Episode 152
The Unleashed Fiduciary
This episode of the Ditch the Suits focuses on the critical importance of estate planning and the common mistakes people make in this area.
Travis and Steve welcome Jessica Blake, a Senior Wealth Manager and Certified Trust & Fiduciary Advisor (CTFA) from S.E.E.D. Planning Group, with extensive experience in estate planning, to share her insights.
They discuss what constitutes an adequate estate plan and debunk the misconception that it's merely about having a will or life insurance. Jessica emphasizes the value of understanding the intricacies of estate planning, including tax implications and the potential for family conflict when things go awry. She also discusses the significance of the CTFA credential, the role of fiduciaries, and the transition from estate planning to comprehensive financial planning.
You will appreciate Jessica's engaging anecdotes and the collaborative culture at S.E.E.D. Planning Group, which allows for a more holistic approach to financial and estate planning.
Takeaways:
- Estate planning encompasses much more than just creating a will or purchasing life insurance; it's a comprehensive process.
- Having an adequate estate plan is crucial to avoid common mistakes and conflicts among heirs.
- An effective estate planner must understand various aspects, including tax implications and investment strategies.
- The CTFA designation indicates a deep understanding of trusts, fiduciary responsibilities, and estate planning complexities.
- Jessica emphasizes the importance of teamwork and mentorship in providing effective financial planning services.
- Being a fiduciary allows planners to prioritize clients' best interests without corporate constraints.
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Thanks to our sponsor, S.E.E.D. Planning Group! S.E.E.D. is a fee-only financial planning firm with a fiduciary obligation to put your best interest first. Schedule your free discovery meeting at www.seedpg.com
You can watch all episodes, as well as other great content produced by NQR Media through their YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/@NQRMedia
📧 For more information or to get in touch with us, visit https://www.ditchthesuits.com
👍🏼 You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @nqrmedia
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About Your Co-Hosts:
Travis Maus has been in financial services for over fifteen years. He is a Senior Wealth Manager and Chief Executive Officer at S.E.E.D. Planning Group. Travis also hosts the Unleashing Leadership Podcast, where he dissects some of his favorite books on leadership and how you can apply it to your business or life.
Steve Campbell has over a decade of industry experience and is a Senior Marketing Director at S.E.E.D. Planning Group. Steve also hosts the One Big Thing Podcast, an interview-style show meant to inspire and encourage 30 and 40-year-olds going through difficult seasons of navigating marriage, raising kids, and growing personally.
Transcript
Foreign.
Steve Campbell:Welcome to Ditch the Suits podcast, where we share insights nobody in the financial services industry wants you to know about.
Steve Campbell:We're here to help you get the most from your money in life.
Steve Campbell:So buckle up and welcome to Ditch the Suits.
Speaker A:All right, let's talk about estate planning.
Speaker A:Today, people work really hard.
Speaker A:We save up the things that are important to us.
Speaker A:We build a life for us and our families.
Speaker A:We want to leave a great final impression on our heirs.
Speaker A:And one of the ways that we kind of mess all that up is by not having an adequate estate plan.
Speaker A:So we're going to talk about what that actually means because a lot of people are confused about what the term estate plan actually is.
Speaker A:It's not just getting a will, it's not just buying life insurance.
Speaker A:There's a lot to do with it.
Speaker A:And we're really, really excited because we have a special guest for the next four episodes and we're going to talk about avoiding a lot of the common mistakes.
Speaker A:And we're going to get the perspective of one of our senior wealth managers, Jessica Blake, who is also a.
Speaker A:And we're going to learn about this, a ctfa.
Speaker A:So a little bit of a credential after her name there.
Speaker A:But Jessica really has a specialty in estate planning.
Speaker A:She's been doing it for a long time.
Speaker A:She's worked for a trust company in the past.
Speaker A:She's got a lot of insight.
Speaker A:And one of the things that we wanted to do this year to, for our listeners is to bring additional perspective from somebody in the field doing it every single day.
Speaker A:What are the experiences she's having with real life clients?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Steve Campbell:And so with that, we want to say welcome to Ditch the Suits.
Steve Campbell:I'm Steve Campbell, your senior marketing director at Seed Planning Group, obviously joined by Travis Moss, our incredible co host and CEO of See if you're not familiar, Seed is a fee only financial planning firm.
Steve Campbell:And this show is all about us bringing our ideas, helping you get the most from your money in life.
