Solid ground. Sharp strategy.
Granite Point Retirement helps people close to retirement understand insurance-based options designed to help protect savings from market losses. Plain English, from a licensed Washington agent — including who these options are wrong for.
What we offer
Fixed Indexed Annuities
A fixed indexed annuity — an FIA — is a contract with an insurance company. Your money earns interest based on how a market index performs, within limits the contract sets.Read moreRoth Conversion Planning
A Roth conversion moves money from a tax-deferred retirement account — a traditional IRA or an old 401(k) — into a Roth IRA. You pay ordinary income tax on the amount you move, in the year you move it.Read moreLife Insurance
Life insurance does one job above all others: it pays money to the people you choose when you die. Everything else — cash value, index-linked growth, retirement talk — is secondary to that job, and any conversation that starts somewhere else has the order wrong.Read more
How it works
- Answer 8 quick questions — about where you are, what you've saved, and what matters most to you. About 2 minutes.
- See your personalized result right away — where you stand, and whether this category of options is even worth your time.
- If it looks like a fit, book a free 15-minute review with a licensed agent. No cost, no obligation, and no pressure — it's a conversation, not a pitch.
Behind Granite Point: one licensed agent, on purpose.
I'm Eric Lenhardt — licensed insurance agent & annuity specialist in Washington. When you take the Checkup, your information comes to me and stays with me — never a call center, never a lead list.
Read the whole storyWhy people trust Granite Point
One agent, not a call list.Your information goes to one licensed agent — never sold or resold to call centers.
Real licensing.Eric Lenhardt is a licensed insurance agent in Washington (license #740098). Not a "financial advisor" — and honest about the difference.
Carrier strength you can check.The options discussed are contracts issued by insurance carriers rated by independent rating agencies — strength you can look up yourself.
From the Learn hub
How the "floor of zero" works — and what it costs you
In a fixed indexed annuity, the "floor of zero" means this: in a year the market index falls, your account is credited 0% interest — the index loss does not come out of your account value. The cost of that floor is the other half of the deal: in years the index rises, you receive only part of the gain. Neither half makes sense without the other.Who fixed indexed annuities are NOT for
Fixed indexed annuities are the wrong choice for a lot of people — including some of the people they get pitched to hardest. If you may need the money soon, want maximum growth, would be committing most of your savings, are years from retirement, or don't fully understand the contract, an FIA is probably not your answer. Here is each of those, plainly.The CD comparison worth running before renewal
A bank CD pays a fixed rate you know upfront, for a term usually measured in months to a few years, with FDIC backing within its limits. A fixed indexed annuity credits interest tied to a market index — zero in down years instead of a loss — for a longer commitment, backed by an insurance company. Neither one wins across the board; they do different jobs. A CD's maturity date is simply the one moment when running the comparison costs you nothing.