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“The Secret ‘Mutual Fund’ that NEVER GOES DOWN”

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, January 30, 2012

Steve Sjuggerud is teasing us with something genuinely compelling as he urges us to subscribe to his True Wealth newsletter: investments that NEVER go down.

Really?

Yep, his pitch is that he has three kinds of investments that, if taken together, can be considered to be a “mutual fund” that never goes down. They’re not actually a mutual fund, of course, that would be too easy — but apparently they provide some sort of diversification and, most importantly, they protect against loss of principal.

Anyone who has lived through the last four years in the stock market will instantly light up a little bit at that “never goes down” part — which is, of course, why the copywriter put that in the headline. And then followed up with this jabber that makes it seem even better:

“There are no fees… no marketing department… and no salesmen or brokers.

“But the three assets that make up this unique “fund” have beaten the stock market by as much as 165% over the past decade, and are among the only investments in the world that are guaranteed to never go down….

“What I discovered over the past few years is incredible—3 assets with great upside potential, which come with a contractual guarantee that they will never lose a penny in value.

“You can buy just one of these investments… or you can buy all three, and you will own what is essentially a “mutual fund” that can NEVER go down.

“What’s remarkable about this situation to me is that you are very unlikely to see any of these opportunities advertised to the general public.

“And of course, this ‘fund’ is not listed on any stock market—nor are any of the assets it contains. There’s no prospectus report. There’s basically no advertising or marketing.

“In fact, this is something you are unlikely to hear about or read about anywhere else, as far as I know.”

So what is he really talking about?

Well, he teases three investments that “never go down” — the first one he calls the “Royal Currency” and implies that Warren Buffett and Bill Gross personally use it in their own accounts. It apparently goes back almost 200 years to Great Britain, and involves some sort of government guarantee.

Here’s an excerpt of the clues for that one:

“On a research trip to London a few years back, I found a government-issued asset that has been secretly used by some of the wealthiest families in American history (like the DuPonts, Roosevelts, and Lillys), to safely build and protect wealth….

“This asset has nothing to with stocks, bonds, gold, silver, coins, commodities or any other investment asset you’ve likely heard of before. Over the past decade, I have seen it written about just once in the mainstream press, in an April 2010 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

“Some experts call this mysterious investment ‘The Royal Currency,’ because it was first issued by the Royal British Government almost 200 years ago, and has actually been used as money in many places around the world.

“But this unique investment, as it is used today, is not an actual currency. And while the British were the first to issue the Royal Currency, today almost every government in the world has its own profitable version.”

And apparently the returns have been dramatic, particularly during times of inflation:

“In fact, during the 1970s, many Royal Currency investments went up by as much as 1,000%. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that with all the money printing our government has been doing, we’re very likely to have very high inflation in the years to come.

And even in non-inflationary times, the government-created Royal Currency does extremely well. A different index created by a private firm shows that this unique investment has gained 209% since 1998.”

There is at least one little disconnect here — apparently there is the government-related “royal currency” out there, but the way to get it with the “never goes down” guarantee is privately sold …

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“You can make an investment in the Royal Currency that is guaranteed to Never Go Down….

“I have located the best Royal Currency broker in the world. They have been in business since – get this – 1856. That’s more than 150 years….

… when you make a Royal Currency investment with this brokerage, you will receive a written contract that guarantees you cannot lose money over the next five years. In other words, the worst you can do is break even. I believe you could double your money, easily – you could possibly make 250% or more. Remember, during the 1970s, this investment went up about 1,000%. ”

Which, frankly, has the Thinkolator stumped — it’s been churning and smoking over there in the corner for a good half hour, and nothing definitive is leaking out into the results bin.

So we’re left to speculate — my guess? Well, I can’t give you promises of accuracy here like I usually try to do (I generally don’t reveal a stock as a teaser solution unless I’m 99% sure it’s a match — and more typically we’re 100% certain), but here’s what I think:

For the broker that’s been around since 1856, we have a couple choices but the logical guess is Credit-Suisse, which is the only big investment bank that I know of that was founded in that year. As to the investment? Again, I don’t really know on this one — but it sounds a lot like the various market-indexed certificates of deposit that are available. And there was an article in an April, 2010 issue of the Wall Street Journal that talked up these products, though they’ve also been covered in previous articles in that paper (they were pretty popular when the market was crashing and folks were looking for downside protection in 2008 and 2009).

