1) Introduction

Hello, and thank you for coming here today. My name is_______________. I sincerely appreciate your willingness to share your evening with me. I hope you all enjoy yourselves tonight and leave here with a sense of clarity about achieving a financial retirement plan. My objective is to introduce, educate, and illustrate to you, ways in which you can build, preserve, and protect your assets, in a safe and tax efficient manner. By guiding you in your investment decisions, I can help you to enjoy, and make the most of your retirement years. If you take the time to plan, you will gain perspective, and enjoy the serenity of knowing you have a retirement strategy in place.

As an independent financial planner, I am free to work with any financial services company I choose. The most important thing to me is my client. I work with large, solid companies that have achieved extremely high ratings by, A.M. Best, Standard and Poor's, Moody's, and Duff & Phelps. These rating agencies are important because they rate the financial strength, the safety, and claims-paying ability of financial services companies.

2) Your Future Financial Security

The fact that we are all here tonight tells me a great deal about you. You are concerned about your retirement years. Having enough money for retirement is one of the biggest financial worries among Americans today.

According to the Social Security Administration, 39 percent of people over 65 are kept out of poverty only by their social Security benefits. On average, personal resources account for 38% of income in retirement. Only 18% will come from pensions and 40% from social security.

Your future financial security is largely your responsibility.

Financial planning can make all the difference in the world. Planning for your retirement is simply a smart idea.

The first step to achieving your retirement goals is to have a plan.

The problem is that most people spend more time planning big celebrations, such as weddings, anniversaries, holy communions, or bar mitzvahs, than they do planning for retirement. These events, although they are very important, are over and done in one day. You may be retired for 25, 30, perhaps 40 years or more. Ensuring that you will have enough income to live comfortably in retirement will take genuine effort on your part. Americans are concerned about sacrificing lifestyle. By taking the time to attend this seminar you are taking a big step toward a more comfortable retirement. If you do not already have a secure retirement plan in place, your current financial situation can be evaluated and you can take action before it is too late. Asking a financial advisor to guide you will be one of the smartest decisions you will have ever made. Tonight's seminar will leave you feeling confident in your ability to make good financial decisions that will directly affect the quality of your lifestyle in retirement.

3) Probate Concerns

I want to touch upon the process of probate, before we begin to review our investment options. You will be pleasantly surprised that the majority of your assets do not need to pass through probate. The purpose of probate is to determine ownership, to clear the title of your assets, when you die. Before your heirs can receive your assets, it must be determined that there are no other persons that can claim to have an interest in your assets.

There are various problems with the probate process: cost, time delays, stress, and loss of privacy (public notice). Imagine that you fully intend to pass on your accumulated savings and the family business. The family business could be ruined while waiting for needed dollars to keep a long running business operational. Legal fees can erode away substantial assets. When it comes to probate, everything comes to a halt, no assets can be utilized or sold,-and they are in effect frozen. I want to make you aware that these problems can easily be avoided. Certain financial products allow you to bypass the probate process while others do not. Certain financial products, upon your death, will pass on your full account value directly to your heirs without probate costs or delays

4) Solutions

This is a good opportunity for me to share my philosophy regarding investment strategies for retirement purposes. I am going to apply smart, logical methods by which you can build, preserve, and protect your savings in a safe and tax-efficient manner. This is not going to be about the buying and selling of stock or any strategies related to the same. I will present to you clear, no-nonsense, ways to handle your retirement concerns.

The "Spectrum of Risk and Return".

You see before you on the overhead/screen a "Spectrum of Risk and Return". This"Spectrum of Risk and Return" is a simple and logical way in which we can all view our investment choices. All the way on the left you see the words "Lower Risk, Low/ Moderate Return". All the way on the right you see the words "Higher Risk/ Potentially Higher Return". All the way on the left under "Lower Risk", you see; 1) Bonds 2) CDs 3) Tax-Deferred Annuities. All the way on the right under "Higher Risk", you see; 1) Stocks 2) Mutual funds 3) Variable Annuities. You will notice that right smack in the middle of our spectrum is a big Question mark. We will get back to that question mark a little later in our program. Again, this "Spectrum of Risk and Return" provides a simple and logical method to view the level of return and the risk associated with our investment choices.

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People who are either planning for retirement or are already in retirement, tend to take less risk with their money.

People who are either planning for retirement or are already in retirement tend to take less risk with their money. They want to grow their retirement dollars without risking their original principal. They are looking for safety. Does that sound like you? The reason for this tendency is because you are more interested in what? Protecting existing assets! Am I right about that? If youÕre 65 today and you lose half of your money in the stock market, you most likely will not have the time to make it up later. If you were to have $100,000 invested in mutual funds (a market sensitive product), and you were to lose half your money in the stock market/mutual fund (leaving you with $50,000), that means the market would then have to increase by 100%, just for you to get back to where you were ($100,000).

