Retirement You TV: Episode 7

To see a full schedule of our TV airtimes, please click here.

Video Transcript

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:22

Good morning and welcome to retirement You TV My name is Cynthia de Fazio and I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is the president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, how are you?

Brian Quaranta – 00:33

I’m good. It’s so good to see you again. And you’re doing so much better with my last nap, try one more time. I just have to say Brian, Q, it is the easiest way to do it. I know it’s been butchered all my life, though. So don’t worry about it. How close was that though? scale was the closest you’ve ever gone? Yes. If I was putting on a scale from one to 10 I’d give you a nine today. Really? Yes. I’m totally happy with that. Yeah, it’s been a few different versions that we’ve come up with throughout. Well, you know, everybody refers to me now is Brian Q, because, you know, I, you know, I’ve had clients for 20 plus years that can’t say my last name. So it’s just so much easier to say, Brian. Q. It is.

Cynthia De Fazio – 01:12

I love the fact. Okay. You have retirement questions, ask Brian. Brian Q. That’s right. I love it.

Brian Quaranta – 01:20

Well, you know, on our radio show we do increasing your financial IQ with Brian. Q. I love that. Yeah. So perfect. It’s perfect. I know. Yeah. So have you been? I’ve been good. I’ve been good. We’ve been doing really well. You know, My son is a year old now. And I was just telling some folks on the way over here to the studio today that he still likes to sleep with us every once in a while. So you know, that’s that Yeah, but but we’re but it’s been a lot of fun. And every day is just getting more and more fun with him. Because, you know, when I get home from the office, he really recognizes me. You know, and he just he can’t wait till I get into that house. And of course, you know, I’m the fun one. I don’t I don’t I don’t do any of the disciplining. So I just wrestle with him. So it’s hard for me to actually put them down to go to sleep, because all he wants to do is play Oh, Oh, cute. Is he walking? Yeah, he is. He started walking at nine months. I started walking at nine months. So he’s got that drunken sailor walk. Yeah.

Cynthia De Fazio – 02:15

Nothing wrong with that. It’s adorable. Right? Exactly. Oh, my goodness, well, what has been new with work? And for planning for retirement? Brian, what? What are some changes that people are facing right now? if you will?

Brian Quaranta – 02:33

Yeah, I think you know, I really think for most people, what’s happened is that I think march was a real slap in the face for everybody. And real awoken everybody to the fact that you know, the markets when they go down, especially in the environment that we’re in now, they just go down so rapidly. Sure. And you know, as far as what secure money advisors does, nothing has changed with our planning model. Because everything we do, we’re sticking the basic fundamentals. So and there’s a reason to that. And that is because we don’t want to be chasing the economic environment, right? So the plan should work in any economic time period, no matter what’s going on. And so for us, sticking to the basic fundamentals is key to building a good solid retirement plan. So nothing for us has changed. But I think for a lot of people, right now, they’re really looking for a second opinion, because a lot of people lost a lot of money in March. Oh, sure. And, you know, I’ll talk to folks that have told me that even when the markets were going up, they really didn’t feel that they were getting the returns that they should have been getting. But yet, when the market went down, they lost way more than what they thought they should have. And you gotta you know, let’s face it, I mean, I’m working with people that are five years from retirement or, or in retirement, and the folks that are coming to us, they can’t afford a big market loss. They don’t, they don’t have the time to recover. And so this is not a dress rehearsal, so you don’t get a second chance at it. So if you lose a large sum of money, you know, early in retirement, or a couple years before you retire, you may have to delay retirement. Sure, you may have to come out of retirement. So everything that we’re doing at secure money advisors is to mitigate that risk. So that if the markets do go down, 30% are we’re not concerned. We’re not concerned.

Cynthia De Fazio – 04:21

Yeah. And it gives them peace of mind knowing that no matter what happens, they are floating right along peacefully.

