To see a full schedule of our TV airtimes, please click here.
Video Transcript
Sarah Peterson – 00:21
Hello, and welcome to retirement You TV. I’m Sara Peterson. I’m here with Bryan. Bryan Bryan Quaranta. This is live TV. This is what happens after lunch.
Brian Quaranta – 00:32
Yeah, that’s okay. Because you know, you’ve got my first name wrong. Cynthia’s gotten my last name wrong forever. Somebody is you know?
Sarah Peterson – 00:43
Oh, all right. Well, Brian is the founder and president of secure money advisors. And we’re here to talk about the importance of retirement planning. Yeah. And it’s a big topic so we have a lot to talk about. Yes. huge topic. Yeah. Brian, talk to me a little bit about how you got started in this business before we even talk about anything else?
Brian Quaranta – 00:58
Yeah, it’s actually a very interesting story. I mean, you know, I didn’t really think I was going to get into the financial industry, right. So I’m going to college playing football at Pittsburgh. And, you know, I graduate and I’m thinking that maybe I’m gonna go home to New Jersey, I’m not really sure what I want to do. And a friend says to me, you know, you need to come to this firm and check out what’s happening. And I went down to a big, firm, and Pittsburgh and I met with the folks there, and I liked what I saw. And I liked what I heard. And I had some really good success right out of the gates. The problem was that the year that I got started was right at the end of 1999. So most people know what happened at the end of 1999, we had the tech bubble burst. And then we had 2000 2001 2002, all the all that happened was the markets were to go down, right. And every time I turned around, people were calling into the firm. And when you first get started in this business, you know, you don’t get to start advising people right away, they bring you in, you get licensed and of course, as a young guy, you’re kind of excited about being licensed. And, and they say, well, we’re gonna make you what they call a junior advisor, which is really just kind of a nice term for Hey, kid. Can you copy these statements for me? Can you come in as meeting and take notes, but it really is also a kid, you’re going to take all my phone calls. And so when the market started to drop, the phones were ringing off the hook. Well, the financial advisors typically will hide under their desk when the when the markets are going down. And all the junior advisors are there to take the phone calls. And it actually was something really great that happened in my career Early on, because it really made me very passionate about the work that we do today. And I didn’t come from a wealthy family. My mom and dad worked very, very hard for their money. Do you remember my GM rewards? Do you remember that? department store Montgomery Ward’s? Was it? No. So it was a big catalog store, there was a doll being sold back in the 80s called the cabbage patch doll. Most people remember that I understood speaking my language. So so the cabbage patch doll was being sold. I remember working in my dad’s store, and it was just super busy with people come in and getting this Cabbage Patch doll. But, you know, my growing up, my parents were doing pretty well with the store. And then overnight, literally, our lives changed because Montgomery Ward filed for bankruptcy. So when I got into the financial industry, you know, I think about my mom and dad who really worked very hard to rebuild from a very catastrophic event that took place. So when I’m taking these phone calls from people that are losing money, it’s impacting me, because of what I experienced as a kid growing up, where money was tight. And you know, there wasn’t ever enough. And if anybody’s ever gone through, you know, financial challenges, you know, what it’s like to, you know, struggle on a day to day basis, my dad worked three jobs to kind of keep things together. And so when we were when we were, you know, I was working at the firm, that phone calls were coming in, and I took a phone call from a gentleman that truly changed my life forever. And it’s the reason I do the type of planning I do today. He called in, he says, I want out of the market. And I said, Okay, you know, I don’t know what to say, I’m maybe two years into this thing. I’m just a junior advisor. Right. So what do I do? I say, Well, you know, Sam, I said, let me go check, you know, talk to your advisor, I go back to the advisor, and I let him know about the situation. And he says to me, Brian, he says, You need to get back on the phone with him and let him know that everything’s gonna be okay. You need to let them know that it’s just a paper loss. Now, most people have probably heard it’s a paper loss, right? I mean, that’s usually the common thing you hear. Money is good. Yeah, you’re right. It’s a paper loss. And then the next thing he told me to tell the guy was tell him not to worry about anything, just remind them to hang in there. And then he’s in it for the long haul. And most people listening will know that typically, if you’re losing money, your adviser will tell you don’t worry about it. Hang in there. You’re in it for the long haul. Well, you know, there’s some truth to that. But as you get older, the question is, when’s the long haul ever going to end? And of course, as you get older and into retirement, the question is, do you really have the time to wait for that market recovery? So I go back to the phone, and I pick it up and I said, Sam, I said, I don’t want you to worry about anything. I want I want to remind