Here’s that article on market-linked CDs from the April 5, 2010 WSJ. They’re not issued by governments, though they do carry FDIC insurance in most cases so they are government-related. Doesn’t really sound like a great match for the “royal currency” bit, but that’s the best I can do right now. And here’s a bit more about these types of CDs from an older WSJ article.

Essentially, market-indexed CDs give you downside protection by saying that (in every example I’ve seen) you will get your principal back, guaranteed and backed by FDIC insurance. In exchange, you have to lock your cash up for a set time period, usually at least two years and more commonly longer, and you will get some portion of the return on a set index — for example, you might get any upside returns from the S&P 500 for a given time period, but with the upside capped at, say, 12% per year, or you might get half of the upward move of the index for that time period — they’re all structured differently, which makes it tough to compare them. I know HSBC sells a fair number of these, as do other big banks like JP Morgan and smaller outfits like Everbank, but I don’t know about Credit-Suisse or others. It’s perfectly possible that what’s being teased here is some other structured guaranteed principal product from another investment bank, I can’t tell you for sure based on those clues.

So let’s move on to the other two parts of the “never goes down” investment “mutual fund,” shall we?

Here’s how Sjuggerud pitches this one:

“The second component in our “Mutual Fund” that never goes down is a unique asset Barron’s calls ‘The new way to retire…’

“In short, this asset is offered by some of the richest companies in the United States….

“I call it a ‘Guaranteed Stock Contract,’ because it essentially gives you the large potential gains of the stock market… and a guarantee that your money can NEVER drop in value.

“Plus, you are guaranteed to get paid a MINIMUM withdrawal on your investment of 4% to 7% per year… which can only go up… and NEVER down.

“Right now, for example, the #1 way to make this investment is through a private company in Lansing, Michigan, which offers these contracts to Americans who are retired or getting ready to retire soon.

“What’s nice is that you have the opportunity to make money when stocks go up… but you don’t lose a penny when stocks go down. Even better, when the stock market does go up, you can lock in those gains for the life of your contract.”

And we get some more quotes from the financial press to buttress Sjuggerud’s claims:

Money Magazine says these stock market contracts, “will become the retirement investing rage.” And why the journal of Financial Planning said “they could be a magic bullet.”

Fortune magazine actually called these unique investments, ‘the best place for retirement cash.’

“The point is, investment has an unlimited upside, and it comes with a written contract that it will NEVER go down. You certainly don’t want to put all your money here… but it makes a lot of sense to use these Guaranteed Contracts for part of your savings.”

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that these are … variable annuities. Though it sounds like he’s specifically recommending a variety that mixes variable and fixed aspects to some degree, some call it a Fixed Index Annuity, meaning that they use some index (like the S&P 500, or whatever) to boost the annuity’s returns, but they also provide whatever payout guarantee the annuity insurance contract promises.

I know almost nothing about annuities, other than the fact that they are a great tool for providing some backstop to retirement income and the fact that their confusing and convoluted nature means that some investors have been bilked for massive fees from the bad seeds in the industry.

There’s a good article on FINRA for folks who want to know what pitfalls to look for in annuity shopping here.

And I’ll bet that the folks Sjuggerud is talking about are Jackson Annuities — they are in Lansing, MI and they offer a variety of these kinds of annuities. I can’t vouch for them and I don’t know anything about them other than their HQ address, but they do explain their products in this category pretty well here.

And the third “never go down” investment?

Sjuggerud calls it “The only gold investment that’s been guaranteed to NEVER go down,” and teases it thusly:

“That’s why I thought you might be interested in a unique type of investment that was created by a popular, well-respected, and very safe American bank.

“In short, what this bank has done is allow you to put your money in a super-safe FDIC-insured certificate of deposit (CD), with large potential gains, and a contract that ensures you have ZERO downside risk.

“Now all of these CD contracts are a little different. Some of them have unlimited upside, and some don’t.

“Some tie your returns to one precious metal, like gold or silver. Others tie your returns to several precious metals, or even other assets like stocks or even foreign currencies.

