Our Approach About us: Your Unbiased Advisor How We Can Help You What you need to know NOW You can do it yourself and save!® FREE shipping Dan Keppel Editor TheInsidersGuides.com is an information site of Insurance Advisors Network, LLC (IAN), 41 Watchung Plaza, B242, Montclair, NJ 07042, 973.746.2014. We help do-it-yourselfers learn how to self-insure their risks, self-fund their purchases and build a Wealth Reserve. We help you; not sell you. We are Your Unbiased Advisor. Send requests for FREE Email Alerts, questions or comments to Editor@TheInsiderSGuides.com Our approach: You can do it yourself and save! We believe it is more fun to have financial independence than live paycheck to paycheck. You need to have control over your financial life to be happy. You can’t rely on those that sell financial services to give you the best advice for your life. They can’t make a living selling no-load low-fee products. The simple financial life puts you in control. You buy only the financial services you need, when you need them, using information from our Insiders to save. You invest this savings in the same way professionals do—a diversified mutual fund that beats 88% of all retail funds. (BusinessWeek 11/03) You create your own Wealth Reserve, a self-insuring and self-financing fund that protects your lifestyle, now and later, when you really need it. Your Wealth Reserve balance has increased 82% to $18,155* as of 12/31/07, if you had started your Reserve with $10,000 in January 2003. Your Wealth Reserve may top a $1 million* by 2024. The performance is NOT guaranteed but it does match the growth of our economy. *See the FREE Insider’s Guide to Making a Financial Future for details. It is fun to see your Wealth Reserve grow--see how fast your money grows at the market rate compounded over time: Moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm. Your Wealth Reserve can grow tax-FREE from the $3,000 you save each year by buying directly from the product providers our Insiders use. We provide you with the industry-insider know-how to buy the best financial products and services yourself, without the middleman markup. For instance, one bank-owned firm charges 1.535% for the same mutual fund that costs 0.175% at another firm. Same product-- NINE times the price. Over time, the difference can steal up to 34 percent of your account, according to The Washington Post. (Brooke A. Masters 2/10/4) You can have Financial Fun when you buy assets that grow by themselves. We see too many people put their long-term goal money in short-term emergency accounts. Successful independent people let their money work for them—earning 10-15% per year on average. They let their Wealth Reserve supplement their catastrophic insurance plans to soften life’s “little bumps in the road.” If you need help in making those choices, our industry specialists provide unbiased guidance. Our members also provide information as you buy or replace products yourself. They have been through it already. Once you learn how to save by buying direct, you can control your financial life without wasting fees and commissions. We don't sell products or leads. You can have more FUN in your life when your financial health is good. It feels good to have money in your Wealth Reserve and a financial strategy that includes excellent products that you understand. You are better off owning only what you need. Keep it simple. Despite all the industry confusion, keeping your financial health is a matter of good habits, not complicated money management. Studies show that you can have more FUN when you don’t have money worries. Money is the No. 1 reason why couples argue and some divorce. And, YOU live longer. About us:Your Unbiased Advisor We are industry professionals who work or have worked in the financial services industry. Many financial services firms have discarded their fiduciary trust role and targeted you for their “asset gathering” plan. Most firms are focused on consolidating their share of the global market not on helping you. We think most advisers tell clients they are unbiased product evaluators, but the fact is that many of them are biased. “Many insurers have set up bogus reinsurance companies and other arrangements that reward top producers who are given equity stakes in these third-party entities,” according to an insurer's attorney. “Insurance companies’ higher payouts for proprietary products are not as well documented as the use of proprietary funds by the major brokers,” a securities attorney admitted. Investmentnews.com 3/5/7 We are providing this information because we are unhappy with our industry’s role in helping educate their fellow citizens. We are unhappy that there is no basic financial education in our schools. Consequently, those who need help the most are being left further behind. The disturbing facts we see: 86% of high school seniors think that the best long term growth investment is a savings account. (Jump Start 2006) The top 10% of American earners capture over 40% of the nation’s income. First time in 65 years! (NYT 6/25/6) 52% of Americans don’t know how much they need to live on. 36% have not saved for retirement. 