Navigating uncertainty in a presidential election year

Now is a great time to educate your clients on the best ways they can protect themselves against this increased uncertainty.

By Marc Cadin

And just like that, we’re back in a presidential election year. But what you may not know is that history shows a presidential election year could have a serious impact on the stock market. This means now is a great time to educate your clients on the best ways they can protect themselves against this increased uncertainty.

The simple truth is that families who have life insurance and guaranteed streams of lifetime income through things such as annuities are in a significantly better position to absorb the economic challenges that accompany stock market fluctuations.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. More than a year ago, Ernst and Young published what I consider to be one of the most important studies of the past several years. It exhaustively analyzed how life insurance, especially permanent policies, and deferred income annuities outperform investment-only or investment-plus-other-products approaches, in every combination.

Given this reality, why do we regularly see headlines like these?

Forbes: “Why investing and insurance shouldn’t mix.”

CNN Business: “What’s wrong with using insurance as an investment?”

Or here’s one just for doctors, from White Coat Investor: “Insurance is not an investment … combine whole life insurance with investing and you end up with the worst from both worlds.”

These attacks perpetuate the myth that an investment-only, fee-only strategy works best for clients. The data simply do not support that conclusion.

Remember, the stock market is volatile. That’s a long-held fact, not an anomaly reflecting today’s economic situation. So there must be a different, more holistic, planning strategy for the average American and their family.

Our organization, Finseca or “Financial Security for All,” represents the financial security profession — the people who practice holistic planning, which includes the use of life insurance and annuities as part of a comprehensive financial plan.

If we’re ever going to break the pattern of lurching from crisis to crisis and truly empower people instead, we must also move beyond the stale, status quo thinking about financial security.

No, financial security is not just for the wealthy. It is also not just for those with certain degrees or who come from a particular place or background. Financial security is attainable for everyone. And it all starts with a holistic financial plan.