Have you ever accepted the free steak dinner...

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fc2112
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2:46p, 10/10/24
... to attend a financial planning seminar?

What happened? Was it worth it? How long did it take to wiggle out of signing over your 401(k) management to Chad?
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lotsofhp
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9:19p, 10/10/24
AG
Friend in a friend group went to work for a big life insurance company selling life insurance.

He went through a 2 week training program and then there was a "graduation ceremony" at a bbq restaurant he invited us all to.

I didn't want to go but friend group all decided we'd go support him.

Go to restaurant and start to eat free bbq

They put on a sob story video about how great whole-life life insurance is.

Video ends and they tell us we all owe our friends now that they gave us free bbq

Basically gun to our head to set up follow up meeting individually with our friend

Go to follow up meeting. It's friend and a more experienced guy (maybe his boss) who corner you and hard sell you.

Have to tell friend I'm not interested in front of that dude for like an hour.

Leave meeting and have to be all "sorry bro no hard feelings hope all this works out for you"

Never see friend again.

Bbq was pretty good

The end
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FIDO*98*
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9:57p, 10/10/24
AG
What level of steak you talking? Outback, Saltgrass, Longhorn or Myron's, Ruth's Chris, Bob's?
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JamesPShelley
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5:15a, 10/11/24
Whole life is the biggest scam in history. Convince me otherwise.

Term. Term.
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Southlake
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7:43a, 10/11/24
Went to 4 or 5 of them. Learned a ton about setting up my retirement portfolio and how to plan my investment income for the future. Also went to a couple free seminars at our community center covering Medicare planning and Social Security.

At the end of the presentations we told them we'd let them know if we wanted their advisory services.

The dinners were excellent - Cama Goucha Brazil Steakhouse, Del Frisco Steakhousr, Kirby's Steakhouse and a couple others.

We've pretty much just used Fidelity and manages our own portfolio with their advise when needed.
"Real skill comes without effort" - Mu Bai
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maroon barchetta
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In reply to JamesPShelley • 12:51p, 10/11/24
JamesPShelley said:
Whole life is the biggest scam in history. Convince me otherwise.

Term. Term.


Preach on, Dave.
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FIDO*98*
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In reply to JamesPShelley • 2:48p, 10/11/24
AG
JamesPShelley said:
Whole life is the biggest scam in history. Convince me otherwise..


Ever heard of Social Security?
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Brian Earl Spilner
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In reply to JamesPShelley • 3:18p, 10/11/24
AG
JamesPShelley said:
Insurance is the biggest scam in history. Convince me otherwise.
FIFY

All of it.
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AggieArchitect04
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3:51p, 10/11/24
AG
Had a funny thing happen last month…

GF and I went to an all-inclusive, adults only place near Cancun. We were planning to get massages one day and the concierge said if we'd let them present their membership and take a tour he'd make the massages free. So we said okay.

The 1.5 hour presentation/tour took twice as long. Amazing place with pretty nice amenities. When it came time to talk turkey, it was a lot of scribbling numbers in a sheet of paper and "we can only offer this today" crap. I told them thanks but we don't make large financial decisions on the spot and would need to discuss privately.

When it was time to get our vouchers for the massage they started crawfishing because gf and I don't live together. Lol. That was the reason they gave me. I went back and forth a little bit, before raising my voice loud enough so the other people nearby that they were trying to sell to could hear: "You mean you want me to sign a contract to pay you 10s of thousands of dollars for years to come but you don't want honor the simple agreement we already had for a massage?"

It got "fixed" pretty quick and the massages were lovely.
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knoxtom
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5:04p, 10/11/24
I went to one once with my next door neighbor and his wife. The presenter was hawking equity indexed annuities with loss prevention. Basically the annuity was tied to the S&P and was also guaranteed against losing money. So you got a low rate of return but they protected your loss.

