To see a full schedule of our TV airtimes, please click here.
Video Transcript
Cynthia De Fazio – 00:20
And welcome to retirement new TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta, the president and founder of secure money advisors, as well as Neil, major Senior Investment Advisor, Brian, eventually thinking about it, but it’s like, oh my gosh,
Brian Quaranta – 00:36
I’m really glad I got this last name to say.
Cynthia De Fazio – 00:40
I’ve just I have to go with Brian. Q. It’s just much easier. Brian, how are you today?
Brian Quaranta – 00:44
I’m doing great. Good to see you.
Cynthia De Fazio – 00:45
Always a pleasure to see you, Neil. How are you today?
Neil – 00:47
I’m doing well. I’m doing well. Thanks for having me.
Cynthia De Fazio – 00:49
Oh, thanks for being here. Because I know that you both have been so busy. Obviously, you’re so passionate about helping people plan for retirement. So thank you both for coming in, to do the show today, cuz I know you’re busy. So I know the viewers at home. Really appreciate that. So Brian, right off the gate, I just want to talk to you a little bit about taxes if we could, because obviously, a lot of people in the viewing audience, they might be wondering what taxes are going to look like in the year ahead, if you will,
Brian Quaranta – 01:14
Yeah, well, you know, the biggest eroder of your wealth is going to be taxes and inflation, you know, and I actually printed off some inflation numbers before we even started the show. And I can’t believe what I looked at car rentals are up 87% on the year, gas prices 45%. I remember that we had a birthday party for Maddox, my little two-year-old. Yeah, a couple weeks ago. And I got to the gas pump, and it was $78 to fill my tank. And just a couple months prior to that was $50 to fill my tank. Wow. So, you’re seeing it and you’re feeling it. So, we know prices are going up. And at the same time, the people that we’re helping in retirement, they’re typically going to be generating some type of income from their portfolio, so we don’t control taxation, then it becomes a problem. Think about it like this, let’s say you’re taking $1,000 a month out of your portfolio, and you’re in a 20% tax bracket. Well, after you pay the taxes, you’re only going to net $800. Let’s say taxes go to 30%. Now, you’re only going to net $700. So, you just lost income from taxes alone. And then you add inflation on top of that, and your purchasing power continues to go down. The biggest challenge that people are going to have moving into retirement today is the fact that more and more people are not retiring with pensions, they’re going to be on fixed incomes, they’re going to have to generate income from their portfolio. And taxes could be a reason of why they potentially might run out of money before they die, which is the biggest fear for most Americans today running out of money before you die. Absolutely perfect. AARP did a study and they said, What do you fear most? They interviewed about 1000 retirees, they said, What do you fear most death are running out of money. And you know, almost 90% of them said that they fear running out of money more than they feared death alone. So, it’s a big, big concern.
Cynthia De Fazio – 02:58
Sure. That makes sense. Because no one wants to feel like they’re a burden on their children. It’s exactly right. Absolutely. So Neil, when you have clients come in, that are sitting with you, and they’re talking about planning for the future years? In your opinion, how important is it to factor in tax planning into the equation on a scale from one to 10?
Neil – 03:15
That’s absolutely a 10, yeah, I mean, you know, we’re seeing it right now. Most people that are coming into the office are sharing those exact concerns of where tax rates are gonna go in the future, they certainly realize and understand that we’re in a very low tax bracket currently. But with some of the stimulus programs and things like that, they’re certainly concerned about how taxation is going to erode their wealth show. And you know, what can they do today? They’re asking to avoid those situations. So we’re doing a ton of tax planning right now with our current clients, and also, you know, prospects coming in, because it’s absolutely the number one concern that we’re facing right now.
Cynthia De Fazio – 03:54
Sure. And then Brian, this will be everyone across the board. Like I know, we talked about this in the past, where if you made a certain amount of income, that we felt that that person would be effective, but now we’re looking at it from a totally different angle. And it looks like it could be everyone across the board. Is that true?
