Willie P. talks about financial planning with financial advisor Darryl Ruffen. Darryl talks about how he started his career and gives advice for achieving financial objectives, including the six areas of financial planning.
WBCA Podcasts
The Village
I know you refuse to be held down anywhere Don't you let nothing of me stand in your way Won't you listen to me when I say it, what I say Hey, Boston, you're in the village with Willie P. We are WBC A-L-P, 102.9 FM Boston Community Radio And we are on the move. We are on the move in the United States and Boston We got the first lady president. You know how? We got to. We have to. We must. Get her in. You know, and I have a guest. We're going to talk about finance. You know, finance is always an issue with us and people. You know, we need to learn how to save our money. So I have a guest on my show. His name is Darryl Ruffin, and he's a financial planner. Thank you, Darryl, for coming on my show. You're welcome. How are you to be here? That is wonderful. So tell us a little bit about yourself because the goal today is to find out about financial planners. I didn't even know that was a career, but you know, people are creating new careers every day. So tell us about you. Tell us a little bit about you and what a financial planner is. Well, I can tell you it's not a new career, but there are very few of people who look like us in the career. So basically, how did I get there? Well, I got a degree in accounting from UMass Amherst. Then I went on to business school at Boston College and got an MBA there. And through my corporate experience, decided that isn't where I wanted to be and felt and always had wanted to become a consultant. And through that desire, just started doing some homework, doing a little research, having interviews with the Morgan Stanley's, Bay of Stearns, those type of things and decided, "Oh, no, I don't want to do that." And happened upon a company called American Express Financial Advisors, which is today known as Ameriprise Financial. And, you know, having gone to American Express Financial Advisors found out exactly that is the home, is where I wanted to be. And that I was able to acquire clients, establish relationships with those clients, and truly help them work toward their financial goals. So that's kind of how I got in the business. I've been in the business over 23 years. And literally, I have clients who have been with me as long as I've been in the business. Nice! Loyalty! Loyalty! That's what it's all about. Me being loyal to them and their financial objectives, and then putting their trust in me and the advice that I provide. So what is a financial planner? Putting it in a nutshell, a financial planner is someone who takes the time to understand where people are and where they're trying to go financially. All right? In a nutshell. So financial planning is broken into six areas, all right? Which is the framework upon which we provide advice. So you got the financial position, which is income and expenses, right? Pretty simple. And your net worth, then your protection planning, which is, as it says, insurance, protecting yourself. Then we move on to tax planning. Are you paying more than you should be? Or are you keeping more of what you make? Investments, retirement, and then we move on to estate planning, I believe that's the six. And those are the areas upon which I provide advice, right? We as planners provide advice. And as a fiduciary, meaning you do what's in the best interest of your clients, you help clients understand where they are and provide them with the best avenue to get where they're trying to go as efficiently as possible from a financial perspective. So, you know, in a nutshell, that is what a financial planner, financial advisor, that's what I do. So he can have six hats. Officially, he can have six hats that they offer. Do they offer those six hats at the same time? Or do people come to you and want just one area, like estate planning? You really can't do it in a vacuum. You really have to always approach it from the comprehensive bird's eye view to be able to provide that comprehensive advice. When you work in a silo, you're going to miss things. When you work from the bird's eye view, keeping the six areas in focus, then you know what you're doing is efficient. And the most, said I say, the best track to follow, to achieve, to help those clients achieve those goals. So, you know, you mentioned estate planning. Wow, you have to know something about the estate. Well, now you're getting back into the financial position. Now, you're back checking out, you know, what's already in place for protection because the state planning can involve insurance. Certainly, generally, we'll have some investments, you know, involved in that plant that estate plan. And it just continues to go, like I said, with the other areas. You have to be able to look at it in totality in order to come up with a estate plan that's going to solve the issue, which is what a state planning generally does. Let's try to, again, keep the estate intact, minimizing IRS tax erosion. So, so, so as a, I would have to have some knowledge of all of this. Where would I go, say, license issues to become a financial planner? What do I need to, you know, those things that I need to be a good, I always say good financial planner? What are some of the background? So, if you wanted to pursue the career, you really have to begin to educate yourself in regard to, you know, money. You don't have to be an expert, but you have to