Tyler Randall · 27 Jun 2025 · 2 minutes

ANNUITY ALPHA

Wrapping Up Annuity Awareness Month with Three Key Insights

Share on:

June brings sunshine, heat, vacations, and celebrating the end of school and the beginning of summer (feel free to enjoy a little Alice Cooper).

But for those of us in the financial industry, June is also an important month to celebrate annuities and the role they play in helping Americans live a more secure retirement

That’s right – all June, we’ve been celebrating Annuity Awareness Month. And as we wind the celebration down, here are three take-aways for your practice: 


→ Annuities can drive ALPHA for your clients. Yes, that’s right – Alpha. 

When your clients think about annuities, the benefits that usually come to mind are things like income they can’t outlive and security. But many of them don’t realize what a good deal annuities can be – that they can actually drive alpha in a client’s retirement approach. 

Here’s a primer written by Stonewood Financial COO, Neil Wilding on leveraging annuities to drive alpha. Advisors who are positioning annuities in this way are seeing rapid practice growth.


 → Ken Fisher spent years trying to tarnish annuities. Now there’s software proving just how wrong he is.

Stonewood developed our Annuity Alpha software specifically to overcome this objection and show the value of an income annuity. The software analyzes the growth needed in a managed account to match the guaranteed income from an FIA.

And the results are shocking for U.S. savers. 

You can watch an overview of the software and learn the best way to position FIAs with your clients here


→ Roth annuities can help address tax and legislative risk. 

The tax debate in Washington is heating up. As we await word from Congress on an extension of the TCJA, one thing is certain: today’s taxes are at low rates (thanks to the 2017 reform), and they’re not likely to stay there in decades to come. 

That makes this the perfect environment for savers to get serious about diversifying the tax status of their retirement assets. And Roth annuities have a role to play.

In fact, Stonewood Financial’s CEO, Becky Swansburg, spoke at NAFA’s Annuity Leadership Conference in DC this week, detailing how Roth annuities can help U.S. savers expand the diversification of their retirement assets to protect against a more complete list of retirement income risks. 

All in all, it’s been a successful month recognizing the power of annuities to help U.S. savers access more predictable income in retirement that they can count on for years to come. And that’s certainly something worth celebrating. 

Tyler Randall
About the Author

Tyler Randall

Tyler Randall is the National Sales Director at Stonewood Financial. He works with financial advisors across the United States helping them position annuities strategically in retirement plans. Over the past 15 years, he's coached advisors who have written over $400M in annuity premium. His approach focuses on consultative selling, data-driven positioning, and building client confidence through transparency. Tyler is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and webinars.

Real Advisors. Real Results.

See how advisors are using Stonewood software to win larger cases and deliver better outcomes for their clients.

An advisor was working with a prospect who was a real "do-it-yourselfer" when it came to Roth conversions. The client was converting assets up their existing tax bracket – and hadn't considered any impact to IRMAA.

With Roth Done Right, the advisor was able to show an alternate pattern that sped up the conversion to 6 years. The new structure offered $30,000 savings in conversion taxes – a 20% reduction on the prospect's conversion tax bill. The report also showed hundreds of thousands of dollars in long-term tax and IRMAA savings from the converted assets – an amount the prospect hadn't been able to quantify on his own.

Outcome

A new client with $1M in new AUM, and a $1M FIA sale to fund the conversion process.

An advisor was working with a prospect who already had assets with Ken Fisher. Fisher's team presented a 5% systematic withdrawal projection, so the advisor needed a stronger way to frame the income conversation.

Using the Annuity Alpha report, the advisor showed how an annuity could deliver over 8% in annual cash flow with lifetime income, plus a long-term care doubler. The contrast was clear enough that the prospect moved forward.

Outcome

$1.5M placed and a $100K in new business revenue.

An advisor was working with a 58-year-old couple with an established, well-funded retirement income plan, leaving an additional $3M IRA to build out a legacy for the kids. The couple's existing advisor had no real additional plan for this money, other than to keep it in their managed account and grow that money as much as possible for the kids.

Using the Legacy Done Right report, the advisor showed the need for tax planning on this $3M IRA. According to the advisor, the simple analysis "opened up the wallet" to the Roth conversion story. The advisor then used the blended Roth/Life feature in the report to show a blend of Roth Conversion assets with some Life Insurance to help maximize the client’s legacy.

Outcome

$3M in motion. The advisor picked up a $1.5M FIA sale that will be converted to Roth. And the advisor also sold a 5-Pay Protection focused IUL policy at $225,000 of premium per year.

An advisor group incorporated the Total Tax Burden report into the strategy presentation for all new prospects. They ran the tax snapshot for every new client as part of their first meeting conversation, quantifying the growing tax burden of IRA money – and illustrating the kinds of tax savings possible when working with their firm.

Starting in January of 2023, this simple analysis was presented to every single prospect who walked in the door. The goal was to differentiate their practice and drive overall revenue growth through various Roth conversion strategies.

Outcome

From 2022 to 2025, new annual AUM rose from $5M to $50M. Annual FIA sales rose from $3M to $35M. And annual life premium rose from $50K to $1M.