Retirement You TV: Episode 15

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Video Transcript

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:20

Welcome to retirement You TV My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, how are you? I’m doing great. Good to see you. We’re getting closer and closer. It’s funny is I would bet the viewers across the state right now are watching every week going. I’m gonna put $5 she’s gonna say there’s massive bets going on. And the crazy thing is, my last name is Italian. Yeah. And if you put it all together, it’s Cynthia pencarrow de Fazio which has been completely scattered. Yeah. So yes, Brian.

Brian Quaranta – 00:58

Brian, I know. I know. It’s a tough one. It’s a tough one. You know, there’s certain things in life, you know, life. There’s a I can’t I can’t think of a right now. But there are certain words that still give me trouble to this day. Right. And sometimes it just happens. You go, I don’t know why this doesn’t come out. Right. I’m gonna say my seat. That is Brian. q. q. q. Well, Brian, Q, how have you been? I’ve been great. Yeah. Thank you very much. Very busy. Yeah. You know, very, very busy considering what’s going on in this country right now. With us still kind of being shut down a little bit. But but for the most part, Yeah, super busy.

Cynthia De Fazio – 01:33

Well, is we had a staggering number of phone calls last week. Yeah. So we talked about that. So we actually had offered 10 complimentary spots, then. Yeah, we? Yeah, those were gone. Yes. So then people were calling in, they’re saying, How do I get on the waitlist. So that tells you there’s a ton of people right now that definitely need to have a retirement plan in place? Well, it

Brian Quaranta – 01:52

just shows you how many people are underserved out there right now and that are not getting good advice. You know, what I asked folks, you know, if they’re currently working with an advisor, they’ll tell me, yes. But you know, I haven’t seen this advisor in a couple years, or we haven’t talked about retirement planning stuff. Like when I should collect my Social Security, you know, how to how to properly take my pension options, how to reduce taxes, what do I do about health care if I want to retire before the age of 65, and I can’t get on Medicare. So I hear all kinds of things. And I think what’s happening is people are realizing that there is more of a comprehensive approach to planning than what they currently have. Sure, and people are seeking a second opinion. And they’re realizing that they can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave them the first opinion, right. And it’s important that they go to a fiduciary, someone that focuses on planning, a comprehensive, firm, like, like secure money advisors, and people that they feel welcome, right, because that’s the one thing secure money advisors has done really well is, you know, our doors are open anybody. We’re here to help. We want to be a resource to the community. And we just want to help people make good decisions in a very complicated area of their life, especially when there’s a lot of noise in the marketplace. Sure. Now, Google can become a great help but can become a great enemies too.

Cynthia De Fazio – 03:23

I know I know, it’s like, right, I totally agree with that. So let’s talk a little bit about maybe the last person that came into that chose to work with you. Let’s talk about that experience. Why did they choose you, Brian over let’s say, another advisor?

Brian Quaranta – 03:36

That’s a great question. That’s a really great question. And it happens a lot. And I think here’s why. Number one, I think it’s the thoroughness that that we approach the process with, okay, we don’t leave any stone unturned. And and so and I think people sense that. And so and we’ve got a very specific process that we go through, and we make them part of that process. Right, we’re not dictating to them, what they need to do. We’re working side by side with them as a team. And we’re making these decisions together. Okay. And along the way, we’re educating them. We’re not just telling them, we’re educating them, which is so important, which, right, so it puts them back in the driver’s seat. Sure, they have a co pilot. Yeah. Right. You know, and, and we’re there to assist. And we’re there to be advisors, we’re there to be the financial quarterback, if you will. But at the end of the day, where people feel a level of comfort with us, is we talk about how we’re going to get from point A to point B, we just don’t tell them that they need to do this. We show them why and we help them understand why.

Cynthia De Fazio – 04:48

Which is so important. And we’ve talked about that in the past that not only you know, having good communication, that’s the solid foundation of any good relationship, right is it’s a great point. Definitely the communication But also approaching retirement or anything that you’re doing in life with a very easy to follow, easy to understand plan. And that’s also what you specialize in, you make it very simple that it doesn’t matter where someone’s at in their life. They can come in, they can sit with you, and they leave your office knowing that they have peace of mind from working with you. And I’ve heard this over and over from people that have come into the office. And it’s one thing that I definitely want to touch on Brian, because it’s not only your it’s not your compassion so much, because we know that you are so compassionate. It’s also the fact that you’re such an educator at heart. You really are.

