Episode 153
Unleashing Clients
In this episode, we dive into estate planning with Jessica Blake, a Senior Wealth Manager and Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor (CTFA) at S.E.E.D. Planning Group. Jessica shares real-life insights from working with clients every day, shedding light on the critical mistakes people make that can jeopardize their financial legacy.
We explore why estate planning is often overlooked, how proper planning can prevent financial disaster, and why working with the right advisor makes all the difference. Jessica and the team discuss how financial planning goes beyond numbers—it’s about creating a life that aligns with your goals and values. Whether you're saving for retirement, planning for your heirs, or just trying to make sense of your financial future, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways to help you avoid costly missteps.
Tune in to learn how to take control of your estate plan before it’s too late!
Takeaways:
- Estate planning mistakes can totally wreck the legacy you worked hard to build, so don’t wing it!
- Understanding the importance of tax planning is crucial; it's more than just numbers, folks!
- Your financial planner should be a matchmaker, pairing you with the right expertise and personality; it’s a vibe!
- Financial freedom is about knowing how to use your savings—don't just hoard them, spend thoughtfully!
- Engaging in ongoing financial planning means adapting to life changes, not just checking off a transactional box.
- Creative solutions in financial planning can unlock opportunities you never knew existed—think outside the box!
🅿️ For more DTS content check out our Patreon
_____________________________________________________________
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
______________________________________________________________
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.
Speaker B:Welcome to Ditch the Suits podcast where we share insights nobody in the financial services industry wants you to know about.
Speaker B:We're here to help you get the most from your money in life.
Speaker B:So buckle up and welcome to Ditch the Suits.
Speaker A:All right, so we're digging into estate planning with Jessica Blake, the senior wealth manager who is joining us from seed planning Group today.
Speaker A:She's really bringing the subject matter expertise of estate planning and real life day to day.
Speaker A:She's very active with current clients, with new clients, so she's.
Speaker A:She's going to share with us things that are really just happening every single day currently with clients.
Speaker A:So we get a really.
Speaker A:We have a gem here today because we get.
Speaker A:It's like the ultimate cheat code.
Speaker A:We get to hear from somebody who's really doing this.
Speaker A:And nobody had to sign up for a seminar or pay for an extra class or.
Speaker A:It's not continuing education or anything like that, but we're certainly getting educated.
Speaker A:So the whole premise of this series is four episodes.
Speaker A:We just completed one episode.
Speaker A:This is the second episode, is to talk about one of the most common ways that somebody can destroy the legacy that they leave to their kids or their heirs, be it maybe it's not their kids, maybe it's their spouse, or maybe it's their nieces and nephews.
Speaker A:Maybe they intended to make it a charity.
Speaker A:Whatever it might be, there's.
Speaker A:If you get the estate planning wrong, and it's very easy to get wrong, you can, you can ruin everything that you've worked your whole life for and kind of, what's the point of that?
Speaker A:So we have these four episodes we're kind of walking.
Speaker A:We introduced Jess last time, get a good idea who she is and why we should listen to her.
Speaker A:We're going to dig a little bit more into her client work today, and hopefully we're going to uncover some of the mistakes that people make so that our listeners don't have to make the same mistakes.
Speaker A:So whether you work with us, whether you call us, or whether you work with somebody else, you're going to be armed with, does this feel right, whatever you're doing for your estate planning?
Speaker A:Does it, does it, does it sound like what you're hearing us talking about?
Speaker A:Because if it doesn't, you might be missing some pieces.
Speaker A:And the problem with your estate plan is you don't know you're missing pieces until, well, you'll never know.
Speaker A:It's your heirs that will know.
Speaker A:And the problem with that is that that can be just catastrophic and incredibly destructive.
Speaker A:And we want to help people avoid that.
Speaker A:So welcome Jess, our senior wealth management manager from Seed Planning Group.
Speaker A:Jess Blake, our ctfa.
Speaker B:Thanks well and you like a little tongue in cheek at the beginning, poking, poking fun at the industry.
Speaker B:This is Ditch the Suits.
