For years, Adam Koós, has been one of the loudest voices calling out annuities for their high commissions, hidden fees, and conflicts of interest, and in this episode, he owns it. He walks through exactly why annuities have earned their reputation, breaking down the commissions, internal costs, and penalties that most people never actually see.

But Adam also makes the case that annuities aren't universally bad. He shares real examples of when a guaranteed income benefit can fill a gap in retirement income, ease the stress of an anxious investor, or take pressure off the rest of a portfolio, and he explains the one overlooked risk (inflation) that catches most annuity owners off guard.

Episode Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro: why annuities get such a bad rap

02:00 – The real reasons: high commissions and internal fees

05:00 – The conflict of interest behind commission-based advice

08:00 – The real problem: all-or-nothing thinking about annuities

09:00 – When a guaranteed income benefit can actually help

13:00 – How guaranteed income benefits work, step by step

18:00 – A real-world example: filling a retirement income gap

20:00 – The most overlooked risk: inflation

22:00 – A quick tour of fixed, indexed, and hybrid annuities

25:00 – Final thought: don't go broke safely

Key Takeaways:

💡 Annuities aren't inherently bad. They're often oversold and mis-sold to the wrong people, or with too much of someone's money.

💡 High commissions (as much as 7-10% up front) and internal fees (around 4% a year) are the biggest reasons annuities earn a bad reputation, and fee-only fiduciaries can access the same products without either.

💡 A guaranteed income benefit can fill a retirement expense gap when Social Security and pension income fall short of fixed monthly expenses.

💡 The most overlooked downside of income annuities is inflation. After a market downturn, guaranteed income can flatten out for years before it catches back up.

💡 Annuities can make sense for anxious investors, or for money someone was never going to invest anyway and is currently sitting in low-interest cash.

💡 Just because something is guaranteed doesn't mean it's good. Playing it too safe carries its own risk of running out of purchasing power over time.

Key Quotes:

🗣️ "Beware of the truth. You may have gotten a hold of the wrong half."

🗣️ "Just because it's guaranteed doesn't mean it's good."

🗣️ "You wanna make sure you don't go broke safely."

Connect with Libertas Wealth:

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Threads: https://www.threads.com/@libertas.wealth

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/libertas-wealth/

Twitter / X: https://x.com/LibertasWM

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@libertaswealthmanagement

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@libertaswealth

Podcast YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhkYzW1XyJA0Ef_Hf7nUCMGLSlmfHt43v

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/29Jrqu0MV1VrpRGqgm6seV

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retirement-fiduciary-podcast/id1029927148

Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com

Email: info@libertaswealth.com

Phone: 614-543-1350

Connect with Adam Koós:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkoos

Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com

A date night conversation about Dr. Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages got Adam Koós thinking about something he sees every day across more than 300 client families: everyone relates to money a little differently. In this solo episode of The Retirement Fiduciary, Adam borrows the love languages idea and applies it to money, walking through the five "money love languages" that shape how people save, invest, and feel about their financial lives.

From the family steward who cares most about protecting the people they love, to the accumulator focused on growth, Adam explains why knowing your own money personality is the first step toward becoming a calmer, more consistent investor. He also digs into the emotional pitfalls of fear and greed, why risk tolerance shifts over time, and the single biggest reason good retirement plans fall apart.

Episode Timestamps

Approximate. Verify against the final audio before publishing.

00:00 - Why your "money love language" matters

03:00 - A quick primer on the five love languages

05:00 - The five money love languages (starting with the family steward)

10:00 - The less common types (and who probably isn't a fit)

13:00 - Fear, greed, and neither

17:00 - Your risk "speed limit"

20:00 - The real reason plans fail (and the GPS analogy)

Key Takeaways

💡 Before you can be a calm, consistent investor, you have to understand who you are and how you react to risk.

💡 Most people are "family stewards." Their planning is really about protecting the people they love.