Brian Quaranta – 05:34

Yeah, well, Ilike to be educated on certain issues. Yeah, right. If I’m making a big decision in my life, you know, in an area that I don’t specialize in, I want the individual that’s assisting me to help me understand why, right, and when I understand I make a better decision. Sure. And so that takes a little bit more time. There’s a patient process that goes with that. Yeah, but it’s worth it in the end. Yeah. And to your point earlier, good. Communication is key. Yeah. And I always tell my clients, not everything that I’m going to share with you, you may not like, and I’m going to challenge your beliefs on what you’ve been taught about money. But I’m challenging those in a good way to help you understand how to get the maximum benefit from your wealth, right, we want to maximize your wealth as much as we can. And sometimes, we’re using antiquated technology to try to get there. But people just don’t know what they don’t know. Sure. In the world we live in today. There’s great ways out there that most people don’t even know about to maximize their overall wealth. And so our job is to have that open communication to where somebody feels comfortable to say, Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure if I like that idea. And then we can explore why is it a logical reason of why isn’t an emotional reason of why, let’s look at the facts. Let’s look at the statistics, right, and let’s make decisions that are based around best practice.

Cynthia De Fazio – 07:08

Absolutely. Brian, let me ask you a question. Are you seeing people in the office now? Or is it still a lot of Zoom? What are your What are you seeing right now with your practice,

Brian Quaranta – 07:16

we find a lot of people are coming in, a lot of people really, when it comes to their money, they really want to meet the people that are going to be helping them. So initially, sometimes, you know, might start with a phone call, you know, especially early on in the whole process, it started a lot with phone calls. Nowadays, people are coming in through the whole process. But still every once in a while, if they’re a little ways away, we can accomplish quite a bit with a 15 or 20 minute phone call, just to even see if we’re a good fit, because it’s got to be a good fit for them. But it also has to be a good fit for us. Sure. And we understand that we can’t be all things to all people, you know, what we do is very specific, we work with retirees 55 and older. And so we’re dealing with those issues that those individuals are dealing with every single day. And there are certain processes and systems built around those types of things that 55 and older are dealing with, to handle them in the best way that we can to get the maximum benefit.

Cynthia De Fazio – 08:13

Absolutely. Well, 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?

Brian Quaranta – 08:19

Absolutely. And folks don’t procrastinate on this. Take advantage of this too many people kick the can down the road, and never make change. When you come to secure money advisors. It’s about helping you make change. People don’t come to secure money advisors to just kick the tires, they come to make change and improve their situations. And we do that by working with you to build a plan. And so for the next 10 callers who call in right now, we’re going to give you a complimentary Financial Review. And it’s going to determine whether or not you’re in need of full blown Financial Review. And we’re going to do this by working side by side with you. And we’re going to go through five key areas when we work together. One is income, investments, taxes, health care, and legacy. And we’re going to do this at no cost for you. So again, for the next 10 callers who call in right now. The number is 1-888-382-1298. Again, that’s 18883821298. That’s a complimentary Financial Review at no cost to you.

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:19

Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home. The phone lines are once again open and Brian, they’re already lining up. The number to call is 888-382-1298. We know you have a lot of questions about planning your perfect retirement. Ryan Q has the answers for you. Again, the number to call is 888-382-1298. We’ll be right back after this very short commercial break.

Commercial Break – 9:42

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 it’s 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 hope 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 – 11:16

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta he is president and founder of secure money advisors.

Brian Quaranta – 11:25

I thought you were getting at this time, oh my gosh, someone just made $5 you know, someone somewhere just made $5. You might have to donate somebody savored charity for every time. Because I’m just gonna go with Brian. Oh, my gosh, it’s so funny.

Cynthia De Fazio – 11:45

No, I lost my train of thought totally. No, I didn’t I just I wanted to talk a little bit more, you tapped in just a little bit in the prior segment about being a fiduciary if someone is in the viewing audience today, and they don’t know what that means, or how that would benefit them for retirement. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Brian?

Brian Quaranta – 12:02

Yeah, if fiduciary is a person or an organization that has to put their clients best interest, first before their own, meaning they have to do what’s right for the client. And they’re bound legally and ethically by that. So you know, at secure money advisors, we are a fiduciary. And so we work for our client, we don’t work for anybody else, but our client. And that’s why we’re able to help the client understand their situation, and then shop the market for what’s going to be best for them.

