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Video Transcript
Randy Major – 00:22
Hello, and welcome to On The money with secure money. I’m your host, Randy major, and I’m here today with Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Hello, Brian.
Brian Quaranta – 00:33
Hello, Randy. How are you?
Randy Major – 00:35
Thanks for asking. How are you today?
Brian Quaranta – 00:36
I’m great. Yeah, doing well.
Randy Major – 00:38
Great. I know how busy you guys are at the office. Always. Yes. So thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. To come here and talk with us and the viewers. You have so much helpful information to give. And I love talking with you because I know how passionate you are about helping folks retire.
Brian Quaranta – 00:55
Yeah, I just yeah, you know, it’s come from an early age. I mean, remember Montgomery Ward’s catalog for most people, most people if you’re listening, you probably remember JC Penney catalog store and GM rewards catalog stores. My dad had an income rewards catalog store, the catalog stores were the amazon before Amazon, right? actually gonna go What are your stuff, go pick it up, you know, but still, it was kind of a version of Amazon back in the day. But you know, my mom and dad lost that store in the mid 80s. Because Montgomery Ward’s had closed. So my parents went through a really hard time financially. And there was just there was nobody to really help them. I remember my dad working with a stockbroker out of New York City, because I grew up in New Jersey. And I remember my dad always being upset that he lost money and Snapple, iced tea, and all these other stocks he would buy. But there was really nobody there helping create a plan. And my parents went through some tough times. Wow. And so you know, it gave me an interest in finance very early on. And what I learned is that most people really just need good information, clear, concise information, the problem that we have right now and our society is that there’s too much information available. And it creates so much noise, right? People don’t know, the right moves to make, when the make them and how to make them. Because there’s so many different opinions out there of what to do. And I think what we’ve done really well at secure money advisors, is we’ve created a very simple system, the right track retirement system, which allows us to put people in the position of strength by having good information to make good decisions that are beneficial to their financial future.
Randy Major – 02:43
Right. So this is a situation where Google is not helpful. You don’t want to Google your retirement plan. Well, you know, you want to sit down with somebody who knows what they’re doing. That’s gonna make it clear and concise, make it simple for you to understand. When is it too is it too early ever to start your retirement plan is never
Brian Quaranta – 03:02
too early. It’s never too late. You know, I can remember I recently had a, a, a single woman come in, she was divorced, Married for many, many years. But all of a sudden found herself divorced later on in life, you know, through the divorce, you know, receive some monies, had to go back to work, but now was taking care of herself taking care of the kids. And she just didn’t think retirement was ever possible. You know, she had worked with some financial planners at the local banks. And, you know, she had some, you know, she had a work 401k plan from a new employer. But she says, You know, I just don’t think I’m ever going to be able to retire. And I hear that a lot when people walk through the door that they just don’t think they’re going to be able to retire. And the problem with it is because most people are not getting pensions. So back in the day, you kind of knew that if you work so long for a company that at the age of 62, or 65, you could retire, collect your Social Security and get your pension. The reason why most people don’t know if they can retire now is because we have these pensions that have been replaced with company retirement plans like 401 K’s 403 B’s, I call them the yo yo retirement plans that stands for you’re on your own, you got to figure out how to turn that sum of money that you’ve accumulated into a monthly income stream. And more importantly, you got to do it in a way that you don’t run out of money. So what we were able to do is through the right track retirement system that we’ve created, and it’s taken me over 20 years to create this. I was able to bring her step by step through a process that showed her very easily when she could get retired and you know, she thought maybe it would be 10 years we were able to get a retired in five years with some really simple steps. And we see all tied a husband and wife come in not too long ago that wanted to Move to Wyoming of all places, it seems like a very popular place. And they had a lot of stuff all over the place. And they had some very complicated things. There was some pensions that this individual is going to get. But they were from old employers, some of them were small, some of them when he died with him and didn’t pass to his wife. So they had income sources that were splintered everywhere was very complicated. But that’s our job at secure money advisors, right, as kind of financial engineers, our job is to take all these pieces of the puzzle, bring them together, so that we have one solid picture of what this thing is going to look like. But it’s got to be a simple and easy to understand plan. Otherwise, people are not motivated to implement it, or they’re scared to implement it. Absolutely. When it’s simple, you actually get excited about that day of retirement coming, because you know, you’re going to have a very simple philosophy to, to create the foundation, which is going to allow you to retire with peace of mind and confidence.