Steve Campbell:And so really excited, as Travis said, to get into a four part miniseries talking about estate planning.
Steve Campbell:And so, Jess, welcome into Ditch the Suits.
Steve Campbell:Excited to have you here today, working as a senior wealth manager at Seed.
Steve Campbell:Why don't you give listeners a little bit of a intro as to who you are.
Jessica Blake:This is great.
Jessica Blake:I'm so excited to be able to participate in this.
Jessica Blake:This is so much fun.
Jessica Blake:I am, as you've already mention, a wealth manager that works here.
Jessica Blake:My previous life was, as Travis already mentioned, I worked at a local bank within their trust and estate department.
Jessica Blake:Have a lot of experience both in helping clients kind of pull together stuff for trust and estates, estate planning related things.
Jessica Blake:But the bulk of what I did was in administration of trust, administration of estates.
Jessica Blake:So I have seen firsthand some of the worst possible scenarios that could come into light.
Jessica Blake:It's always fun having powwows with local attorneys and things of like the horror stories that kind of come out of certain estates.
Jessica Blake:So it's been a really big advantage for me to be able to kind of have that experience to be able to help people with their estate planning, to try to eliminate some of the issues that are going to come out of it.
Jessica Blake:So.
Jessica Blake:And as Travis mentioned, have, you know, the Alphabet soup after my name for the ctfa and really what that is is a certified trust and fiduciary advisor is what that stands for.
Jessica Blake:It's just additional credentialing that allows me to be able to.
Jessica Blake:It was just a deep dive into more information so I could learn more about how taxes intertwine, just investment stuff to be able to make that more applicable for clients.
Jessica Blake:So it's just, you know, Alphabet soup that really helps, helps the game.
Speaker A:So you're kind of like the Dirty Harry of estate planning.
Speaker A:You've seen the good, the bad and the ugly, Right.
Speaker A:Oh my gosh, you've been through the wringer.
Speaker A:Before you came to seed and embarked on a career as a wealth manager, you had a real career.
Speaker A:Yes, A real.
Speaker A:In depth.
Speaker A:I mean, like I consider a career, you spend more than 10 years working on something, but you, you were at a trust department.
Jessica Blake:Yes.
Speaker A:Doing pretty much working with people through their estate plans and setting things up for their kids and their families and doing trusts and dealing with.
Speaker A:When it doesn't get done.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And you're trying to settle things with the family.
Speaker A:And did you ever.
Speaker A:Not that we'll save the examples for later, but did you ever see any family conflict?
Jessica Blake:All the time.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So that's kind of common.
Jessica Blake:Especially when, if there's a corporate trustee or corporate executor involved, that's.
Jessica Blake:There's always conflict.
Jessica Blake:Like, that's always conflict.
Jessica Blake:It's never a good scenario or rarely a good scenario.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:A lot of times people go to a corporate trustee when maybe they don't have a.
Speaker A:Yes, gotcha.
Jessica Blake:That's correct.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:They don't have a lot of agreement internally or they don't have somebody strong enough within the family unit to handle the role.
Jessica Blake:Yes.
Speaker A:So let's talk a little bit more about you just to get you kind of a little bit Better introduced, you're a wealth manager, which means you do all things financial planning at Seed now.
Jessica Blake:Yes.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And you got this year you are a senior, which does not indicate how old you are.
Jessica Blake:Oh, I'm old.
Steve Campbell:Okay.
Speaker A:Well, you could be old.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:But that is more so an indication that you're on the leadership team at Seed and that you're a shareholder in Seed.
Speaker A:So Seed's an employee owned company and so that you are now one of those employees.
Speaker A:And then you mentioned ctfa, Certified Trust Fiduciary Advisor.
Speaker A:Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Speaker A:Is that like, what does it take to get that designation?
Jessica Blake:Oh, gosh.
Jessica Blake:So for me specifically, I went through.
Jessica Blake:There is a specific trust school that you go through for like trustees or if you want to be kind of a corporate trustee.
Jessica Blake:I went through Canon Trust School.
Jessica Blake:So there's Canon.
Jessica Blake:There's three different classes that you have to do.
Jessica Blake:They're a week long each.
Jessica Blake:You have to actually take a test at the end of those weeks.
Jessica Blake:You have to pass it in order to be able to kind of move along to the next one at the end of that three course course meal, I guess at the end of those three courses.
Jessica Blake:So trust one, trust two, trust three, then you are eligible to take, to sit down and take the test for the ctfa.