understand, you know, from a basic perspective what it's all about because ultimately you want to provide that advice. So, I'm series seven license. So, series seven is a, you know, FINRA, financial industries, registered advisor, board, SEC. So, I have a series seven, which allows me to sell securities of, you know, stocks, bonds, et cetera. Also have a series 66, which is the state securities license, animal license, life accident, and health insurance. So, those licenses minimally are required to be able to provide the comprehensive advice that I provide. Now, the series seven is federal and the 66 is state. Correct. So, you have to have both. Oh, yeah. So, say if you want to go to another state, you would have to get in their state, but federal is everywhere. So, federal is, yeah, that's the umbrella. Right. And then you have the state securities license. However, as well as the state, life accident, health. But when you're going to do business with clients in other states, there's what's called the reciprocal licensing type agreement. We basically just got to pay a fee to be licensed in that particular state because they'll honor, you know, your resident state licenses. But you will have to pay a fee to hold a securities license in a state as well as an insurance license, which is required if you're going to sell any type of long-term care or life insurance, you have to have insurance license. If you're going to do investments, you got to have an investments license. So, they're both required if you plan to do business in any state. But again, it's a reciprocal agreement. So, if you've got insurance license in your resident state, you don't have to re-license, you just have to pay the required license and fee. And to renew, how often is that renewal? I want to say two or three years. Every two years, you know. Is it like a CCEU? You got to stay up on top of, like, yeah, continue. Yeah, absolutely. There are, I want to say, in the first year of SEC licensing, you need to have 60 continuing ed credits. And then thereafter, it's 45 every three years. And there's, you know, FINRA requirements as well as insurance requirements. So, there's training that's required every so often that you have to take, you have to pass to maintain your license licenses. So, yeah, a little bit of work required along the way. Yeah. But it's all to keep your education about the industry, you know. You have the best for your client. Right, so things change, laws changed, have changed, you know, and you just got to be up on it to understand what you can and cannot do. Given, you know, what the SEC and FINRA have to say. Yeah. And has any of these, has it, after the pandemic, has it changed extremely? Or is things kind of still the way it was before? Because I know things are changing. Do you guys, you guys go into the office and, and, and has any laws based on any security changes? Has any of that happened that you know of? No, no, not really. So, when you bring in the pandemic, as everybody knows, who went through the pandemic, you know, from, from a market, from a financial market perspective, you know, it did have a negative impact on a short-term basis since then it has, you know, fully recovered and then gone beyond the highs of, you know, pre-pandemic. You know, as far as clients' interaction, a lot of it did, did become, you know, virtual at that time. And some of it still remains virtual, but, you know, I myself would like to meet my clients where they're most comfortable. So, they want me to come to their home, I'll come to your home. You want to come to my office? We can come, you can come to my office. So, if you want to do it virtually, you know, over, you know, Zoom or Teams or whatever is available, then we can do that as well. So, I think at this point, it's a preference for, you know, it's basically a preference, you know, based on these individuals in the practice that they have. Absolutely. You are in the village with Willy P. You are listening to WBCA, LP, 102.9 FM Community Radio, and... The proceeding commentary does not reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to the Boston Neighborhood Network at 3025 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. 0-2-1-1-9, attention WBCA, LP, 102.9 FM. If you would like to arrange a time for your own commentary, call WBCA at 617-708-3241 or email us at radio@bnntv.org. You're in the village with Willy P. And we're talking to Darryl Ruffin, and he is a financial planner, and he's walking us through what it takes to be a financial planner. And he's been talking to you about the skills that you need, the education that you need. And let's talk about some of the... Where do you find your clients? Where do you find your clients in all of this? Well, way back when, when cold calling was legal, that's pretty much how I got my clients. Then, as the business evolved a little bit, there were clients out there were basically books of business that were available for purchase. So, I did purchase a lot of clients in that way. But today, my clients come from word of mouth. Those are the best kinds. Yeah, referrals, natural markets, doing networking, just going and mixing with professionals. And you get to talk in and next thing you know, hey, set up a time to meet. You want to do better for yourself financially? Well, let's talk about it. So, that's kind of how client acquisition goes today. It's truly referrals and, you know, networking that makes it happen for me now. Oh, good, good, good, good. Is it... What advice or what