Who am I and What can I do for you?
My name is Michael Carr.
I call my business, Simplify My Retirement.
I am a former registered investment advisor.
I worked with the preferred division of Prudential securities in Ontario California. I did financial planning for a fee and helped people prepare private retirement vehicles.
At one time I held many licenses. Series 6, 63, 65 and series 7. Each one of these licenses allowed me to practice in different areas and with different vehicles. The licenses meant that I had sufficient knowledge to guide you through the multitude of risks involved in trying to grow your money.
Investing is so much simpler today. Without years of figuring out the market.
Without paying somebody to put your money at risk.
I don’t need to use any licenses these days, because I don’t need to put your money at risk to guarantee you a successful retirement.
Today, there are strategies out there that have absolutely no fees.
These strategies can consistently produce better results than most managed money out there.
Why would you pay someone along the lines of a Morgan Stanley or a Fisher investments or an Edward Jones to manage your money when 90% of them have never beat the S&P 500?
Why would you pay someone a fee for them to potentially lose your money?
What is their motivation not to lose any of your hard earned money when they get paid every month, whether you make money or lose money.
They get a new boat, even if you lose everything you invested.
Where is this Fiduciary responsibility we hear so much about?
Fisher investments has a television commercial that brags they have an investor friendly fee schedule.
So do I.
Every client absolutely loves my fee schedule.
They pay me nothing.
If I change their life for the better, the insurance company pays me a commission.
My clients have never paid me a penny. (I do love cookies though).
My clients have never lost a penny of their invested money.
The strategy I focus on is the Indexing Strategy.
Not index funds.
Index funds have fees and the risk of loss, like everything else in the open market.
The Indexing Strategy allows you to beat 90% of the Wall Street gurus.
The Indexing Strategy guarantees that your money can grow tax-free and with absolutely no losses, while getting good growth.
The agreement you make for an insurer to INSURE that you will never lose a penny, due to market losses, is that you and your benefactor both participate in market gains.
Usually the company will offer you all of the gains up to 10% or 12%. The company then takes everything over that.
The CHART BELOW clearly shows the benefit of The Indexing Strategy and never losing any money.
If the market goes down 30%, the market has to gain 42% just to get even.
If you lose nothing when the market goes down 30%, then, while the market is recovering to its previous level, you are moving ahead with gains.
One of my favorite uses of the indexing strategy is in annuities.
First of all, I use an annuity to guarantee an income for life. Even if you live to 100 years old.
My father is turning 91 in June 2025. His money ran out in his annuity years ago. He continues to get guaranteed payments every single year until he moves on.
Second of all, the indexing strategy keeps the remaining money safe and allows your money to participate in market gains.
This helps you to both combat inflation and may allow your money to grow while you are drawing from it.
Depending on the level of those gains, you could even get a raise during your retirement.
There are a multitude of strategies that annuities can be used in. Estate Planning, wealth creation and income maximization, to name a few.
please reach out, I’m sure we can create a strategy to make your life everything you deserve it to be.
Indexing VS S&P 500
What would a top level guaranteed income asset look like?
#1 NO CHANCE OF LOSS
you could not lose your principle to stock market dips, or crashes.
#2. INFLATION PROTECTION
It could be inflation, proof, and that the account value could actually go up.
#3. THE INCOME COULD BE TAX FREE
for younger planners, you may be able to receive your income tax, free, by strategically using an IRS code.
#4. YOU COULD TURN THE INCOME ON WHENEVER YOU WANT AND HAVE IT GUARANTEED FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WITH THE POTENTIAL THAT IT COULD INCREASE AND GIVE YOU RAISES DURING YOUR RETIREMENT.
#5. YOUR INCOME WOULD CONTINUE EVEN IF YOUR ACCOUNT BALANCE GOES TO ZERO.
#6. IT WOULD PAY YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY COUNT ON IT.
WOULD A GUARANTEED RETIREMENT MAKE IT MORE ENJOYABLE?
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The History of Guaranteed Annuities
When I first started representing the indexing strategy, I remember people I spoke to often had similar concerns.
They were centered around the idea that an annuity has guarantees. Some people feel that the word guarantee leads to the statement -too good to be true.
I got the feeling that many people thought they might be venturing into a new area, that because they've never heard of the indexing strategy, that I specialize in, that they might be some of the first investors and maybe it was untried.
