During 2008, one of our general agents from New York, Rich Malek, lost his father, Walter. Many of us at the Supreme Council headquarters in New Haven, Conn., knew Walter from a visit he made to one of our manager meetings in Florida. “Pop,” as Walter was affectionately known by his son, was a great guy, and Rich misses him deeply.  It was a storybook father-son relationship. While Walter was alive, Rich and he spoke every day — and from spring through fall, the main topic was the New York Mets.

Walter was also his son’s first client when Rich became a field agent. When Rich joined the Knights of Columbus sales force, he sold his father a life insurance policy that covered his needs and continued to grow in value until his death.

A retirement annuity found its way into Walter’s portfolio as well.  Interestingly, Walter bought the annuity at age 58 as an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). He religiously paid the maximum amount into his annuity each year ($1,500 at the time) for seven years, until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. 

What then? Walter’s agent/son recommended that he annuitize the product and let the Knights of Columbus pay him a monthly sum — guaranteed— for the rest of his life. In case something were to happen to his father soon after retirement, Rich made the optiont hat we call a “ten year certain”, which means that the monthly income would go to Walter’s beneficiary for at least ten years after his death.

Well, thanks be to God, Pop lived to the age of 92. So, let’s do the math.

Walter paid $10,500 into his annuity during the seven years before he retired. The option he and Rich selected called for the Order to send him $148 per month for the rest of his life. He got those checks twelve months a year for 26 years. Thus, the return on his $10,500 investment was $46,176.  Check your investments and see w hich ones are going to do that for you. Better yet, call your father and do what Rich did. Suggest he consider a Knights of Columbus annuity.

My thanks goes out to Rich for allowing me to share this happy story of a man who made the right decisions and who raised a good son. The Knights of Columbus was there for him, every month, for 26 years.

We would like to do the same for you.