Randy Major – 06:03
Right. And that’s the what you said that the piece of the puzzle, you know, retirement looks so much different now than it used to, it can be so intimidating for folks that they just don’t even really want to think about it, because it’s overwhelming, but you have to
Brian Quaranta – 06:17
Yeah, they kick the can down the road. Right? This is not the time now to kick the can down the road, if there’s any time, not to procrastinate on sitting down with somebody that truly does planning. And, you know, I want you understand that there is a difference between a planning firm, and let’s just say a stock firm, you know, most people they’ll transact, you know, business with an advisor. But they’re really just buying financial products and financial products are important. But understanding what the plan needs to be, is the most important thing. Because once we understand what the plan needs to look like, then we actually can go out and buy the financial products that actually are going to be best for that plan. Because I get questions all the time. Should I have life insurance? I have long term care insurance, should I buy an annuity? Should I buy mutual funds? Should I buy stocks? Well, the answer is, it all depends, right? Because your plan is going to be different than their plan. And we’re going to have to make sure that the financial products that are going to be best suited for you that are going to be in your best interest might not be best for them. And that’s the job of the fiduciary, like secure money advisors is to work for the client, and make sure that they’re we’re doing the very best we can for that individual.
Randy Major – 07:31
Now, Brian, you mentioned fiduciary, some folks at home may not have ever heard that term. Can you expand on that?
Brian Quaranta – 07:36
Yeah, I mean, more and more people are really understanding that term. Now today, more than ever, because we get a question is why are you guys a fiduciary. And really, the fiduciary is just a very high standard in the industry where the advisor by law is required to do what’s in the clients best interest. And you would hope that every advisor would be required to do that, and you would open every advisor does do that. But a fiduciary actually is held to that standard. We work for the client, we don’t work for any specific company, we’re beholden to any company. So when we sit down, again, we talk about the planning model only, only once we talk about what the plan needs to look like, it’s only then that we actually go out there and choose the financial products are going to get the plan to work. And that’s the job of fiduciary to do what’s in your best interest, but also to provide the products that are in your best interest, but have a real written plan. And this is why we created the right track Retirement System. And for the right track retirement system for the next 10 callers, we’re actually going to give you the opportunity to come in at no cost. You know, it’s not very often that you get to sit down with a licensed fiduciary at no cost, complimentary for an hour and go over your current plan. Now I know that meeting with a financial planning firm can be a very intimidating process, people will tell me that you know, it just I don’t know what to bring, I don’t know what to ask. You don’t have to worry about that. When you come to secure money advisors, we’re going to ask you lots of questions. We’re going to bring you through a process to help you get more clarity on your financial situation. And we’re going to help you cover the five key areas of financial planning. Number one, and most importantly is your income. Because when we retire, your paycheck is going to stop but bills taxes and all the things that you want to do that’s not going to stop so we have to be able to replace the paycheck. But we’ve got to do it in a way to where you don’t run out of money. Number two is taxes. If we’re going to have to generate income in retirement, we’d want it to be the most tax efficient plan that we could. Three is owning the right investments. Four is having the right health care plan. And five is making sure that when the good Lord decides to take you home, that the money that you’ve worked your entire life for goes to the people that you love to your charities and not to Uncle Sam so for the next 10 callers who call in right now it’s 1-888-382-1298 again 1-888-382-1298 Don’t kick the can down the road on this schedule. You’re right track retirement review Today,
Randy Major – 10:01
we have to go to a very short commercial break, Brian, viewers, we encourage you to stay with us, we’ll be back at 90 seconds. Again, that number is on your screen 8883821298, we’ll be right back.
Brian Quaranta – 10:13
Everybody can tell you how to invest your money. There’s not a lot of people out there and a lot of firms that can teach you how to use your money. Most people also tell you that they’re scared. And the reason they’re scared is because they’re afraid of running out of money. The last thing you want to do is have a really good job and you’re in your 60s retire, be looking for work again, in their late 70s. The average person might say, well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, none of them. A good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas, income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. There’s we’re not just product pickers here, what we do best here as we build retirement plans, nine out of 10 people, when they walk through the door would ask us, we just want to know if we’re on the right track. And I always say if you’re not on the right track, when would be a good time to know it. Probably now, people you know can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan. This is about you, if you’re not getting what you need. And you feel that when you walk out of the advisors office, it’s time to get a second opinion. And you can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first the difference at secure money advisors, as a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income, and give you the retirement withdrawal.