“But the important thing to remember is that with each one of these deals, you get the potential for large gains, and the value of your investment is guaranteed (by the bank and the FDIC) to NEVER go down.”

Toss that into the Thinkolator, and I think we must here be being teased about Everbank’s MarketSafe CDs — of which there aren’t any available right this moment.

MarketSafe CDs from Everbank are FDIC insured CDs that guarantee the return of your principal (usually after five years), and boost that by tying the CD to some other asset — they’ve done all kinds of different ones, from gold bullion to Japanese REITs to the S&P 500, but the most recent ones have been based on diversified commodities. They offer these up at specific points and they have a fixed time return and carry a guarantee only if you hold them to maturity, so you can’t just start one up whenever you want, you have to wait until one is offered.

The most recent one they offered launched last August and provided upside based on the average return of five different metals over the next five years, with a cap of 50% for each metal (so if gold goes up 1,000% and copper, silver, etc. all go down by 15% each you would get no premium return, since the gold gain at a capped 50% is more than made up for by the combined losses of the others). You can work out those pluses and minuses yourself if they choose to offer this kind of CD again, Everbank has been the pioneer of this for small individual investors but there may also be other banks doing this for precious metals as well, I just don’t know them. You can get an idea of the terms in the sheet for that CD they started last August but, as I noted, they aren’t selling any today (their MarketSafe sales page is here if you want to browse around). I’ve used Everbank for some foreign currency CDs, but haven’t tried the MarketSafe stuff personally.

So as you probably guessed, there are ways to get guaranteed returns on your investment — or at least, to have your principal protected. They range from the typical stuff you already know like plain vanilla CDs to the complex structured products offered by big investment banks, with a vast range of different kinds of annuities and insurance contracts mixed in the middle. The risk of all of these is not so much that you will lose your principal (assuming the annuity is backed by a strong company, and that you choose a CD that is FDIC insured), but that you will lose a substantial portion of the potential upside in whatever investment it is you’re considering — a choice between risk and safety that every investor has to make on their own, preferably with the help of a financial advisor you trust who can run the possible scenarios with you.

I have never dabbled in annuities, don’t understand insurance accounting or contracts, and have never tied up my money in a CD for longer than a year, so I’m not an expert on much of this … but I’ll be that there are folks out there in the vast Gumshoe readership who know this stuff inside and out — if you’d like to opine, feel free to do so using the friendly little comment box below. Thanks!

Oh, and if you’re one of those folks who has to jump on things in a frenzy because your favorite newsletter writer writes it up as a hot recommendation — don’t! Most of these kinds of investment contracts require you to tie up your money for a considerable time, please think it over and know the terms before you choose one.

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Anthony Wolseley-Wilmsen
Anthony Wolseley-Wilmsen
February 4, 2012 11:31 am

I´d say the royal currency is gold coins, maybe proof or uncirculated eagles. Can never lose their face value, are government issued, and aswell as being a play on the gold price are also a play on their scarcity value. If you pick the right issues, you can even make money in a falling gold market; in a rising market, the gains are likely to be more impressive. Spink & Son are reputable coin brokers in London who have been around for over a century.

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Mr T
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Mr T
February 4, 2012 12:37 pm