Brian Quaranta – 04:10
Well look at the secure act that was signed into law, you know, back in 2019. I mean, we used to be able to, you know, if you died used to be able to give your your beneficiaries, your IRA without them paying taxes on it immediately, but they would have to stretch it over their lifetime. Now, the IRS wants to be all paid in 10 years. So I mean, we’re seeing it across the board. And so it’s becoming more and more challenging. I mean, look at the RMD. I mean, they’ve just recently raised the age from seven and a half to 72. But that’s all designed to try to get as much taxed hours as they possibly can. capital gains rate, they’re talking about increasing and they’re talking about making it based on an income which it’s a there’s an income ladder right now that based on how much income you earn will depend on how much capital gains tax you pay. So you could pay 0% and tax capital gains 15% Or 20%, depending on what your income is. But they’re talking about possibly raising capital gains tax to 40%. I mean, you’re talking about devastating tax laws here, that would completely decimate a healthy portfolio just from taxation alone. And it seems like, you know, there’s less and less strategies to get around it, because they’re, they’re blocking loopholes here and there that we used to be able to do for tax planning. The good news is, there’s still a lot of stuff that can be done. Yeah, right. And with proper planning, we can we can make these decisions now. So that we can get the tax man out of our life. And and make sure that the the money that we do have is in the best taxable position that it can be, which is typically tax free.
Cynthia De Fazio – 05:43
Sure, yes. Everyone would love to have X rays the best. Absolutely. Neil Roth conversions. Are we talking about that a lot with clients today?
Neil – 05:51
Yeah, we need to be I mean, certainly, it’s something that we do our office is jam packed every December, because we typically execute them at the end of the year. But you know, it’s one of those things that what can I do today to deal with the known tax rate, as opposed to what might happen in the future? And like Brian talked about, you know, most of our clients are looking to generate income. And what they don’t want to have is that income be decreased on them, especially as we’re dealing with inflation right now. Yeah. So what can we do to help that situation? Well, we can do Roth conversions and deal with the known tax rate. And that’s gonna put us in a great position in the future. So it’s certainly a great topic.
Brian Quaranta – 06:31
Yeah. And I think he makes a great point, you go back to my example of, you know, somebody’s taking $1,000 a month? Well, if that $1,000 a month is coming from a traditional IRA, we’d have to pay taxes, and you’re in a 20% tax bracket, we’re only getting $800, if we can do the conversions, as Neil’s talking about. And we can go from taxable money to tax free. Now, when we take that $1,000 out a month, if you’re in a 20% tax bracket, you’re getting $1,000, because we get tax free income off of the Roth IRA. So if tax rates go to 40%, we don’t care, we’re still going to get our $1,000 shown, but you got to do the hard work now in order to benefit later on down the road.
Cynthia De Fazio – 07:08
So really, what it comes down to Neal is proper planning across the board. Yeah, I
Neil – 07:13
mean, what we do at secure money advisors, we really look at retirement planning and five key areas. So it’s really important to make sure we have a game plan and all five of those areas. And those really go income planning, investment planning, tax planning, health care planning and legacy planning. So if we fail to do the one, some of the other ones won’t even matter. I mean, if we don’t do the tax planning now, getting high investment returns are going to be washed out anyways. So you really want to focus in and key in and all five of those key areas. And that’s why building the plan is just so important.
Cynthia De Fazio – 07:46
Well, Brian, I know that you and Neil have a special offer that you’re going to be giving to the viewers at home today. Let’s talk a little bit about what that is, before we open the phone lines.
Brian Quaranta – 07:55
Yeah. So you know, what we’ll just as Neil was saying, I mean to secure money advisors is built around fundamental financial planning. And that fundamental financial planning has five key areas that we focus on, as Neil just said, income, taxes, investments, health care, and legacy planning. And if we make sure that we’re following all the best practices in those areas, we’re going to have a really good plan. But a lot of people do just focus on performance. They sit down with advisor, they go through how to the portfolio return. And that’s all they’re having a conversation about. There’s no conversation about tax planning, there’s no conversation about how to generate income. I had a guy come in last week. And he said, The reason I’m here is because the answer that I get from my advisor, every time I go in and ask if I can retire is, yeah, you’ll be fine. Well, you’ll be fine is not a plan. exam, you know, we believe in utilizing black and white math and building a model to look at as we take the income, pay the taxes, take the withdrawals, we can see what certain events might look like, for example, if we have a market correction, what’s it going to look like? Are we going to be okay? If we withdraw this amount of money? What if we only get a 3% rate of return versus a 5% rate of return? Or what would if we get an 8% rate of return. And at secure money advisors, we’ve made it very simple by giving people a roadmap to follow. And one of the things that we teach people is how to project your three most important interest rates. And that’s your spin down rate, your preservation rate and your legacy rate. And most people don’t know what those rate of returns are, once you start to understand what those rates of returns need to be. Now that gives you the guide that you need the roadmap, if you will, to figure out where to actually put the money. So you have to kind of reverse engineer it before you take the step of buying financial products you got to see, right, if you set a goal, you start from the end. Sure you start from the end in mind, and you work backwards. And that’s exactly what we do at secure money advisors. So for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re actually going to give you a complimentary Financial Review and it’s going to consist of the five key areas that we talked about. We’re going to go over your income, we’re going to talk about the best ways you can generate cash flow, we’ll talk about taxes and how you can reduce taxes sort of tax rates go up, you don’t see it erosion of your wealth, we’ll talk about how to maximize your investment returns, reduce the cost that you might be paying for investment advice, or even the actual product fees that you’re paying, will look at the risk that you’re taking. We’ll also look at what would happen if a health event were to take place. And when the good Lord decides to take you home, and you got to transfer that money to your beneficiaries. Let’s make sure that that money goes to your beneficiaries and not to Uncle Sam. So but you’ve got to do your part. You’ve got to pick up the phone for the next 10 callers who call in right now. That’s a complimentary portfolio analysis called 1-888-382-1298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298. Brian, thank
Cynthia De Fazio – 10:50
you so much, Neil, thank you so much to the viewers at home. The phone lines are now open that number to call is 888-382-1298. We know you have a lot of questions about how to plan properly for retirement. Brian and Neil have the answers for you. All you have to do today is be one of the first 10 callers. That number again is 888-382-1298. We have to take a very short commercial break when we come back. I’m going to have so much more with Brian and Neil. So please stay tuned.