Randy Major – 11:43
Welcome back to On the money with secure money. I’m your host, Randy major. And I’m chatting today with Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, we’re talking all things retirement today. And I know the viewers at home, have a lot of questions, viewers at home, call us call in with your questions. We’re going to answer questions in the last segment the numbers on your screen 8883821298. Brian, let’s talk some common mistakes in retirement planning.
Brian Quaranta – 12:10
Yeah, not mitigating risk. Yeah, the mitigation of risk and retirement is very important. And people don’t recognize that. So you know, the things that got you to retirement are not the things that are going to get you through retirement. And what I mean is, a lot of the investment strategies, and techniques that you use during what we call your accumulation years, right when you’re growing your money are not the same strategies and techniques you’re going to use during your retirement years, or what we also consider your distribution years. So what happens a lot of times is people continue to do the same thing with their money. And it’s common to see right now. And the reason why it’s common that most people will continue to do the same thing is because the markets have cooperated quite a bit lately. And you know, a lot of times when the markets are cooperating and we’re used to open up our statements and seeing good returns, we forget to follow the fundamentals of mitigating that risk. Because if the markets are not cooperating, and you’re in that distribution phase, this is where bad things start to happen. People run out of money, they lose too much money, and they don’t have the time to recover. Right. So in retirement, it’s all about mitigating the downside risk, because what you have to understand is that the losses will hurt you more than the gains will help you in your retirement years. Let me say that again, the losses will hurt you more than the gains will help you. So mitigating and protecting your downside risk is extremely important. And there are some basic fundamentals that you can follow, that will still give you the ability to grow your money in the market. But also make sure that if the markets go down, that you don’t have to delay retirement, or come out of retirement, like people had to in Oh 708 when the markets went down, people had to either delay retirement or come into retirement, you don’t want to put yourself in that position. If you’ve won the game, there’s no reason to continue to play it. Once you’ve won the game, it’s all about protecting what you have getting a reasonable rate of return to keep pace with inflation, and getting a reasonable rate of return so that you can take the money that you want to take and still have some principle dollars left or even grow that money so that you have some legacy dollars that get passed on to the family members.
Randy Major – 14:33
Wow. That’s such great advice. Brian, thank you so much. I’m really curious what percentage of people come into the office and they’re already on the right track? They just don’t even need your help. And you’re like well done. Does that ever happen? It does.
Brian Quaranta – 14:45
Yes. And we want to applaud those people. Right and and you know, if you are on the right track, that’s great. But if you weren’t on the right track, when would you want to know that? Right. I mean, if I wasn’t doing something right? Whatever it is, you know, let’s, you know, whether it be, you know, let’s say I’m working personally, with a tax accountant for my, for my business, if there was something that wasn’t being done right, I would want to know that sooner than later. Because I would want to make adjustments. And I’ve had that happen to me, as I’ve grown the business, I’ve outgrown accounting practices, right. And so you may be at a point to where you’ve outgrown the person that’s been helping you up to this point. And that’s okay, they got you to where you needed to be, but they might not specialize in that next phase that you need. There’s a lot of advisors out there that focus on that growth portion of the process. But there’s not a whole lot of people that specialize in that distribution phase like we do it secure money advisors, if you were to look at our 1400 clients that we’ve helped successfully retire, what you would see is that everybody is 55. And older. Now we’ve younger clients, because you know, we get referred to our clients, children and grandkids and things along those lines. But we’re truly there to help those that are approaching retirement and are in retirement because that’s what we specialize in. And that’s what we do really well. And there’s five key areas that are so important. There’s the income portion there, the tax portion, the investment portion, the healthcare portion, and the legacy portion. Most financial planners are not taking the time to talk about those five key areas, because all they’re talking about is diversification of your portfolio. And that’s fine. But once you reach a certain point, like 10, five years from retirement, or even in retirement, then the whole game changes. And if you’re not focused on those fundamentals, what’s happening is you’re leaving gaps open, where things are going to fall through,
Randy Major – 16:49
right. And this is why it’s so important to Brian to get a second opinion. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I get a diagnosis from the doctor or the dentist, I kind of want someone to take a second look
Brian Quaranta – 16:59
absolutely right. And I’ve always said that you cannot get a second opinion. For the person that gave you the first opinion. Exactly right. Think about a dentist that just gave you the opinion, right? Can you go back and get a second opinion for that dentist, he’s going to tell you the same thing. So, you know, a lot of people will say to me, Well, you know, my advisor just doesn’t do what you do. Okay, that’s understandable. What are we gonna do about it? You know, well, I’m going to go, I’m going to go back and ask if they can do some of the things that you’ve told me to do. It doesn’t work that way, right? I mean, what they’ve done is where they want to specialize. But look, I understand that, when you know, you’re looking to get better help in what you’re doing in life. Sometimes that means having to break a relationship that you’ve been in for a very long time. I mean, I’ll just use myself as the example. My first accounting firm I ever worked with, was my accounting professor from college. Now I thought this woman was she was the smartest person I’ve ever known. She was my accounting professor, right? I did. I said, I’m never going to need our accounting again, accounting, again, was the business grew, right. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t a great accountant, because she’s an incredible accountant, she still is to this day. But what her practice focused on was not what I needed as the company grew. And it’s the same thing with you, you might be working with a local individual at the bank, or you’ve been working with Mom and Dad’s guy that you’ve known for a long time. Some of you might not be working with anybody, you still might have money sitting in old 401 K’s. But I would encourage you to take a step and not procrastinate here and get a second opinion from a licensed fiduciary. So you can see if there are areas of your planning model that need to be improved. And how much peace of mind would you have if you left with a piece of information that actually made your situation better, or avoided you from making a big mistake?
