Retirement You TV: Episode 13

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Video Transcript

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:22

Good morning and welcome to retirement You TV My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian Q. How are you? I’m good. We’re getting closer and closer every I think I’m not gonna say the art at the end it always comes. I love it. It’s so my name is confusing as well, as you know, because on the show, it’s different. But it’s truly Cynthia pencarrow de Fazio so you could do pincio de Fazio and yeah, anyway, right?

Brian Quaranta – 00:55

Which can butcher just like mine all the time? 20 years that they can’t pronounce my last name. That’s why we had to go to Brian Q.

Cynthia De Fazio – 01:03

Yeah. Well, and I love the Brian q because of the radio show, too. Let’s talk a little bit about that to the growing audience today. You started with radio? And how is that going?

Brian Quaranta – 01:11

We’ve been on radio for quite a few years now. And, you know, radios just been a great platform for us. And you know, it’s been a real passion of mine to provide good information. You know, I think, you know, most people today, when it comes to retirement planning, there’s just so much noise in the marketplace, and they just need somebody to help decipher all of that noise. And so, you know, that the idea of the radio, and obviously, the TV is to be able to provide education to the consumer so that they can make these better decisions. So the radio shows been great and airs on 94.53, Ws at 8am. On Saturday morning, eight to nine. Okay, and then it airs again, Sunday morning. 7:30 to eight, okay. And then, of course, we’ve got 3w j S, 1320, 3w, j s, and that airs Saturdays, I believe around noon, or somewhere around there. But if people go to WWE secure money, advisors.com, they can actually go to our radio tab, and they can look at all of our past radio shows, okay? If they’re really tech savvy, they can actually download our podcast, which is retirement, you Radio Podcast. So yeah, we try to provide as many resources as possible. So but thank you for asking about the show. Yeah. It’s been a real pleasure to do.

Cynthia De Fazio – 02:28

Definitely. And Brian, what is the feedback been like from the viewing audience? Because I know that we’ve talked a lot about you scheduling the appointments, people are coming in, they’re so excited to meet with you. What has their feedback been? Like? Mostly,

Brian Quaranta – 02:40

I think the biggest thing that we hear is, why is nobody ever shared with me what you guys are sharing with me? Because if I would have known about this stuff, 10 years ago, I would have been a lot better place than I am. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that just shows you, you know, it. Look, there’s I’ve got a lot of colleagues that, you know, run financial practices across the country. But you know, not everybody, you know, just like every industry, right? There’s good doctors, there’s Okay, doctors, you know, there’s good real estate agents, there’s Okay, real estate agents. And it’s the same way in our industry. And I think for us, you know, we’re just kind of at the top of our game providing the very best advice. And we understand the retirement process so well, that we know of all the best practices out there. Not only that, as a licensed fiduciary, we work for our client, we have to do what’s in our clients best interest, we work for them, I don’t work for any other company, I work for my clients, I work for Bob and Sally, I work for Betty and Matt, you know, those are the people that I work for. And so that goes a long way because we’re not swayed one way or the other when I was working at the big firms 20 years ago. You know, there was literally a grid or a menu of services that we could only provide. So there was only a certain amount of product that you can write with specific companies. And a lot of times a lot of firms have gotten to even selling their own proprietary products, you’ll see that a lot of this at the big brokerage firms, or the banks and things along those lines. And, you know, the the world of investing has changed so much, Cynthia, that, you know, most people are using antiquated technology to try to build their retirement. And what I mean by that is if you just even look at the retail mutual fund market, right, traditional retail mutual funds, and I don’t want to name off any names because I don’t want to, but but just a traditional retail mutual fund. There’s big name companies out there. That’s kind of the old way of doing it. You know, Private Wealth Management is really where you get the quality of management that you need to really be competitive in the marketplace today. And most importantly, minimize as much risk as possible. You just can’t do that really well in a buy and hold retail mutual fund portfolio. So for us, we’re really teaching people the new way of how to do it the proper way to do it. And for us to hear from folks, you know, the feedback is, why is nobody ever shared this with us. And that just tells us that they’re just not getting the information because nine out of 10 advisors really are still doing it the old way. They’re doing it the antiquated way. And you think about technology, you think about the cell phone of the 1980s. Remember that thing? It was like it was like a brick.

Cynthia De Fazio – 05:14

Yeah. And we loved it. We loved it. And you have to climb to the top of a mountain just to get a signal. Can you hear me now?

