If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth?
St. Paul, MN. – If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth? Change ‘words’ to ‘dollars’ and the answer has potential to be significant for a financial advisor.
Michael Franks, a financial advisor with Wealthbridge Financial Services, Inc. in Little Rock, AR, learned how valuable a video can be when he showed Securian’s online educational presentation about variable annuities to some prospects – a couple planning for retirement. The video explains generally what variable annuities are, how they work, and how their tax deferred status and product features can help individuals preparing for retirement. It also shows how Securian’s Ovation Lifetime Income annuity rider, an optional living benefit available for an additional cost, offers guaranteed income and growth opportunities.
Franks says the video helped answer the couple’s questions. “When it was over, they didn’t say much except that it made sense,” said
Franks. “To say the video and the product make sense is high praise,” said Kerry Geurkink, director, Individual Annuity Marketing, Securian Financial Group. “Annuities can be confusing for people who don’t have much experience with them. The video breaks the products into basic concepts and illustrates each concept with clear language and animated graphics. Our goal is to make it easier for consumers to understand the product and make a decision about whether it’s right for them.”
Franks says they couple are now clients. They submitted an application for a variable annuity one week after seeing the video. Geurkink says advisors will find the Securian Ovation videos helpful on a number of levels. Franks agrees. “Annuities change so often and they’re so complicated that the simple video not only helped my clients, it helped me too,” he said.
When clients purchase the Ovation rider as part of their MultiOption variable annuity contract they add an additional option for guaranteed
income under the contract. The rider provides the ability to receive guaranteed income for life through withdrawals that continue regardless of
fund performance or contract value after the benefit date (the later of the contract anniversary following a client’s 59th birthday or the date the
benefit is added to the contract).
Ovation offers clients additional features that can help them protect and grow their potential future income under the rider. Any increases to the
guaranteed annual income under the rider are locked in each year, and as long as annual withdrawals stay within the allowed guidelines, clients’
guaranteed annual income will never decrease because of a down market.
To help protect income for both spouses, clients can add the Ovation Lifetime Income rider as a joint benefit at time of purchase.
The Ovation rider establishes a benefit base for calculating guaranteed annual income. The benefit base provides no minimum contract value or
investment return, is not available for withdrawal, and is subject to a $5,000,000 maximum. All withdrawals reduce the contract value, the benefit base, and the value of any death benefits. Withdrawals exceeding allowed guidelines or taken before the benefit date may have a negative effect on Ovation’s guarantees which can reduce the amount of income available through the rider and result in a lower benefit.
The Ovation rider may not be cancelled once elected and requires use of an approved asset allocation strategy. It is an optional living benefit rider
available for an additional cost in MultiOption Advisor B Class and Extra variable annuities, which are issued by Minnesota Life Insurance Company. The Ovation rider and MultiOption variable annuity contracts may not be available in every state.
