We've got a great episode for you today. We are talking about understanding holistic wealth management. And it's way more than just talking about investments. Uh, as a lot of you may know, if you've been listening to our podcast, we talk about investments, but we talk about all of the other facets when it comes to having a comfortable peace of mind retirement plan. And, and so we wanted to draw some comparisons to what an investment advisor or a money manager is and how that compares to a holistic wealth manager. Like we are. Yeah. And if you're listening to this and you're thinking you would like to make sure you actually read about what we're, what we're talking about. Go to our website, P O M wealth.net, go to the blog page and we have a whole blog article written on this very topic. If you're thinking you'd like to learn a little bit more about it, maybe have a conversation, you can go to our website top right hand corner, click on schedule call. We would be happy to hop on a 15 minute phone call with you, kind of help you navigate your thought process and, and try to think it through, which one of these is the right one for you. But before we get into this episode, we have a very quick disclosure. The information contained in this podcast is intended to provide general information only and not to be considered individualized advice. Different types of investments carry different levels of risk. As always, please contact your financial professional for advice appropriate to your situation. Enjoy the show. Welcome to the secure your retirement podcast. This is the place where high achieving professionals come to gain confidence on how to successfully navigate their transition into and life during retirement. There's no such thing as a passive retirement plan. To have a successful financial future, your plan must be actively managed. Each week, we will bring you action plans and expert interviews that will help you gain insights, learn fresh perspectives and finally experience peace of mind about your retirement. Here to help you achieve your dream retirement and live the life you deserve are your hosts, certified financial planners, Raiden Stansell and Merse Tariq. Welcome to secure your retirement. Today, we're talking about a topic that is quite popular. It's understanding holistic wealth management. What is that when you compare it to just say an investment manager? Um, and this is a question that we get because a lot of the folks that come meet with us, they typically are with a person who just helps them with investments. And so the one question they ask is, what's the difference between what I'm doing today, working with an investment person versus working with you, which we are known to be holistic wealth management for a well, uh, wealth management firm. So I just want to set this up and then Merse is going to kind of take us through this idea, but, you know, I guess I'll just ask you, Merse, if you think about it, how would you say when you, when we sit down with somebody and we're looking at their situation and they could be with, by the way, we're not trying to pick on an individual. They could be at Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Murrell Lynch, um, you know, um, Edward Jones, uh, another one that he, he, um, advertises a lot as Ken Fisher, uh, all of those kind of fall in this category of an investment firm. So could you kind of give us maybe a little bit of the, the, the setup here as to what that really is? Yeah. So I think an investment advisor and investment firm, uh, has its place in this world for sure. Uh, you know, when you, when you start in this process of, of, of accumulating wealth and trying to save, uh, you may need some guidance on how to properly save as well as how do I, how do I invest in the market? Some people like doing that themselves, but a vast majority don't understand it, don't want to take the time to understand it. You know, they have their own careers that they have to focus on. And so they need guidance and help on how to invest. Uh, and so that's where an investment manager comes into play. I think, um, in that, in the accumulation phase of someone's life where I've got, I just got my job. I'm starting to save. I'm putting money into my 401K. Maybe I have some extra savings and I want to invest into a brokerage account or a Roth IRA, uh, but I just don't know what stocks to pick. I don't know how to handle the risk. Uh, that's where an investment advantage, uh, investment manager like, uh, Edward Jones, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, all those advisors can come into play. And they're there to help you grow the money. And, uh, a big part of that is selecting funds, whether you're investing in stocks or mutual funds or exchange traded funds, uh, and, and, and, and coming up with this idea of an asset allocation. An asset allocation is basically saying we need to buy parts of the market because we don't know which part of the market is going to perform the best. So let's buy a well diversified portfolio for the long, long term, right? I'm 20. I'm going to invest for the next 30 years. Let me buy a well diversified portfolio and hopefully things go well for me. Uh, and so that investment advisor, that investment manager's job is really focused on the investments. When you have questions around, you know, where should I be saving? What's the most advantageous for me to be saving into this or into that? Or if I need to take a withdrawal, what are my tax implications going to be? In my eyes, they're really not there for that type of guidance or, you know, I'm planning on having a kid and, um, how do I save for their college and get into the conversation of 529 plans or all these other ways to save for college? They're really not, they're really not there for that. They're really there to help you invest the money and help you grow the money. I heard this analogy one time, which was, um, when you, when you are younger, you go see, uh, when you go to the doctor, you go see a pediatrician, right? Uh, cause they are specialized in, uh, working with kids and the, the medical care that a kid is going to need. Well, when you grow up, you don't continue, even though you probably loved your pediatrician, cause they are usually a little bit nicer than most doctors, uh, you don't continue to see your pediatrician, right? So in my eyes, when you, there, there are phases in your, in your life that you go through and you, you, the team around you should be evolving with you as you reach those different stages of life, which is our whole firm and practices all around holistic wealth management with a, with a focus on someone who's close to or nearing retirement or maybe already in retirement. To