Unfortunately for some, I feel vindicated...

This is not a case of schadenfreude, as I don't relish in this, but I've had many naysayers, including friends and family, who did not agree with my recommendations of home equity planning, and the implementation of index-based annuities and index-based maximum-funded universal life contracts. Unfortunately, it's been "I told you so."

Fortunately, I helped a few other family members and friends escape the majority of the carnage, as the IUL's have a mininum floor guarantee of 1%. The best part is that when the market recovers, they'll be able to participate in the majority of run up as well--tax-free. But avoiding the carnage is huge, and they sleep at nite. Even better is that due to the resetting of the new starting point, the next year going forward should actually give them tremendous upside. So they are thriving even in this perfect storm of plummeting asset values, whether stocks or real estate.