Speaker B:We like to have fun.
Speaker B:I'm Steve Campbell, senior marketing director at Seed Planning Group.
Speaker B:The guy you heard from in the first few minutes is Travis Moss, our CEO at Seed.
Speaker B:And Ditch the Suits is really us.
Speaker B:Seed is a fee only financial planning firm fiduciary responsibility to work in clients best interests.
Speaker B:And this show is all about us bringing to you our years of experience dealing with clients to help you get the most from your money in life without having to attend a seminar, a dinner.
Speaker B:But just get truth that can help set you free.
Speaker B:And so very excited.
Speaker B:If you missed the last episode with Jess, go back and listen to that.
Speaker B:She is a piggy pal rock star really explained maybe how Seed is different from, from other companies and how they work.
Speaker B:So it is a good listen if you want to go back and take a look because over these next three episodes she's really going to lay out estate planning and get into it.
Speaker B:And so that first episode really brought to life why she does what what she does.
Speaker B:And in these series we're going to go through, you know, kind of the how to's, if you will.
Speaker A:And we mentioned ctfa.
Speaker A:So if you're like me, maybe you're not remembering what all these acronyms and stuff stand for, but it's Certified Trust Fiduciary Advisor.
Speaker A:So it's a special designation that focuses on the fiduciary part of being a trust advisor, basically.
Speaker A:Which even though trust and estate plan kind of sound different, most larger estate plans are going to have some kind of trust work involved with them.
Speaker A:So it is a very intricate and sophisticated part of estate planning.
Speaker A:So she's got a wealth of knowledge there.
Speaker A:We had talked about in the last episode, Steve, when we were kind of introducing Jess and your relationship with Jess and from a professional standpoint, as far as clients call in or prospects call in and they say, hey look, I'm looking for an advisor.
Speaker A:And this is a lot of times what people on the street don't understand.
Speaker A:There are subject matter experts.
Speaker A:On any team there are subject matter experts.
Speaker A:There are people who work really well with certain kinds of clients too.
Speaker A:For instance, Jess.
Speaker A:And we'll talk more about.
Speaker A:It works primarily in our wealth management programs.
Speaker A:We have other advisors that work primarily in our like ignite programs which are for younger people, you know, so it's there's, there's characteristics that make you maybe capable in different areas, but then there's subject matter expertise.
Speaker A:There's.
Speaker A:There, there's certain things that people in different ages are going to deal with.
Speaker A:And it's not so much the person's age that you're dealing with as an advisor.
Speaker A:It's, do they have this subject matter expertise that I need?
Speaker A:And one of the things that we try to do here when.
Speaker A:And a lot of times people just don't understand that.
Speaker A:They just want their guy or they just want their girl, and that's what they want.
Speaker A:It's like, but this advisor team that we're gonna put together for you or these two or three advisors we're gonna put in front of you have the specialties that you actually need for your planning.
Speaker A:So it's not just finding somebody you like, it's finding somebody you like that's actually really good at what you need done.
Speaker A:And that is part of your job, Steve.
Speaker A:So your job is to, why don't you explain what your job is in relation to Jess and then we can turn it over to Jess.
Speaker A:And Jess, what I'd like you to share with our listeners more so is you participate as a lead advisor in a lot of our wealth management programs or with a lot of wealth management clients.
Speaker A:And we have kind of two different flavors on that.
Speaker A:But talk to us a little bit about the type of the clientele that you regularly work with.
Speaker B:Yeah, I just.
Speaker B:Matchmaker, matchmaker.
Speaker B:You know, I got this Fiddler on the Roof song in my head because people call in and I always try to explain to them, we are not the NFL.
Speaker B:This is not a sports team.
Speaker B:It's not next person up.
Speaker B:When you call in and you are brave enough to raise your hand and acknowledge, you know, me, my spouse, we need help.
Speaker B:First time caller in.
Speaker B:You know, what do we need to know?
Speaker B:I go through a series of questions, and then one thing that I always explain to people is how our team works in that we do have different planners that work with different potential clientele based off of their assets, their complexities, where they're at in life.