Cynthia De Fazio – 12:34

Okay, perfect. And it’s so important to know, because I get so confused when I hear the terms, you know, obviously broker fiduciary, you want someone that’s a fiduciary that definitely puts your interests first was confusing to me is that some people can wear both hats. They can’t and it depends on who they’re talking to, and how that changes. Can we talk just a little bit about that? Because the viewing audience may not understand that because I’m still trying to understand that process. How can you wear both hats?

Brian Quaranta – 12:58

Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s a very unique thing to wear both hats because, you know, if somebody, somebody can be a broker and a fiduciary at the same time, but if they’re, you know, if they’re engaging in certain transactions for you, they might be engaging as the broker which means they have to do what’s suitable, not what is legally or ethically, in your best interest the company, they work for suitable based on suitability guidelines for an individual that might meet that risk profile, or that age group, right? Which is, which is different. Because, you know, somebody could say, well, I want to do this with my money. And I see this a lot when people come in, that have been working with brokers, and they’ll tell me, well, I asked them that I told him, I didn’t want to lose any money. But yet, when I look at the portfolio, the portfolio is is is is a moderate conservative portfolio, but it still has risk associated with it. Well, the broker actually did what was suitable for them based on their risk profile and their age, but they didn’t comply with what the client had asked to them, meaning they didn’t do what was in the clients best interest by placing them in a place where the client could not lose any money. Okay, so it’s a it’s a little bit of a fuzzy and a gray area. But what people need to know is that if you do work with a fiduciary, we are bound, legally and ethically to do what’s in your best interest. And we work from that place solely.

Cynthia De Fazio -14:20

Yeah. And that is so important to know, because obviously, you want someone especially in the retirement years to be working for what your best interest is so bright and everything

Brian Quaranta – 14:29

and the whole industry needs to go that direction. My gosh, the whole industry needs to go that direction. Because, you know, the industry, the industry, you know, just like every industry, you know, there’s bad actors in the industry and people have had horrible experiences, you know, working with financial advisors and we hear those experiences sometimes and they’re and they’re tough to hear because it gives the whole industry a black guy yeah, you know, you we want to get to a point to where, you know, an advisor is a trusted individual and the end the individual knows That no matter where they go, they’re going to get good advice. Sure. And I think right now, it’s, you know, this is why people want to interview more than one planning firm. And and they get a sense, you know, your, your intuition tends to lead you in the right direction in life. And, and that’s important, but I just hope to see the whole industry change and move in that direction. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of lobbyists, because there’s a lot of money with not having to be a fiduciary, you know, there’s a lot of money on that brokerage side of the business where they don’t have to comply with those laws. So unfortunately, just like anything in life, there’s no big money and lobbyists that, you know, try to make that not happen. Yeah. So,

Cynthia De Fazio -15:43

you also mentioned risk. So let me ask you, how important is it for someone to understand what their risk tolerance is and what they’re currently taking? Are you ever meeting with clients that come in, and they sit with you with their plan, and they are shocked to know that they’re taking significantly more risk than what they even imagined?

Brian Quaranta – 15:59

That’s the majority of everybody that comes in really? Yeah. And typically, it’s because, you know, they’re in some type of employer sponsored plan. Okay. And and there’s very limited options within those plans. And so they’re shocked to see how much risk they’re taking, especially when they’re very, very close to retirement. Yeah. And what’s interesting is that, you know, what’s really kind of become the new way of allocating a plan, especially an employer plan is not too long ago, they came up with these target date funds, where if you were retiring in 2025, you would pick the target date 2025 fund, or if you were retiring in 2020, you would pick the target date? 2020. Yeah. And basically, the way that that would work is that for every year that you would get closer to that date, right. So if I chose a 2025 target fund, my allocation model is going to be a little bit more aggressive in 2020. It’s going to get more conservative in 2021, more conservative in 2022, more conservative in 2023. You follow me apps to the point to where it gets to that date, because it’s assuming that that individuals retiring on that date. Okay. Now, here’s what’s interesting about those. We had people, many people that come in, and we saw a lot at the beginning of the year, especially when we had the big downturn in March. You know, when the pandemic had hit Sure, we saw people that had 2020, target date retirement funds that were down over 20%. Now explain that to me, because a retiree can’t afford to lose 20%. No, we were very fortunate that the market rebounded as quickly as it did, yeah. But the next time it might not rebound as quickly. And for every dollar you lose, you have to earn more to get back. Yeah, people don’t realize that now, if you lose 20%, I think you got to do somewhere around 26% to get back to even back to even and if you’re investing in an employer sponsored plan, a lot of people are misled by how well that plan is doing. Because they’re what they’re not taking into account. Cynthia, is that the posits were the contributions that they’re making on a monthly basis, and what their employer is making. So they’ll say, Well, my my account recovered pretty quickly. Well, not if you weren’t putting money in, right, if the money that you were putting in help the recovery, but when you retire, remember, there’s going to be no money going in, right? So when you take a loss, it’s big, because you’re not buying in to offset those losses. Wow.