57% have a retirement account BUT the median amount held is only $2,000. (BLS.gov) Indebtedness is a national addiction. The average debt, per household, NOT counting mortgage debt, is about $14,500. Total personal debt is $84,454. Future promises (Medicare, social security, etc) equal $473,456 per household. (USAToday 10/3/4) We feel that most people would be better off if they used the same low-cost products and services that we do. By using our Insider information about products and services, you can buy the best products and save. Most of the products and companies industry professionals use carry the highest financial ratings. These companies’ products are a better value -- low cost/high quality -- because they are not advertised and do not pay high fees or commissions. In other words, we usually can’t sell them but we buy them for ourselves. For instance, most mutual funds have high expenses, high commissions and don’t provide returns that consistently beat their benchmarks. If you buy mutual funds from a bank, brokerage or inside your employer’s 401K plan, you are usually forced to buy the ones which benefit the seller most. We believe that the industry makes investing for your goals too complicated and costly. Successful investors like Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and Charles Schwab, as well as writers like Jane Bryant Quinn and Andrew Tobias, confirm our research that most money managers CAN NOT provide annual returns over the 12% average consistently (over any 15 year period). It is hard to pick the winning stocks or fund managers in advance. Low-cost index funds provide market returns and beat 88% of the Wall Street pros’ funds. It is TIME, not stock picking skills that make money grow by itself. As Mr. Buffett told his shareholders in 1997, “We continue to make more money when snoring than when active.” The industry makes money by encouraging you to do the opposite: active buying and selling. A 2003 study of investor behavior (DALBAR.com QAIB) shows that investors continue to make Wall Street rich by chasing returns and trying to time the market correctly. The study found that: The average equity investor earned a paltry 2.57% annually; compared to inflation of 3.14% and the 12.98% the S & P 500 index earned annually. Click chart above. The average fixed income investor earned 4.24% annually; compared to the long-term government bond index of 11.70%. It is widely believed that rapid fire trading produces huge profits for traders at the expense of the average investor. But the latest DALBAR study shows that market timers actually lose money instead of making healthy profits. That is actually good for shareholders. We believe you should follow the example of independently-wealthy people who reach their goals by being patient and buying 'assets that grow by themselves.' They invest regularly--automatically--and wait for their money to compound. THEY CHOSE WISELY AND LET THEIR MONEY GROW BY ITSELF. You can become financially independent by establishing this simple but wise strategy in less than an hour by using our Insider’s Guide to Making a Financial Future FREE. We also have members who have special expertise in their industry and have used it—they hold their favorite stocks or sector ETFs in a discount brokerage account for as little as $0.00. Taxes are controllable and minimal with this approach. You sell when you need the money and pay your 5% or 15% gains tax. Period. This strategy helps you to earn market returns. You can put 80% - 90% of your assets in low-cost institutional-style funds to earn market returns and 10% - 20% in the sectors or securities you know yourself. The worst you do is beat the returns of 80% of other folks. The best you do is beat the market returns by showing you know a good company or two. All of the probabilities for the highest accumulation are in your favor this way. You avoid all the buying and selling that the industry and press promotes. You keep the fees they now take to pay for their fantastic lifestyles. Using Modern Portfolio Theory and passive-investment vehicles, some members create portfolios which increase returns and lower risk at the same time. For more, see our FREE Insider’s Guide to Making a Financial Future. Your choice—earn 2.57% by doing what the industry tells you to OR 12% annually over time. The catch—you have to be patient for at least 10 years. Check the market returns for the last 55, 35, 25, 15 years above. How We Can Help You: We believe that you can obtain financial independence only when you know how to work the system to your own benefit. If you are self-employed, or own your own business, you know the “trade secrets” of your own industry. The same is true for financial services. We offer to share the industry’s “tricks of the trade” so YOU can solve your financial problems yourself. The financially independent person understands the “tricks of the trade.” That is how they won their independence. They did not go it alone, however. We have years of experience in securities, insurance and banking firms. We can show you how to save $1,000 to $3,000 a year on your current financial products and use that money to grow your own Wealth Reserve. We are a Network of people like you who want to make our Financial lives, FUN. We show you how Insiders accomplish financial goals. We help you organize your financial life so you can have FUN with your money. We don’t sell products. Our Insiders are less biased. For instance, would you be better off buying that new improved indexed annuity your banker/broker/agent wants to sell you? Sellers who make their living selling products will never tell you about low-cost annuities or better alternatives. We think you need to know about low-cost alternatives—how much broker products really cost you. You need to compare products with the same benefits. For instance, if you decide to buy an annuity, buy the low-cost one directly and skip the commission and hidden fees. Our editor, Dan Keppel, worked for a Wall Street securities firm and two banks over the last 18 years. He managed a life insurance entity. He saw that brokers/agents/bankers sell only the products that were profitable to the firms. It is not in their