Brian Quaranta – 04:27

Yeah. Because all we have to understand is that retirement planning is different than investing. Sure you know, what most people are used to doing is investing money. And that’s because in our working years, we’re accumulating money in retirement accounts like 401(k), 402 B’s, 457 plans. And but but that’s an investing strategy. You’re just trying to put away as much money as you can. You’re trying to get the greatest rate of return that you can. You’re really not concerned about the ups and downs of the market because you’ve got plenty of time to recover. But once you get closer to retirement, you just can’t afford those big losses. And so the strategies that got you here, right are not the same strategies you’re going to use over the next 25 to 30 years in retirement. And that’s really where we come in at secure money advisors, as we show, folks, the five key things that you want to focus on in retirement to make sure that you’re building a solid retirement plan, and you have to have a plan that you’re confident in, okay, and you have to have a plan that simple, it’s easy to understand. And, and that’s what gives people confidence in it. And there’s a lot of folks out there, that really, when they might when they go see their advisors, they might understand it, but when they leave, they’re they’re they’re confused. And and, you know, and if Yeah, if you’re confused about what you’re doing, it’s probably a good time to get a second opinion, because retirement planning is pretty straightforward. There’s basic fundamentals that need to be followed. And we can actually show you what those fundamentals are, what a real retirement plan looks like a real written plan. Most people don’t have a written plan.

Cynthia De Fazio – 05:55

Well, I want to ask you that question, Brian. So how imperative is it to have a true comprehensive written retirement plan?

Brian Quaranta – 06:02

Well, it’s very important. I mean, I always look at it like this. I mean, if you know, if I were to go build a new home, the first thing that they would give me is a set of blueprints. Sure. You know, but for most people, what they’re getting from their advisors is statements. And that’s it. That’s but that’s not a plan. That would be like your builder, just giving you receipts, not not a not a blueprint. So, so your financial statements are not a plan. A real retirement plan focuses on income, investments, taxes, health care, and legacy planning, right? incomes important because most people 85% of the people retiring today, are not retiring with pensions. And so a lot of people have to generate that cash flow from the retirement accounts that they have. And then of course, if you’re going to be generating cash flow and retirement from your investments, you better make sure that those investments are set up properly. Because if they’re not, and you’re taking money out of them, you have a high probability that you may run out of money before you die. Sure, right. And then, of course, if we’re taking money out of retirement accounts, you have to pay taxes on that money. So if you’re going to be generating cash flow, let’s make sure that we got a good tax plan in place so that we can get in the lowest tax bracket possible. And of course, if you want to retire before the age of 65, and a lot of people do, yeah, you got to take into account the cost of health care. But even beyond that, you have to think about what would happen if you or your spouse got sick, went into a nursing home? How are you going to handle the cost of of being a nursing home, I mean, they say the average cost of a nursing home right now in western Pennsylvania, is over $100,000 a year. So you know, if you had to spend that money on your loved one being a nursing home, that would eat up a pretty sizable portfolio, pretty quick, Most definitely. And then the biggest change, you know, when we talk about legacy planning, the biggest change that was made at the end of 2019, was the secure Act was signed into law, which took away the ability to stretch our IRAs, and it was one of the biggest tax grabs that we’ve seen from the IRS. And a lot of people don’t understand that in the past, you were actually able to give your IRAs or any type of tax deferred retirement account to your loved ones, without them paying taxes on it. Now, they were required to take a little bit of money out each and every year. But the IRS has come out and said nope, we’re not going to allow you to do that anymore. We’re going to force the individuals now to take all of that money out in a lump sum immediately or over a 10 year period. And so it creates a big taxable event of death. And now what’s happened is the IRS has become the largest beneficiary of most people’s plans. And so the legacy planning part of it all five of those parts that I just named, right, the income, the investments, the taxes, the health care, and the legacy part. That’s all part of building a solid retirement plan, you’ve got to make sure that every eyes dotted and every T is crossed, you can’t miss anything. And that’s the importance of having the written plan.

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:02

Well, Brian, this is the perfect opportunity for us to open up the phone lines for the first time this week, can you tell the viewing audience what they can expect to receive by being one of the callers today

Brian Quaranta – 09:11

As a matter of fact, folks, if you call in and you’re one of the next 10 callers, you’re going to get a complimentary Financial Review a second opinion. And remember, you can’t get a second opinion from the from somebody that gave you the first opinion. So when you call in, we’re going to give you a complimentary view. And here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk you through exactly where you are right now, and where you need to go. We’ll talk about the risks that you’re taking. We’ll talk about the fees that you’re paying, we’ll talk about tax strategies, we’ll talk about health care strategies, we’ll talk about legacy strategies, giving you a real comprehensive look at what a plan should look like for you. And again for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to give you a complimentary Financial Review, if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298 for the next 10 callers,

Cynthia De Fazio – 10:05

Brian, thank you so much to our viewing audience at home. Please stay tuned that number to call once again is 888-382-1298. We know you have a lot of questions about planning your perfect retirement. Brian has those answers for you. So again, we’ll be right back after this short commercial break.