Brian Quaranta – 05:20

Yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. And you look at the cell phone today, it does everything for you. It does everything for you. And so a lot of the a lot of the investment strategies that people are using are kind of the cell phone of the 80s, they’re still using this big brick of a cell phone. Yeah, when in fact, we’ve got all this new technology, we’ve got these smartphones that are available. And it’s the same thing in the investing world, there’s better ways to do it. When people come in to secure money advisors, we teach them how to do that, we show them how to do that. And we actually will do a comparison for them, we’ll take what they currently have. And we’ll do an analysis so they understand where they are. And then we compare it to where they can be. And the comparison is so definitive, and it’s so black and white, the difference that people will always say, why is nobody ever shown me this before, if I would have known this, we would have been in a better place. You know, had we done this 5 10 years ago, then if we were to just keep doing this? And a lot of times we’ll hear why hasn’t my advisor ever shared this stuff? Yeah. You know, especially even when it comes to income planning and things like that, sure. People just aren’t even being taught the right ways to do it.

Cynthia De Fazio – 06:21

Well, and the other complaint, I think, Brian, is that people say they don’t hear from their advisor. That’s a big one. You know, when you ask them, when’s the last time you had contact with your advisor? Like,

Brian Quaranta – 06:29

I haven’t had any? That’s right. And that’s why you should always be asking, when you choose to work with a firm, you shouldn’t be asking, what’s your servicing model? Right? Two things you should really be asking, number one, are you a fiduciary? And number two is what’s your servicing model? What can we expect in working with you? What are we going to get? What does it look like when we work with you? And that’s important. And for secure money advisors, we’ve got that all mapped out through the secure money advisors roadmap, where we have a physical map that we show people of how the process works. And then from there, we have a checklist that we follow. And that checklist is so important, because how many people out there How many of you viewers out there, you know, think to yourself, do I have this done right? Do I have that done? Right? Have I talked to this about my advisor? Have I talked to this about my attorney? Have I made the right decisions, you know, with my accountant on my taxes. And the reason why you feel that things might not be completely sealed and done perfectly is because there’s a lot of open loops, not every i is dotted, and not every T is crossed, because you have to have a checklist for our clients. When we go through that comprehensive financial planning checklist. They know we’ve taken care of everything we can take care of with income, we’ve taken care of everything we could take care of with investments, taxes, health care, legacy planning, right. And this way you feel completed, oh apps, and there’s nothing better than waking up knowing that you’ve handled all the important things when it comes to your finances. Most

Cynthia De Fazio – 07:55

definitely. It’s complete peace of mind, a blanket of security. Absolutely. As Yes. And it’s imperative, and a lot of people do not have a true comprehensive written retirement plan. But on that note, Brian, we’re about ready to open up the phone lines for the very first time this week. Can you tell the viewing audience what they can expect to receive by being one of your first 10 callers?

Brian Quaranta – 08:14

Yeah, and speaking of comprehensive plans, that’s what we want to show you how to build. For the first time I want to show you how do you get from A to B and building out a comprehensive plan, we’re going to show you how to do that. And for the next 10 callers, who call in right now we are going to give you a complimentary Financial Review. Remember, folks, you can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first opinion. So take advantage of this, it’s not very often that you get to sit down with a licensed fiduciary with no pressure, there’s no pressure or nobody, you’re not gonna be asked to do anything. We’re truly here to help. We’re truly here to help solve problems. And if there’s no problems to solve, we’re going to be very upfront with you and let you know that we can’t help but when you come in, it’s going to be a complimentary Financial Review at no cost. We’re going to build out a secure income report for you. We’re going to look at all of your guaranteed sources of income, we’re going to determine Do you need more guaranteed income? If you do, we’re going to show you the best ways to build that. We’re also going to run a risk analysis for you. We’re going to show you how to determine what risk you’re taking your portfolio what fees you’re paying, we’re going to show you how to maximize your gains. If you’re not doing that, and we’re going to show you most importantly, how do you reduce the risk. So again, for the next 10 collars, that’s a complimentary Financial Review at no cost if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:33

Brian, thank you so much to the viewing audience at home that number to call once again is 888-382-1298. When we come back from this very short commercial break, we’re going to have some questions and answers about annuities. I know there have been a lot of topic in buzzword lately. So when we come back from this commercial break, I’m going to ask Brian a few questions about annuity. So please stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

Commercial Break – 9:55

How confident are you in your current financial plan? Do you know with certainty how The recent market volatility will affect your future hopes and dreams. How much are you paying in taxes? And how much are you losing to unnecessary high fees? You didn’t work to save this money so that you could spend your time worried in retirement. Now is the time to take charge of your finances so you can feel confident about your future call in during the next 30 minutes of today’s show only to set up an absolutely complimentary no obligation, full blown Financial Review that will result in your own customized written plan. This is a $999 value that we’re giving away complimentary to the first 10 people who respond. We’ll start with a full blown analysis of what you already have, by running a report to untangle how much you are currently paying in fees, how you’re allocated for risk, and what it’s costing to work with your current advisor. Next, we’ll identify your goals. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to go? And who do you help to go there with is your current financial plan set up to get you there without mishap? Let’s design a roadmap to create a financial plan you can follow with confidence, get the piece that so many people are missing from their retirement. Find out how having a written plan can make a difference to your retirement dreams. Call now to schedule your complimentary no obligation full blown Financial Review today.