Jessica Blake:So you're going through a lot of schooling to be able to get that credentialing.
Jessica Blake:And then that credentialing test is, you know, it's a different.
Speaker A:And it's only estate planning.
Speaker A:So I, I've seen credentials before coming from the insurance industry where it's like the credential is pretty much about selling insurance to people and calling that estate planning.
Speaker A:So the CTFA is much broader than insurance.
Steve Campbell:Right.
Speaker A:It's not an insurance based designation.
Speaker A:It's.
Jessica Blake:Oh, that is correct.
Jessica Blake:There is a huge, I mean it's law.
Jessica Blake:There's a ton of law that's based in it.
Jessica Blake:Taxes.
Jessica Blake:You know, it's, it's, it was an interesting transition coming here because you're working with a lot of personal taxes.
Jessica Blake:I had a lot more experience when it comes to like trust return taxes and there's so many different components with that.
Jessica Blake:And then investments.
Jessica Blake:Because it's a fiduciary based certification, you want to make sure that you know all the, I mean, the investments and how you treat them, et cetera and you know, best practices.
Jessica Blake:So that's really what it is.
Speaker A:One more thing that I wanted to know, I just wanted to get out there because I know obviously I know a little bit about your background and I thought it was really interesting and I think our listeners would like to hear about it before we kind of start to dig in and talk more about experience and how you found us.
Speaker A:And I think Steve's got a lot of questions for you that he wants to get through.
Speaker A:But you also.
Speaker A:Do you still serve on.
Speaker A:There was some kind of fiduciary board that you served on?
Jessica Blake:Yes, the Fiduciary Education foundation, which right now.
Jessica Blake:Because so there is a group called the Fiduciary Education foundation that is an entity in Pennsylvania that really is just trying to help give people who have CTFAs and other designations CE credits be able to use towards the credentialing and stuff like that.
Jessica Blake:So I had joined the board, had been the VP of the board.
Jessica Blake:Still technically am just due to the nature of after when Covid hit and all that kind of stuff.
Jessica Blake:Like it is looking like it's going to be absorbed into another group.
Jessica Blake:So we're trying to, you know, trying to manage that whole thing.
Jessica Blake:But it's been such an awesome opportunity for me to be able to connections and just being able to be involved in continuing education.
Jessica Blake:Being on the board.
Jessica Blake:You get to help pick all the speakers that are coming to this conference.
Jessica Blake:It was a three day conference that we basically organize and.
Jessica Blake:And be able to move through.
Jessica Blake:So it was a great way to.
Jessica Blake:To get involved and make sure I got to learn about the stuff I wanted to learn.
Speaker A:Well, I think that's important because a lot of times we, you know, we talk about so called financial advisors a lot on this podcast and a lot of times people are talking about their advisor.
Speaker A:And you know, I think one of the questions about any advisor is what how are you expanding your knowledge and how are you becoming an expert in what you do?
Speaker A:And that's just, that's an extracurricular activity.
Speaker A:But that is really rooted in a lot of the things that we talk about and how many people are members.
Speaker A:Not to get too far into Fiduciary Education foundation, but how many people are members of that group as far as.
Jessica Blake:On the board itself or.
Speaker A:Well, do you have membership or is it just pretty much the board and.
Jessica Blake:You just push the board and then we would push the event.
Jessica Blake:So just attend the conference.
Jessica Blake:So we would have gotcha.
Jessica Blake:You know, and that was another struggle we were having is having enough participation on the board to be able to manage being able to put on this entire event.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Jessica Blake:You know, but we would just have people attend the conference.
Jessica Blake:We made it so Reasonably, the cost was so effective.
Jessica Blake:It was very cost effective to go.
Jessica Blake:So you pay like $600 for three days, included your meal.
Jessica Blake:So people had the opportunity to learn more.
Jessica Blake:So it was just you paid for the conference, you came, and, you know, we'd get, you know, 50 to 100 people that would come.
Jessica Blake:We had people coming from across the country.
Jessica Blake:It was really cool.
Jessica Blake:So wonderful.
Jessica Blake:Good thing.
Speaker A:Well, we love fiduciaries.
Speaker A:You know, we've put our flag in the stand and said we don't believe a client should work with anybody other than a fiduciary.
Speaker A:So.
Jessica Blake:Amen.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I think that that's one of the big draws which I think we're gonna talk about in a little bit, that probably connected all of us together.
Speaker A:So, Steve, do you wanna.
