Unlock the secrets to smarter financial decisions with Todd Whatley and our special guest, financial planner Ian Weiner. We're peeling back the layers of the financial industry to reveal the truth behind becoming a financial advisor and how this can impact the advice you trustingly follow. Our revealing discussion traverses the terrain of broker-dealers versus registered investment advisors, giving you an exclusive insider's perspective on the roles that shape these institutions. As you join us, prepare to equip yourself with the critical tools necessary to evaluate the guidance you receive and navigate a path that's genuinely aligned with your financial wellness.
This episode strips down the broker-dealer system to its core, exposing the inherent conflicts of interest and limitations that may not always serve the client's best interests. Ian Wider brings his expertise to the table, contrasting the credentials of certified financial planners and chartered financial analysts with the stark reality facing many investors. We scrutinize the allure of high-fee investment products, debunk myths about active management, and champion the unsung heroes—index funds. Moreover, we tackle the importance of incorporating tax planning into your wealth management strategy and why a balanced approach to saving could redefine your retirement enjoyment. Prepare to have your status quo challenged, as we guide you through the complexities of financial planning with insights that could safeguard your financial future.
Check out our new website www.TheElderLawCoach.com.
Unlock the secrets to smarter financial decisions with Todd Whatley and our special guest, financial planner Ian Weiner. We're peeling back the layers of the financial industry to reveal the truth behind becoming a financial advisor and how this can impact the advice you trustingly follow. Our revealing discussion traverses the terrain of broker-dealers versus registered investment advisors, giving you an exclusive insider's perspective on the roles that shape these institutions. As you join us, prepare to equip yourself with the critical tools necessary to evaluate the guidance you receive and navigate a path that's genuinely aligned with your financial wellness.
This episode strips down the broker-dealer system to its core, exposing the inherent conflicts of interest and limitations that may not always serve the client's best interests. Ian Wider brings his expertise to the table, contrasting the credentials of certified financial planners and chartered financial analysts with the stark reality facing many investors. We scrutinize the allure of high-fee investment products, debunk myths about active management, and champion the unsung heroes—index funds. Moreover, we tackle the importance of incorporating tax planning into your wealth management strategy and why a balanced approach to saving could redefine your retirement enjoyment. Prepare to have your status quo challenged, as we guide you through the complexities of financial planning with insights that could safeguard your financial future.
Check out our new website www.TheElderLawCoach.com.
That's right. This is the elder law coach and my name is Todd Wotley. I am a certified law attorney and, as always, I'm extremely thankful that you downloaded my podcast and hopefully, you have subscribed and you get it every time we do a new one. And I'm super excited today because I have developed a relationship with a new financial planner and you'll notice why you you know why I emphasize that in just a second and he has truly opened my eyes.
Speaker 1:I've been doing this almost 26 years now and I thought I understood the financial industry and how it worked and I met Abe CFP and he started doing the radio show with me and I have learned a lot and he actually encouraged me to get my series 65 so I can do investments and things and just that whole process. Really, how low level it was surprised me and I just started learning some really interesting things that I just never knew about, even after doing this for 25 plus years. And I want to do this episode so that you understand some of the ins and outs of this episode, so that you understand some of the insight to how the financial industry works and also want to be your resource. And Ian, his office, is now in my office and so if you have questions or concerns or things going on, I'm sure he would be glad to answer those questions. And so let me introduce my guest today, ian Wider Todd. Thanks for having me on the show. I'm not world's longest intro high.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. So introduce yourself a little bit, talk about your certification, and then let's jump into some of the nitty gritty of the financial industry.
Speaker 2:This is going to be fun. I want to encourage folks. You know, if you're listening to this, you'll look, I already got a financial advisor. Listen anyway. Okay, Even if that financial advisor is your brother in law, I can almost guarantee you that you'll learn something today, and if we do a good job, you should be probably shocked and a little bit mad by the end of it.
Speaker 1:Well and I'm hoping that you're listening to this, not just for themselves, but their clients. When a client comes to you and says my financial advisor said blah, blah, you know this or that or whatever, and you can understand why that may not make sense for them or why it seems the point of today's show is don't assume that they're getting the best advice. Is that a bad assumption? I think I would encourage folks to assume they're not getting good advice.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know that's extremely strong. However, the bar is extraordinarily low to call yourself a financial advisor, so I think we should talk about a couple of different issues. So, as you were doing the intro, I was thinking okay, I want to talk about investments, I want to talk about licensure, I want to talk about insurance and the way that folks should really approach their advisors. So there's layers to this. You will talk about this.