you, this is just a paper loss. It’s just a little hiccup, just a little obstacle. And remember, you’re in it for the long haul. And he said to me, Brian, I’m 75 years old, how much damn long do you think I got left? And so I said, You know what, he’s 100%. Right? He couldn’t afford to lose that money. And so I said, you know what this isn’t, I don’t want to do this. This is gambling with people’s money. And it really got me passionate about thinking about how I wanted to continue on my career, because that was not the way I wanted to continue. Because you’re literally rolling the dice what people’s money. And this is 3040 years worth of sacrifice, that you’re just risk in the market, it’s just not the appropriate way to plan for retirement. So I found a really great mentor that was running a great financial practice out of Sydney, Ohio. And I went down and I saw him and he said, Brian, the best thing that you can do for your career is to understand the distribution phase of retirement planning, and being filled, right think Well, what’s the distribution phase, the distribution phase is when we go from accumulation when we’re building that pot of money, to when now we have to distribute that pot of money, because the number one concern for retirees today is that most of them are not retiring with pensions. So the only source of income they’re going to have for a lot of people Matter of fact, AARP says, about 85 to 90%, are only going to have social security. That’s amazing. And social security was designed to only cover about 40% of your income
Sarah Peterson – 06:24
So much simpler for our parents who just had pensions and yes, to think about all these other products and how to make the ends meet.
Brian Quaranta – 06:30
Absolutely, this is why we have retirement parties, you go back 30, 40 years ago, right? retirement was simple. You when you retired, you got your Social Security check, you knew the date, you were gonna retire, you knew you’re gonna get gold watch, and you knew people were gonna visit you on your retirement day, right, there was going to be a whole party for you. And people didn’t even have to take risk with the money they saved back then. Because all they had to do was go out to the local banks. And at that time, what they were buying at the local banks were CDs. And most people know that at that time, CD rates were at like 15 16%, I remember getting a CD with my grandfather. Yeah. And I think even back then, I don’t know if you remember this, but back, then they would give you like a Tupperware or they would give you a toaster at the bank, they would open a checking account or a CD or whatever, it wasn’t even that. So retirement was so simple, because you retired, you got your Social Security check, you got your pension. And if people needed additional income above and beyond what they were getting in Social Security, they would just generate income off of the CD. So if you had $100,000, in extra money laying around, you go to the bank and you get a CD paying 15%, that’s $15,000 a year in additional income, that you’re not taking any risk with the principal. So obviously, you can’t do that today. And retirement planning has changed so much. And the methods and strategies that get people to retirement are not the same methods and strategies that get you through retirement. And those are the things that we teach people that you cannot use the same techniques during your accumulation years as you need to in your distribution years. And but this is why I’ve created the right track Retirement System, because the right track Retirement System is really all about helping you determine whether or not you’re on the right track. And typically what I hear from folks when they come to the office is they’ll say, you know, Brian, I don’t know the best time to collect my Social Security. Well, what’s the best time for me to do that? Or they’ll say to me, you know, I’m going to need additional income. And my only investment I have right now is my 401k. And that 401k is invested for accumulation, it’s got risk to it can go up and down in value, they say, How am I going to generate income from this because I’m concerned, if I start taking money out of this, I’m going to run out of money before I die. So the right track Retirement System is going to address five key areas for you. It’s going to go through your income, it’s going to go through your taxes, it’s going to go through your investments, your health care strategy, and also your legacy strategy. So for the next 10 callers who call in right now, we’re actually going to give this away complimentary at no cost. And if you call 1883821298. Now, I’ve seen other people charge up to $1,000 or more for similar features or offers. But this is completely complimentary to you. But you have to take action. You can’t kick the can down the road. This is something you cannot procrastinate with. Remember, retirement is not a dress rehearsal. We don’t get a second chance at this. So you have to get it right from day one. Call 1883821298 and schedule your complimentary meeting today.
Sarah Peterson – 09:24
This is wonderful. Ryan, when we get back from commercial break, we have to take a short break. But then I really would love for you to go through the steps of the right track retirement system really explained to us how all of this is going to work. Yeah, yeah, very important. We’ll be back in a few.
Commercial Break – 9:37:00 AM
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 finance 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.