Speaker A:I'll give you a chance now to cross examine our witness.
Steve Campbell:Do you wanna get what a witness?
Steve Campbell:By the way, Travis, I want to thank you though, for asking Jess about her credential.
Steve Campbell:Because I think that is one thing.
Steve Campbell:Over the years, as we've been doing DTS and even just being first point of contact when people reach, you know, individuals, consumers see these Alphabet soup next to professionals names and they don't know what it means.
Steve Campbell:And we've talked about the pageantry of the financial services industry and how certain certifications can be used to sell stories or to tell people, I'm.
Steve Campbell:I'm good at this because look at my three letters.
Steve Campbell:And so I remember when we first, when Jess joined us at Seed and we saw that certification and I asked lots of questions like, hey, what is this?
Steve Campbell:Like, how.
Steve Campbell:How does somebody use this?
Steve Campbell:I've never come across anybody or industry that has that particular credential.
Steve Campbell:So I just appreciate you g her the space to explain what that means because consumers really are trying to tell the difference between what some of these certifications are.
Steve Campbell:But Jess, you know, it's been a number of years that you've been with us.
Steve Campbell:Now you and I get to interact quite a bit.
Steve Campbell:Right?
Steve Campbell:Because a big thing here at Seed is, you know, matching up the right people with the right planner based on personality, professionalism.
Steve Campbell:And you get a feel, right, on a, on a first call with a person and their background and what they're interested in, a little bit about their life.
Steve Campbell:And so then we go to work and we say, man, who on our team would be a great fit for this individual or this couple based on their needs and the way that they are looking and what kind of experience do we want to give them?
Steve Campbell:And so you and I interact Quite a bit.
Steve Campbell:Because I'll come to you and say, jess, I got one for you.
Steve Campbell:Here's the situation.
Steve Campbell:And.
Steve Campbell:And I think it's your joy and your energy as a planner that just jumps off the screen to me and why I just appreciate you not only as a colleague, but as a friend.
Steve Campbell:But, you know, it's been a few years, so I think it'd be great to hear you had mentioned kind of the previous roles that you were in at your previous stops, but it's been a few years at Seed.
Steve Campbell:What is the overall been like for you so far?
Jessica Blake:It's incredible.
Jessica Blake:And I'm just going to say in this space right now, because normally, like, when I get excited, I move a lot.
Jessica Blake:And I'm like, trying to tell myself, like, don't move too much right now.
Jessica Blake:But normally I'm like, I don't.
Jessica Blake:This is crazy.
Jessica Blake:So I worked at a trust department trust in the State Department.
Jessica Blake:I had full intention to work there forever.
Jessica Blake:I loved what I did.
Jessica Blake:I was very good at what I did.
Jessica Blake:I With the credentialing thing, for me, the bigger driver in that is I got to learn more.
Jessica Blake:I always have wanted to be able to.
Jessica Blake:How can I help clients more?
Jessica Blake:How can we be better?
Jessica Blake:How can we keep, like, improving things for our clients and getting better at stuff?
Jessica Blake:And while I was working there, one of the things that you have to do and how I kind of ended up over here at Seed Planning Group is I was in the process of taking over as trustee for a client.
Jessica Blake:When we do that, we have to marshal assets.
Jessica Blake:So we basically have to take their assets, you know, wherever they are, and kind of move them over under the umbrella in the trust department.
Jessica Blake:And usually that's a really, really horrible thing to have to do because you're taking money away from somebody, you're taking commissions away out of their pocket, and it's usually a bad, bad experience.
Jessica Blake:And in this particular case, it happened to be a Seed PG employee that I.
Jessica Blake:And y'all know who it was.
Jessica Blake:And she was just delightful.
Jessica Blake:Like, it was one of those things.
Jessica Blake:It was such a great interaction.
Jessica Blake:She was so helpful.
Jessica Blake:She just was like, no, we want to do what's in best interest of this client.
Jessica Blake:This is fantastic.
Jessica Blake:I'm so glad you guys are helping them and getting involved.
Jessica Blake:And it was such a wonderful experience.
Jessica Blake:And over the course of just a couple conversations with her, I was like, oh, my God.
Jessica Blake:I feel like I've told this girl my entire life story.
Jessica Blake:Like, she was just one of those people that kind of Drew it out of you.
Jessica Blake:And like, she started telling me about SEED and what you did, you know, what it stood for, which, you know, just everything about it.