Speaker B:And that's because over years of doing this now, you know, when you first started seed, you would have your group of advisors and put them in front of people.
Speaker B:And sometimes it just wasn't a good personality fit.
Speaker B:And so we've learned over the years that there are, you know, spenders, there's savers, there's different personalities, there's more conservative people.
Speaker B:And so it's really Important for us in that first call that financial planning is not just numbers and figures, it really is an experience.
Speaker B:If you are going to work with someone, then they have to, especially Jess, as you alluded to in that first episode.
Speaker B:If they're a fiduciary and they really do have your best interests at heart, then they need to have difficult conversations with you from time to time.
Speaker B:And trust has to be the baseline for us to say this really isn't in your best interests.
Speaker B:And the personality or the person that delivers that message is very important.
Speaker B:And so when we think about any caller that calls in, we want to make sure that we're pairing people up with an appropriate planner, but also one that is a good personality fit to make sure that that client feels seen, feels heard.
Speaker B:And so when we then deal with the, you know, planners, even afterwards, and we call the prospects afterwards and we talk with them, how is your experience?
Speaker B:If it wasn't a good fit, you go back to the drawing board.
Speaker B:But pairing people up is what I think has really helped us deliver, especially too Jess.
Speaker B:And you can speak to this here at about a little bit in your role as a wealth manager, when you're trying to explain high level concepts, Roth conversions, or how DAFs work, some of the things Travis and I have spoke about on this show, the delivery and how you go through that is just as important as to why it's important and to really make sure that the person on the other side of the table, you're not talking down to them, but you're partnering with them to say, hey guys, like, we really need to look at this and here's why this is important.
Speaker B:And where it can break down is if the delivery or the communication isn't on the same level as the way somebody can understand it.
Speaker B:So matching people is really, really important.
Speaker B:And so, Jess, I want to kind of give you the space to, to talk about, in your role as a, you know, senior wealth manager, what this has been like for you.
Speaker B:Kind of the personality fits and connecting hopefully with the, you know, people that match what you're looking to do.
Speaker C:Yeah, there you do a fantastic job matching people up with both personality expertise, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker C:You do a great job with that, which is always helpful for me as a planner because you know me very well, you know, kind of my little niches, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker C:So it, they tend to go very well and they're a lot more productive because you're able to do that, which is great.
Speaker C:The, the larger subset of the clients that I work with are more, I'd say like retirement, end coming into retirement, at retirement, post retirement, really in that space.
Speaker C:That tends to be the larger subset of the clients that I typically work with.
Speaker C:Part of the planning that's involved in that is Medicare planning, Social Security timing, income sourcing is, is very, very big in that subset.
Speaker C:And then state legacy planning.
Speaker C:We're going to probably talk about this a little more later as far as like the different types or level estate planning and when it's important and how it's important, but usually you get in that subset, it's really more focused on like legacy planning and how you're kind of managing that.
Speaker C:So that really gets into a lot of the, the types of things that, that I really like to do.
Speaker C:And you know, going back to something you said as well, as far as when we have those initial meetings and just trying to make sure you have a really good understanding of what, what's important to people.
Speaker C:I actually had an opener yesterday with a couple and it was, is really wild because, you know, was an engineer and you know, so he.
Speaker C:It very number, number, number.
Speaker C:And so I'm asking them all these kind of like, what are the things that are important to you?
Speaker C:What do you want to do going into retirement?
Speaker C:What are your hobbies like?
Speaker C:You try to kind of like get some of those things.
Speaker C:And he's just like, well, you probably only want to know about the things that, you know, cost money.
Speaker C:And well, my, my hobbies aren't expensive.
Speaker C:I said, no, I do not want to know anything about the things that cost money.
Speaker C:I want to know what's actually important to you because you have no idea how much that ties.
Speaker C:We do.
Speaker C:Tell me about what you love to do and I'll tell you exactly how that ties into your planning.
Speaker C:And so we had some really great conversations.