Commercial Break – 11:19
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 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 – 12:53
And welcome back to retirement UTV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian covanta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors as well as Neil, major Senior Investment Advisor, gentlemen, a wonderful show that we’re having today talking about such an important topic planning properly for retirement. Obviously, we’re giving away the complimentary portfolio analysis today. So I wanted to talk a little bit more in depth about that. Right, I want to ask you specifically rebalancing a portfolio. What is that? Exactly? And is it necessary?
Brian Quaranta – 13:25
That’s a great question. You want to hit that one nail?
Neil – 13:28
Well, I mean, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about how everything starts with a plan, right. So structure is very, very important, in particular, when you’re going into retirement, because most of the people that we’re seeing, need to generate income from the portfolio, because about 85% of the people that are coming in, no longer have pensions. So you know that 401 k that 403 B, that is their pension, so they have to generate income. So structure is very, very important. Now, we want to look at really a two bucket approach that we typically build at secure money advisors, one, we want to take some some money in build income and make it more safe and conservative, really have income 10 to 15 years in that bucket. Now in the other bucket is going to be our risk bucket is going to be for long term growth. So that bucket there can go through the highs and lows of the market, because we have something very, very important. And that it’s time we have 1015 years before we need to rely on that bucket. So you know, rebalancing, it’s really about starting with structure in a plan and how we’re going to go about navigating retirement with the investments.
Brian Quaranta – 14:36
Yeah, that’s a great, that’s a great point. It’s so important to make sure that that structure is there because most people are most people think they have a retirement plan. In fact, they don’t they have an investment plan. They own some mutual funds. Maybe they own some stocks, you know, when they’re hoping that that arrives at a certain number. Matter of fact, your accumulation years and this is what what the differences of what we do at secure money advisors, you have an accumulation phase of retirement and you have a dish tribution phase, okay, the accumulation phase is very, very simple. There’s not a whole lot of thought that needs to go into that, you know, you try to put as much money away as you possibly can you try to get the best rate of return that you can so that when you retire, you have the biggest pile of money. But once that happens, once you accomplish that, how are you going to take that pile of money and get it to start working for you now? Yeah, right. Because when you stop working, the paychecks gonna stop. Oh, sure, what bills, taxes, all the things that you’re going to want to do in life that does not stop. So how are we going to replace that paycheck? And we truly believe people need two types of paychecks. They need a paycheck to pay the bills. But in retirement, you need to play check. And you need, of course, because you got to do your bucket list, right? Yeah. So what we have done really well it was we have focused on the distribution phase in retirement, and we teach people how to get their money, working for them in a way that gives them the peace of mind and security, they want going through retirement. So if we do get volatile markets, the way that we build that structure is that we no longer have to worry about that volatility, because it’s all about mitigating risk. Sure. And that’s what we do really well.
Cynthia De Fazio – 16:05
Absolutely.