suggestion would you give a person if they were thinking about going into this field? What would be some of the key things that you would recommend they do or not do? Well, first thing is, of course, you know, assuming you already got licensed wherever you get the license. You need to create a list of everybody you know, truly. If you've gone to university, you know, all those folks that you've interacted with, you know, your family, your friends, because initially that is going to be. The prospects, if you will, that you're going to approach with your skillset and whether or not they want to entertain working with you. That's basically the way it is today, which is very, very difficult. So, the second thing I say is have a very thick skin. Don't listen to the nose. The nose, the nose... The more nose you get, the closer you are to a yes. Yes. Okay, so this is not a business for the faint-hearted, not going to work. I mean, you literally got to work very, very hard, and it's one client at a time. It's a very challenging business to enter, but it can be done because the advisors who are in the business today, they're just getting older. And someone needs to be able to step in to service the clients, because not all the clients are as old as the advisors. So, that is, you know, that's the best information I can give you regarding this business. It is a tough business to enter. The barrier is very high. Interesting. So, as a financial planner, do you foresee, because I'm listening to you, and I'm thinking about... Have you ever thought about teaching financial planners, you know, doing a side business, a training? I'm hearing that you're very knowledgeable about this. Have you thought about maybe something on that line? Well, that's what I can tell you. For my experience, my educational experience, the shame is that we don't get an education about money management until we're making money. Okay, which is kind of at that point, you know, trial and error you burn through, waste, et cetera, you miss opportunities. If I've always thought that somewhere in high school, there should be a class taught nationwide, just basic money management. Because by high school, you got yourself a little job, one way or another. Now, money management and accumulating wealth is a process, so long term strategy. But if you have no idea how to make your money work for you when you start making money, the process either evades you or you just got in there too late, you know. So, yeah, to answer your question, I always think about teaching. That's part of what I do as a financial planner. People hire me because they don't know. So, part of the relationship is, let me help you understand so that you can follow the advice and why I ask you to do the things that I'm asking you to do, but that comes with an education. So, you're not blind, you know, relative to the advice I'm giving you. So, when you decided to be a financial planner and you took these steps, how long did it take you to really grow your clients or you're not in that place where you finished yet? It's a continual cycle. So, as long as I'm in the business, I'm always in the business of growing the business, right? Unfortunately, people don't live forever. And, you know, generally when they go, their money goes unless you've established a relationship with their children and they continue the relationship. So, client acquisition is an ongoing process. And as long as I'm in the business, you know, acquiring clients is the name of the game. Yes. Okay. And then, you know, you must take care of what you have. And do you get a lot of referrals also from other people? Is that part of the big part of this? And I know you say word of mouth is always good. Do you go after big name? No. No. You know, so I think that's an immense number relative to the business where people say to me all the time, "I don't have enough money to work with you, but you don't even know what I do for you." You know, so that's a misconception. That, you know, the average person has a job, decent paying job, full 1K plan, family to make money. Now, what they do with it, that's a whole another issue. That's where I come in and can help people, again, if accumulating wealth, retiring comfortably, is your goal and you're not achieving that, then that's where you may consider working with a financial planner. Somebody you can trust. Somebody you can trust. That's right. Darryl, we are time, but we're going to come back and we're going to talk to Darryl again, and he's going to talk about financial planning as for you, the individual, to help you figure out what to do with all your money that you think you don't have. So, we're going to come back on the next segment. Darryl, thank you for coming on my show. You're welcome. I really love this. I think it's very much needed in the community. Like you say, if we could start young, that would be it, but we're going to talk about that on the next segment. So, until next time, let's see, you are listening to WBCA LP 102.9 FM Community Radio. You're in the village with Willie P. It's good to help someone just because it's the right thing to do. It's good to honor someone that has make an impact in your life or the life of others. Seek and you will find the village helps to redefine the things that treat you unkind. It takes a village to make a difference. So be that kind person and pass it on. You're in the village and you're listening to Wally Ali, the boss. Until next time, see ya. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]