Speaker C:And then as I explained to him, you know, as he's walking through it and tells me all the things that he really loves to do and how they want to spend their time, and I'm like, oh my gosh, if we could tackle X, we could tackle Y.
Speaker C:Think of all these things.
Speaker C:And they were like, oh, that's great.
Speaker C:I never thought about that.
Speaker C:And so it's a lot of fun to be able to kind of walk through those conversations with people because it's not, you know, it's not about just the figures on a piece of paper.
Speaker C:It's really, really about everything else.
Speaker C:So it's, it's fun.
Speaker B:The non spreadsheet stuff.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you work with.
Speaker A:When we're talking about the wealth management clients, when we talk about at least how Seed looks at it, there's, there's an industry definition for high net worth.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:I think they just updated it, actually.
Speaker A:It used to be a million dollars that a firm invests for somebody, or they had.
Speaker A:The client has $2 million that the firm doesn't invest.
Speaker A:So it's somebody in the million to $2 million range, normally excluding their primary residence, is considered high net worth.
Speaker A:And our wealth management program is specific to high net worth clients.
Speaker A:And clients come to that program for one of two reasons.
Speaker A:They come in for full wealth management sometimes to manage their investments in all aspects of their financial plan.
Speaker A:And they can come in there sometimes because they don't want somebody to manage their investments, but they need all the financial planning where they have a really complicated situation like they're trying to sell a business or, you know, do a major purchase or there's a big life event happening and not sure how to handle it.
Speaker A:So they come into one of those wealth management programs.
Speaker A:So you're dealing with high net worth people who tend to have more complicated things going on in their life just from the fact that they've got more assets.
Speaker A:And when you have more assets, you have more going on.
Speaker A:I mean, like, that's just, there's, you can't lose money if you don't have money.
Speaker A:So the more money you have, the, the more people are going to ask you for money, the more things you can do and that type of thing.
Speaker A:But that gets me back to kind of going full circle.
Speaker A:What you were talking about is the overall idea of people, even with the financial means to be financially free, still not knowing what or who they want to be or if they can do what they want to do, right?
Speaker A:Or if they can be who they want to be, let's say at a pivotal point in life, I think if you get to your mid-50s or your 60s or your 70s and you want to do some things, you got to kind of figure out how to do them because you don't know how much time you have, right?
Speaker A:And you got to stop saying, you know, I'll just work another five more years.
Speaker A:If you could do these things, you need to do them.
Speaker A:So how often do you see people that need to be unlocked and let's say just kind of given permission to look.
Speaker A:Those things that you were talking about, these things that you want to do, let's figure out how to do them.
Speaker A:You can do this.
Speaker B:Let's Take a quick break to hear a word from your sponsor.
Speaker B:This episode is brought to you by Seed Planning Group.
Speaker B:If you're looking for a life giving experience working with a financial planner, then Seed is here for you.
Speaker B:Seed is a fee only financial planning firm with a fiduciary obligation to put your best interests first.
Speaker B:If your goal is financial freedom and independence without sales products or really glorified salespeople, then check out Seed Planning Group.
Speaker B:Today you can visit www.seedpg.com.
Speaker B:that's www.seedpg.com and the best part, you can schedule a free consultation to find out if their fee only planners and their process are right for you.
Speaker C:That's frequent in my experience, especially working here is I think it comes back to income sourcing and just people.
Speaker C:You, you're trained like save, save, save, save, save.
Speaker C:You put all this money in your, in your 401ks in your bucket and you save for retirement.
Speaker C:And people avoid, oh, you're not allowed to touch it, you're not allowed to touch it.
Speaker C:And they miss the whole concept of the fact that you're literally saving that money so that at some point in time you take that money to pay yourself.
Speaker C:And that is a really, really, really big, big bridge to cross for a lot of people.
Speaker C:And it's really trying to help people understand how the income sourcing works.
Speaker C:How are you going to make this happen?
Speaker C:Show them the pictures, show them, you know, how all the things that they love to do tie into that and they can't afford it.
Speaker C:They should do it and really encourage them to spend their own money as long as they have it.
