Employers are buying big group annuities to carry out pension risk transfers.
Greg Fortier believes that more investment advisors should talk to their clients about using individual annuities to do something similar.
Fourier, a financial advisor at Centinel Financial, talked about the value of individual annuities in reducing clients' portfolio risk recently in an email interview.
"An index-linked annuity and fixed indexed annuity allow for risk transfer rather than just diversification," Fortier said. "This is important for folks that are approaching retirement."
What It Means
Financial professionals have talked for years about the importance of risk management and risk diversification.
Now, the idea of risk transfer — simply putting the headaches associated with investment market risk in someone else's head — may be getting more attention.
The Nest Egg Today
Fortier, a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst professional designation, has been a financial advisor at Centinel since 2018. Before that, he worked as a wealth manager, financial advisor and financial consultant at firms like Merrill Lynch and John Hancock.
He likes to help clients with high-end investment management strategies, such as using security-backed lines of credit to tap large assets for cash without incurring taxes on investment gains.
"Financial professionals should be looking at three pillars," he said. "Tax, fees and risk. Most forget taxes are usually their biggest expense."