me, that's way different than I got to start saving and I got to start investing and I got to start, uh, buying the right funds and things like that. So what I'm getting at in it is an investment manager can be very, very ultra focused on how do we invest? How do we grow the money? How much risk do we want to take? But they're really not focused on any of the things that come with, uh, or the outside of that realm. That's their specialty. And I just want to interject here real quick. I mean, just to kind of give a little bit of backdrop here, um, I started doing this over a little over 23 years ago and my focus in the beginning was that. How do we invest money? I mean, that's really kind of how you, a lot of people get into this world. And so everything that Merse is talking about was our foundation has been our foundation. It has been a big integral part. Uh, Merse is we've been together now for over 12 years and our focus for a long time was just less invest the money, let's be good investment managers. And so that is a part of things. That's a major part of things because you don't want to have your money mismanaged or not managed correctly. So all those things that he just talked about are there, just the, the, the one little difference is as an investment manager, if that's what their role is, that's what they're focused on exclusively. And, and so that's where their whole focus is. Um, I mean, on our side, that little role that we have as an investment manager is doing what Merse said, building an asset allocation, building an asset mix that's going to help us when it comes to risk management. Now, I think that was anything else on that, Merse? No, I was just giving a quick summary on that. Yeah. Yeah. So, so ultimately, what, what's the difference? Well, I'll tell you from our story, what our situation is, is that while we were really good at investments, and that's what we talked about a lot, we, we, because of who Merse said we work with, which are individuals that are 55 years of age and older, that's our typical client. Um, they were coming to us with questions about, do I have enough money? Uh, is my money going to run out? Um, they wanted to know, how do I deal with Social Security? When do I take Social Security? How do I deal with tax planning? How do I deal with estate planning? Uh, how do I deal with Medicare long term care? And they, these questions would come up so many times and we would, we would have partnerships with people to try to help with those different things. But as we moved along and wanted to fill that gap, we, we saw that the need was there big enough. So quite a few years ago, we really started building out this idea of being a holistic wealth management firm. So the investment side is still there. That's still a big part of things. And when you go talk to someone, if you're trying to figure this out, it'll start to help you to know you can start asking questions. Are you a wealth manager or do you look at things from a holistic standpoint? Are you an investment guy? Are you an insurance guy? Like what are you? And that just helps you navigate the world. So today when we talk to our clients, the difference is when you work with a holistic wealth manager, they're going to begin everything when they, by building a comprehensive financial plan, we say ours is a comprehensive retirement-focused financial plan, which means it is very focused on getting you to and then all the way through retirement. So we look at a lot of different elements within that financial plan. Like I mentioned earlier, we're going to look at today, where are you? You want to retire at X, or if you've already retired, then are, where are we going to get our income from? Uh, MERS talks a lot every time we do presentations about that income part of things. Um, how did taxes fit into this situation? How is my investment structure? Um, how is my estate plan set up? Um, how is my health care set up? If I'm, if I'm under 65, how am I going to deal with that? If I retire from my company and it'll, and I no longer have health coverage. If I'm over 65 or at 65, how do I navigate Medicare? So, I mean, MERS, you want to speak a little bit about that infrastructure, just to kind of give the, the, the listener, kind of maybe the concept of what it's like to work with a wealth manager. I hope that you are enjoying the show. By the way, if you are in or nearing retirement and are someone who wants to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are and identify what you could be doing to achieve peace of mind for your retirement. Get started today by requesting your complimentary video course for steps to secure your retirement, to access the course, simply visit pomwealth.net/podcast. If you're new here or you haven't done this yet, this is definitely the first step to get started in applying these principles to your life. So head over to pomwealth.net/podcast and check us out. Yeah, I think there, there's so many things, right? So transition out of that, that analogy of working with the, the pediatrician. Now you're approaching retirement. You've done a good job saving, but there's still concerns. There's still major questions out there. Hey, I've got the assets, right? That, that money manager, that the stock market, it helped me grow my assets. I've got the assets. Now of all these questions, right? What does retirement look like for me? So we start the whole process by creating that retirement focused financial plan, say the person is 60 and maybe they want to retire at 65. They got five years left of earning ahead of them, five years left of saving. And then that's it. By the way, that is a major concern. Doesn't matter how much money you have, how good of a job you've planned on a plan for retirement when it comes to your assets. Finally saying, no, I'm done working and for the rest of my life and the money that I've got has to last my, myself and my family for a very, very long time. That's nerve-wracking. And so being able to see that projected out is a big step in that path towards success, a successful retirement. So we get all the data points, right? You're, you're 60. You want to retire at 65. What have you done to plan for retirement so far? Give us your social security projections. I start talking about when social security is going to click on for you. Uh, what other concerns do we have? Are there any other cash flows that you're going to be having, whether it's rental income or any type of business income, right? Understanding that. And then on the other side of it, very important is understanding how much you're going to be spending and what are your goals and desires? What do you want out of retirement, right? Uh, it could be travel. A lot of our clients are