Warren Jaeger
My wife and I were clients of Accelerated Wealth Advisors from August 2017 until March 2023. Our initial exposure to AWA was via their local radio program and then a dinner meeting in which they outlined their financial strategy (diversifying resources among number of "baskets" - life insurance, long term care, investments, etc.) Here is a summary of our experience. (FYI - neither of the two investment advisors we had at AWA are currently working there.) PROS: Nice people - friendly, engaging Wealth management strategy appeared to "cover all the bases" as we entered retirement Set up a hybrid Long Term Care policy, which could be used as a life insurance policy as well (rather than the standard "use it or lose it" long term care vehicle) CONS: The other recommended products were questionable * My entire 401k was rolled over into an "IRA" which proved to be a fixed annuity with "no downside risk". However, the "caps" and "spreads" (learn what these mean!) were very restrictive, along with a ten year surrender charge. I subsequently learned that my advisor earned a hefty commission by getting me into this product. I have had better returns on my own conservative investments. * I was directed into a whole life insurance policy (which also earned my advisor a commission) with very high annual premiums, which required me to dip into my savings to cover the premiums each year. * A limited partnership and an income fund (which my advisor had connections with) that were supposed to provide an "income stream" to fund the life insurance premiums, proved to be high risk and have lost money, while, for the first several years, I was still being charged an annual 2% advisory fee by AWA. * Although touted as "fiduciaries," I would characterize my advisors as "fiduciaries in name only." Be careful!
