Word From The Wise Archives - Creative Edge

A Word from the Wise features expertise from industry-related professionals to put you at the top of your game. When Stephen Stricklin founded Wise Wealth LLC, he was motivated by the desire to bring financial wisdom to his clients. A former teacher and counselor, Stephen understands the role knowledge plays in wealth management and preservation… Read More

I’ve never been much of an “I remember when … ” person, but occasionally I’m persuaded by how much things have changed as I sit here typing this on a flight to Florida while listening to a shuffle of my iTunes, reviewing 44-meg worksheets. I remember in the late 80s doing evaluations of insurance company… Read More

Good field underwriting is critical in the life insurance sales process for clients, producers and insurance carriers alike, as it allows producers to set realistic expectations for their clients. When the client knows what to expect, the underwriting process is smoother, less confusing and less time consuming for all parties involved. For a producer, good… Read More

My wife and I and some friends had the pleasure of experiencing New York City at Christmas this year. A centerpiece of the trip was the concert by Andre’ Boccelli at Madison Square garden. The virtuoso performance by the world-renowned blind Italian tenor was to weep for, as he was accompanied by a symphony, a… Read More

Many of our partner companies are in the midst of planning for 2015, as are we at CreativeOne, and I imagine you are for your business or agency as well. We are drawing some conclusions about the manufacturers of life insurance and annuities and their plans for 2015. Fixed index annuity (FIAs) sales now dominate… Read More

One of my colleagues, Paul McGillivray, recently graced me with his paperback copy of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryon’s paean to growing up in Des Moines, Iowa in the halcyon decade of the 50s and the tumultuous 60s. Growing up in the Des Moines area myself, born but 4 years… Read More

Star Trek: Next Generation was always right in my wheelhouse. I loved the optimistic and technologically advanced view of the future along with the adventure inherent in exploring the unknown. A favorite character was Data (the first to be discovered but second to be created, for aficionados): sentient android or artificially-created being through which the… Read More

As children, we’re repeatedly told that the world is our oyster, and that we can be anything we want to be if we just put our best foot forward. After all, how many of us envisioned growing up to be professional athletes, musicians or entertainers? It wasn’t that we were delusional – we just believed… Read More

There is so much heat and so little light in the debate over how to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” I recently watched a Sunday morning news show in which the anchor played footage showing Speaker Boehner saying that tax rates should not be raised, and then watched her pose the non sequitur to her panelists,… Read More

Several of the staff at Creative meet monthly with our Creative Agent Advisory Board (CAAB) to discuss our programs and services, and get feedback from these representatives of our independent agent field force. Interesting questions come from these meetings. One CAAB member, a registered securities representative, teed up this question: “If today’s extremely low interest environment causes a fixed annuity issued today to have low credited rates for its entire term, what is the effect of volatility on caps in indexed annuities, because most policies rebuy options every year and re-declare caps?” I thought you might want to know my response.