Wade D. Pfau
PhD, CFA
“Tracking income and legacy wealth through age 100 shows income annuities can extend both, when built into the plan correctly.”
01Retirement Management Journal
We Optimize Your Retirement
How should I retire? Do I have enough money for retirement? How do I plan for retirement?
Ask a hundred people how to retire and you'll get a hundred opinions. Hegna Financial works from a different source: peer-reviewed research, actuarial science, and math that doesn't change with the market. Let's not leave your retirement to chance — let's ground it in research.
JJ Hegna
Licensed Retirement Planner
Your Future. Your Retirement. Our Expertise.
Retirement Income
The only financial product built specifically to guarantee income for as long as you live. Fixed, indexed, immediate, or deferred — structured as your personal pension to cover essential expenses for life.
Life Insurance
Term, whole, universal, final expense, or indexed universal life, sourced from the nation's leading carriers. Objective recommendations built around your budget, your family, and your legacy goals — not a single carrier's shelf.
Long-Term Care
Nearly 70% of people turning 65 today will need some type of long-term care during their lifetime, with the average need lasting about three years.
Legacy Planning
Legacy planning is about more than passing on money — it's about making sure the people and causes you care about are protected long after you're gone.
Why Work With UsIndependent Advice.
Independent Advice.
More Choices.
Some companies are captive, meaning they only use one carrier. That's definitely not us. We are partnered with over 60+ A Rated Carriers that have great products and competitive rates. We operate as independent brokers, which means we scan the market to ensure you are getting the best financial products, best guarantees, and best pricing.
Many companies try to fit you into the model of a single company's offerings. We do the opposite — we custom fit the product to your situation. This list is just a sample of the companies we work with.
60+
A-Rated Carriers
100%
Independent
0
Captive Ties
Carrier Partners
A sample of the 60+ carriers we work with
Managing the 8 Key Retirement Risks
Longevity Risk
Inflation Risk
Tax Risk
Sequence of Returns Risk
Long Term Care Risk
Market Risk
Withdrawal Rate Risk
Deflation Risk
The Evidence
Do you want your retirement plan based on opinions, or on factual evidence?
Anyone can have an opinion about retirement. Here's what happens when you take opinion out of it, in the words of the researchers, journalists, and institutions who study this for a living.
PDF · Full ReportFeatured Research, Ernst & YoungBenefits of Integrating Insurance Products Into a Retirement Plan↗Exhibit A
What the researchers say
Olivia S. Mitchell
PhD
“For most Americans, delaying Social Security to age 70 maximizes the lifetime income they'll collect.”
02Why Retirement Gets Better With Annuities
Robert Merton
Nobel Laureate, Economics
“Avoiding a retirement shortfall requires shifting the goal from account balance to guaranteed monthly income.”
03Harvard Business Review
Michael Finke
PhD
“Annuities allow a retiree to spend at a level that would otherwise require a high risk of failure if funded solely from an investment portfolio.”
04Get Predictable Retirement Income
Exhibit B
It's all over the financial press
Time Magazine
Personal Finance
“Securing at least a base level of lifetime income should be every retiree's priority, at least if they want to live happily ever after.”
05July 30, 2012
CNBC News
Markets
“Consumers are on pace to buy almost $300 billion of annuities in 2022, which would handily beat the $265 billion purchased in 2008.”
06Ugly times are pushing record annuity sales
Morningstar
Research & Ratings
“People who have more guaranteed income do tend to be a bit comfier and happier in retirement…”
07Coryanne Hicks, 2023
US News
& World Report
“You buy an annuity because it does what no other investment can do, provide guaranteed lifetime income for the rest of your life no matter how long you live.”
0817 Things You Need to Know About Annuities
Exhibit C
The largest firms in finance agree
Goldman Sachs
Investment Bank
“Insurance-based solutions, such as annuities, provide guaranteed income and often deliver relatively higher payout rates than typical systematic withdrawal strategies.”
09New Economics of Retirement
BlackRock
Investment Firm
“Adding guaranteed lifetime income combined with a more aggressive asset allocation generates 29% more annual spending ability and reduces downside risk by 33%.”
10How to Optimize Retirement Income
Barclays
Investment Bank
“We find that examples of this innovation in FIAs have outperformed bonds on a consistent basis over the last 25 years.”
11FIAs Compared to Bonds
Ernst & Young
Accounting Firm
“Portfolios blending permanent life insurance with investments have outpaced investment-only strategies on both income and legacy value.”
The Takeaway