interest to tell you about better alternatives. They can’t sell products with low annual costs, for instance, even if they are the best alternatives for you. That’s correct. They can’t offer the most popular mutual fund in the world. It is not offered by the thousands of brokers on Wall Street or in banks! Yet wise investors, brokers and institutional money managers buy low-cost products for their own accounts. For instance, Vanguard’s 500 Index has attracted the largest deposits without salesmen or big ad budgets. It's performance, 12.21%, makes it #1 of all funds for the long term. And, Vanguard, unlike Fidelity, is owned by its own shareholders, NOT by a management company. Thus, there is no advantage to overcharge you. There are a few financial companies like Vanguard that are customer-focused, not “salesmen-focused.” These are the manufacturers you can buy from directly. They help you, not sell you. What you need to know NOW The industry maintains its fee and commission-driven system despite the experiences of customers like Kathleen F. of New York. According to local accounts, Ms. F. said she bought more than $400,000 in Class "B" shares of three mutual funds sponsored by Smith Barney, a unit of Citigroup. Kathleen says that the broker failed to tell her that investors with more than $100,000 might avoid "unnecessary" fees by buying Class "A" or "L" shares, which have different fee structures. However, one of the first things brokers learn for their securities licenses is that customers must be given alternative share and discount (“break points”) information when they buy or intend to buy large amounts like Kathleen did. A broker doesn’t forget “break points” because it determines his paycheck for the month. Kathleen sought class-action status for her lawsuit. Normally, brokerage firms do not allow you to sue them. You must use arbitration and they control the arbitration process. Like the casino industry, the “house” did not make the rules in order for YOU to get rich. The financial services industry is going through commoditization. Your accounts and your trust are being bought and sold almost everyday. Banks, insurers and mutual funds are trying to combine in a way that they can control larger pools of your money. These new global competitors trade your accounts to gain world dominance. Bond guru, Bill Gross calls them the “capital market vigilantes.” Consequently, most of the financial industry operates for its best interests, not yours. For investors, mutual fund managers have become the robber barons, adding more volume and fees while performance, compared to their benchmarks, continues to fall. We believe you do not need to be mistreated like Ms. F. was anymore. To succeed, independent people have to learn to take advantage of better information and access to the products and services of independent companies. We believe in the advice Benjamin Graham, legendary investor, gave to investors: buy financial products like you buy “groceries not perfume.” Understand what you are getting for your money. You can obtain quality products at low cost by seeking out providers who focus their attention on you—the customer—instead of their sales force. Every financially-independent person became free by questioning what they receive for their money. Most learned the hard way that you must understand the VALUE of what you buy, not just the price. We want to encourage this attitude by helping you discover these customer-focused financial services providers. We are your coaches. "Customer-centered" mutual funds, brokers, bankers, insurers, and lenders have learned to listen to you—the customer—not their own sales hype. We think they will be the firms that will be responsive to you now and in the future when you need them. Customer-centered firms are well-established and ‘young-at-heart’ even though they are just as old and financially strong as the companies you’ve heard about. The difference is they don’t make you pay for their million-dollar salesmen, sales contests, kick-backs, rebates, and expensive advertising. They pass these savings on to you. Customer-centered manufacturers have found ways to give customers what they want, when they want it, the way they want it. The 21st Century way to buy is to buy DIRECT: Like Dell, customer-focused providers offer individuals a “custom-built” program, directly, at lower cost. Even complicated buys, like diamonds, can be accomplished this way. Blue Nile lets you “build your own engagement ring,” and buy DIRECT. A financial product is not any more sophisticated than a computer or expensive as a diamond. Consider how discount brokerage firms have made it easy for anyone to research, buy and manage their stocks, bonds and funds. Our members have learned to buy banking, insurance, mortgages, credit, and almost every product in the same way. All the companies Network members use are top quality with high ratings. Your ideas and suggestions are important to other members: Email us at editor@TheInsiderSGuides.com. We keep you up-to-date on weak companies, bad deals, and new alternatives. You can be financially independent in the 21st century when you know what you are buying. We provide industry-insider information so that you can shop for the product or service that suits your needs and price. We are committed to helping you find the best alternatives in financial services without the high fees. Save up to $3,000 every year on your financial services— banking, mutual funds, stocks, annuity, life, health, disability, long-term care, vehicle, home, and lawsuit insurance. We help you update your financial strategy. FinancialRx--our Email Alert is FREE You can make the right decisions