Jessica Blake:And I just remember, I'm like, oh, my gosh, you were so lucky to be able to work in an environment like that.
Jessica Blake:And then she said a few words that changed my life.
Jessica Blake:She's like, send me your resume.
Jessica Blake:I was like, giddy up, let's go.
Jessica Blake:So it was just.
Jessica Blake:And then, you know, got into the meet and greet thing and just kind of just started talking people and it was awesome to have a conversation with Dave Nerchi and just.
Jessica Blake:I've always been a big book reader of sorts, and so that's a huge thing here.
Jessica Blake:So we just kind of like, it was wonderful to see what you did and how you did it, and it just really lined up with my values and how I like to work and how I knew I'd be able to kind of be effective.
Jessica Blake:And it's been everything that I expected and far more on many, many different levels and good.
Jessica Blake:You know, like, it's, it's been pretty wild.
Jessica Blake:The, the biggest difference in other companies in here for me is it's just the continued drive for growth because again, why I always want to keep learning, I always want to keep doing better.
Jessica Blake:What more can I learn to bring to the table to help out clients?
Jessica Blake:And, you know, I have a base knowledge of this and how can I do better?
Jessica Blake:And clearly everything about this company that is the driver of this company.
Jessica Blake:So it's just really been a great experience for me to be able to kind of really embrace that and just kind of make it bigger and better.
Jessica Blake:It's cool.
Speaker A:You, you had to make, you made a big jump though, because I remember when we first met you, you were, you were doing a lot of financial planning stuff with your estate planning.
Speaker A:I mean, you really can't not do any financial planning in estate plan.
Speaker A:You know, when you're doing estate planning and even a little bit of multi generational estate planning.
Speaker A:So really a more sophisticated type of.
Speaker A:When you work on an estate plan, let's pretend that you are my mom and Steve is my dad.
Speaker A:We could, we could do an estate plan for you two that's just about your lives.
Speaker A:Or we can do an estate plan that's about your lives and your children's lives.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And that's multi generational and that's a lot more sophisticated than the former.
Speaker A:But then when you came here, we're much deeper financial planning oriented and you brought some, let's say, advanced estate planning skills to the table for us.
Speaker A:But that was a big jump because you had to fill in like, okay, I'm starting as a financial planner looking at a client situation versus a estate plan or looking at a client situation.
Speaker A:Very different perspectives.
Speaker A:One is you're looking almost from the beginning of life.
Speaker A:The other one is you're looking at the end of life.
Speaker A:So what was that transition like?
Speaker A:Because that was a big jump that you made.
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Jessica Blake:Yes, it was pretty wild.
Jessica Blake:And one of the draws for me is that when I was there I was always, because we did a lot of investment management for clients as well.
Jessica Blake:So it was more than just trust administration or estate administration.
Jessica Blake:We were also, I was very involved in account or investment management and that type of stuff as well, but just not to the degree that I am here.
Jessica Blake:And we were always trying to be able to help clients out with Roth conversions, like things like that, that we saw all of this value add and we're like, man, you really need to be able to take advantage of this.
Jessica Blake:But in an environment like that, it's like they have to go to their cpa, they have to go here.
Jessica Blake:Even for an estate planning thing.
Jessica Blake:I could talk through things with clients, but from the higher ups would be, no, send them to the attorney.
Jessica Blake:You, you know, like it's a risk thing.
Jessica Blake:Like we don't, we're not taking the risk of being able to give them advice necessarily.
Jessica Blake:And it was hard for me because I knew enough where I'm just like, you need more, you need, you can do better than this.
Jessica Blake:But I just have, you know, handcuffs on to be able to do this.
Jessica Blake:And I saw the opportunity here that would allow me much more have the ability to be able to do those things.
Jessica Blake:And that was the draw.
Jessica Blake:And again, I was fully prepared to retire at that place, but it was, I don't know, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to do more.
Jessica Blake:And it was definitely worth the jump because this is freaking cool.
Speaker A:We're glad that you have the ambition.
Speaker A:So that couldn't be any better.
Speaker A:I mean, like, we're just so thankful that our paths have crossed.
Speaker A:But you mentioned something there, the risk of giving advice.
Speaker A:So this is not a knock on where you were previous, because this is kind of categorically how the industry kind of operates.
Speaker A:The risk of giving advice.
Speaker A:So I talk about this all the time.
Speaker A:It's kind of like, Steve, you've got all the kids.