Speaker A:So you've, I mean, you're taking on people who have spent their whole life and they've accumulated a lot of times millions of dollars.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:And they're still though, at that point where they just, they don't know that they can do things.
Speaker A:Why do you think people are in that situation?
Speaker C:They have not utilized planning on early enough.
Speaker C:They've literally had it hammered in their head for their entire lives.
Speaker C:Save, save, save.
Speaker C:Don't touch, don't touch, don't touch.
Speaker C:Save, save, save.
Speaker C:And you've got to, you know, like minimize what you do and be frugal.
Speaker C:And be frugal.
Speaker C:And people have done that and it's wonderful because you have saved this massive nest egg and you've done a great job and they just never, ever heard the other side of the story where you're doing this until you get here and then you can then do these things.
Speaker C:And I think that that's just always been.
Speaker C:There is just that wall and people have never heard the other side of it.
Speaker C:Where if, in my opinion, this is my humble opinion, but if people start working with a planner early enough to make those goals, I mean, you, you make the goals, you work towards the goals, and then you get to reap the benefit of the goal.
Speaker C:And so being able to work with a great planner who can show you that vision, help you see it, then once you get there, you're like, yeah, I did it.
Speaker C:We're here.
Speaker C:We can do these things now.
Speaker C:So it's, it's great to, to work with people who've had enough time to be able to see the vision before they have to like, enact it.
Speaker A:And I know from experience, and I can say kind of what you're alluding to there too is people walk around with an awful lot of anxiety or an awful lot of procrastination because of the financial side of things, not realizing, you know, the finances are part of their life, but there's another part of their life too, and they've got to find this balance between them, this symbiont.
Speaker A:And when you can, and when you can unlock that for them, when you can help them figure out what they can do, where they can go, how they can achieve the things they want to achieve, all of a sudden they can also let that anxiety and that stress down.
Speaker A:One of the things that I've realized over the years talking with clients is especially clients who have been in the system for a while, that we've been working with for a while.
Speaker A:So we've got to meet with them year over year over year.
Speaker A:We've been through market trauma, we've been through family trauma.
Speaker A:We've been through all different types of things.
Speaker A:One of the common things that I hear from them is I don't worry about that stuff anymore.
Speaker A:I don't worry about what they say on the news.
Speaker A:I don't worry about what happens in the stock market anymore.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:I have good conversation.
Speaker A:I can't believe my kids are doing this now.
Speaker A:You know, I mean, those are the types of things that happen when somebody like you unlocks, you know, what we're talking about.
Speaker A:What are, Is there anything that surprises you with clients per se, like financial planning clients?
Speaker A:So you're working with these clients and you're working on helping set them loose.
Speaker A:Is there anything particular to you that is surprising?
Speaker A:Like it's counterintuitive?
Speaker A:That probably is very, very common, but it's just kind of like, one of those things that you're like, why is it like that?
Speaker A:I wish it was better.
Speaker C:You spoke to a little bit of this already.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:I'm blown away at how many people don't look at.
Speaker C:It is a holistic thing they're looking at.
Speaker C:It is just the investments they're looking at.
Speaker C:As how many people do not realize the importance of tax planning in your financial planning?
Speaker C:They're like, oh, tax planning, what is that?
Speaker C:And like, the impact you can have with tax planning is just surreal.
Speaker C:And I just.
Speaker C:Don't people understand how, like, all the different parts tie into the bigger picture?
Speaker C:Which is.
Speaker C:What is the bigger picture?
Speaker C:The bigger picture is your life.
Speaker C:The bigger picture is like, how do you live your best life?
Speaker C:And how do you make the most of all these things?
Speaker C:That's the whole scheme of the show, right?
Speaker C:And, you know, people, I think, pick it apart and hyper focus on certain things.
Speaker C:Like, that is the thing.
Speaker C:And trying to get people to realize, no, we've got to look at all the parts and how it all ties in.
Speaker C:And, you know, there's one that sticks out in my brain of there's this little lady who is very near and dear to my heart.