Cynthia De Fazio – 11:29

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio I’m joined by Brian q president and founder of secure money advisors. And Brian, I want to jump right in and talk to you about annuities. What exactly is an annuity? And are they something that we should have in our portfolio?

Brian Quaranta – 11:46

Yeah, great question. So not everybody should have them. Okay. But you know, there’s a good portion of the population that are probably going to need them and solely for the fact that, you know, 85% of the people retirement today are not retirement pensions. So what an annuity does is it actually provide you with pension like income. So it can provide you with guaranteed income on a monthly basis. And you can purchase these annuities in a way that not only can you get the income for your life, but if you die, the income will pay to your spouse, and if your spouse dies, any money that’s left in the account, will pay out to your family members. So, but the importance of the annuity is this if you purchase them the right way. If the balance of the annuity goes to zero and you’re still living, the insurance company is still going to pay you a guaranteed monthly income. That’s the key. So you can’t ever run out of money if you purchase these things the right way. Okay, there’s a lot of different types out there. And that’s where people get confused, I really want to educate you on how these work because they can be a great tool to use in retirement. The problem with annuities is that if you read about annuities, online, or you listen to any other, you know, financial Talking Heads, everybody’s got an opinion about annuities. And here’s what you need to know. There are not so good ones out there, and there are really good ones out there. So let’s talk about the three and I would suggest that if you can grab a pen and paper right now, take these notes down because this is gonna be very important for you to know number one, the first type of annuity that you can buy is an immediate annuity. Now with an immediate annuity, you’re going to give your money to an insurance company in return, they’re going to give you monthly payments. The downside is if you die, they keep your money, okay and your money and you can’t get your money back out. So even if you were taking income for let’s say, a year from an immediate annuity, and you wanted to get all your money back because you needed to change strategies. With an immediate annuity, you can’t do it. That’s the old way of doing it. Not a lot of people buy those anymore. The next type of annuity that you can purchase is a variable annuity. Now a variable annuity is exactly that it’s still invest your money in the stock market. And so your account balance can go up and down in value. However, you can add some bells and whistles to it, you can buy some features at an additional cost called income riders. Now these income riders can provide you with this guaranteed monthly income. But they’re very, very expensive to purchase on a variable annuity because the insurance company has no idea how the accounts going to perform. So in order for them to provide you with a guaranteed monthly income, they have to charge you a lot of money to be able to do that. The next type of annuity that you can purchase is a fixed annuity. Now a fixed annuity is no different than a bank CD. The only difference is it’s going to be with an insurance company and not a bank. Now, the other big difference is your yield on that annuity is going to be much greater than what you can get at the bank 100 200 300% more a yield than what you would get at the local bank. So for example, a fixed annuity right now depending on what company you work with, and how old you are could pay anywhere from three to 4% guaranteed annually on a year to year basis. So if you got a million dollars and you buy a fixed annuity paying three and a half percent that’s $35,000 a year in gas warranteed income, you’ll never touch your principal. Okay. The next type of annuity is called an indexed annuity. Now this type of annuity is like a fixed annuity, the only difference is rather than you get that fixed rate of return, your return is going to being linked to a stock market index. So if the market goes up, you make money. But if the market goes down, you don’t lose money. And a lot of people like that, because they can still get the return to the market, but not risk their principal. And with those types of annuities, you can add income riders to those also. Now those income riders are much cheaper on those fixed indexed annuities because the insurance company knows what the contractual minimum guarantee would be of that account value because it’s not invested in the market. So they’re really great for income. And they really are designed to provide that monthly income and give the individual another source of income that they can’t ever run out of.

Cynthia De Fazio – 15:51

Brian, let me ask you, why is there sometimes the negative stereotype Why do you have some commercials where they’re actors that say, I hate annuities? And you should, too?