Speaker 1:I'm sure, but fiduciary duty, yeah, I would. That's what shocked me is who the advisor's duty is too. So let's start with investments, because it's a lot of money.
Speaker 2:So let's start with investments, because when people say financial advisor, most of the time what they're thinking of is an investment advisor, typically. And really I mean there's a lot that some securities attorneys going to listen to this and go, hey, this isn't correct for. But look, I mean you know this goes all the way back to the 40 act, okay, so really you got to think about it in two ways. In the United States, there are broker dealers and there are RIAs registered investment advisors. Okay, these are companies. So a broker dealers a company, so is a registered investment advisor? Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:That confused me when I was taking my my series 65. So an RIA, a registered investment advisor, sounds like a person, like a human, yes, but it's not. It is not Okay. Who is the human that works?
Speaker 2:for that company. You guys are going to love this. It's the investment advisor representative. So an IAR works for an RIA and this is like you know, this is, this is, and I get.
Speaker 2:I get tripped up on this all the time. You know the language, but I want to break it down into those two groups to start with, because they have different. They have different they're they're regulated differently and they have different things that they can do. So most folks their advisor and historically this has been the case. If you're a retail investor, most likely you've worked with someone who is a who works for a broker dealer and the person who works for a broker dealer they're called a registered representative. Typically, these are your Edward Jones, this is your Edward Jones, this is your Merrill Lynch, your Goldman Sachs, your, you know, think of any big name household firm. Okay, most likely they're a broker dealer.
Speaker 2:Now it's going to get a little bit more confusing. You can have a hybrid broker dealer RIA so we'll talk about that in a second. Okay, but a broker dealer is a company that sells securities either from their own account or on behalf of someone else. Okay, so when they're acting as a dealer, they're selling their own securities. When they're acting as a broker, they're selling someone else's.
Speaker 1:So in my head I thought, when I go to an investment advisor and I'm buying Apple stock, they just buy it from the the trade, the crap, what's it called.
Speaker 2:The just the market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the market. You know the, the yeah, and so I just assume they were buying it from the market, from some individual who was selling. But that's not always the case, that's not always the case, okay, no.
Speaker 2:And so this goes back to how things were. You know how transactions happened, you know, almost a hundred years ago. Okay, right, you got to think about it this way, you know. And so what would happen would be in some cases, broker dealers would help to underwrite stock offerings, so you get a group of them together and you'd have a company like, let's say, apple at the beginning. Right, okay, apple would say, okay, we're going to offer our stock to the public, we're going to go public.
Speaker 1:We're going to go public.
Speaker 2:And what would happen is banks the underwriting team, what it's called would say okay, we're going to, we're going to agree to sell you know X number of shares. Basically Okay, so they will buy them and then mark them up and sell them to Everybody else. Okay. So Sometimes they keep some back for you know, their own account, right. And so the reason I say this is they, in those situations, they make money either as a commission so if they were selling someone, you know security for somebody else, they're making a commission or they're marking up the price of that security. So they bought it for ten dollars. They're selling it to you for twelve dollars. Okay, you know, okay.
Speaker 2:And so the more liquid the market, the smaller that margin is, you know. So they operate on a commission basis. That's not inherently a bad thing, necessarily, because another word for commission is fee Right. So really we all work for fees, right, okay. But what I find is that the average consumer isn't, doesn't have awareness of how this stuff works, and these are fairly complicated transactions. So this is the first thing to understand. Most advisors are commission based, which means they're incentivized to sell you something that may not be in your best interest. In a very strict legal sense. They do not have a a fiduciary best interest standard. They have what's called a suitability standard.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there is not the fiduciary duty for broker dealers Okay, no.
Speaker 2:Or registered representatives of broker dealers Okay, now they've tried to increase the. You know the requirements there and it's been laughable, frankly. Okay. So here's what happens. They have to. They have to make a how do I say? They have to make a Recommendation that is suitable for you. So let's say that you're an investor who has a growth focus, and if you have an Edward Jones advisor or your clients do, you might see that actual language. Sure, on the statement, right? So this is a risk tolerance thing. And so they're like okay, well, you're, you're going for growth. So you know, here's 10, 10 different funds that could work for that, and so what they have to do is they have to offer, you know, something that is is suitable in that. So, if you need it, if you want a large cap Growth fund, they shouldn't be offering you a bond fund. Sure, okay, so, but as long as they're doing that, they're complying with the law. So here's another way to say it.