It wasn't a horrible product, but I was not their target. That product is for 75 year olds.
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gabehcoud
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6:18p, 10/11/24
No, but the timeshare presentation for a free night hack is worth it. Bring your 3 kids under 7. We all get free breakfast and the kids lose all patience after about 30 minutes. About 5 minutes later the salesperson cant get out of there fast enough.
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Whaler
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11:40p, 10/11/24
AG
At my wife's encouragement, we went to a wealth management one at Perry's Steak House. It was billed to us as "just come see our presentation and have a steak on us." I was a little curious about what they invested in and how they billed, but I figured it'd be a hard sales pitch, and I really didn't want to go. Unfortunately, we went anyway. After watching the presentation and seeing how they billed (I think like 2% of the portfolio value, regardless of return), I told them after the 1.5 - 2 hour presentation, I wasn't interested. Geez, the owner wouldn't take "no" for an answer, calling and emailing me at least weekly for over a month. The last couple calls he said he paid for our steak dinner, and we shouldn't have attended if we weren't going to give him some business. I reminded him several times that we were offered the dinner just to hear the presentation - no obligation…. I finally just blocked all his calls. It was a bad experience and wasn't worth the dinner. If you go, just know they are going to hound you.
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Brian Earl Spilner
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In reply to Whaler • 12:23a, 10/12/24
AG
A steak dinner to steal 2% of your porfolio, likely tens of thousands if not hundreds.

Sure, that's a fair trade.
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AI Prawn
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6:07p, 10/13/24
Decent dinner at Churrascos, but signed over nothing. Would do again.
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Al Bula
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7:07p, 10/13/24
AG
The whole high pressure sales tactics over a free stay or free meal would make a damn interesting docuseries on the streaming platform de jour. I'd watch the hell out of it.

As for me, I don't think I could enjoy profiting off services I had no interest in or intention of pursuing. Some people make a game out of it and I'm sure it works out great for them. Not the case for me.
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bmc13
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In reply to Al Bula • 10:02p, 10/13/24
AG
after seeing what they have taken good people for personally, I have no qualms about taking their free dinner or massage or whatever. my only hesitation is if I feel the time commitment is worth it (which is rare).
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SquareOne07
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In reply to JamesPShelley • 12:44p, 10/14/24
AG
JamesPShelley said:
Whole life is the biggest scam in history. Convince me otherwise.

Term. Term.


Plenty of applications for it in the financial planning world, but pretty specific too and definitely not what the New York Life and NM guys'll tell you.

If you want to learn, check out how people use it for estate planing/paying taxes associated with death or inheritances, long term care risks in retirement, tax deferral, etc
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Ragnar Danneskjoldd
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12:47p, 10/14/24
AG
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Joe Schillaci 48
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In reply to fc2112 • 4:46p, 10/14/24
AG
You need a steak dinner that bad?
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Claude!
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6:52p, 10/14/24
I try to limit human interaction as it is.
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ToddyHill
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7:21p, 10/14/24
AG
Financial planner put on a two evening seminar at a local college a few years ago. The first session explained Social Security and Medicare, which was worth my time. The second session was about minimizing taxes in retirement. Turned out to be a sales pitch on a whole life policy. Not interested. What proceeded were several emails over the next couple of months. I've been offered way too many steak dinners as well. Just won't do it.

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infinity ag
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In reply to ToddyHill • 11:54p, 10/14/24
ToddyHill said:
Financial planner put on a two evening seminar at a local college a few years ago. The first session explained Social Security and Medicare, which was worth my time. The second session was about minimizing taxes in retirement. Turned out to be a sales pitch on a whole life policy. Not interested. What proceeded were several emails over the next couple of months. I've been offered way too many steak dinners as well. Just won't do it.


Aren't these available on YouTube?
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ToddyHill
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In reply to infinity ag • 1:28p, 10/15/24
AG
Absolutely.

I tend to ask a lot of questions, which is why I wanted to attend. The catch for me was minimizing one's taxes in retirement. It was actually a good presentation until he started to pump the whole life insurance policy.
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jrod2181
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10:11a, 10/17/24
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Hill08
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11:20a, 10/17/24
If you're really interested in the seminar, then it's ok. However if all you want is a free meal, then you need to get a life.
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Wolfpac 08
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In reply to Hill08 • 11:36a, 10/17/24
AG
Hill08 said:
…if all you want is a free meal, then you need to get a life.

Or a wife, amirite?!
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lotsofhp
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In reply to Hill08 • 11:48a, 10/17/24
AG
Hill08 said:
If you're really interested in the seminar, then it's ok. However if all you want is a free meal, then you need to get a life.


I agree. It's a disagreement my wife and I had early in our relationship. She would go to things for the little freebies with no intent to buy anything.

I would tell her 1. This isn't worth your time and 2. Is disingenuous to go to something and taking hospitality when you know you won't buy anything.

She'd say they know they're going to get people who don't want to buy, that's the point of the steak or whatever so they can try and sell you anyway. Which, she has a point.

But holy cow I'd rather pay for a stupid steak than sit though all that. I can't believe she was ever that way lol
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