Randy Major – 18:55
Bryan, I think this is a great time to remind the viewers at home of your special offer.
Brian Quaranta – 18:59
Yeah, folks, this is our right track retirement review. It’s complimentary to you. There’s no cost. But you’ve got to do your part, you’ve got to pick up the phone and call us and schedule that appointment. When you call and schedule the appointment. When you come into our office up in Zelienople, you’re going to spend about 45 minutes to an hour with us. Some of you might see me some of you are going to see some of my team members but we all plan together as a team, you get a dedicated team of people at secure money advisors that truly working to make sure that you have the very best at all times. You know, in the world we live in today. Having a team based model gives you a lot of leverage because you just don’t aren’t relying on one individual or you’re relying on a team of individuals that have an extremely in depth knowledge of these topics. So again, for next 10 callers who call in it’s a complimentary right track retirement review. We’re going to go through the five key areas when you come in income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. Do your part though. Pick up the phone right now and call us one 888-382-1298
Randy Major – 20:03
Folks at home if your financial situation is keeping you up at night, we encourage you to pick up the phone today and call 8883821298. We’re going to come right back after this short break with some viewer questions. So stay tuned.
Brian Quaranta – 20:18
If I could help you increase your income, if I could help you pay less taxes, if I could help you potentially maximize the returns of your investments, while reducing risk reducing fees if I could help you prepare for a health event, or more importantly, when the good Lord decides to take you home to make sure that the money you’ve accumulated over your lifetime goes to your family and to your charities rather than the IRS. Would that be worth the time to come in and get a second opinion?
Randy Major – 20:43
Welcome back to On the money with secure money. I’m your host, Randy major, and I’m chatting with Brian Quaranta of secure money advisors. Brian, we’ve got a lot of people calling in with questions you ready to answer?
Brian Quaranta – 20:59
I’m always amazed by how good a questions we get. You know, and again, it’s this goes back to what I tell my team all the time, people are hungry for good information. So what do we got?
Randy Major – 21:10
All right, well, let’s see, we have John and Gibsonia. He wants to know, which is a better option, a long term care insurance, annuity or life insurance, I am 55 and would like to retire at 68 then ease into some part time work, I’ve maxed out my IRA and own my own home. I don’t have a spouse or kids.
Brian Quaranta – 21:29
So he said Life Insurance, long term care,
Randy Major – 21:34
and you’re right.
