CreativeOne co-owner wins recognition for lifetime of innovation in annuities
December 13, 2018 by James Dornbrook
Mike Tripses, an owner and co-founder of Leawood-based insurance marketing organization CreativeOne, has been a major innovator in the annuities market. Recently, he was awarded the 2018 Bo Johnson Spirit Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Association for Fixed Annuities.
Tripses developed one the first-ever fixed indexed annuities at what is now known as Creative One Marketing Corp. in 1998. These are annuities that grow at either an annual guaranteed minimum rate of return, or the return from a specified stock market index like the Dow Jones or the S&P 500, whichever is greater. They provide reliable lifelong income, completely protect your principal, yet still contain an opportunity for growth. It basically works like a CD, but with deferred tax treatment and a hedge against inflation during an up market.
The fixed indexed annuities market Tripses helped create is now a $120 billion market as of this year.
“Our reputation is being one of the dean’s of this industry,” Tripses said.
Tripses said a lot of Registered Investment Advisers are waking up to these products with volatility starting to show up in the equities markets. He thinks even more will start looking at fixed index annuities once the nation hits its next recession.
“The point is not to cast aspersions on other securities products, but rather to say there can be a virtuous fit that includes your traditional fixed-income bonds, your equities and then this in-between product which really has characteristics of both,” Tripses told the Kansas City Business Journal. “It’s particularly helpful on the income side, guaranteeing income for your client, which no other product can do. Bonds have a significant amount of risk in a rising interest rate environment. Securities can lose 20 percent of their value in one day, leaving clients to find out their risk profile wasn’t what they thought.”