Neil – 16:07
Now, in the people that are coming in, you know, they’ve saved and they’ve accumulated this large lump sum in those retirement accounts, but they have no idea what it’s going to generate for them in retirement. So I think when they come in, they get a very clear picture of exactly, you know, how much they’ll be able to generate, what their tax situation is gonna look like, what’s their net income, and then what they need on a monthly basis, we can really help them determine, you know, if they’re able to retire, and not only not only that, we want them to retire, but we want them to really focus on that bucket list. Yeah, we hear all the time, you know, visiting the grandkids, buying a second home, you know, things like that, where they want to make sure that the income is there to be able to be generated. Yeah,
Brian Quaranta – 16:48
you know, Neil has got some wonderful emails from from clients, just, you know, thanking him so much. And for everything that we’ve done, because they’d never thought that they had made it, they’d never thought they’d won the game, because nobody ever showed them how to use their money. You know, most investment firms, you know, they’re, I think most investment firms are good intention. But they they teach people how to accumulate money. There’s not a whole lot of people that specialize in the distribution phase. And that’s a whole different ballgame. And the strategies and techniques that you use during that accumulation phase, are not the same strategies and techniques used during this distribution phase. It’s kind of like, What got you here isn’t gonna get you there? Sure. Right. And that’s the same, but so a lot of people continue to follow that same roadmap. And that’s not what we want to do when we get to that distribution phase. But once you figure out what that money can really do for you, yeah, it’s a special moment. for them. It’s a special moment for people to say, Wow, I didn’t realize that I was going to be able to retire. Yeah, you know, my advisor kept saying, to keep working as long as I should, or, you know, try to save more money. And I think it’s just because what we’ve done really well at secure money advisors, is we’ve mathematically built models to show people how to utilize the money, and we customize it with their numbers, so they can see exactly what would happen year after year after year.
Cynthia De Fazio – 18:06
Neil, what does it feel like when you tell someone that they can retire tomorrow if they want to?
Neil – 18:12
Well, it’s always you know, it’s really the great part of our work, right? I mean, it’s so satisfactory to be able to sit down with someone see in their faces, that their dream and their reality is about to come true. Right. And, you know, in response to Brian, he was telling you about that client that emailed me recently, last week, they had come in from a watching the television program and came in, we sat down, we mapped it all out for them, and really gave them a good look at what their their income plan was going to look like when they retired and things of that nature, really went step by step in the review process with them. And, you know, her goal was always to move to a patio home in retirement. And they had, you know, inherited a home and kind of felt almost stuck in that home. But the goal was to get to that patio home. And once they were able to see the numbers and feel really secure in the plan. They were able to move forward to buying the patio home. So she was just a static, so she sent me this, you know, really nice email, just how appreciative she was of the work that we did for her show we mapped out. And it’s just so gratifying to be able to do that kind of work that we do, and show people that yeah, it is possible, and you’re gonna have a great retirement, this is just what we need to do to make, make it all possible. Sure.
Brian Quaranta – 19:30
I always say to myself, you know, how do we know if we’re doing the right things? Yeah. Well, when you’re when you’re getting feedback from your clients that, well, we don’t know what we would have done if we didn’t meet you, or we wish we would have mentioned 10 years ago, we know we’ve got something special put together, you know, and we’re not the right fit for everybody. And we know that. But what we do we do really, really well. And it’s the fundamentals that we follow, right? It’s the basic fundamentals in anything we do in life. It’s all about basic fundamentals. And if we keep it simple, right, the KISS principle, keep it simple, stupid. Keep it simple, we’re going to have a great retirement. And this is why we offer that financial review show portfolio analysis is so important because you want to see how you’re measuring up in those five key areas of income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. If we can match those up and get the best practices in each of those areas, it just gives people a different feeling about what the future is going to look like for them. So it we’re very proud of what we’ve been able to develop.
Cynthia De Fazio – 20:29
Sure. Well, Brian, I know you have a special offer to the viewers at home. Let’s go ahead and talk about that. And then open the phone lines.
Brian Quaranta – 20:36
Yeah, folks, for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to give you a complimentary portfolio analysis. Now we’ve seen other people charge up to $1,000 or more for what we’re going to do at no cost to you, all you’ve got to do is do your part, pick up the phone call 1883821298. When you come to the office, we’re going to have a process to bring you through so you don’t have to worry about I don’t know what to ask, I don’t know what to bring, we’re gonna make it so simple for you to be successful with this appointment. And even if you have an advisor, it’s great for you to get a second opinion. You know, you can’t get a second opinion from the, from the person that gave you the first opinion. Just remember that so you have to do your part, they’ll pick up the phone 1-888-382-1298 take advantage of the complimentary portfolio analysis. We’ll go over the five key areas income, investments, taxes, health care and legacy planning.