Sarah Peterson – 11:12
Hello, and welcome to retire you today. I’m Sarah Peterson and I’m here with Brian Quaranta. I got it. We are talking all things retirement planning. And we just have too much to talk about No, we’re not going to get through it all. But let’s start with your right track Retirement System. Yeah, how does this work
Brian Quaranta – 11:30
was 21 years worth of experience really that have led us to getting it perfectly dialed in for people see, most of what my industry does is make things way too confusing. And they make retirement planning more difficult than what it needs to be. And it actually can be a very simple, easy to understand process. But you have to have somebody that’s going to help you guide you through that process to give you the clarity and peace of mind that you deserve. And I’ve come up with the five key areas that everybody has to make sure that they’ve got the eyes dotted and T crossed with. And we are talking about at the end of the last segment, which was your income, your taxes, your investments, your health care plan, and then your legacy plan. And most people miss the legacy plan. And what I mean by that is, when the good Lord decides to take your home, I promise you, if you’re not careful, the IRS will become the biggest beneficiary of your money and not the people that you love and want it to go to.
Sarah Peterson – 12:26
And this can be some of the saddest stories that I’ve heard. I mean, just Oh, yeah. And so people who aren’t planning for that, and what do we leave behind to those people that we love?
Brian Quaranta – 12:36
Yeah. And I think that tax bill, right, a big fat tax bill. And you know, and I don’t think it’s, I don’t think people, you know, plan on having that happen, right. It’s just the failure to plan. And they just don’t know any better. Because, you know, if you look at even the secure act that was signed into law in 2019, it changed the way that you can inherit money from your family members, especially when it comes to IRA accounts. You know, there was a great article in Money Magazine. You know, talking about inherited IRAs. And inherited IRAs is a way for somebody to be able to inherit money from a retirement account from mom or dad’s retirement account, brothers sisters retirement account doesn’t matter, without them having to pay taxes on it. But this article in Money Magazine talked about a son that found out he was a sole beneficiary to his father’s retirement account at work, half a million dollar account. So the son calls to financial institution, financial institution says just send us a death certificate, you’re the primary beneficiary fill out these forms and send it to us. So the son does that. And the company sends them a check for $500,000.03 weeks later, he gets a 1099 in the mail. Right. So now, everybody knows what a 1099 is. That means you owe taxes now on $500,000. But it gets worse for him. Because not only does he have to pay the taxes on the 500,000. But he has to add that to his income that he’s making on top of that. So, they said he was making about $100,000 a year in income. And so now he’s going to pay taxes on $600,000. Anyway, the article goes on to say that over $240,000 winds up being paid out in taxes. So if you think about that, almost half of his dad’s retirement account, went to the IRS versus him How can we avoid that happening? Yeah, through the inherited IRA, and the inherited IRA is what most people don’t know about. And this is why it’s so important to have a written plan, right? Because with a written plan, when we go through all of the five key areas that we talk about, and we get to that legacy planning part, this is where we talk about how to handle that death. And we literally give them a written plan of what to do turn by turn directions. So those mistakes are made. But the IRS says as long as that money goes into an inherited IRA, the family members do not have to pay taxes on it. The mistake that people make is they think they can roll it to their IRA or their retirement account. And you can’t do that. The minute that happens. It’s done. It’s over. Game over. Remember, remember when we actually had film and cameras, right? Yeah. You know, or even just little disposable ones, right? Yeah, you know what would happen? If you opened up the back, the whole roll would be exposed. And it would be garbage, you’d lose every picture you had on there, right? And that’s exactly what happens with these IRA accounts. Once it’s done. You can’t reverse it. That’s the problem. And so when people get it wrong, it just cost them a lot of unnecessary money to them to their families. Yeah.
Sarah Peterson – 15:24
Well, and to your point, it’s also really important to know who your beneficiary is, I hear it time and time again, people don’t even know they think that they designated it, maybe I’ve done it so long ago. And life has happened things change, divorces, deaths, whatever. And then it ends up being your ex wife gets your money or your ex husband or you know, yeah, his family member?
Brian Quaranta – 15:43
Yes. It’s so important. It’s so beneficiary forms are the most important forms that people own and their financial situation. And the reason is, is your beneficiary document, it’ll override every legal document you own. So people say, Well, my will says it’s going to go to, you know, my wife and my son, really well, your beneficiary form says it’s going to your ex wife, and when you die, guess who’s going to go to? It’s going to go to the ex wife, because the courts are gonna say, What did the beneficiary form say, the beneficiary form overrides. And Trump’s every
Sarah Peterson – 16:17
I am sure that so many people don’t know about that piece of the puzzle, right.