💡 Investors tend to get cautious right when markets fall and bold right when they climb, which is backwards.

💡 Risk tolerance is not fixed. It shifts with life events and market conditions, and it usually drops after a scare.

💡 Plans rarely fail because of the market. They fail because people abandon them during short-term volatility.

Key Quotes

Pulled from the transcript. Confirm exact wording before publishing.

🗣 "Investors are conservative when the market's going down and aggressive when it's going up."

🗣 "If investing is exciting, you're probably not doing it well."

🗣 "The number one reason financial plans fail is that people abandon their plan."

Connect with Libertas Wealth

Facebook: https://facebook.com/libertaswealth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libertas.wealth

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@libertas.wealth

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/libertas-wealth/

Twitter / X: https://x.com/LibertasWM

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@libertaswealthmanagement

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@libertaswealth

Podcast YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhkYzW1XyJA0Ef_Hf7nUCMGLSlmfHt43v

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/29Jrqu0MV1VrpRGqgm6seV

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retirement-fiduciary-podcast/id1029927148

Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com

Email: info@libertaswealth.com

Phone: 614-543-1350

Connect with Adam Koós, CFP®, CMT, CFTe, CEPA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkoos

Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com

In part two of the Wolves of Wall Street series on The Retirement Fiduciary, Adam Koós keeps pulling back the curtain on the parts of the financial world most people never get to see. This time he walks through the tactics that can make someone look like a trustworthy advisor on the surface while something very different is going on underneath.

From insurance agents who set up nearly empty advisory firms just to call themselves fiduciaries, to attorneys quietly selling annuities on the side, to the long list of designations that sound impressive but carry almost no education behind them, Adam breaks it all down in plain English. He closes with a simple, free way to find a true fee-only fiduciary near you, so you can tell the difference before you ever hand someone your life savings.

Approximate, please verify against the final audio.

00:00 – Part 2 intro and the "tomorrow's front page" standard

01:30 – Insurance agents posing as wealth managers

06:30 – Attorneys running advisory firms on the side

10:00 – Paid advertorials dressed up as real news

12:00 – Questionable designations to watch for

17:00 – The designations that actually mean something

24:00 – Why the right firm for the job matters (the Jiffy Lube rule)

27:00 – How to find a true fiduciary (NAPFA)

29:00 – Fee-only vs fee-based, explained

31:00 – Final takeaways

💡 A registered investment advisory firm on paper doesn't always mean real advice. Some are set up with barely a client inside, just so someone can use the word fiduciary.

💡 Letters after a name can be earned the hard way or basically bought. Learn which designations have real education behind them and which are mostly marketing.

💡 The right advice depends on the right firm. A discount brokerage or an insurance company simply isn't built to deliver comprehensive, unbiased planning.

💡 A true fiduciary can't earn commissions. Take away the brokerage and insurance licenses and you take away the conflict, so the advisor gets paid the same no matter where your money goes.

💡 Fee-only and fee-based sound almost identical, and the gap between them can quietly cost you.

💡 You can find a real fee-only fiduciary near you by searching your zip code at napfa.org.

🗣 "We like saving people. I like saving people from bad advice."

🗣 "We pretend as if everything is gonna be on tomorrow's front page. And that's how you do it."

🗣 "You wouldn't go to Jiffy Lube to get new brakes and tires."

Facebook: https://facebook.com/libertaswealth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libertas.wealth

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@libertas.wealth

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/libertas-wealth/

Twitter / X: https://x.com/LibertasWM

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@libertaswealthmanagement

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@libertaswealth

Podcast YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhkYzW1XyJA0Ef_Hf7nUCMGLSlmfHt43v

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/29Jrqu0MV1VrpRGqgm6seV

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retirement-fiduciary-podcast/id1029927148

Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com

Email: info@libertaswealth.com

Phone: 614-543-1350

Adam Koós, CFP®, CMT, CFTe, CEPA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkoos

Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com