The monthly cap is a perfect example of an annuity allocation type that can achieve amazing returns but does so very infrequently.

The monthly-cap was a methodology that the Averill family used exclusively for a long period of time, but this was when monthly caps were extraordinarily higher than they are today.

The percentage of the monthly cap is extraordinarily important; the lower it is, the higher the number of zero return years that will prevail. This is because, in monthly caps, although you get just the limited upside growth of the market on a monthly basis, subtracted from that is 100% of all the downside months with no limitation. It's not a fair fight.

It was the best available, and the best on the market with respect to being capable of higher returns and, therefore, it averaged out as the best for a long time, from approximately 2000 to 2010. The Opti Choice products by Lincoln Financial maintained those products. Those products were designed by our friends at Jefferson Pilot after Lincoln bought them.

Below is an example scenario of the past performance of current monthly cap rates available on two of the most frequently sold products in America; these are compared to our favorite product and management.

The difficult thing to understand about monthly caps is that they are both one of the best and one of the worst options at the same time. There's kind of no middle ground, or the middle ground is dangerous. For example, with a 2.2% monthly cap, one can easily say that the upside potential of that monthly cap would be 6.99%, or that the monthly cap is capable of paying at that level. Nothing would preclude a salesperson from saying that because it's true.

Now notice the propensity. In the same scenario, it was much more likely for a person to end up in the Unhappy category, with 78.83% falling into the Unhappy category, and only 0.1% falling into the Happy category.

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Results starting from 8/19/1999:

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