Brian Quaranta – 16:20
And that’s why working with a financial planner that is a licensed fiduciary that our main job is to provide financial advice, not make a transaction not make a sale, right, we get paid for helping people implement plans. But we have to have a written plan with step by step directions of what to do for all of these situations. I’ve always tell my clients, you know, in 21 years of practicing, we’ve got over 1300 clients that we successfully retired over the years, and we’ve got a 98% client retention rate, you know, because of the level of service we do, but I always tell them, we have to make bad things happen on paper. Because if we make the bad things happen on paper, we actually can find a solution before they happen. And that’s what planning is all about.
Sarah Peterson – 17:03
plan for the worst and hope for the best. For the worst and hope for the best. You got it. Okay, so talk to me a little bit about taxes before we have to go to break. Yeah, because taxes are obviously is a huge portion of this retirement pie, if you will. And I don’t think a lot of people really know that there’s options when it comes to IRAs, Roth IRAs, conversions and things like that, where they can maybe use tax deferment, or they can pay taxes now.
Brian Quaranta – 17:27
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great question. Because the biggest eroder of people’s wealth is not going to be inflation, it’s not going to be lack of market performance. It’s going to be taxation. You know, if you ask most people right now, based on all the money that’s been printed in this country over the years, if you ask them, if they think taxes are going up or down in the future, 10 out of 10, people will say it’s going up, right, so we have to be careful with this because, again, what we’re focused on at secure money advisors is the distribution phase. And when we distribute that money, if it’s coming from a retirement account that you got tax deferral on, that means every dime that comes out of that account, you’re paying taxes on, and that means that you’re not going to net what you actually are going to be taken out. So if I take $1,000 out, right, and I’m in a 20%, tax bracket, I’m only going to net $800. It gets worse though, because if tax rates go up to 40%. Now that same $1,000, withdrawal is only netting $600. So now we’ve got a problem. And this is why tax planning is so important. And we go through all of this with the right track Retirement System. Again, the right track Retirement System is all about making sure that we don’t miss these five key areas. as Sarah said, taxes being a huge component of it. And so what we’re going to do for the next 10 callers who call in right now, we’re going to give you a complimentary review at no cost, okay, and I’ve seen other people charge over $1,000 or more for the similar features or offers that we’re going to provide to you. You probably ever, you know, most people will come to the office and say, Brian, I don’t know what the best time is to take Social Security. They’ll tell me I don’t have they don’t have a pension and they’re going to need additional income. Or they’ll say I we need to start taking money out of his account, and we’re terrified that we may run out of money before we die. And those are the things that we don’t want to have happen. So our goal with the right track Retirement System is to take the mystery out of financial planning and give you the clarity and peace of mind that you deserve going into retirement and through retirement. More importantly. So if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298. You can schedule your complimentary no cost, no obligation, right track meeting.
Sarah Peterson – 19:36
Thank you so much, Brian, I think we could all use a little peace of mind these days. We’re going to go to a quick commercial break and then we come back we’re going to go through the rest of the Retirement System planning and all of the fun processes involved. That’s right.
Commercial Break – 7:51:00 PM
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 Ks 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 today.
Sarah Peterson – 21:18
Hello, and welcome back to retirement You TV. I’m here with Brian Quaranta. And I’m Sarah Peterson. And I’m your consumer advocate for today. And I am talking with Brian about the right track retirement system. And before a break, we were talking about taxes, everybody’s favorite topic these days. How do we get rid of this big tax problem because it is becoming a problem for a lot of people?