Speaker 2:I'm a fan of Taylor and I like, like, well-cut. You know suits. So the suitability standards, like going to a suit shop and buying a suit Okay, working with a fiduciary, the suit not only has to be a suit, it's got a fit and it's got to look good. Okay, so what ends up happening is the client ends up getting they might get a S&P 500 fund, but it doesn't have to be the lowest expense fund are the best one or?
Speaker 2:the best one. Yeah, it's just one, but it's like it is one. Okay, it's ice cream technically, but it's not the flavor you want it, it's not even the size you want it.
Speaker 1:And going back to the suit, there's a small, medium and large gray suit and you walk in and you're you. The large pretty much fits you. So right you, you, yeah, you walk out with a large suit, and so that's suitable. They sold you a suit close enough, right? That's all they had to sell, and so that's what they said, and so that was suitable for you.
Speaker 2:So I mean that sounds crazy when we say it does in these terms. You know, and this is what most most people are Used to, this is what they've come to expect. So let me parallel to the other side and then tell you where it gets really hairy. Okay, so the RIA side registered investment visor side they have a different standard. They have a fiduciary standard, which means that they have to act in the best interest of the client and put the client's interest above their own. Okay, really, at all times, like attorneys do. Yes, okay, this makes sense and, frankly, isn't that hard. You know they have to disclose and manage any conflicts of interest right, and so they don't. They don't sell securities for a commission. They. They charge, you know, typically, a percentage of the assets under management to manage those assets right, and there's certain rules about you know what those, what those fees can be. But it's a very different situation, and even down to the point of they have to provide the the best possible Execution of the trades for their clients. Broker dealers aren't necessarily required to do that. So this is where things like Robinhood became a big issue a couple years ago.
Speaker 2:There's something called payment for order flow that a lot of folks don't realize. And so what big hedge funds do? Ken Griffin of Citadel is the most notable one, but they all do this. They will pay broker dealer custodians to give them information about trades Milliseconds before they happen. So you place an order on Robinhood for hundreds, you know, shares of XYZ stock, whatever that is. Before the trade is executed, the hedge fund is gonna know that you're making that trade and, if they want to, they can trade before you, which means that the price that you get it out is gonna be slightly higher than the price they got it at. You can they can buy it and then mark it up, but just a tiny little fraction, and then sell it to you in the 15 seconds that it takes to make that transaction. Yeah, fascinating, right? Yeah, I mean, this is this is the, this is the game, and so it's a very complex system and I don't even think most advisors really understand this right so when a broker dealer representative you Are, they limited in what they can sell.
Speaker 2:They're massively limited now this has gotten better, I will say, okay, but you've got to think about this, right. I mean their job as the representative. They, they're an employee of the broker dealer, okay, and so their loyalty is to their employer? Yeah, they have, like we all are. I mean, there's a technical. You know, if you're an attorney, listen to this, correct me if I'm wrong but you have a technical Fiduciary relationship to the, the principle, which is your employer. I mean you're obligated to act in the best interest of the employer, essentially.
Speaker 2:And so what the how that plays out in practice is, you know we talked about the suitability standard. Well, how they get around this is they say, okay, we're gonna offer, you know, if we're offering growth funds or large cap US funds, we're gonna offer 10 different ones and, and there's gonna be a couple that are like really bad. You know, just awful funds like 5.75% up front, one and a quarter every year. You'd be shocked at how many of your clients have these, by the way. Sure, and they're gonna put a couple other ones in there. They're gonna put theirs in there.
Speaker 2:And so this is how they get around their version of the best interest standard, as long as they're offering the best of what they have access to, that's considered best interest. Yeah, geez. And so it's like, you know, that's like going to subway and going, hey, I want a hamburger. And they're like we got meatballs. We got meatballs up. How's that? Well, it's not. Technically, there's might be hammered it. You know, I mean it's ridiculous, it's utterly ridiculous. And this is I mean I think, honestly think clients are getting screwed all over the place with this and don't, don't?
Speaker 1:they sometimes get phone calls from their boss saying you need to sell this stock? Yeah, because they just bought it at a. You know, they just bought a million shares for cheap and now they want their guys to sell it and they make money from that. And so when sweet little miss Jones gets her phone call from her really nice, so nice, so nice real estate guys says, miss Jones, I've been looking at your portfolio and I think you, you need this stock.