Brian Quaranta – 21:37
Well, you know, here the you know, there’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle that I’d have to ask John about. And again, you know, this is this is a hypothetical answer, because to a certain degree, I don’t know, there’s a lot more questions I need to know about John. But you know, what he’s really talking about there is maybe health care coverage, it’s kind of if he had a health event, you can do that through accelerated death benefits through life insurance, where they put like a long term care rider on there, you can buy a traditional long term care policy where they would pay if you got sick and went into a nursing home. But you can also buy annuities that have long term care writers that will pay for you to be in in a nursing home. Now, what’s the difference? An annuity, you don’t have to go through underwriting, which means you don’t have to prove that you’re, you’re healthy and insurable. Whereas long term care insurance and life insurance requires that you go through underwriting. And if you have any medical conditions, you might not get that specific policy. Because you might not qualify for it, especially as you start to get it to those later years 55 or older. But you know, depending on what he’s trying to do there, because you can use all those products for lots of different things. But if he’s talking specifically about health care, those are the biggest differences amongst those three. Now,
Randy Major – 22:54
I think John brings up a really good point is health care. I mean, how many people are really factoring into their plans, the kind of care they’re going to need, I mean, we’re living a lot longer. And healthcare is very expensive. Well, there’s
Brian Quaranta – 23:07
two things that people miss when it comes to retirement planning. Number one, and most importantly, is tax planning, right? They’re not doing enough work in the tax planning area. And, you know, they’re leaving themselves exposed to increase tax rates. And that’s not a good thing, because for most people, when they’re withdrawing money from their portfolios, are creating taxable events, because most people have money sitting in IRAs, 401, k’s and things along those lines. So they’re not every time they pull money out, they’ve got to pay taxes, and if taxes go up, they gotta pay even more taxes. So this becomes a challenge. Right? So the bottom line is, is that, you know, the, the situation with John is that he’s just going to have to decide what’s better for him.
Randy Major – 23:50
Well, John needs to come in and John needs to come in and take advantage of today’s special offer. Yeah. Okay, Brian, we’re gonna take another question. Okay. We have Patti in Mount Lebanon, she says, the more I watched the show and learn about the many different financial tools that exist, the more I dislike my 401k and the limited investment choices I have, is there anything I can do to broaden my options? Or am I just stuck? What’s with what’s on their menu? Yeah,
Brian Quaranta – 24:16
you pretty much are. That’s the advantage of rolling money to a self directed IRA. Because your menu goes from a very short menu to a very big menu. You know, having a self directed IRA gives you access to, you know, an unlimited amount of investment options, whereas the 401k, you’re very, very limited to it. So she would have an advantage by rolling the money over. And the other thing is, if you’ve reached the age of 59 and a half, and you’re still working for your employer, you might even qualify for something called an in service withdrawal, where you’re going to be able to if you’re still working right, in service withdrawal is different than a rollover. And in service withdrawal says, Hey, I’ve reached the age of 59 and a half. I don’t want to stay in my 401k anymore, because there’s not a whole lot of good vestment options there, I’d like to roll this money out and get into an IRA that allows me to have more investment options. And we use the 59 and a half in service withdrawal rule. When you roll that money over, there’s no taxes, there’s no penalties. And your 401k at your employer still stays open. And we want it to stay open, because we still want you to make contributions. And we don’t want you to miss out on the free money that you would get from your employer through the matching that they’re giving you.
Randy Major – 25:29
Thank you, Brian. Okay, we have a couple minutes left in the show. I want to squeeze in one more question from Jennifer and Bethel Park. What, if any, are there risks associated with a Roth IRA?
Brian Quaranta – 25:39
There’s really not a whole lot. You know, there’s some five year rules on there waiting to you know, to take the money, but for the most part, that I wouldn’t even call that a risk. I mean, there’s more benefits than there are risks. And what I mean by the five year rule is that if you put money into a Roth IRA, you got to wait five years, in order to take the money out. Or if you did a conversion, there’s a five year rule with that also. But there’s more advantages from a tax perspective. So for me example, you know, I do a lot of Roth conversions every year because I make a contribution to a SEP IRA each year, and I get a tax deduction when I make a contribution to the SEP IRA. So I get a tax deduction. But in the following year, I convert it, and I convert it from a from a taxable account to a tax free account. Now, when I do that, I’ve got to pay taxes, and I’ve got to pay taxes in that year. But that means that that money, when I convert it, all the future growth of that money, and all the income that I plan on taking out of that account in the future is all going to be tax free. But this is what we talk about when you come in, right. This is what the right track retirement review is all about Randy, and we’ve worked so hard to create this right track retirement review, because what I have found is that people don’t have all the information to make good decisions when it comes to the retirement planning. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, and yeah, this is your first time seeing the show, you’re going to hear me talk about the five key areas of planning, income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. And when you come in for your complimentary right track retirement review, we’re going to go over all of those five key areas and you’re going to have a really clear understanding of what retirement should look like but you got to do your part call today for that right track retirement view. It is complimentary. Don’t kick the can down the road. Come in, get a second opinion. It’s 888-382-1298. Again, 1-888-382-1298.
Randy Major – 27:43
Wonderful information on today’s show. Brian, thank you so much. And to the viewers at home. Thank you for joining us have a beautiful day.