Speaker A:It's like, you could tell the kids one thing, and then they go to school and the teacher tells them and they come back and they're like, look what we learned today.
Speaker A:And you're like, yeah, I told you that five times last week.
Speaker A:And they're like, yeah, but dad, you don't know, right?
Speaker A:So, Jess, can you talk a little bit about.
Speaker A:Just give us a minute or two more embellishing on the risk of giving advice.
Speaker A:And you, as a fiduciary, somebody who's got a special credential as a fiduciary, somebody who goes through extra continuing education, somebody who's on a board of an organization focused on promoting fiduciary principles.
Speaker A:What do you think, as a practitioner, when you want to help a client and you're told you can't give that advice because they could sue us if you give them bad advice or something?
Speaker A:Like, what is that?
Jessica Blake:That.
Jessica Blake:And that was the.
Jessica Blake:For me, that was one of the most difficult things there is.
Jessica Blake:Just seeing.
Jessica Blake:You could see the writing on the wall and the negative things and how you're holding clients back and not being able to help them to the extent you could.
Jessica Blake:It.
Jessica Blake:It was unfortunate, but I mean, I'm just going to use the Roth conversion as a really good example because that was whole thing with.
Jessica Blake:With that place is that they were like.
Jessica Blake:And granted it as a corporate environment, a corporate trustee, a corporate whatever, right?
Jessica Blake:It was all about risk management.
Jessica Blake:Like, because we get sued all the time for a whole variety of reasons, whether that, you know, it made sense or not.
Jessica Blake:And so it was like, we just need to mitigate the risk.
Jessica Blake:Don't even kind of put yourself in a position, just send them over to the proper people.
Jessica Blake:But, like, I would have clients.
Jessica Blake:Like, I knew that you have these massive IRAs, need tax planning, you need to do Roth conversions.
Jessica Blake:I know that you need to do this.
Jessica Blake:So I would actually help them and coordinate calls with their CPAs, trying to kind of like, be the Bridge to be able to make it happen.
Jessica Blake:But I was not allowed to actually be able to kind of assist with that or do anything with that.
Jessica Blake:But they would.
Jessica Blake:And I honestly, like, if they, I mean, you know, they hear this, they're going to be like, you did what?
Jessica Blake:You know, so it was just a huge, huge negative thing to.
Jessica Blake:To do any of that.
Jessica Blake:They didn't want us to take part in any of that.
Jessica Blake:They're just like, nope, send them over to the attorney, send them over to the cpa.
Jessica Blake:Your job is done here, period.
Speaker A:Yeah, and like I said, that's not.
Speaker A:I would not cast any shade on that particular organization.
Speaker A:I think that's 99% of the organizations in our industry compartmentalize everything that you know, here's.
Speaker A:And that's why we always talk to clients about or anybody listening to this podcast, reading the contract and understanding the scope of work, because within that contractor scope of work or the disclosures that you're provided by whoever you're engaging for planning is going to be the limitations of where they say, look, this is really where we live.
Speaker A:Because the concern is if we give you tax advice and it doesn't go well, you could come back and sue us.
Speaker A:One of the things that I really think organizations are saying in general, I don't know anything about the organization where you came from, but organizations in general are saying, as we don't train people on that stuff, we can't back the advice they're giving.
Speaker A:So therefore they're not allowed to give you advice on it.
Speaker A:Which comes back to the definition of a financial planner.
Speaker A:It's like, I have a planner.
Speaker A:Do you?
Speaker A:Because they're not trained on xyz.
Speaker A:In fact, their company puts it in writing.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So anyway, well, and Travis, if I.
Steve Campbell:Can, you know, just kind of speak to what you just said, I think that does a really nice recap of over the years.
Steve Campbell:Have you shared about the scope of work and how many people that have hired somebody that don't know what they don't know?
Steve Campbell:And so just, just revealing that at the prior place there was limitations as far as she could go.
Steve Campbell:The client assumes then, well, then there's nothing that I can do in my given situation because this person who I entrust is not telling me that I can do this or def the, you know, blame to somebody else.
Steve Campbell:And so I think now being on this side, you know, Jess, there is a, you know, an evolution for people that first join our team and we, we get join our team requests and resumes constantly now because of the practice that Travis envisioned and what he's built and how different it is.
Steve Campbell:And so you are very selective, though, in who you bring into this thing.
Steve Campbell:And I think the first time you and I met, I knew immediately from talking to you, you already had the desire to be a fiduciary.