Speaker 2:We got, we got a tip about a great, you know great buy. Remember we have that, that great, that great buy a couple months ago or a couple weeks ago, you know.
Speaker 1:okay, yeah, let's do that, yeah and she trusts him because she thinks he's looking out for her best interest. But they're actually doing what they're being towed from their boss which is selling securities, to make a commission.
Speaker 2:It's not inherently bad to make a commission we talked about that but let's not pretend that there's any sort of best interest situation here. I think the other, the final piece that I'll say on the broker dealer side is you know they had this, this legislation, to try to bring in this best interest situation, and so previously, you know they could have Bonus competitions, for you'd get a bonus or go on a trip or whatever for selling certain things, and so their way to make it more transparent was you can do those things still. You just can't have it in a Specific security or a specific time frame. So instead of prohibiting, you know, these types of you get a $50,000 bonus If you sell this stuff by. You know March 31st right, we should have to take the end date off of it. That makes it much better.
Speaker 2:So here's where it gets really tricky, though, and we've only talked about investment so far, unfortunately. But what gets really tricky is you know you have someone like Edward Jones, who they're considered a hybrid. So Edward Jones is both a broker dealer and a registered investment advisor. Okay, talk about a mess. So you know you could have a someone who is a certified financial planner. We'll talk about that in a second. Okay, that works for Edward Jones. That is both a registered rep and a investment advisor representative. How is the client supposed to know when they're acting in what capacity? So they're required to say hey when they're acting as a registered rep and when they're acting as a Investment advisor representative. Okay, do you think the client understands that? I'm sure it's in the paperwork. They say it's got to be right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean attorneys know how to. You know there are some unscrupulous attorneys out there. I don't know if any of your clients you know know this, but I mean they're that industry is great at bearing stuff in the paperwork, you know, and so we talked a little bit. I said we'll talk about being a certified financial planner. So that is in at least in my view, and really it is nationwide. That is the most rigorous designation for financial advisors In the country. So there's really two that are respected. One is certified financial planner, one is chartered financial analysts, cfa. So those are like the investment people. They're kind of like the actuaries. Yeah, you don't, you don't get them out of the back office very much. Right, typically, yeah, but financial planners are supposed to really be client-facing and so it's not the bar exam. But we have pretty, pretty in-depth experience in things like cash flow, debt, real estate, investments, taxes, a state planning, insurance and how those all come together.
Speaker 1:So if you think of investment advisor or someone who just and one of the things we do on the. Radio show every week is at the beginning of the show I'll say Ian house the stock market did. Ian says I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't spend most my time paying attention to it. Yeah, and that's not the most meaningful thing.
Speaker 1:I do that to shock people, because we think of investment advisors, investment, you know, investment people. That's all they do is they're just focused on the stock market, what's good to buy, what's good to sell and, as a financial planner, you named about six other things that weren't investments. You're a planner, you plan the whole thing around their life, not just the one thing, and I think that's what I think that's what surprised me most. I knew there was this thing called a CFP, but I wasn't extremely familiar with what they did or what their standard was. And this has really opened my eyes, and particularly Once I got into it myself and saw oh, there's some stuff going on behind the curtains here that I think most people don't know about.
Speaker 2:It's, it's a, it's a big challenge. I think the, the CFP, is the most respected financial designation and CFPs are, you know, governed by their, their board, on the CFP board, and so they are required to act as fiduciaries. That's the expectation. Now, the challenge that I have we talked about one that works at, say, edward Jones I'm being up Edward Jones, because they're easy to beat up here's my dilemma and here's the challenge that I have, and I think, just think it's tough to think about. You got to wrestle with this if they're a.
Speaker 1:CFP you get offers from them all the time, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean it's like, but I'm not gonna play that game. You know they're like hey, we got a big book of business, like who calls their clients a book of business? Like I mean, what could? I mean there's a reason that that this industry, in the financial industry, in the insurance industry, have a reputation that is similar to, like, the used car industry. Yeah, there are similar quality folks that are very common. But what I want to submit to you is even if someone is a CFP that works at a company like that, if they're an employee and they're a registered rep, are they being incentivized in a way that makes it hard for them to live up to that fiduciary duty at all times? I think probably so. I just I don't know how. I Don't know how somebody can meet sales quotas and be doing what's in the best interest of their clients.
