Show Notes
“Guaranteed” sounds reassuring—but what does that promise actually protect? Your retirement income? Your account balance? Someone you love?
In this episode of Take Pride in Retirement, Josh joins me to unpack the differences between income protection and protection from market losses. I explain how a variable annuity can offer an income guarantee while its account value falls, how fixed indexed annuities work, and why an income benefit base isn’t necessarily money you can cash out.
We also connect those details to the retirement decisions that matter to our LGBTQ+ community: maintaining independence, paying for affirming care, protecting a spouse or unmarried partner, and including chosen family in beneficiary decisions. A lifetime income benefit doesn’t automatically cover two lifetimes—and naming someone as your beneficiary doesn’t automatically give them lifetime income.
Before relying on a guarantee, understand what’s protected, who’s covered, what it costs and what could change the benefit.
No matter who you are or who you love, you deserve a retirement you can take pride in.
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About Take Pride in Retirement:
Take Pride in Retirement is a podcast dedicated to retirement planning solutions for the LGBTQ community. Host Matt McClure, a licensed fiduciary financial advisor, shares strategies to protect your hard-earned money while pursuing market-like growth.
Matt holds the RSSA® credential as a Registered Social Security Analyst®, helping clients optimize their Social Security filing strategies to potentially increase lifetime income. He’s also a Certified Annuity Specialist® (CAS®), a designation earned through a 135+ hour graduate-level program in fixed-rate and variable annuities from the Institute of Business & Finance.
Based in Georgia with his husband and two dogs, Matt spent over a decade in New York City, working with The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, NY1, and WCBS Newsradio 880. A career highlight includes reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.