Steve Campbell:You were doing the things you were doing.
Steve Campbell:You just needed to be aligned with a place that could release or, you know, set you free in a way to do the things you wanted to do.
Steve Campbell:And so I think it's been great, you know, being here with you and working together, how the.
Steve Campbell:The moral principles that you have have now met the company that is going to release those things and just say, go do what you're really good at.
Steve Campbell:And so I guess that was kind of my why.
Steve Campbell:I appreciate you bringing that up because it is good for listeners out there to know that when you can marry those two things, the right person with the right situation, that you can really get the most from your money in life.
Steve Campbell:And so, you know, that's kind of one of the things I think we wanted to talk to is maybe some of your favorite parts now, being at Seed and what you have the capacity to do that maybe you didn't before.
Steve Campbell:So what's been the favorite part now?
Steve Campbell:Being on this side as a professional with the freedoms that you have to be an unleashed fiduciary.
Steve Campbell:Hey guys, Steve Campbell with Ditch the Suits.
Steve Campbell:Want to take one quick moment to make a big ask.
Steve Campbell:If you haven't already, Travis and I would love for you to subscribe to this podcast.
Steve Campbell:But if you haven't, also, we would love for you to leave a five star rating and review.
Steve Campbell:Your rating and review will let other podcasters know the show is worth their time.
Steve Campbell:So let's get right back to the episode and thanks for listening to Ditch the Suits podcast.
Speaker A:Ooh, unleashed fiduciary.
Speaker A:That's nice.
Jessica Blake:Oh, I wanna.
Jessica Blake:Oh, that's a tattoo right there.
Jessica Blake:Yes.
Jessica Blake:I have known, you know, as some of the books that we have read or talked about, it's like, you know, Simon Sinekin, you know, find your why.
Jessica Blake:And I have known for a very, very long time what my why is what my purpose is.
Jessica Blake:My whole shtick in life is I want to have an impact.
Jessica Blake:I want to have an impact on the lives of others in some way, shape or form.
Jessica Blake:Like that is my driver for everything.
Jessica Blake:So it's been.
Jessica Blake:That has been unleashed in so many ways here and both with Internal, the team here is incredible.
Jessica Blake:Like, I love my co workers, even Travis.
Jessica Blake:No I'm just kidding.
Jessica Blake:You know, I mean, look at that face.
Speaker A:There's good parts and bad parts, you know.
Jessica Blake:Well, same with me, but I, I.
Speaker A:Freaking take the crazy with the good.
Speaker A:Okay?
Jessica Blake:I love.
Jessica Blake:You're crazy.
Jessica Blake:I love, love, love, love my teammates here.
Jessica Blake:Everyone here is absolutely incredible.
Jessica Blake:Everyone here works as a team.
Jessica Blake:I.
Jessica Blake:That has been one of my whole drivers.
Jessica Blake:Anybody who knows me really, really well knows all I care about is the team.
Jessica Blake:I will literally do anything for the team.
Jessica Blake:I will push the team forward.
Jessica Blake:I just want us all to work as a team and just be incredible and be impactful as a team.
Jessica Blake:And that I've been able to help out with new mentoring and just a, like bringing a value.
Jessica Blake:Like, I know I have a value set with estate planning.
Jessica Blake:I can help people out with that where people might not necessarily be strong in that area.
Jessica Blake:I'm able to help my team members with that.
Jessica Blake:I'm able to bring a lot to the table and be impactful in that way.
Jessica Blake:And then you have the whole part of being able to help out and be impactful with clients.
Jessica Blake:It's such a cool opportunity to have my.
Jessica Blake:Why just really explode all over the place, both internally, externally, and I've never worked in a place that allowed for so much of that to really be in alignment.
Jessica Blake:So it's been fantastic.
Jessica Blake:And one of my, you know, my sayings, I guess, that I've had in life and if you talk to my stepdaughter, this is something that she, if you ask her, what did Jess say to you all the time growing up, she'd be like, do the right thing no matter where it lands you, you know, and so like, she would always joke about that, but it's just been such a thing.
Jessica Blake:You always do the right thing no matter where it lands you, period.
Jessica Blake:It.
Jessica Blake:There is no gray area.
Jessica Blake:Do the right thing.
Jessica Blake:And so acting as the fiduciary here, especially much more than any other place, you can do the right thing no matter where it lands you.
Jessica Blake:I can tell people, you know what, like, this is a bad idea.