Stamps, Annuities, Everbank CD. He has pitched the CD a few times over the past few years.
I don’t see there being much liquidity in stamps. I have had experience with multiple types of annuities being fixed, indexed or variable. Fixed annuities are fine if you can get in when interest rates are high and make sure the insurance company cannot lower the rates. Most insurance companies these days offer terrible interest rates an provisions to make sure the client never sees better interest rates. Indexed annuities tend to have really long surrender charge schedules, so make sure you don’t need your money anytime soon. Make sure you read the contract on Indexed annuities, the insurance company usually reserves the right to change the terms at any time. Meaning they can change the participation rate, the cap rate, how they credit the interest etc, at their discretion. If you can find one with a minimal surrender charge, and the contract is more set in stone, it would be worth looking at. Variable annuities sound good on the surface, but there is a lot to them. They have large surrender charges which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation. Younger people who have a tough time staying out of their savings can benefit from a large surrender charge, the older client who possibly needs to get at their money does not benefit. Variable annuities come in different share classes like mutual funds. There almost always is a share class that allows for a low and short surrender charge. (Usually the internal fees are a bit higher on a shorter surrender charge, but some share classes are made for a 3rd party money manager so they are really low cost).Make sure to ask for the share class with the lowest surrender charge if you anticipate having to access your funds anytime soon. Most VA contracts have a list of investments you can choose from. I have found that the more guarantees the contract offers the worse the investment choices are. I also have found the insurance company wants control of your assets in exchange for the guarantees, meaning they will trade your assets or put them in a “model” portfolio in exchange for the guarantees. Usually the investment choices have a revenue sharing agreement with the insurance company, or somewhere down the line the insurance company or parent company has ownership in some of the funds provided. They tend to fill the portfolio with who ever is giving them the most through the back door. Not all companies do this, so please don’t misunderstand me, I own several VA contracts and some of them have been excellent and some have been terrible. The ones that have been terrible offer the “living benefits” as my agent told me. The investment options have just done really poorly, even in good markets they seem to under perform by quite a margin. And I am locked in to only being able to withdraw a low % of my assets without terminating the benefit. It is like invisible handcuffs. If you only need 5-7% of your assets per year an you have plenty of other assets to pull from no problem. I have had the best luck with the stripped down VA contracts, no guarantees, low fees, and I attached a third party bond trader to them. They trade between 3 different funds and the past 2.5 years they turned 50k into about 80k while the markets were doing nothing. The management fee from the bond trader I felt was high at first, but I believe they have earned every penny of their fee as it has done really well during times the market has done nothing. My agent recommended this arrangement, it has been by far the best experience I have had with annuities. There are only a few insurance companies that allow this type of arrangement, but I have been very pleased with the results.

Mr. T

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RCH
RCH
February 4, 2012 4:40 pm

Forgive the pedantry, but may I suggest that our commentators review the difference between principal and principle?

John M. Chenosky, PE
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John M. Chenosky, PE
February 4, 2012 6:32 pm

R. Charley Brown says….”if the banks go under”….. You mean when the banks go under.
The FDIC has $40-50 BILLION in their emergency funds. Ask Sheila Baird how she hopes to guarantee the TRILLIONS in the US Banking System??

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Charles Rynski
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Charles Rynski
February 7, 2012 11:51 am

An Equity Indexed Annuity would be my surmise as to the teased guarantee of principal.

Stansberry CS
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Stansberry CS
February 13, 2012 10:11 am

If you have any questions about Stansberry and Associates, please do not hesitate to call customer service at 1-888-261-2693. We would be happy to assist you. We are open Monday – Friday 9-5 EST.

Ira Cotton
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Ira Cotton
February 15, 2012 5:32 pm

Relative to the comments on collecting first day covers for years or buying all new issues for many years – you will never make money this way. On the other hand, buying stamps that are ALREADY rare and valuable, in top condition, and holding them in protected storage can indeed yield good returns. By rare and valuable, I mean issues that already sell for over $100 per stamp and have an established provenance. There are two grading services that will confirm authenticity and condition with certificates and, if desired, “slab” (encapsulate in plastic) the stamps for their protection. Stamps that are more valuable to begin with and in the best condition go up faster than lesser stamps and hold their value better during troubled times such as we have seen.
Note: I am not a dealer. I have collected since I was 6, am a Life Member of the American Philatelic Association, and wish a bit that I had followed those rules above, but I was collecting for fun, not for profit, and still am at 66. Stanley Gibbons is an old and well respected firm in philately, but I can’t speak to the strength of their guarantee 5 years from now.

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John B.
John B.
March 15, 2012 11:45 pm
Reply to  Ira Cotton

When I visit a philatelic exhibition (stamp show), I see no vistors younger than 50. It is a dying hobby. Sheets of mint stamps from the 1950’s sell for a 5 or 10% discount from face value! In another 10-15 years there will be no buyers.

little larry
Guest
April 14, 2012 3:53 am

your article mentions the government printing a lot of money:
“In fact, during the 1970s, many Royal Currency investments went up by as much as 1,000%. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that with all the money printing our government has been doing, we’re very likely to have very high inflation in the years to come.
it doesnt, though. the federal reserve, a private fractional reserve bank does the creating and printing of our fake credit-money

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tlewe
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tlewe
June 29, 2012 8:28 pm