Cynthia De Fazio – 18:19

Yeah. Well, Brian, we’re gonna open up the phone lines for the second time this week. So to the viewing audience at home, we have just learned that there are four spots available for the complimentary consultation, you don’t want to miss the final four spots. The number to call once again is 888-382-1298. We know you have a lot of questions about planning your perfect retirement, it should not be a stressful process. Brian can make it easy for you and design a plan that actually suits you fits your needs and will weather any storm again, there are four opportunities left this week, the number to call is 888-382-1298. We’ll be right back after this very short commercial break.

Commercial Break – 18:58

As a good saver, you’ve been putting away money during your working years. studies find that the biggest fear of retirees is running out of money. market volatility isn’t just the downward movement of stock prices. It’s the size and frequency of change. The more dramatic the ups and downs, the higher the volatility. This can put savers who are newly retired or a few years away from being retired at greater risk. today’s generation of retirees is not receiving traditional pensions as our parents or grandparents did. Instead, we have retirement accounts such as 401, K’s or 403 B’s. These accounts typically expose your money to market risk. The last thing you want right before retirement is to lose a portion of the money you need for income. But how do you turn these accounts into a retirement income? Is it safe to keep all your retirement money sitting in the stock market? The last thing you want is to lose a portion of the money you need for income due to market loss. By working with a financial professional. You can Learn how to turn a portion of your savings into an income stream for life and income for the life of your spouse if you’re married, we all have moments in our lives when we wish we had taken action sooner. Don’t let procrastination rain on your retirement parade. Act now before it’s too late. Please call our office to set up your no cost no obligation retirement income review

20:20
today.

Cynthia De Fazio – 20:25

Welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Q. And Brian is the president and founder of secure money.

Brian Quaranta – 20:35

Simple view and I love it. I love it. That’s good.

Cynthia De Fazio – 20:41

So I want to talk a little bit about a retirement plan. Let’s talk about the components like what fits into place, Brian, if you will, for forming that puzzle for someone. What are the pieces?

Brian Quaranta – 20:48

Well, first, and most importantly, is your cash flow plan. Because obviously, we can’t get through life without having monthly income, right? So it all starts with first building out your cash flow plan. And what that consists of is taking all of your sources of income. Okay, and putting that into a model so that you can see your total gross income. Okay. And then we have to of course minus out taxes. All right, sure. And then from there, we have to minus our expenses. And then we see how much is left over. If there’s a positive number left over, that’s good. If there’s a negative, then we have an a, an income shortfall. Okay? And that’s really where the planning would start. Because now what that’s telling us is that, based on taxes and expenses, you don’t have enough income from the guaranteed sources. Now, guaranteed sources might be social security, pensions, rental income things along those lines, okay. So if there’s not enough there, after you pay taxes and expenses, now we know that we’re going to need to generate some income from the investments themselves. Okay. From there, what we have to do is we also have to look at what if scenarios, so if you’re a married couple, what if Bob dies first? Yeah, right? What’s going to be the drop in income? Or how much money are we going to lose in social security? How much money could we potentially lose in pension benefits? And then we have to see what would happen if Sally died, right. So what happens if Bob dies, what happens to Sally dies, we want to see the drop in income, that drop in income is going to start to tell us what to do with the rest of the monies? Meaning, does it mean that we should keep the insurance policies that we have a lot of people have life insurance policies that they’ve been paying on for a long time? And when they reach retirement, they think to themselves? Well, maybe I don’t need to pay for this anymore? Maybe I don’t need it anymore. I hear that a lot. Well, you can’t make that decision. Until you look at that. What if scenario with your cash flow? Yeah. Now that starts to lead into Okay, well, do I keep those policies? Do I get rid of them? Do I need to increase the amount that I have? Also, how much income Do we need to generate from the investments? Now that tells us what rate of return Do we need to get on the investments? Yeah, right. How much money could we pull from the investments without running out of money? Okay, okay. If there is a big market loss, what’s that going to look like if we have to take income out. So first is cash flow. Okay. The second is what we call your withdrawal model, your withdrawal model basically takes a look at all of your assets, and we start to apply the withdrawals that need to come out on a monthly basis to get you the income that you need. And we need to see what the impact of those withdrawals are going to be okay. But from there, you can do what if scenarios on that you can say, what happens if I have a health event, and I need 50,000 or $100,000 more to pay for a health event, like if my spouse has a stroke, and we have to pay a nursing home, and we don’t have any type of insurance that’s going to cover it. These are all things that really start to build out the decision making process of what to do with what you have, or what you further need to think about because of the risk associated with these what if scenarios.