Let me repeat that. If you were to have $100,000 invested in mutual funds (a market sensitive product), and you were to lose half your money in the stock market/mutual fund (leaving you with $50,000), that means the market would then have to increase by 100%, just for you to get back to where you were ($100,000). People who are either approaching or are in retirement, just like you , believe they won't have time to do well enough, long enough, to recoup their losses. And you know what? Coming to that conclusion, simply realizing that you just can't take the risk associated with the ups and downs of the stock market, takes real wisdom.

5) Current Investment Review

Investment products on the "Lower-Risk" side of our "Spectrum of Risk and Return"

We are going to go through these investment products one-by-one, and examine each of them and see how well they perform in helping to "Build, Preserve and Protect in a Safe and Tax-Efficient manner", the assets you have all worked so hard to accumulate.

CDS

It is important to realize what it is that CDs do and do not do for us as an investment vehicle. CDs may be a place where you can put money that you may need 3, 6, or 9 months, from now. However, CDs do not help us reach our retirement goals as well as some alternative investments may. CDs are simply not a very tax-efficient financial vehicle. They pay low rates of interest, approximately X nationally (1-year CD). CDs pass through probate and cause increases in probate charges and attorney's fees.

One of the top reasons people leave their money in a CD is because they are afraid of losing their money. Please take a look at the following slide titled "I Don't Want to Lose any of My Money".

The point is, with taxes and inflation you could lose money by purchasing a certificate of deposit from a bank, a CD.

Please look at the following slide titled "It's Not What You Earn But What You Keep!"

Unlike a fully taxable investment, every dollar that you invest in a tax-deferred investment keeps working for you. The point is that tax-deferral is again extremely powerful, and it will help you to get ahead and stay ahead. Tax-Deferral will protect your retirement savings from erosion due to taxes and inflation, and it will build your purchasing power for the future.

Because the market value of a bond falls in a rising interest rate environment, bonds can be riskier than other investment alternatives. If you were to buy a $50,000 bond with an 8% yield, only to have interest rates then rise to 9%, your bond is instantly worth less, $45,000, were you to try and sell it in the open marketplace. When the public can buy a new bond yielding 9%, why would they pay you full price for a bond paying 8%? The point we are trying to make here is that bonds do carry risk. Please take a look at the effects of rising interest rates on your bond holdings, as they relate to the length of time until your bond matures.

There is another issue with regard to bonds that deserves your attention. Most people think of bonds or buy bonds for the interest income they produce. That's ok, but you should compare the yield of the bonds you're considering to those of other investments. Also, if you donÕt need the income, then why take it? You pay taxes on income that you donÕt need. Paying taxes on income you don't need simply does not make sense. You would be better off if you were to defer the income and let it grow tax-deferred. Also bonds, like CDs, might be callable. That means the company that issued the bond originally can decide at any time for any reason, to stop paying the rate of interest they originally agreed to pay you. That means the income stream you thought was guaranteed, could be stopped cold. What if you need money in an emergency situation, and interest rates have increased,- meaning the value of your bonds have decreased,-market fluctuation. This safe money that you thought was put safely aside in bonds is now worth substantially less than you thought. You may have put in $50,000, yet bond values have fallen and now itÕs worth only $40,000. The point is that bonds are not as safe as people think, and just like stocks, they too, are subject to market fluctuation and must pass through the agonizing process of probate.

When you place your savings in a Tax-Deferred Annuity, the United States Government, in an effort to give each and everyone of us an opportunity to fund our own retirement, allows our money to grow tax-deferred until we need to draw upon this money in our retirement years. Tax-deferred growth is one of the chief reasons why tens of millions of people around the world are attracted to annuities. The only time that an individual pays taxes on an annuity is when he or she withdraws interest from the account. And you, the owner of the annuity, get to make that decision. You will see as we proceed through our program, that the concept of tax-deferral is one that truly enables all of us to get ahead and stay ahead of taxes and inflation.

Given the same rate of interest, an annuity will produce more capital more quickly, than a taxable investment where taxes and inflation are eating away at your savings.

At one point or another we have all said to ourselves "I'll never do that again". We all learn from experience, from our past mistakes. We vow never to make that same mistake twice. There are certain financial mistakes where you should vow "never to do that again". Placing your hard earned retirement savings into investments that can be eroded away due to taxes and inflation is one of those mistakes, when you should vow "never to do that again".

Again, some of you may not know what to do with your money so you think you'll do nothing and just put it in a CD. The reality is you did do something, you lost money. When you put this safe money into a CD, it's attacked by taxes and inflation and again, could in fact go backwards. When this happens you have lost "real purchasing power". You begin to lose the battle against the rising cost of living.

