‘Run, Janet, Run’: Wes Moss to Kentucky Retiree Whose Advisor Wants $350,000 in a 7-Year Annuity Jake FitzGerald Fri, October 16, 2026 at 5:34 AM EDT 6 min read SPY +0.28% ^GSPC +0.33% Trade SPY on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Wes Moss called the advisor's pitch false on all three counts: the annuity isn't invested in the S&P 500, isn't free, and carries real penalties.
A 7% surrender charge on $350,000 costs Janet $24,500 to exit early, while SPY delivers the same exposure for just $331 a year.
The 10-year Treasury yields 5.2%, producing roughly $38,845 more than a 4%-crediting annuity over seven years with full liquidity and no counterparty risk.
Building a portfolio and living off one are two completely different skills, and almost nobody teaches the second. This problem is what The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income helps, and it is free today. Read more here. (Sponsor)
"An insurance company could theoretically base the return you get on anything: the number of leaves that fall off a tree in autumn, capped at three."
Wes Moss said that on the October 13, 2026 episode of The Clark Howard Podcast. He was answering a Kentucky listener named Janet. Before the leaves line, he gave his opinion on her advisor's pitch: "Run, Janet, run. The claims that it's invested in the S&P 500: incorrect. No cost: false. No penalty: false. All of those are wrong. That's why annuities get a bad rap."
Janet told the show she has $1 million in her IRA. Her advisor wants 35% of it, about $350,000, in an "Opti Blend" fixed indexed annuity for seven years.
The pitch, as Janet described it, promised no cap, no management fee, and money "invested in the S&P." That is her account of the proposal, and this article assesses those claims. A seven-year lockup covers a large share of a retiree's remaining healthy years, and getting out early costs real money.
Many successful investors eventually reach the same moment. The saving is done, the portfolio is built, and the question quietly changes from how much can I grow this to how much can I take out? Get that second question wrong and decades of good investing can come apart in a handful of years.
That is exactly what The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income helps answer. It covers what your retirement could actually cost, which income sources are worth using, and the withdrawal math that decides whether the money lasts. It is free today from Fisher Investments. Read More Here ›
A fixed indexed annuity is an insurance contract. Moss explained that the money sits in the insurer's general account. A formula references the S&P 500 and caps the credit you receive at set amounts each month. Your return comes from that formula, which explains his leaf analogy. The index is only a measuring stick.
He also raised a big commission and a lockup that runs "usually seven years or more." Surrender charges vary by contract. As an illustration, a 7% charge on $350,000 costs $24,500 if Janet needs the money early.
Now compare the alternative. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) charges an expense ratio of 0.09%. On $350,000, that works out to about $331 a year.
The fund's share price is up about 16% over the past year and about 73% over five years, before dividends.
Run that five-year gain on Janet's $350,000 and it becomes $604,170. A capped formula exists to clip runs like that. In good years, the insurance company keeps the gains above the cap.
This trade depends on how the annuity's credited return compares with the risk-free rate. The 10-year Treasury yields 5.2%, backed by the U.S. government and marketable any day.
Assume, for illustration, that Janet's formula credits an average of 4% a year. After seven years her $350,000 grows to about $460,576.
Locking in a yield near 5.2% instead produces about $499,421. That is roughly $38,845 more, with full liquidity.
Readers can run their own balance against the same 5.2% yield for seven years:
If stocks average an example 10%, the same money makes about $682,051. That beats the annuity case by around $221,475. The annuity wins only if its credits beat Treasuries after the lockup, which high rates make harder.
Moss has said this himself about guaranteed products: "It's a different story today where a Treasury bond yields 5.25%. Does 6.8% feel as enticing? It's less enticing to me these days." Moss takes listener questions at wesmoss.com/ask, and lays out his retirement framework in The Retire Sooner Method.
He also raised counterparty risk. The guarantee is only as strong as the insurer. A Treasury has the government's backing.
Get the surrender schedule in writing. Ask for the percentage charged in each year of the contract. Multiply each year's rate by your deposit so you can see the actual dollar cost of getting out early.
Request the cap and participation rate. Ask how often the insurance company can reset them. A cap that drops after year one changes every projection the sales rep showed you.
Ask for the commission figure. Have the advisor state what they earn on the sale. Compare it with the fund's roughly $331 annual cost on the same money.
Price a Treasury ladder. Check current yields on TreasuryDirect for 1 to 7 year maturity dates. If guaranteed government yields match the annuity's realistic credit, the lockup buys you nothing.
Confirm fiduciary status. Moss told Janet to find a fiduciary, someone legally required to put her interests first. Ask for that commitment in writing for this specific recommendation.
A guarantee is only worth buying when it pays more than the risk-free rate you can already get without a seven-year lockup. (For a wider look at building retirement income without annuity lockups, we made the case for an income-first approach in this free report.)
(Sponsor) Most people spend their entire working lives focusing on one thing: growing a pile of money. Then they retire and discover the skill they actually need is close to the opposite. Turning that pile into steady income, year after year, through good markets and bad, without ever running out.
It may be the least discussed and most consequential transition in personal finance, and plenty of otherwise careful investors walk into it with no real plan. That is exactly what The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income helps answer. It is a free guide from Fisher Investments covering what your retirement will really cost, where the cash flow should come from, and how much you can safely withdraw each year. Learn more here. Learn More Here ›
Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.