Speaker C:And she.
Speaker C:In her will, this kind of ties into the estate planning thing.
Speaker C:It is super important for her because she wanted to be able to do things during her lifetime for her grandkids.
Speaker C:But in her will is where she left these, like, very specific dollar bequests to them.
Speaker C:And I was like.
Speaker C:And they were so nominal in nature.
Speaker C:Like, it was like $10,000 that you grandkids.
Speaker C:I'm like, why don't you just give it to them now?
Speaker C:Like, what?
Speaker C:Let's talk through this.
Speaker C:Like, what is the point of that for you?
Speaker C:And she was like, I can do that.
Speaker C:And I'm like, yes, absolutely, you can do that.
Speaker C:And so helping her work with the attorney, get everything rewritten, you know, just get restructured in a way.
Speaker C:And when she gave those gifts to the grandkids, like, she called me up and was just like, I loved that so much.
Speaker C:And it was just little things that I think, like, people don't realize they have the ability to do certain things.
Speaker C:They think that it has to be done in a certain way.
Speaker C:And it's not true.
Speaker A:We share a favorite client who wanted to eat and drink their way around the world when they retired.
Speaker A:And they retired.
Speaker A:And we unlocked it, basically, we showed them what they could do.
Speaker C:Oh, they're unlocked.
Speaker A:They are doing their darnedest to make us proud about Eating and drinking.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:It's pure joy, pure hap.
Speaker A:They're living their dream, everything within their means.
Speaker A:But, but they are not holding back.
Speaker A:And that's the thing.
Speaker A:Like, like a lot of people, they don't understand what the means are, right?
Speaker A:Like, what are, you know, like, I have this much, what can I do with it?
Speaker A:And helping them figure that out.
Speaker A:But this, what you mentioned was kind of.
Speaker A:I think it's easy to treat financial planning as a transactional thing because investments are very transactional to a lot of people.
Speaker A:They've bought things along the way.
Speaker A:They bought some investments, they bought some annuities, they've bought some CDs, they bought some insurance policies, whatever they bought.
Speaker A:So I'm going to just buy some financial planning.
Speaker A:I'm going to be done.
Speaker A:The problem is that transactions mean that you're always shopping, right?
Speaker A:And what's happening in your life, though every instance is life is changing.
Speaker A:Your situation with your significant other is changing.
Speaker A:Your significant.
Speaker A:Your situation with your health is changing, your situation with your kids are changing, your situation with your other family members, your community, where you live, the weather, whether or not you have arthritis, all that stuff is changing all the time.
Speaker A:And on top of that, all the rules of the game are changing.
Speaker A:The regulations change all the time.
Speaker A:Estate taxes, gifting rules, what your state is doing versus the Fed.
Speaker A:You know, there's all these different things that are changing, how the tax brackets work, you know, all that kind of stuff, it's always changing.
Speaker A:So if you're transactional in nature and you're saying, look, I don't, I don't really see why I need to engage with this over the long term.
Speaker A:What you're doing is you're picking and choosing which transaction to have, which regulation to address, which life change to address without the context of everything else that is happening.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Hey guys, Steve Campbell with Ditch the Suits want to take one quick moment to make a big ask.
Speaker B:If you haven't already.
Speaker B:Travis and I would love for you to subscribe to this podcast, but if you haven't, also we would love for you to leave a five star rating and review.
Speaker B:Your rating and review will let other podcasters note the show is worth their time.
Speaker B:So let's get right back to the episode.
Speaker B:And thanks for listening to Ditch the Suits podcast.
Speaker B:Well, and if I, I can kind of speak to Jess, you know, helping try to set you guys up as much as I can.
Speaker B:You know, we have different camps that come to us, some that have never worked with a financial planner before.
Speaker B:And so it's a fresh start.
Speaker B:They've never dealt with somebody.
Speaker B:It gives you an opportunity to hopefully drive enough value as a fiduciary to show them where you can help.
Speaker B:You have people that currently have an advisor that reach out to us and we're always sensitive to never step on another professional.