So, I’d like to go over a little history. I thought folks would feel more comfortable if they had more background on these investments.
Annuities actually began in ancient Rome over 2000 years ago. They were called Annua which just meant annual stipend.
You would give a lump sum payment to someone, and in exchange you'd get fixed yearly payments, either for your life or a specific period of time.
A Roman jurist named Julianus Who lived from 170 to 228 A.D. created one of the first life expectancy tables used to calculate the annuity payments.
In the middle ages annuities were used to fund wars.
In the 18th century, European governments used annuities to guarantee lifetime income and to fund public projects.
In the United States they go back to 1759, when annuities were used to benefit Presbyterian ministers. If I remember my schooling right the early Presbyterians were very conservative people.
So, when our country was founded annuities were an easily used and easily understood way to save for a guaranteed retirement income.
In those early days, there were more risks than there are today. Someone may choose to have payments only on their life and pass away early. Some people may choose to have payments only for 10 or 15 years and live 25 more. And if you were dealing with a private individual, they may invest your money poorly and not be able to pay you as agreed.
Those days are long gone -your heirs in an indexing product are always guaranteed the beginning account value minus any withdrawals you have taken plus any investment credits. So if you haven't taken any out they're guaranteed to receive everything you put in.
The indexing strategies that we use today began much more simply in Canada in 1995 in response to the 1994 Bond market crash. They were designed to provide principal protection with the potential for market type returns by linking them to equity indexes. So your money was never in the open market, it was tied to indexes.
Today, when you give your money to an insurance company they use it to buy a bond and they keep that bond in an account in your name, your money never goes into the market.
But bonds, just like CDs and savings accounts pay interest. It is the interest from your bond and a million other people's bonds that they use to invest. And to maximize their leverage they invest in the options market. I won't go into that, it's too complicated- but they are obviously very successful or these products would not be Owned by tens of millions of people.
And if you're worried about insurance companies. You shouldn't be. They're the ones that have managed the countries pension funds for decades and decades. Prudential manages General Motors and Verizon’s pensions. MetLife manages FedEx and IBM’s. New York life doesn't disclose but they manage almost $800 billion in corporate pensions. My personal pensions when I was in the corporate world were managed by Prudential and John Hancock insurance.
It should be everybody's goal to do business with an insurance company for their retirement, because that's where all the guarantees and leverage and safety come from, that give you the peace of mind you're looking for in retirement . After all, as I said, they've been managing the pensions of this country’s working people for over 100 years.
Here's a great example of how index annuities and their guarantees work.
There is a product that if you put $100,000 in and wait to turn on the income, they will give you a 7.2% annual increase in your guaranteed income. This means that your income will double in 10 years.
It’s the rule of 72. If you get a 7.2% interest and amount will double in 10 years. Likewise if you get a 10% return an amount will double in 7.2 years.
If you’re very conservative, or you’re saving for a target amount of money, like college. There are guaranteed annuities that for a period of 5 to 7 years will guarantee you 5 to 7% interest so your principal can grow absolutely guaranteed.
The indexing strategy is the tool that people are using today to build and maintain legacies. This is the tool that guarantees they will always be wealthy. It looks to us like they're spending money like crazy people, but they keep getting richer.
Because they never lose anything.
It's the number one rule of investing.
DON'T lose money.
I hope that helps people understand how fantastic these investments are and why so many millions of people are already using them to guarantee their retirement.
Please give me a call, I love to talk to you guys and I'm happy to answer any of your questions
Technology
High frequency trading
Last time we spoke about the history of the 2000 year old guaranteed annuity.
This time I would like to talk about how today's markets work -with high speed computers and artificial intelligence.
And, also discuss what you are truly asking of money managers, and financial advisors like Edward Jones, Morgan Stanley etc. -and what their results have been over the last 20 or 30 years.
The first thing to know is no matter which of the above financial advisors, or any other you go to, they rarely manage your money.
They give your money, for a fee, to huge fund advisors like fidelity or Prudential or New York Life, and those are the people that your management fees go to. In essence your advisors are middle men or women.
In fact in 2023 Edward Jones received what I call kickbacks , and they call revenue sharing- payments of $281.7 million from mutual funds, annuity funds and other partners.
So. The government says revenue sharing is not illegal if you disclose it.
It took me half an hour to find it on the Edward Jones website and even my artificial intelligence app cannot find the number for Raymond James.