for your financial health only if you know the insider “tricks of the trade.” The people who sell products are not going to be able to give you unbiased advice. You need to understand all the ways your money can accomplish your goals. At least once a week, we provide you with the information that can save you thousands of dollars on products and services. Let’s use an example: homeowners insurance. Did you know that many agents purchase the standard HO-3 homeowner’s policy for their own coverage, but with a $2,500 deductible? That policy takes care of 99% of the claims and saves them 20-30% a year. They understand that they need to maintain the property to prevent it from deteriorating faster than it needs to. You can prevent losses and save money too. By investing that 30% savings each year, your Wealth Reserve will cover the deductible of any claim. We show you where you can easily learn how to prevent losses to your home. We provide the agent's checklist to lower costs and minimize the chance of being dropped. See the Homeowner's Guide. As professionals who work, or have worked, in the financial services industry, we have found companies that are more customer-focused than others. Because we have used these companies ourselves and know how these companies operate, we recommend them to you as alternatives that provide better prices or better customer service or both. These companies offer higher quality products for less because they do not have high fees or commissions. Smart brokers, agents and bankers use them personally. One customer-focused firm has been rated No. 1 in customer satisfaction for 5 consecutive years by JD Power. It has the highest A++ ratings by AM Best. Only 15 insurers have had the highest rating for over 30 years. Another company we highlight is owned by its 20 million shareholders, not wealthy managers--holding $1.24 trillion assets for institutions and individuals. It offers funds with the lowest operating expenses: $18 for each $10,000 invested compared with $205 for some funds. Another firm is the largest pension manager in the world with over $406B in assets. This organization offers its low-cost products with the highest service quality and the highest financial ratings from the three leading rating agencies. Another firm lets you buy and sell your securities for FREE. Our Email Alert, FinancialRx, is FREE. Send your E-address to FinancialRx@TheInsidersGuides.com. TheInsidersGuides.com is an informational site of Insurance Advisors Network, LLC (IAN). The information, opinions and analysis contained herein are based on sources believed to be reliable but no representation, expressed or implied, is made as to its accuracy, completeness or correctness. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. These reports are for information purposes only. IAN is normally compensated by the members it represents for the services it provides. This does not constitute a conflict of interest as to IAN’s ability to remain objective in its communication regarding the subject matter. IAN is neither an investment or legal advisor. This site and the Guides do NOT contain investment advice. This information is neither a solicitation to buy nor an offer to sell securities. Our Guides are reports of Insiders' and members' opinions. Information contained herein contains forward-looking statements and is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, which will affect the results. Insurance Advisors Network, LLC, 41 Watchung Plaza, B242. Montclair, NJ 07042, 973.746.2014. The opinions contained herein reflect our current judgment and are subject to change without notice. IAN and/or its affiliates, associates and employees from time to time may have either a long or short position in securities mentioned. Information contained herein may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of a IAN Principal at IANetwork@hotmail.com Fulfillment policy: Your FREE Guide is sent by Email. We send the Insider's Guides on disc by first class mail FREE, the same day you order. Load the disc and click 'A Welcome'. You just double click the PDF file you need and your Adobe® Reader opens it. You can click on the web links inside the Adobe® PDF documents. The links bring information and product applications to your screen instantly. We update the Guides daily so you have the latest information. Members receive updated discs quarterly. We provide you with all the information you need to learn to self-insure your risks and self-fund your purchases. We help you; not sell you. Our Insiders will answer your email questions as soon as possible. They are usually happy to help members. They cannot provide their identities since that might conflict with their employment status. We will do everything we can to assist you. If you aren't sure which Guide to order, send us an email. Please note that we can make exchanges only for the exact item you ordered; we cannot exchange one Guide for another. If you have a damaged or defective disc, we will ship the replacement to you. Generally, replacements are processed within 1 to 2 business days. Send questions or comments to editor@TheInsiderSGuides.com. *Accumulation over 25 years averaged 12%. The information contained in these Web pages is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. The information is provided with the understanding that this Web presentation is informational in nature. We recommend that you request, obtain and review online offers from third-party vendors before making any monetary commitment. We don't care which vendor you use since we are not paid commissions. Dun and Bradstreet DUNS ® 02-491-9362 Copyright © 2008 Insurance Advisors Network™, LLC