Brian Quaranta – 15:59

Yeah, yeah. Yes. And we know who that person is. And the reason is, is because they’re talking about a very specific type of annuity. And they’re, they’re including everything that would be like saying, you know, every every SUV is bad, or every midsize car is bad. Well, there’s a lot of different SUVs out there. There’s a lot of different midsize cars. So it’s painted with a broad brush, and they’re talking about a very specific annuity when they say, I hate annuities, and you should, too. And so the fact is, I agree with that statement for those specific types of annuities that are not good. And there are those annuities that we should be staying away from. And there’s a very specific type in this case, what they’re referring to, is the variable annuity. Because if you’re going to be buying a variable annuity, investing your money in the market, you could do that a lot cheaper by buying a good portfolio, and and reducing your cost dramatically, and not locking your money up for long periods of time.

Cynthia De Fazio – 16:57

Thank you, Brian. And very, very important and very good information very clear and concise. I wanted to ask you as well about hidden fees and a portfolio. How often do you have clients come in and say, Brian, I’m not sure where my hidden fees are? Can you help me find where those are located?

Brian Quaranta – 17:12

Yeah, well, a lot of people, when they’ll come in, they’ll say, Well, I’m paying my advisor 1%. And I’ll say, well, will you be disappointed? If you find out, you’re paying more? They said, No, I’m telling you, I’m only paying 1%? Well, what they have to realize is not only do you have the advisory fee, but you’ve got the cost of the portfolio managers, and a lot of advisors don’t disclose the fact that they’re still paying the cost of the portfolio or the mutual fund. And typically, those are the operating expenses within the mutual fund or the portfolio. And that can add an additional 50 or 75 basis points. So in fact, somebody that thinks they’re paying 1% might actually be paying 1.75%. So our software will actually help uncover those hidden fees to determine the real cost of somebody’s portfolio.

Cynthia De Fazio – 17:55

Okay, so that would be the best way to uncover if they’re, if they’re overpaying fees, if you will, is the software that you would provide?

Brian Quaranta – 18:00

Yeah. Or were to say to the advisor, am I paying more than the advisory fee? Now we’ve had people call their advisor and ask that question. And the advisor says no. And the reality is, it’s right there on the statement that the clients paying more, so sometimes they don’t even get the real answer from the advisor when they call, unfortunately,

Cynthia De Fazio – 18:16

yeah, that’s unbelievable. To me. When you think about it, how can that impact your wealth over decades? If you’re paying too much in the fee structure?

Brian Quaranta – 18:24

Yeah, well fees, keep in mind fees, reduce your gains, and compound your losses. So you know, if I’m paying 2%, and fees, and my portfolio earn 7%, after I take those fees out, I’m only netting out of 5% rate of return. But let’s say my portfolio loses 7%. Right? Sure, well, that fee is still going to be taken out. But now it compounds the loss. So now not only do I lose the loss of of the market of 7%. But now I have the fee on top of 2%. So now I’m down 9%. Right. So fees again, they reduce your gains and compound your losses. And that’s why you want to know how much you’re actually paying. And I don’t mind somebody paying fees, but they better be getting a good enough return to be justifying the fee that they’re paying. Most people are not getting the return that they should be for the fee that they’re paying.

Cynthia De Fazio – 19:12

Okay. Okay, very important information to know. Well, it’s about time for us to open up the phone lines to the viewing audience one more time, can you tell them what they can expect by being one of your first 10 callers, Brian?

Brian Quaranta – 19:23

yeah, folks, and we’ve been talking about comprehensive financial planning today. And what we’re going to do when you come in for the next 10 callers who call in, we’re going to give you a complimentary Financial Review. Okay. And that’s going to consist of us, giving you a secure income report where we’re going to look at all your guaranteed sources of income, whether or not you need to build more guaranteed income, and we’ll show you the best ways that you can do that. We’ll also run that risk analysis that we keep talking about will show you how much risk you’re taking, how much fees you’re paying, and we’ll show you ways that you can maximize returns and reduce risk. Now, again, that’s for the next 10 callers who call in right now. It’s a comp mentari finance review if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298.

Cynthia De Fazio – 20:09

Brian, thank you so much to our viewers at home, we do have to take a very short commercial break, but that number to call once again is 888-382-1298. We know the phone lines have been busy. So we went ahead and offered an additional phone line to you this week as well. 8883821298 We’ll be right back momentarily. With more questions and answers about planning your perfect retirement please stay tuned.