Speaker B:And you do a masterful job at this.
Speaker B:When you talk somebody, because of the structure that we have, somebody can retain a professional that they use, but get the financial planning that they're not receiving.
Speaker B:And then you have people that are do it yourselfers that had, you know, went out years ago and hired somebody and it just didn't work out because of what Travis has talked about quite a bit, which is it's mostly transactional, it's commission based.
Speaker B:What am I getting?
Speaker B:And when I think about it, I think part of what you had talked about with income sourcing and some of these other areas is people just don't know how to do it.
Speaker B:And maybe in the past they've gone to so called professionals and said, how do we do this?
Speaker B:And they were told we don't do that, sorry.
Speaker B:So then the assumption is that, well then nobody does this.
Speaker B:I have to just figure it out on my own.
Speaker B:And so they spend years trying to figure it out because the people that they've went out and hired said, sorry, we can't help you with this.
Speaker B:And so I think what is cool and what you do a really nice job in all of our planners is when people do reach out to us, they say, are we doing okay and are we doing the right things?
Speaker B:And as Travis had said a few minutes ago, these are people that have significant net worth.
Speaker B:I mean, they have all the tools in their quiver to live the life they want to live and eat and drink around the world, but they just don't know how to actually do it.
Speaker B:Maybe they run budgets at their businesses down to the T and they know what to do.
Speaker B:But when it comes to our own personal life, I think that's where many of us fall short because the advice we can give to a business or in our career, we don't even take ourselves.
Speaker B:And so you as our planners do a really nice job of the difference between a financial planning theory.
Speaker B:I can talk to you about what a Roth conversion is, but I think where it stops for many people and their experiences is they're never getting the customized planning that says a Roth conversion is in your best interest.
Speaker B:This is exactly how much we need to convert and when that's kind of like to the little old lady you talked about when people are like, holy smokes.
Speaker B:No one has ever told me that this was something I can actually do.
Speaker B:And so I think you guys as planners do a really nice job of marrying financial planning ideas or theories with actually customizing it to the individual with a fiduciary goal of this has to be in your best interest, but then explaining it to it.
Speaker B:And I think Travis had kind of asked it, but is.
Speaker B:Is there anything in your world that maybe you had mentioned tax planning?
Speaker B:People don't understand the value of it.
Speaker B:Are there other areas of planning that you have seen or maybe overlooked, or people aren't giving enough time and attention to space to like, this could be something that we should put our finger on.
Speaker B:Maybe you mentioned a little bit of it without understanding the life component.
Speaker B:We understand the money side, but like, there's a life to it.
Speaker B:Is there anything else, though, that you, you would say people forget about this aspect of planning?
Speaker C:I mean, I.
Speaker C:This is a good question because I mean, for me, it really, it's.
Speaker C:There's a little bit of everything that kind of goes into it.
Speaker C:It depends on the person.
Speaker C:But I, I think that the tax planning, just understanding how it all ties in together and understanding that there are so many more options than there are many options of how you're able to do certain things.
Speaker C:And that's part of.
Speaker C:One of the things that I love about what I do is the coming up with the creative solutions.
Speaker C:Like we need income source and we need to be able to kind of pay off this thing.
Speaker C:Well, oh gosh.
Speaker C:Well, we have, you know, the.
Speaker C:Had one not that long ago where they.
Speaker C:We need to have a chunk of money to be able to pay off this loan.
Speaker C:Well, as we're going through our risk management meeting, we realize that we have life insurance policies that we don't need and there's a massive cash value associated with that.
Speaker C:Why are we not going to just kind of surrender that you do not need it for these purposes?
Speaker C:So utilizing that so you're not having.
Speaker C:So there's so many creative solutions to be able to come up with problems.
Speaker C:And I think people limit themselves in what's available to them.
Speaker C:Like, oh, I can only get a loan or I can only cash out my investments to be able to do this.
Speaker C:That's not true.
Speaker C:That work with a planner who has a good understanding of your entire picture so we can come up with a creative solution to be able to help you out and do what you.