You all seem like a smart bunch. What would you tell a 28 yr. old to do with his money? To keep the value of it? thanks

toofuzzy
Member
toofuzzy
September 25, 2013 2:40 pm
Reply to  tlewe

Td Ameritrade for instance has 100 Exchange Traded Funds you can trade for free. Out of those pick the Vanguard funds that are
1) large or large value
2)small or small value
3) Foreign (EAFE)
4) REIT (realestate)
Invest a percentage equal to your age (28% this year increasing 1 % each year) in a bond fund (use a very short term fund or money market fund till rates peak and their is a first rate CUT, then switch to a long term treasuary fund). Rebalance once / year on the same date to your age in fixed income and the rest divided equally between the stock funds.

You will be buying more of what has gone down the most and lightening up on what has gone up the most.

Contribute as much as they will match to your 401k plan, then max out a ROTH IRA, and then use a taxable account. You don’t have to hold all the assets in all the accounts and try to do your trading as much as possible in the retirement accounts. At 28 , if you have not started at 20, I would put away 20 to 30 % of your gross income.

You can figure out how much you need by
1) What would you want in todays dollars / year at retirement
2) Multiply that by 20
3) multiply that by 1.03 x 1.03 ……. for as many years as you have till retirement (1.03 to the 32 power ) So lets say $50,000 x 20 x 1.03 to the 32nd.

4) multiply $1.00 x 1.1 = 1.10 + $1,.00 = (do this 32 times ) That will give you a value for what $1.00 saved / year for 32 year will be worth at `10% return
5) Divide the answer in 3) above by the answer in 4) above and thet will tell you how much you need to save / year to retire at 65 (adjust if you want to retire earlier) If you save 1/2 of your gross income you can retire in 12 years! Check out “Mrmoneymoustache ” for early retirement ideas.

The above does not include social security or present savings. To adjust from that, subtract some amount from step 1

Hope that helps

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Doug C
Guest
August 25, 2016 2:40 pm
Reply to  toofuzzy

math seems off…

SelfMade
Guest
SelfMade
May 18, 2013 2:53 am

To the 28-yr-old and anyone under thirty, I’d advise to buy rental real estate, as much as you can, always with 20% cash down, and hire a property mgr. I started at age 22 with a $3500 investment as a lieutenant in the Army, and bought a house everywhere I was stationed for ten years. I saved thousands in taxes, inflation made my equity more valuable every year, and I retire with enough money to finance my own lifestyle, future medical expectations, and provide for my younger wife who will likely outlive me. And don’t gamble on “guarantees”!

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ismael7
ismael7
July 18, 2020 9:54 pm
Reply to  SelfMade

SelfMade…
As a Ret Vet… SFC… I can not argue with you at all… They should be TEACHING this to Every HS & Coll student & say GOOD BY to Social Security Sys…!!! How is it that our own GOV is ALLOWED to PUT their hands IN our Ret funds…that should be a Felony… as well as ALLOWING a politician to RET with a FULL pension in less than 15-20yrs but we in the military MUST do our 20 yrs…!?!

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jim
Guest
jim
October 14, 2021 12:30 am

I have learned of fixed index annuities lately. My opinion is that they are suitable for those without the stomach for the ‘normal’ volatility of the stock market, so having the guarantee of no loss of principal would be reassuring. The fixed index annuity I was shown was based on the S & P 500. I would like to see one of those charts of backwards testing using 10 year periods. As an example, an investor puts $10,000 in a S & P 500 index fund on say Feb 1, 2001, and also put the same amount in the annuity that on every 1 year anniversary determines if it gained or lost compared to the index. If it lost, the principal remains at the amount from a year ago or if it gained, that gain is added & will not go down from that point on.
So what is the value of each trial 10 years later on Feb 1, 2011 ? Then, I would like to see each and every 10 year period. That is how I would try to compare the 2 methods / choices for best long term results. My guess is that the insurance company does better in that contract and the investor would earn more after 10 year by just leaving the funds in the S ? P 500 index fund.
If the investor is retired, most financial planners would suggest ‘safer’ places to keep savings & one place would be certain bonds. They are not volatile, do not go down, but probably would not be worth as much as either of the other 2 after any 10 year back test.
But for final and definitive proof, can anyone lead me to these charts or an open calculator to make those charts ?

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