u/mycupboard

In the residential world, structural engineers are almost never given recognition for their contributions. Their company names are not on site signs, instagram posts, magazine write-ups. I imagine it's because of the lack of visual creativity, people often view structural engineering as a commodity (it is to a degree). As a structural engineer that designs complex multimillion dollar additions, renovations and new builds, I often ask myself how can I make more of an impact on a project or get more recognition to help grow my brand.

Architects, landscape architects, interior designers, builders, and photographers all seem to look out for each other when it comes to marketing opportunities. Even after requesting, I still haven't managed to get my company's name into an article, onto a site sign, or into a social media post.

I want to know the hard truth, what do you think of structural engineers. I'm also open to DMs if you'd rather not post publicly

Context - installed solar last year. they wanted me to install a smaller system because it was too big "per code", i challenged them back and forth and they folded and said ok you can install it, we just need to control your inverters. i challenge, they folded and said ok but we need to see your data for a few months.

heard nothing from them for 6 months and then when we had our first negative electric bill - they reached out for that data. I want to know if anyone knows what exactly they could use this data for? I'm sure they are trying to build a case to get me to reduce my production, and i'm trying to stop them from doing that.

They asked for:

Vacr(V)
Qac(Var)
pToGrid(W)
pFromGrid(W)
pACcoupling(W)
pLoad(W)
pinv(V)
pf
E_inv(kWh)

I am not a well versed financial guru. I have a couple mild connections that have some finance experience, but none that are financial advisors.

Long story short - we got a new financial advisor recently and he is recommending we move our traditional IRA (which currently has a "high" management fee) into the Jackson Market Link Pro III vehicle.

Seemed nice, downside protection, good gains (supposedly), and from what i saw seemed like a decent investment. However, one of my connections told me he doesn't recommend investing in annuities and i should just move my funds to my company's current 401k program.

I've been burned in the past from financial advisors recommending we do something that they end up getting a big commission for. I'm weary of if this guy is doing the same thing with the jackson annuity plan.

i'm 34years old, so not retiring ANYTIME SOON. is there a reason to avoid this program? and should i be firing my financial advisor or is this just a preference point and once we say no to this he may still be good enough to find another avenue?

Thanks so much for the help!