Speaker 1:You know this is going to get me some hate mail. If this goes to non attorneys, it's okay. I'm a big boy, I can handle it.
Speaker 2:It's just I would rather and I think you know the folks that listen to this Would you rather know the truth or would you rather someone really die a, smile you and lie to you? You know, I mean it's, it's really the, it's really the issue. The other thing that I think is worth pointing out and I feel comfortable saying this to attorneys you know I have an insurance license. I've well, I think I still had technically have a series 65. When you have a CFP, you don't have to maintain it anymore. So the insurance license and the series 65, I'm a good test taker, but the insurance license I studied for a couple days and took it.
Speaker 2:The series 65 is gonna make you mad, but sorry, I studied for two days and passed the series 65, like six hour days. You know I was working a full-time job with a within like three month old kid and the CFP was. I mean it was a good six weeks of study for me and so like there's a difference between Someone who can call themselves a financial advisor and an actual financial planner. I mean it's not exactly the same, but it's like someone who took a legal class in college and someone who's an attorney, like it's a fairly comparable.
Speaker 1:You know, they know about laws, but yeah, that doesn't mean I mean in the point being, the bar to get your series 65 or 63 or whatever is very, very low, shockingly low, shockingly low. And Once you get it, you can. You can Charge for financial advice and really not know squad about Anything really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's a problem. And so the other side of that is the insurance world. You know life insurance annuities is the big one that probably a lot of your, your folks see. You know that's not a very high bar and they have a suitability standard as well and, and arguably a more flexible suitability standard. Yeah, interestingly enough, though, they are starting to regulate themselves a little bit better, which I appreciate. Their states are starting to implement closer, more interesting to me best interest requirements. But I mean it's it's not hard to you know, to Fudge the numbers and get stuff through the insurance company.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm sure you see that way more money in annuities than they should, and you know well, and I think what frustrates me is I, I have an insurance license also and I know what that bar is. And there are people out there that, for whatever reason, did not get their series 65, but they just have an insurance license, yes, and they're selling annuities that kind of feel like investments, and they're advertising Now themselves as a financial advisor yes, so-and-so financial advisor and the clients who go to them they're going to walk out within annuity because that's all they are a life insurance product, you know, because that's all they can sell. And these people think that they've gone to a financial advisor plan or whatever, and they're looking at everything and saying you know, I've looked at everything and this is, this is what you need most, because that's all they can sell and it's, it's just frustrating.
Speaker 2:I try to bring that up to them and there's like oh, you know, it's just Of course you know, everybody's advisor or insurance person who calls themselves an advisor is like the nicest guy Knows their kids names and of course they are. You know we joke about this, but like, of course they're, they're gonna be that way. That's, that's the, that's the, the bare minimum. But I think folks need to understand how little real advice and planning these types of of Folks give, and the need for more comprehensive planning and that's why we started to work together Really is because folks aren't getting it and it affects more areas you know. So let's say you go to a company. Let's let's pick on Edward Jones investments. Again, the name of the company is Edward Jones investments. What do you suppose the focus of those you know meetings and relationships are gonna be?
Speaker 2:They're gonna be investments right, and so we shouldn't be surprised by that necessarily. But you know, there's so much more out there, and what happens is the client might have a half decent investment portfolio, but they're not coordinating with the estate planning attorney or with the tax professional or the insurance person, and so none of those parts work together, and then when you have to do crisis planning, it's a disaster and it costs people way more money than it needs to.
Speaker 1:Well, I lost a client this month because I'm sad that he was very heavily invested in annuities with this one person that advertises herself as investments and I said, oh, we've got to cash those in, because you know the spousal share and CSRA, you know, was way. He was way over the CSRA with his annuities and I said, okay, cash in this one, this one, keep this one, but let's cash those in. We'll put it into the Medicaid qualifying annuity and I can get you qualified generally first. Well, he never called us back after he went to his annuity salesperson and that's what I'll call her and he started getting weird on me. His emails changed as he didn't answer my phone calls and I was like you know, I call and I said, hey, we're going to miss the January one deadline. And he never called me back. I was like, okay, well, I hadn't heard from him. And so we're now past the middle of January and I called him and he said, oh yeah, my annuity person and I are fixing this problem. I'm like you're, no, you're, you're not fixing the problem unless they.