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6) Taxation of Social Security benefit

I want to spend a minute or two on social security benefits and taxation. With respect to the recent tax revision on Social Security tax, I want to explain ways in which you can reduce the taxes you pay on Social Security benefits. This is made possible by the repositioning of bonds, CDs, and mutual funds, into tax-deferred annuities.

Depending on your retirement income, you may be paying tax on up to 85% of your Social Security benefit.

Why pay taxes on income you may not need to take? Once again, remember your investment objectives: Build, Preserve and Protect. A very important point to remember, is that tax deferred growth does not count toward provisional income, and therefore can reduce the taxes you pay on social security benefits.

7) Current Investment Review

Investment products on the "Higher-Risk" side of our "Spectrum of Risk and Return"

Stocks, mutual funds, and variable annuities offer no guarantee on principal or on interest. Stocks, mutual funds, and variable annuities are all market sensitive investments. These market sensitive investments go up, and they go down. Some of you here today have had good experiences in the stock market and most likely miserable experiences as well, especially over the past couple of years. The owner assumes the investment risk, plain and simple. Unfortunately, too many people have taken on too much risk in their retirement years.

The sudden decline of the stock market over the last few years has spelled tragedy for those investors who placed their hard-earned retirement savings in market sensitive products.*

Today retirement minded individuals are more careful with their money. Losses due to stock market declines over the past few years have forever changed the way we view investing for retirement.

It takes real wisdom to know when to stop taking unnecessary risks. As you approach retirement, less and less of your assets belong in market sensitive products. Simply stated, a greater percentage of your investment dollars should be in safe, secure products -fixed interest rate products.

8) Equity-Indexed Annuities

Equity- Indexed Annuities may represent one of the greatest opportunities for retirement investing today. They allow investors to share in the upside-potential of the stock market, with absolutely no market risk. If you want interest rates that are, on the average, higher than those of typical fixed products, Equity-Indexed annuities could be the answer you have been looking for.

Equity-Indexed Annuity Example

Let's go through an example that will illustrate "how an equity-indexed annuity works. Assume we are utilizing an equity-indexed annuity with a 100% participation rate, and a 12% cap. Pretend you put $100,000 into an equity indexed annuity, and you were fortunate enough to have a 10% gain in year #1 (your account value is now $110,000), and another 10% gain in year #2 (your account value would now be $121,000), with the S&P 500 now having grown to an "index value of 1500" by the end of year #2. Now, fast forward to the end of year #3, and pretend the "S&P 500 index value" has fallen to an "index value of 1000". In this scenario, you did not make any money, but more importantly, you did not lose any money either.

If you had decided to leave your money in a mutual fund or a variable annuity that mirrored the S&P 500, you would have experienced a real loss in year #3 of 33% in your account value. If in fact you had $121,000 in a mutual fund or a variable annuity at the end of year #2, you would have only $80,600 less fees and expenses at the end of year#3. If, as we have previously discussed you lost 33% in a mutual fund in a particular year, you would need a 50% increase the following year to get back up to where you were the year before. If your money had been safely placed in an Equity-Indexed Annuity (as in our example), you would still have $121,000 in your account at the end of year #3, because once you have a gain it is locked-in and yours to keep.

Here is where it really gets interesting. In our example, on day #1 of year #4, the S&P 500 is at "an index value of 1000", and your account value is still worth $121,000. You now have the opportunity to ride the market, the S&P 500 let's say, all the way back up to an " index value of 1500" and profit every step of the way, locking in your gains annually. If the S&P 500 were to climb to just 1100 by the end of year #4, thatÕs another 10% gain on top of the $121,000 you had already locked in, giving you a new account balance of $133,100 at the end of year# 4. This is a great product for retirement assets. The stock market goes up and down, but you only participate when the market goes up!

Again, with an Equity-Indexed Annuity, you share in the upside potential of the market but never the downside risk. If you just don't want the risk associated with the stock market, and you are happy with a return somewhere between a fixed product and a market related product, such as a mutual fund or a variable annuity, Equity Indexed Annuities may be the perfect solution for you.

This is a powerful investment product which matches up very nicely with retirement minded individuals, or those who just don't have the time to make up for downturns in the stock market. The performance of the stock market over the last few years, clearly points to the growing need for equity-indexed annuities. Looking back over the past couple of years, who would not like to have locked-in their stock market gains when the S&P 500 hit its high-point of 1527? Only Equity-Indexed Annuities could have done this for you. And now that the S&P 500 is sitting at approximately "1000", there may never be a better time to reposition your assets into an Equity-Indexed Annuity. Buy now and get in low.

(Optional material on Medicaid oriented annuities.)

9) Medicaid-Oriented Annuities

Using Medicaid oriented annuities to preserve and protect assets from nursing home expense can be a very smart idea. I am talking about avoiding Medicaid seizure by repositioning your assets. The passage of the Kennedy Kassenbaum Bill establishes annuities as a viable tool for protecting assets from Medicaid spend down.