Commercial Break – 20:33

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Cynthia De Fazio – 22:00

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Q. He’s president and founder of secure money advisors. And Brian, thank you for shedding so much light on the mystery of annuities because I know it can be so confusing for so many people, especially if you’re seeing a commercial that says just hate him or hate him. I hate him. I hate him. We should all. So thank you for shedding light on that. Absolutely. So we did have some questions that come in. And I love this because we know that the viewers are really paying attention and they’re taking notes. And when the phones light up, sometimes they do leave questions for us. So we’ve had a couple that we’ve missed in prior weeks. I hope it’s okay with you if I’m going to jump in and kind of go back a little bit so everyone has a chance to have their question answered. So we’re talking a little bit about smart risk and smart safe, if you will. Can you explain today’s topic more? What is smart risk and smart safe? Brian, I’m very confused. I’d like to know the difference between the two. What advice can you can What can you give me?

Brian Quaranta – 22:56

Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, smart risk would be an example of reducing risk. So let me explain. So if I’m buying a traditional retail mutual fund portfolio, and you know if I just even go back 20 years ago when I got into the business and and the first thing that I was taught when I got into business was something called asset allocation. And basically, the way that asset allocation worked is if somebody came in with $100,000, they would tell us to take that $100,000 and split it up into maybe four or five different mutual funds in different asset classes. And so maybe you’d buy some large caps and mid caps and small caps, some technology, some international, and the idea behind diversifying that in different asset classes is you don’t ever know what asset class is going to be performing better than the other. So by taking that $100,000 and putting a little bit of money in each one, one might be going up, one might be going down, one might be going sideways, but because you have a diversified in these different asset classes, it should smooth out volatility. Now the biggest thing anxiety with anybody when they invest your money in the market is if the market goes down, how much money are you going to lose? Are you going to lose 10% 15% 20 25% 50% with every retail mutual fund portfolio out there, your loss is unknown, your loss is unknown. And that’s a very scary with your five years from retirement or in retirement because mitigation of risk is key. So smart risk is when we use technology to set limits to how much we can lose. So for example, we can set portfolios up that if we don’t want the loss to be more than five or more than seven or more than 10, we can set the portfolio up so that the drawdown or how much the portfolio will lose. We’ll stop at that number. So if I have somebody that doesn’t want to lose more than 10%, we can stop the loss there and through that the power of technology through algorithms, the portfolio will being moved between asset classes so quickly because of software faster than any human being could ever do it that even if the markets are going down, the algorithm will sweep that money out and protect it to limit how much it will lose. That’s Smart Investing today. And every professional investor out there never invest their money without knowing what their downside is the only people that invest their money, not knowing what their potential loss is going to be, is the average investor. And the average investor is the only one that does that.

Cynthia De Fazio – 25:31

Wow. So again, people have to come in to really sit with you to talk with you to understand we’ll show them how to do all that.

Brian Quaranta – 25:37

Yes, absolutely. This is the stuff they need to know. Yeah, this is the stuff they need to know, this is how they’re going to compete in a very dynamic marketplace today.

Cynthia De Fazio – 25:45

Absolutely. You have to be ahead of the curve. So I want to ask you a question. We’ve had a lot of viewers call in about, you know, Brian, what do you suggest when we have investments that lose money? Should I stay the course? Should I take another look at where I’m at with my investments? Should I sell?

Brian Quaranta – 26:02

Should I sell? Well, keep in mind, you don’t have to make your money back the same way you lost it. Okay? Right. So making changes is always worth looking at. Because just because you lost money doesn’t mean you just sit there and wait for that money to come back. Because you can move that money to other places and make that money back much faster. Okay, right. So so you don’t have to make your money back the same way that you lost it. That’s my message to folks out there. And that’s why when you come in to secure money advisors, we’re going to walk you through this whole process. This is why we put together this comprehensive financial planning checklist and why we’re going to offer it to the next 10 callers, a complimentary Financial Review, we’re going to show you the best ways to not only take risk with your money, but also how to secure your money and build work income if you were to need it. So for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to provide you a complimentary Financial Review. And in that complimentary Financial Review, we’re going to run multiple reports for you. We’re going to run a secure income report, we’re going to look at all your guaranteed sources of income, could we maximize some of those income sources? For example, if you’re not taking Social Security yet, how can we use some strategies that might be able to maximize that Social Security. If you need more guaranteed income, we’ll show you how to build that also, we’ll also do the risk analysis for you. That’ll show you what risk you’re taking. And we’ll show you how to potentially maximize your gains and reduce your risk. But most importantly, we’ll show you how much you’re paying and fees, remember fees, reduce your gains and compound your losses. So again, for the next 10 callers. That’s a complimentary Financial Review at no cost to you if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:46

And thank you so much to our viewing audience at home. Thank you so much for spending time with us this morning. We look forward to having you with us. We hope you have a very safe, happy, healthy and blessed week ahead. We’ll see you soon.