Speaker 1:She sells a Medicaid qualifying annuity and I don't think she knows what that is. And so I just told him I said, well, if and I wanted if I could put it in parentheses when this goes bad on you, I'll be here to pick up the pieces. And so it's that's frustrating that she'll probably get that through, even though it's absolutely not suitable. There is no suitability whatsoever, but she'll probably get that through. And, and God forbid if it's irrevocable. If she read that term on it thinking, hey, if this is irrevocable, he can't cash it in, I know I'm going to get my commission. Well, when he doesn't get on Medicaid, it's going to be a problem.
Speaker 2:And I, you know what, I know the person that you're referring to. I don't hope that it becomes a problem for the client, but that kind of person, it needs to be a problem for them before long.
Speaker 1:Oh, I will make it a problem, if I mean he gets denied after she does all this, I will make it her problem.
Speaker 2:And this kind of stuff is is so common, you know it's. It really is frustrating you know, and I think the the the other part that I want to, that I want to talk about here. We've talked about how the industry is designed. A little bit it's it's not designed to really benefit the client in a lot of ways. The industry is mainly designed to sell investment products. That benefits investment companies. You know, if you have a fidelity advisor, guess what? Your portfolio is going to be full of Fidelity fidelity.
Speaker 1:Fun Sure, you know great.
Speaker 2:But I think I really liked what you brought up earlier, Todd, because it's true that most of the time that I spend with my clients is not working on investments, because there are really there are really like three kind of levels. If you will, we should do a whole episode on this, frankly, but, like most people, most of their advisors have them in really high fee, high expense mutual funds or ETFs that are actively managed. Most people would be better off with basic index funds. That's like the first switch. Okay, Save, you know, one to 2% a year.
Speaker 1:That adds up over time, but in just in case you don't know. An index fund follows an index. It's not actively managed. They they've set it up to match the Dow Jones 500 or the Russell, whatever you know, it's set up to follow that index. You can have technology indexes, you can have all kinds of different indexes, but it's not actively managed, which cuts down on the fees tremendously.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the idea is, in the long run, there's really no data that suggests that picking stocks is effective. Okay, the best analysts so think about this. The best analysts in the world. These people have essentially unlimited money to do this. They're extraordinarily brilliant, they have all the technology, they have all the money. Best case scenario it's 50-50 over the long run. So active management we've got to throw that out. That's not a that's not a long term suitable strategy. Okay, so the next best thing people would be better off with basic index funds doing it themselves. The problem is, behavior is a huge issue and really there's something better than that. We have data about this from about 35, well, we have live data from about 35 years, but we have data from about 60 years. Nobel Prize winning data.
Speaker 2:A couple of PhD, really smart nerds, decided to look at just call what it is, decided to look at the financial markets scientifically and said, hey, can we? If active management trying to pick stocks doesn't work, can we find something that does? A database? What are factors that drive excess returns? They accidentally created indexing when they did this. So, okay, let's track the average of the market. Right, most people, they'd be better off with indexing than active management. But if you really want something optimal, you can. You can tilt towards certain things and do even even better. Well, it's the power of groups.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, with an index you've got hundreds or thousands of companies that, in general, are going to flow the same way, as opposed to picking one that the CEO embezzled $5 million and you know they're, they're gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the risk return is just, it's not there. Yeah, sure, and so what most folks end up end up getting is a bunch of actively managed mutual funds, because that's what they're able to sell, and so that's how they make fees. Well, they spend most of their time talking about those investments, but really that's not moving the needle for people, that much you know. It would be better off to do it yourself and have a financial planner that's looking at the other pieces, taxes being the big one that we should talk about. You know, I mean taxes and tax planning is that's most of what I do, and it's where I mean we literally find millions of dollars in tax savings for people. I mean it's shocking how much money we can save.
Speaker 1:I think you just explained why you do it. You. You see, that's a really big bang for the buck to say, hey, we make this change and this change and I've just saved you a hundred thousand bucks. Yeah, it's kind of like making a hundred thousand, which is difficult as a stock trader, but if you save a hundred thousand, hey, that's a hundred thousand more dollars going to your grandkids.
Speaker 2:It's a. It's a huge, huge impact and really what ends up happening is, you know, when we coordinate all of those pieces of someone's financial puzzle not just investments people just have a better experience of life, I think, because not everyone needs to have a really complex understanding of every single financial piece that they have, but if they have someone that they can talk to, that is managing other professionals. That's what we do for our clients manage those other professionals. Then their time is freed up and they can focus on what's most important. Because I think what we find a lot is people that do invest really well, do save really well, work hard, get to retirement age and maybe they've got a couple million bucks saved up, but their habits, their behaviors, are not to spend and not enjoying their time, and over saving is a huge disaster. But once we, when we organize those things in the right way, you feel freedom to be able to spend and use your time wisely.
