BHC's Producer Insights
"Don't Follow the Herd: A Book Review"

For Immediate Release
Houston, Texas

Remember when your parents told you to think for yourself; don’t do what your friends did and most of all, not to cave in to peer-pressure? Yet, when we reach adulthood this sage advice is forgotten as we give in to peer-pressure and follow the herd when it comes to investing money. We listen to the loud voices of Wall Street screaming “we manage everyone’s money, let us manage yours and we’ll make it grow”! This incessant message is blaring in TV and radio commercials, ever-present in newspaper and magazine advertisements and delivered to homes daily via direct mail. There is no escaping these messages: “the market always comes back”; “don’t sell now you’ll miss the rally”; “selling at low prices turns a paper loss into a real one”. Wall Street has been very successful by benefiting from the “herd mentality”.

The facts are these: (a) money managers generally under-perform the market averages; (b) expenses and fees are not transparent; (c) risk is often relegated to the fine print or legalese of the voluminous prospectus; (d) diversification does not work when the market nosedives, as it has twice since 2000. The peer-pressure is evident from cocktail talk like  “who manages your money”, what does he/she have you in” and the  company  coffee klatch question “which 401(k) choices did you take”? The result: off to the market everyone goes, just as cows follow the herd to the slaughter house.

A new book by Tony Walker, titled Don’t Follow the Herd, is a frontal assault on why your clients need to break free of the financial world of Wall Street and take charge of their money. Tony is a Registered Investment Advisor and annuity producer thriving in your world where the financial powerhouses of Wall Street are constantly trashing fixed annuities and touting risky investments to safety-minded, retirement-oriented folks who don’t have the time to wait for a recovery or temperament to ride the roller-coaster cycles of the market. Tony’s clever little book – a short read under an hour – graphically shows readers the dangers of following the herd mentality. Even after two massive market meltdowns in the past ten years most retirees, or soon-to-be retirees, continue to follow the advice of Wall Street as if in a hypnotic trance. The antidote they need is the common sense, down-to-earth message in Tony’s Don’t Follow the Herd book.

Tony goes on to tell the reader about the seven costly mistakes people make with their money and how these can be avoided. The message is crystal clear: drinking down-stream from the rest of the herd and blindly doing what everyone else is doing is a sure path to financial trauma. How can you use the book to your advantage?

Targeted towards the general public, this book is easy to understand and a joy to read. It is very pro-annuities, safe money and cautious about the financial world of Wall Street. Even the most jaded reader will come away with eyes wide open about how risk, fees and unsuitable choices can ruin their retirement. The first step is to read the book yourself – we’re talking about an hour of your time. If you feel as I do, you’ll see the merits of providing the book to your clients and prospects. If so, purchase a supply of the books and give them to prospects that are on the fence or use them as door prizes in your seminars and as post-sale gifts to be passed on to others who need your help. No sales pitch, no reminder that annuities are for the safety-minded and no strings attached! You can either lend or give them the book, but make sure they get it with a “you’ll benefit from reading” recommendation. Once Don’t Follow the Herd is read, you’ll have an annuity convert in most cases and a potential for a huge return on the $20 you spent. You can find the book on-line at http://www.tonywalkerfinancial.com. Enjoy the read and increased sales.