Cynthia De Fazio – 24:05

Brian, is there one thing that people fail to plan for more than anything else to people? Are they shocked when you hear no, you should be factoring in long term care? Is that something that they’re surprised about?

Brian Quaranta – 24:15

Yeah, you know, I’m not a big fan of long term care. But you know, there’s, there’s only a couple ways that you can approach that situation. Okay, you can either insure it completely by buying a policy, which are very expensive, and most people don’t qualify for them because they’re not healthy enough to get it. Okay. Number two, they could co insure it, right? where they could, you know, they could buy a little bit of a policy, right, or they can just completely self insure self insure with just being we utilize their own assets to pay for the cost of care. But yeah, I mean, that’s those are conversations that we need to have, because we know that the statistics, the statistics say that if you’re 65 and older and you’re married, there’s a 50% chance that one of you’re going to a nursing home, so if you’re a man Every couple watching this, you can look at each other and figure out which one’s going into nursing. If that’s what this does. Yeah, great question.

Cynthia De Fazio – 25:09

Oh, absolutely. Well, if someone is in the viewing audience today, Brian, and let’s say they’re 10 years away from retirement, what should they be doing right now?

Brian Quaranta – 25:17

Well, if you’re 10 years away from retirement, really the earlier you start planning, the better, because let’s talk about taxes for a moment. Yeah, right. We talk about this a lot. Do we think taxes are going up or down in the future? So if I were to ask you that, what would you say up or down, I’m gonna go with up, most people will say that, and I’m in agreement with that. So if you’re 10 years out from retirement, you can do some really great tax planning. And we’ve got a limited amount of time to do this tax planning, because tax rates are really great right now. And you could convert your taxable money into tax free money by doing a Roth conversion, see putting money into a Roth IRA, there’s limitations. Yeah, you there’s an unlimited amount that you can convert, so you can convert this money and go to tax free money, and know that every dime that you take out in the future is 100%. Tax Free to you. That’s fantastic. Fantastic, that helps increase your cash flow in retirement.

Cynthia De Fazio – 26:06

Okay. What are your thoughts on paying down debt before retirement?

Brian Quaranta – 26:10

Always a good thing to look at, right? So some strategies that might help and that is, you know, some people say, well, when should I click my social security? Well, if you’ve got a big mortgage left, and you’re going to need to work for a while, turning your social security on at your full retirement age could actually help you pay down a large amount of debt very quickly, because of your full retirement age. Social Security doesn’t penalize you for making money while you’re working. So you could have all this work income coming in. Right? And then on top of that, you could have the essential security money coming in, and you could use a social security money to pay down the mortgage and be debt free by the time that you retire.

Cynthia De Fazio – 26:46

Wow, that’s fantastic. Yeah. Well, Brian, we have only a little over a minute left in the show a little over a minute. Yes, a little bit more of what they can receive. I think we might have just a couple spots left.

Brian Quaranta – 26:55

Yeah, absolutely, folks, and again, for the next 10 callers. And as Cynthia said, there’s only a few spots left. I think there’s only about two spots left. So you can’t procrastinate on this don’t kick the can down the road. Too many people do that. We know that this can be an intimidating process. But don’t let it intimidate you. When you come in. We’re going to determine whether or not you’re in need of a full blown financial plan. But we’re going to do a complimentary we’re going to sit side by side with you work together as a team to help you really think through these complicated issues and help you map out a plan. So again, for the next 10 callers who call in right now. It’s a complimentary Financial Review at no cost to you and the phone number is 1-888-382-1298 Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:38

Brian, thank you so much for your time again this week to the viewing audience at home. The phone lines are now open. I see them lining up to get those final spots. The number to call is 888-382-1298. Thank you for spending time with us again this week. We hope you have a great week ahead. Be safe, be happy, be blessed and we will see you soon.