going to front load their retirement because they want to travel while they are willing and able. So maybe for the first 10 years of retirement, we run a heftier budget because of that travel desire, uh, or maybe it's a membership or something that you've, you know, been putting off because we're kept, kept you so busy. And then we've got all these other things that come into play. We start withdrawing on our money. That's going to create taxable issues. A lot of people have IRAs or 401ks, which we haven't paid a dime of taxes on yet. So understanding the tax implications. So in that arena, we have quite a bit of expertise with all of our advisors, our CFP certified financial planner. So we do have, uh, vast knowledge and the idea of financial and retirement planning, but we also have, uh, tax strategists on staff, uh, we have an EA. So she's an enrolled agent, very similar to a CPA, but really focused on personal income tax. And so she helps, uh, come up with ideas, run tax strategy, help someone understand how much they're going to be paying in taxes and looking at other opportunities and things we want to avoid like this thing called Medicare Irma, where you could pay penalties on your Medicare. A lot of people don't realize that. So we want to avoid those things. So then once we get into tax strategy and tax planning, uh, then we've got this thing down the road called at currently age 70, 73 or 75. If you're a little bit longer, younger, called requirement and distributions. Another thing that gets ignored until it's too late, which is a force withdrawal on your IRA assets, your pre tax assets. So what I'm getting at here is just because you may have done a good job of saving the assets. A lot of times you need a lot of help, uh, getting all the way to the finish line and understanding some of the major decisions, like when do I take social security? How do RMDs work? What about longterm care planning? Am I covered? Uh, can I self-insured? Do I need a little bit more insurance on that side? How are assets going to be left behind? What type of legacy am I leaving behind? To me, that is whole very much so holistic financial planning, trying to cover all the things that are always concerning people. We're in meetings all the time and very rarely are we talking about, Hey, you know, what did my ETF do or what did, what did my investment do? While that's important, it's more way more about the concerns that people have as they are entering retirement. And those are the tougher answers to get if you're just working with an investment advisor. Yeah. I was just thinking about, as you were talking about this, is that I mean, the questions we get are today, Hey, I want to make a change in my life. I want to go from this house to that house, this house to a continuous care, retirement community. I want to plan for how I might be able to give some money to my grandchildren. Or, Hey, I was thinking about taking this really nice vacation or I would like to redo the kitchen or just had this one. I want to buy a really nice, I don't know. How would you describe it? It was a 69 Chevelle that the client of ours wanted to buy. And he said, I don't think I can afford it. So we, we ran the numbers and we involved our tax strategist because there are taxes on withdrawals. Uh, and so I can tell you happily that the client is picking up that car in the next couple of weeks. Uh, by the way, give your reference, the car was over $100,000. So it was not like he was just going out and buying a, a small purchase. But, but, but he had more than enough assets. Uh, it did it affect his retirement plan at all. I mean, negatively, negatively, not, not at all really, but the, the making, being able to have a partner in your, in your corner to help you make that decision, big desire of this clients, right? He loves classic cars, but, uh, without someone giving him that nudge to say, hey, you've saved while you can afford this is if this is truly something you want, let's work the numbers, let's understand it. And, and so it gave him the confidence to go and say, yeah, let me go buy this. Yeah. So hopefully this has given you a little bit of an idea of the difference between the two, um, you know, what, when we look at this, we're saying, well, which one you need to ask, which one is right for me. Um, and so it's not a, everything, it's not to say that you, everybody needs all of these things. I will tell you that our clients, if you talk to them, they would say, this is what gives us peace of mind is that we don't have to think about all these different elements, but obviously we've attracted people who want that. Uh, there are people by far that would say, nope, I don't need all that stuff. I don't want all that stuff. Um, I always tell people, you know, like some people do everything themselves and that's okay. They cut their own grass. They paint their house. They, you know, they do everything themselves. And then there's people who go in, I don't really want to cut my grass. I don't want to do my taxes. I don't want to, you know, do those different things. I want to have somebody else do it so I can do the things I really want to do. And, and so you kind of have to think about which one of those fits you the best and, and take it down that path. Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, man, I'd like to at least understand this a little bit better. I want to tell you how you can do it. You can go to our website, go to the top right hand corner, click on, uh, schedule call, our calendar comes right up. You can pick a time. It's a complimentary phone call. It's a, you could, we'll hop on there. We'll answer any of your questions. And if we can't deal with it within 15 minutes, then we'll, we'll tell you how to get the, the bigger answers that you might need in that situation. We hope this has been helpful. We will talk to you again next Monday. All right, everyone. That wraps up today's episode of the secure your retirement podcast. If you found value in today's episode, we would love nothing more than for you to head on over to iTunes and give us a five star rating and a review. Be sure to take a screenshot of the review before you submit it and we'll send you a special gift. Our book, get off the retirement roller coaster. Just email Morgan@pomwell.net with a screenshot of the review to get your gift. Also, be sure to subscribe so you get notified of new episodes as they're released every week. And finally, please share our podcast with your favorite social network. So more of your friends and family can benefit from this information. Always remember, you've worked hard to get where you are. And now you deserve to have a retirement that works hard for you. [MUSIC] (upbeat music) You