Cynthia De Fazio – 21:29
Gentlemen, thank you so very much to the viewers at home, the phone number to call is on your screen and that number is 888-382-1298. We know you have a lot of questions about how to retire comfortably how to retire with confidence. Brian and Neil are offering you the complimentary consultation again, that number to call is 888-382-1298. We have to take a very short commercial break, but don’t go anywhere. I’m going to have so much more with Brian and Neil when we return.
Commercial Break – 21:55
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 a 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.
Cynthia De Fazio – 23:20
And welcome back to retirement UTV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. And he’s president and founder of secure money advisors and Neil major Senior Investment Advisors. He was focused on your name.
Brian Quaranta – 23:32
We just we didn’t know the Duke few
Cynthia De Fazio – 23:36
years now I mean,
Neil – 23:40
very slowly.
Brian Quaranta – 23:43
The funny thing is, I can’t tell you how many of my clients will come has it. Has that lady yet figured out how to say your name.
Cynthia De Fazio – 23:55
talk to you a little bit about the importance of working with a fiduciary why is that beneficial to the viewing audience?
Brian Quaranta – 24:02
Well, we are held to the highest standard. I mean, as a fiduciary our responsibility is to do what’s in the clients best interest. And and I’d like to think that we do it and we do it very well. So you know, a fiduciary has a responsibility of making sure that they customize a plan for you. Right. It’s not about selling financial products. It’s about giving you a legitimate plan and a roadmap to follow. And so lots of people today, I mean, if we see, you know, 10 people in a day seven of them are going to ask if we’re a fiduciary, and it’s a very important question. Sure. If you’re going out and seeking financial advice of whether or not the practice that you’re you’re potentially going to look to put your money with is a fiduciary. So it’s important, but it’s about best interest. It’s about what’s in the clients best interest.
Cynthia De Fazio – 24:44
Sure. Neal, I have to ask you, what do you love most about working with Brian?
Neil – 24:51
Great question. That’s a great question. I mean, you can see it he’s got he’s got a big personality. He typically talks for both of us which is nice for me because you know You know, sometimes I like that and appreciate that. But, you know, I think his warmth, warmth, warmth, comes across in everything he does. He’s just a very warm person. He’s very, very likeable. So, you know, the clients just know and trust him and, and know, and, you know, he’s like a big teddy bear. Yes, I always say he’s instantly likable. I mean, apps, you know, he spends how much time meeting people here today, even at the studio. It’s like, he spent probably 15 minutes with about 25 different people, you know, so he’s, he’s very interested, he asked you really great questions. So he always just makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the room.
Cynthia De Fazio – 25:36
I’m gonna flip that. Now. Brian, what do you love most about working with Neil?
Brian Quaranta – 25:39
Oh, he’s been just an incredible sponge. I mean, you know, what the great story about Neil and I is that his brother and I have been friends for 20 plus years. And so I’ve known Neil for 20 years. And we started working together. You know, I was I was really kind of nervous about bringing on more advisors, because I’m very particular what I like and what the process is like. And he has just taken to it so well, he’s just constantly learning. He’s, he’s so good at what he does. And he really does, he runs most of the day to day meetings now, and sees the majority that people coming through the door, and I get nothing but compliments about him and as a business owner and financial advisor, right? Because I also am a business owner, because I own the practice. There’s nothing better when people will come and say, you know, I just want you to know, Neil was absolutely incredible to meet with. He was super knowledgeable. And I think that really is a lot of credit to make. Sure, yes. But he’s always sat. And he’s always sat in so many different meetings with me. And so he’s just for years was just a sponge learning and learning, learning. And now he’s just, he’s outstanding at his work. He’s probably one of the best advisors in the country. That’s fantastic.
Cynthia De Fazio – 26:57
That’s fantastic. Well, Brian, we only have about a minute left in the show any final words of wisdom you want to give to the viewers at home?
Brian Quaranta – 27:04
Yes, take advantage of the portfolio analysis, it’s not very often you’re going to get an opportunity to sit down with a fiduciary at no cost. We see other people charge up to $1,000 or more for what we’re going to do complimentary, we are actually taking the risk by doing the analysis because we don’t know whether or not we’re even going to be a good fit for you. But the process that will bring you through is going to be so informative, that it’s just going to make you better at understanding what you need to do whether you decided to hire us or stay with your current advisor. That would be up to you because there’s no selling been done at our office. We’re truly here to solve problems, but you have to do your part. You’ve got to pick up the phone and schedule that complimentary portfolio analysis. Call 1-888-3820-1298.
Cynthia De Fazio – 27:51
Gentlemen, thank you so much to the viewers at home. Thank you for spending time with us this week. Be safe, be happy, be blessed. We’ll see you one week from today.