to plan for a living, there's going to be an income rider. If you have a plan for death, is there going to be an income rider on that? Generally not Generally not, because that means and I'm going to make sure through my fact finder that that you have more than enough income coming in.

There may be money coming out of it by way of RMDs if it's qualified money that they're just trying to honestly just protect and grow but the government's going to force them to take some and that's nature of it, they're going to have that to enjoy and awesome, great. But yeah.

And so when we look at it now, what if I say I want a plan for living and a plan for dying, then it goes back to the same thing we've talked about. You say you want to plan for living, plan for dying right now. But you right now you've already shown that if you pass away the lower of the two Social Security's goes away. You have zero percent survivorship on your pensions. So you die. What's your wife going to do now? She's got to have something that replaces that lost income. Right. So unless they have a very large life insurance policy, which that's happened too. So if I have a guy that has a universal life or gul that I know isn't going to go away no matter what and they have a half million or million dollars in there, then okay, maybe we could look at a single life payout and if they have enough income coming in while they're alive then maybe we don't need an income rider and maybe we can do an indexed annuity without an income rider. Sure. You know, but that being said, yeah, that would even work too because if they're the let's say the husband has the biggest pension and if he's alive, she's dead, he's still fine, she's alive, he's dead, she's in trouble. Then you better have a big life insurance policy or we're doing joint lifetime payout.

Right. Well and that's. I've actually had that question come up this week or last week actually an agent asked me so like this Chad, always do joint lifetime income. So not always but most cases warrant it. And, and really the, the there's a couple of caveats there. Number one is are they major age gap where doing joint just drags the guaranteed income down.

So far I've had someone at 70 years old that had a 50 year old wife, right.

That's so that she's going to pull that guaranteed income down so much that it's. And she's so young.

I mean darn near certain he's going to pass before she does unless it's a freak accident. And again, if there's life insurance on that, caveat number two being if there is a huge life insurance policy on one or the other, and the way that the needs work out, you don't have to do joint to take care of one.

If the original and there's a few other stipulations come into that maybe they don't have a life insurance policy, but they have a couple rental properties, you know, or maybe they have oil rights or maybe they have, you know, something out there. I mean, I have a client that they have a $500,000 car that it's a collector's vehicle, one of one. So they know even if the market was bad, they could still probably get a decent amount of money out of that vehicle. But, you know, it just comes down to everything revolves around that one question. What is the purpose of the money? Yeah. You know, because you can even have someone say, you know what, I don't care. I mean, I've heard this before and I've actually ran into this. An objection. Well, your policy doesn't allow me to die with my last check broken bouncing. So they say, I want to die with my last check bouncing. I'm going, well, okay, tell me when you're going to die. Why? Don't know that. So how could you ever time that it's either getting lucky or you don't. Sad concept to me that that's what he want to do. I mean, to me, I absolutely want to enjoy life and I want to live. I mean, that's why Leilani and I take what, 12 to 16 weeks off a year? I mean, I have people say all the time, if you're writing this year, I'll probably write 40 million. But I'm going to plan on taking 14 weeks off this year. Gets you catching up more. Could you write if I didn't take those 14 weeks off? Well, first of all, I've only taken two to three weeks off this year, and I'm already feeling it right now. Like I'm. Now granted, by the time I've done this, I would have been taking six weeks off so far. Yeah. And I'll be much more refreshed. But I just hit the wall, man, and I feel it like I'm still. I will get in front of clients and I will focus and I'll work my tail up, but I have to work a lot harder to stay focused. It's does not jeopardize or compromise anything I'm doing for My clients. It's just I have to work a lot harder.

Yeah.

When I come back refreshed, I can write more and do more because I'm much more relaxed. And so you could say, how much are you losing by taking vacation? Well, number one, most important, I'm never jeopardizing my relationship with my wife. Yeah. So that comes first. Right. Before anything. Then, of course, my kids. I want to be sure we can enjoy if we want to go out to dinner, if we want to go take a weekend off, if we want to go to Disney World. Whatever it is, you know? You know, no matter what is. I want those memories there. And then whenever I get grandkids, I want to be able to just go, hey, you know what I mean? Because little kids have this magic ability to look on you in the face and go, do you really have to work? Well, there's many years. The question was. The answer was yes, I have to. I mean, we. There's no way. I cannot work. I. We won't have bills. We're in debt too much. We didn't manage money the way we are. But you know what if my little grandkid looks at me five years from now and says, hey, do you really have to go to work? Pop up. I'm like gonna. Nope. I'm. I'm gonna just. We're calling in.

Yeah, they gotta. They got a good way of getting you. Getting you off the job and getting you to empty your pockets.

I mean, or. Or I'll say, you know what? Today I do. But I'm. I got Thursday. I can take that entire day off and we can just go do something. You know, that's what it's about. So everything has to do with purpose. Yeah. You know, so you've got to ask those questions. And that's why. Also. Also ask, do you. How much do you need to survive off of. For income? Yeah. And how much do you need to thrive off of? What's your enjoyable. I'm not saying staying at risk Carlton's. That's not what I'm saying. Sure. You know, but I'm saying how much to be able to enjoy your retirement do you need?

Yeah.

And so that's all. Once again, purpose of money.

So I love it. It's single most important question you can ask. You ask every single client. You have no exceptions. What is the purpose of the money?

Yeah, well, I ask every single client every single question, no matter what it is.

Yes. And every.

Every question on that fact finders acts. But that is. That is after I find out what I mean. I say, are you willing to lose all of your money, Some of your money, or none of your money? Then I say, what's more important? To plan for living or plan for dying? But I even asked that on the phone. Yeah, that's one of the first questions when I'm qualifying clients to see if I can help them. What's the purpose of the money? Okay.

Important.

I hope this helps you guys. You have a great day. And, of course, happy selling.

Sam.