Brian Quaranta – 21:39
Well, there’s a number of strategies out there that are available, and they’ve been around for a long time. The easiest is obviously to convert your taxable money to tax free money, right, which would be a conversion to a Roth IRA. And there are steps, you know, there are specific steps that you have to take if you want to do those conversions the right way. And if you want to do them the right way, they typically will take a little bit of time, maybe five years or more to do them the right way without causing you a bigger tax problem right now. Right? So that’s the easiest way to handle that one. But let’s say you’re a little bit older, you know, and maybe you haven’t really thought about this tax problem. Maybe you’re, you know, over the age of 70, you know, maybe 72 at this point. And now you’re at a point where the IRS is saying, hey, it’s time for you to start taking money out of these IRA accounts called the required minimum distribution. Most people will know the RMD is that nasty little deal that you made with the IRS that says, hey, once you turn 72, I’m sorry, we’re not going to let you defer this anymore, you’re going to need to start paying us the taxes. And that’s why they want you to start to take the withdrawals. But let’s say you’re at that point, right? Well, a conversion might not be the best strategy. Now I was part of a group, there was a individual, most people know this individual, his name’s Ed slot, he’s part of, he wrote a book called Retirement Savings Time Bomb. And he had a group called the elite IRA advisory group, which was part of for years. And if you ever read the Wall Street Journal, if there’s something in there about taxes, most likely, it’s that slot that’s being quoted in there. And in his book called The Retirement Savings Time Bomb, he talks about how the IRS is just waiting to grab about 90% of your money. And he said, the best defense that you can have to taxation for your retirement accounts is this crappy little tool called Life Insurance. And the reason is, is let’s say somebody has a half a million dollar retirement account, okay. And let’s suppose that they’ve done no tax planning whatsoever, and they have a child that they want to leave the money to? Well, if they leave the $500,000, we knows what’s going to happen, right? We talked about the the Money Magazine story where $240,000 went to taxes, yeah. So what they can do is they can buy a small life insurance policy for you know, $200,000 death benefit. And they’re already taking the rmds out, okay, and so rather than taking the rmds out, paying the taxes and putting it into your bank account, where it’s just going to get taxed again, you can take those rmds, pay the taxes, and divert that money to a small life insurance policy. And when you die, that life insurance policy is going to pay your family tax free income tax free, federal, state and inheritance tax free, if done correctly. So they can use that $200,000. Now to actually buy the IRS out of their IRA. So now the beneficiary receives all $500,000. And that’s just two strategies. There’s many more strategies you could use. And this is what people are looking for. They want ideas and they want strategies. They don’t want to be going into an advisors office and talking about, you know, performance all the time. They want to know what else should I be doing? What other things could I be doing to better my situation? And again, you know, folks, I will tell you that, you know, if you’re going in to your advisors office, and the number one thing you’re talking about is how your accounts have performed, and they continue to show you charts and graphs. I would encourage you to get a second opinion because you’re missing out on a lot of the planning aspects of things that truly can have an impact for your retirement, but more importantly, also have an impact for your family when you’re no longer around.
Sarah Peterson – 24:59
You know I love this because even though we’re all individuals, and we’re all unique in our situations or needs, we know we’re all not immortal, right? So we know there’s a birth and adapt that knowing that you could like divert to life insurance, which, you know, it just seems so simple. But without a professional in your corner, none of us would really know
Brian Quaranta – 25:17
Well, most people think oh, my gosh, I’m older, I don’t need life insurance, that’s like terrible. That’s, you know, I want to get rid of that that’s a cost. That’s the most foolish way to think when it comes to actual tax planning. If you look at some of the wealthiest estates out there, you will see them owning some of the largest life insurance policies out there, right for the defensive taxes. As a matter of fact, these life insurance policies get so big, and the annual premiums on them gets so big with these wealthiest states that the banks will even finance the premiums like no different than when you finance a mortgage. So this is what the right track Retirement System is all about. Really, it’s it’s understanding these different unique strategies and ideas. And why do you work with a professional that’s been at this game for 21 years? It’s because you rely on our expertise and challenge and the challenges that we help you solve for, and the obstacles that you’re going to run into no matter what, yeah, well, because we are well, you know, and you can keep kicking the can down the road and keep talking about performance and, you know, changes in investments. But at the end of the day, what good is it if your advisor makes you 2030, they make in 90% a year, and they leave some of these most important things undone. And you don’t have the ability to make your family largest beneficiary or maximize your tax, or maximize your cash flow in retirement. So these are the things that the right track Retirement System is going to bring you through, you know, Sarah and I were talking about earlier, there’s five key areas you have your income, your taxes, your investments, your health care plan, and most importantly, the legacy plan. And it’s a written plan. The importance with the written plan is that we can actually make these bad things happen on paper, we can see if you’re a married couple what happens if Bob dies. First, what happens if Sally dies, first? What’s the income drop going to be? And the right track Retirement System is going to help you go through all of that. And those five key areas. So if you call 18883821298, you can schedule your complimentary Financial Review today. Again, this is going to take all the guesswork out of finding out of the financial planning aspect, we’re going to guide you through it give you a turn by turn directions. But you have to do your your part and and call the number at 1-888-382-1298 to schedule today,
Sarah Peterson – 27:27
Brian, you know, I meet with financial advisors quite a bit and I learned something new every time and I’ve learned so much today. There’s still so much more to talk about a lot more to talk about today. But I think people need to know that this is going to bring them peace of mind and the fact that it’s complimentary brings me peace of mind because I know people charge $1,000 or more for this. So there’s really, there’s no obligation and there’s no risk. Just call the number come visit with Brian and next time. We’ll talk more about his retirement planning system. Thank you so much.