Mento Mori – Meditate on Death

“This is our big mistake: to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death.” – Seneca

There isn’t a more important thought we could wake up with than realizing you will die.
Sorry for the dark picture in my usually Oh-so-Happy Quick Hits!

If you haven’t already equated your revenue or premium goals to families you will help this year or in the next 3,5, 10 years, do it today!
It’s a simple exercise that puts you and your team in a better mindset than stretching for a premium number.

How many families are you going to bring into your client family this year?

Here are your Quick Hits:

Investors pour $120bn into cash in historic weekly inflow
• A massive flood to cash is almost never a good sign for the markets
• “Investors rushed into cash at a historic pace over the past week, as the failure of Silicon Valley Bank prompted nervous investors to shift money from volatile investments and bank accounts into relatively safer assets.”
• “Through Tuesday, inflows in March have totalled nearly $130bn — setting the stage for the strongest month since March 2021.”

2022 Was Good For Annuities; 2023 Stands To Be Better
• I think you all new this but the “news” is catching up like I mentioned in the “Lagging News” edition of Quick Hits.
• “Total individual annuity sales jumped 22% in 2022 to $310.6 billion, …. Fixed-annuity sales were a big part of that increase, after they saw a 61% surge in sales. However, variable annuities dampened the party a bit with their 18% sales drop.”
• “Higher interest rates are also going to give annuities a big boost, since higher rates also mean bigger annuity returns.”

The Richest People in the World in 2023

There are more hedge funds than Burger Kings (A lot more)

• Love a good comparison article to make you think.
• “there are more hedge fund managers than there are Taco Bell managers. It turns out that this is a gross understatement. Via SigTech. we learn that data provider Preqin has for the first time ever counted over 30,000 hedge funds globally,”
• “In fact, there are more hedge funds than there are Burger King outlets (over 18,700), employees at the Pentagon (24,000) and words in Animal Farm (assuming no prologue); and nearly as many as there McDonald’s franchises (ca 35,000) and listed stocks globally (about 43,000).”