Speaker 1:So just to be clear, you just heard a financial planner say over saving can be disastrous. Yeah, which is Beyond me. So okay, so let's kind of bring this into a close. So, number one, if you're listening to this and you're thinking personally, I wonder if my investment person is doing the right thing for me. Can they call you?
Speaker 2:and talk. Sure, I mean call the, call the office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can do zoom calls, you know, yeah, call the office and talk, and we would love to talk to you. Ian would love to Discuss. He's not going to try to get you away from them bed He'll.
Speaker 2:He can look at your stuff and say here's the problem I'm seeing okay, I can show you your portfolio You've never seen and simplify it for you, okay so what if someone is, as an attorney, is meeting with someone that either they see something glaringly wrong or the person is not happy with their investment person?
Speaker 1:How do you Advise someone to leave their investment person and go with someone else?
Speaker 2:So I think you know we should do a Episode for our podcast on this, to. Okay, I think one of the biggest miss miss numbers is that you have to talk to the other advisor First, because I think what most people are afraid of when they make a change is having that conversation with your visor. Okay, and you don't actually have to do that. I mean, really, what happens is a new account is set up at a new custodian and nine times out of ten, the money's transferred automatically and you don't have to talk to them and we have a letter that we we can, you know, update for you. That goes look, appreciate all the work You've done up to this point. We're moving in a different direction. Please don't contact us. You know, respect our decision. Thanks for the work that you've, that you've done.
Speaker 1:I think that's what keeps people there is they don't want to have that conversation with the guy that they see at the Kids baseball field every Saturday and boy, that really nice guy.
Speaker 2:When you move a couple million bucks from them, yeah, the facade shatters quickly, sure you know so you, they don't have to talk to them. No, and I think that's and, and you know Respectfully, you don't owe them that. Sure you have a business relationship with them. You have paid them fees for the, for the to not have to have that conversation, sure I?
Speaker 1:don't call Walmart and say hey, I'm talking to target. Now I'm going to target. Do you mind?
Speaker 2:You know, it's just, it shouldn't be that kind of thing right, and I understand. I mean I have deep relationships with my clients, sure, you know, and in, but if I, if they feel like I'm not giving them the service that they're paying for, I don't want to work with them, mm-hmm, that that should not be the case, you know. So that's one thing. I mean. You know, if you, if you have questions about a portfolio, I mean we're relatively we can't do a hundred of these a week, right, but I mean we can. We have technology that can do Very quick portfolio analysis and tax analysis for people. Yeah, especially if they're doing a state planning, you know we can do a tax report for them that shows how much they're gonna pay in taxes if they're trying to transfer money. I think that's a value add for clients. Yeah, so happy to happy to discuss that Cool.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, just Call the office for seven, nine, six, one, four, one, one nine. That's for if you have an investment, question or concern, personally or for a client, we can definitely deal with that. And if you would like to be a code be, if you would like for me to be your coach, I would love that. Okay, call the office for seven, nine, six, one, four, one, one nine. Tell Fabiana that you want to talk with Trisha. Trisha will give you some preliminary Information and then she will set you up a phone call with me. Let's talk. Let me just see, see what's going on in your practice, see what you want and see if my services can help you with that.
Speaker 1:But I've been doing this almost 26 years. I'm certified of law attorney. I was on the board of directors for the certifying board and I was its President for two years, and so I love what I did. I think it's the best job in the world. You, you get hugs, you get checks, you get happy people that come inside. It's just absolutely the best job in the world. And I would love to be your coach and if you'll give me a year, I can make you a pretty good outlaw attorney. Okay, so call our office, let's talk about it, and particularly if you have investment questions, personally or for clients, please give us a call and we will be glad to work with you. Anything else, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's so much more we can talk about. We're gonna have to do another episode. I'm thinking of all this stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm long-winded, but you know we need it.
Speaker 2:We need to talk about the, the report that we put together for folks and, you know, maybe for your, we do something special for your coaching clients.
Speaker 1:Okay, we will work on that. But, yeah, give us a call and we would love to work with you. Thank y'all. Please subscribe and we will see you next time.