Jessica Blake:This is a good idea.
Jessica Blake:And it might not be good for the company because, oh, we're not going to get asset under management over, under our umbrella.
Jessica Blake:You know what?
Jessica Blake:It's not the right thing for you.
Jessica Blake:Don't do it.
Jessica Blake:So I have the ability to say those things, give people that advice and do, do the right thing no matter where it lands me.
Jessica Blake:So it's been all good stuff for me.
Speaker A:I think that's fascinating.
Speaker A:That's the, the unleashed fiduciary uncensored there.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:It just, it so matches up with so much of, just the, the ethos of, of how we aspire to help people overcome challenges.
Speaker A:You know, I mean, like the two things, it's, it's gasoline on a fire.
Speaker A:So we're gonna do, we're gonna have three more episodes with you.
Speaker A:So we're gonna get into some different topics.
Speaker A:We're gonna kind of build this out a little bit.
Speaker A:But to leave this episode kind of with a bow on top.
Speaker A:We've, we've made the transition to financial planning.
Speaker A:We've brought that subject matter expertise of estate planning with us.
Speaker A:We're in a place where we can be that unleashed fiduciary and follow our mission.
Speaker A:And that drive that you have.
Speaker A:What is your absolute favorite part of being a financial planning?
Speaker A:Like, if you could, you know, just, if you could, if you had one sentence to explain it to somebody.
Speaker A:This is why I love being a financial planner.
Jessica Blake:Oh, this is going to be a long sentence.
Jessica Blake:Coming up with creative solutions to improve people's situations.
Jessica Blake:That's it in a nutshell.
Jessica Blake:I, I love puzzles.
Jessica Blake:I love them.
Jessica Blake:I don't know, it's so much fun, but I just love, love, love coming up with like really creative solutions to be able to help people out.
Jessica Blake:That's why people come to us.
Jessica Blake:They're like, I have a problem, I need help with it.
Jessica Blake:And it's like, oh, giddy up, let's go.
Speaker A:Piggity pow.
Jessica Blake:Piggity pow with a donkey kick, guys.
Steve Campbell:That's what I was gonna say.
Steve Campbell:I, I feel a little cheated over here, Jess, that you said.
Steve Campbell:You know, there's one statement that's course my entire life that I've shared with my daughter and I'm waiting for piggity pal.
Steve Campbell:And then you give me this heartwarming do the right thing, which is right.
Steve Campbell:But the cool thing about.
Speaker A:There's probably a piggity power in there.
Jessica Blake:Oh, there's always a piggity pow.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's like the period.
Steve Campbell:What, what does that mean?
Steve Campbell:Piggity pow.
Steve Campbell:You know, Jess has done a good thing.
Steve Campbell:You know, with a new client or a client when you're like, how did it go?
Steve Campbell:And you just get an emoji or a piggity pow.
Steve Campbell:That's her power move, which truthfully has embodied.
Steve Campbell:I did the right thing and I feel really good about it.
Steve Campbell:And as we bring this episode to a close, one thing that I thought was really impactful that you just said is the non threatening culture that we have Here, all three of us came from brokerage firms where you were in direct competition to the person in the door next next to you.
Steve Campbell:Everyone was out for the same commissions, the same kinds of things.
Steve Campbell:And there is no cross sharing of information.
Steve Campbell:No one wants to help anybody get a leg ahead because they're afraid you're going to get another client that they won't.
Steve Campbell:And so to have you say that you're here giving backwards to newer hires and in trainings, it's a non threatening environment where because of our structure, you're able to do that.
Steve Campbell:If you get better, we all get better.
Steve Campbell:And so for those that don't understand the makeup of our industry and how it works, that is not a normal thing to have happen.
Steve Campbell:Mentorship and giving back with no what's in it for me.
Steve Campbell:And so I just want to thank you because that leaps off the screen, that leaps off meetings when we're together.
Steve Campbell:What you are giving back to all of us and helping us get better is strengthening all, all of us for the people that we, we deal with and come across.
Steve Campbell:So I'm very excited for the next three episodes.
Steve Campbell:I think anytime we can talk with you is a win for us.
Steve Campbell:And I think it's going to illuminate over the next three series really around estate planning.
Steve Campbell:Maybe when we say that word adequate, what does that really mean?
Steve Campbell:So stay tuned.
Steve Campbell:We got three more episodes with the wonderful Jess Blake.
Steve Campbell:Until next time, pick it, pal.