You decide if these people are working for you or not.
OK-back to the impossible task of beating the market.
According to the artificial intelligence app Perplexity- over a 20 year period 93.6% of actively managed mutual funds and investment managers failed to beat the S&P 500.
What were you told to make you believe that your advisor was part of the 6.4% that succeeded occasionally?
If they can't beat the market whatever happened to-" if you can't beat them join them".
Why would I pay an advisor to put my money at risk, when I can get as good a return or better without putting my money at risk?
Who is in charge of the stock market?
Today as much as 70% of the tens of millions of market trades that happen every day are generated by high-speed computers.
It only takes you or your broker about a second or two to click a mouse and complete an order.
In that time high-speed computers have bought and sold Thousands or tens of thousands of shares of that same fund hundreds of times over making miniature profits each time.
A few years ago there was an expose on 60 minutes where best-selling author Michael Lewis said "The United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism, is rigged" he felt "by a combination of the stock exchanges, the big Wall Street banks, and high frequency traders." "They're able to identify your desire to buy shares in Microsoft and buy them in front of you and sell them back to you at a higher price."
If you're wondering how they anticipate your trades.
Brokers trade in batches so they can save on fees. The computer technology of buying and selling are basically the same as what you and i would use on an app on your phone.
So if the big boys are working in fractions of seconds those traders can beat the fund trade your manager just put in and execute theirs before your managers trade executes.
They see where the trading flow is going and get there before everybody else.
So what does it cost to compete in this market today?
One high frequency trading firm spent a quarter of $1 billion just to take the slack out of the fiber optic cables between Chicago and New York in order to shave 1.4 milliseconds off of their transaction time.
You can't compete with that. I can’t compete with that. And neither can the money managers your investment advisors sign you up with.
The reason we go to these money managers is because the stock market is so vast and so complicated.
The people I meet with tell me they just did not know where to even begin.
And now, they are in the investments or funds that they're in because an advisor put them there- but they can't explain to me why.
They can't tell me what the fees are, or what they are for.
So what do I do that is so different?
My strategies are boring.
My strategies are simple.
I focus on no risk of loss, or the highest guaranteed income possible, for the rest of your life.
And if you have 15+ years, I can show you how to get your retirement income, completely tax free.
How simple are my plans?
As I said, one lady I met with is in her 80s, she picked it up right away.
When her and I sat down with her children, she was pulling charts out of my folder and explaining them to her kids.
So what I'm saying is you are paying your money managers fees to not only do something they likely can't do -but to try and do something that almost no one has done.
A great analogy is in cards. We have a lot of card players in Wisconsin.
You're asking your money manager to go to a $100,000 buy -in poker tournament, (The $100,000 buy in is your money), and and you are paying them to play with the best in the world – and you expect them TO WIN.
That's quite the challenge.
I assume you want them to win every time for you?
That's just like asking your money manager to go against billions of dollars of high technology and winning.
By the way.
you should consider this.
You gave him/her your life savings, the result of an entire life's work, to protect and hopefully grow.
You tell me, what is their motivation to fight and win for you?
Not much.
The advisors and managers get paid every month either way, whether you win or lose.
But the statistics show they do not win.
The reality and the technology tell us they likely cannot win.
You don't win.
But they always do!
As your account slowly goes down or loses value to inflation, your advisor is buying a brand new boat.
And they call themselves fiduciaries!
In my opinion that's a stretch.
What's my motivation?
I don't make a penny unless I make your life and your financial future better than it is today.
Period.
There is actually a company that advertises on TV, I believe it's Fisher investments.
They say they have an investor friendly fee structure.
A fee structure that you'd be happy to pay them, to give this overwhelming challenge their best shot on your behalf, apparently.
If just the words - “an investor friendly fee structure” -don't scare you, I would like to know what does.
In my opinion, a true fiduciary is someone who eliminates the risk of loss from your lifetime's hard work. And does not charge you a fee to do it.
unless you WANT to pay someone to put your money at risk in the hopes of doing something that they have historically rarely done.
by the way, it's the- not charging you a fee part- that would put Edward Jones and Raymond James and all the rest out of business. Which is what I'm trying to do
Contact Michael
Today is the best time to plan for your future. You are worth it.
It is never too early to get started on your investment plans. Tell us more about your goals, and we will get you started on a plan to achieve them.
Simplify My Retirement
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