Commercial Break – 10:23

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

Cynthia De Fazio – 11:57

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta, he is the president and founder of secure money advisors. Good to see you, Cynthia, good to see you too. It was a great commercial break, and I loved their conversations we were talking about. So I wanted to share with the viewing audience. Tell me a little bit about how secure money advisors was founded? Where did the dream begin?

Brian Quaranta – 12:20

Well, it really came out of my frustration towards the financial industry. Okay. You know, I think the financial industry has done a real disservice to the consumer, because what I’ve seen in the 20 plus years that I’ve been in the business is that a lot of times, the financial industry makes things a lot more confusing what and what they need to be sure. And, you know, what I have found is that people just need good information, they need black and white information. And if you give people good black and white information, and they understand the pros and cons behind any decision that they need to make, they can make an informed decision for themselves. Okay, not only that, but you know, when I was working at the large firms, you know, there was there’s a, what they call a grid, okay, and that grid is what the advisor is required to recommend from. So, you know, the big firms would always say, well, we can, we can do whatever you need us to do. But in reality, they only gave us a certain select financial products to be able to recommend. And so I didn’t like that, because you couldn’t really sit down with the client and truly understand what their concerns were, what their needs were, and then go to the marketplace and find the very best product. So as a licensed fiduciary, we have to do what’s in the clients best interest. And we don’t work for anybody but the client. And so what that means when you come to secure money advisors is that we can truly understand what you’re going through what your situation is like, and then we can go to the marketplace, and we can find the very best product to solve that problem. And I always say, the products come later, the plan comes first. So we have to understand, what are we trying to do? Where are we trying to go? And then from there, we can go find the right financial products to make the plan happen. And so what I had found was that, number one, you really win, you know, working at the large firms, I couldn’t really come to the table and provide my clients with an unbiased opinion about about specific products, or or situations because I was stuck with a very select group of product that I had to work with very limited and very, very limited. And so I really wanted to start educating people on the basic fundamentals of retirement planning. And we’ve spent a lot of time over the years of probably over the last 15 years I’ve spent educating people in the public right at the local libraries, at the, at the universities, you know, a lot of times you can find us at Robert Morris, you can find us at Slippery Rock You can find us at LaRoche University, or any of the public libraries and I’ve made It a mission to go out there into the public and really share with people the black and white facts that they need to know about retirement planning. So secure money advisors was really designed as out of my frustration to give people good information. And for them to know that they were getting a comprehensive plan. Because, you know, when I was working at the large firms, the way that I was taught was to recommend financial products. Well, financial products is not a financial plan, financial products are just financial products. And unfortunately, what we see a lot of times is people come in with their POS. Now that stands for pile of stuff, okay? Okay. And that pile of stuff is usually, you know, 1015 different statements of insurance policies, investment accounts, maybe individual IRAs, maybe old 401k, plans, current 401k, plans, 403 b plans, you know, you see all kinds of stuff in this in this pile of stuff. And so, but that’s exactly what their plan is, it’s just a pile of stuff. There’s no rhyme or reason to what they own, or why they own it. And, and when you go back to the five basic keys to retirement, right, which is income, investments, taxes, health care, and then legacy planning, all of those financial products need to serve a purpose in each of those five areas. And for most people, those products are not connecting the dots with with these areas. So what we do is we really try to find out where they are. And and that in itself can be a very intimidating process for a lot of because, you know, to go to a financial planning office, you really don’t know what to expect, you know, most people think that they’re going to be pressured into doing something and that, you know, or they have to disclose information. And maybe they’re not very, you know, maybe they’re not proud of what they’ve accomplished at this point. And secure money advisors is a no judgment zone, right? I mean, we’ve got a culture there that truly is there to help and guide. And the only way that we can do that is to truly understand where you’re at and what you’ve currently been doing. And then from there, we can start to reshape the plan, and make it more efficient and make it better and get it on track to fit into all those five areas so that you’ve got the very best income that you could possibly have, you got the most efficient investments that are investments that do well during up markets, but also protect you during down markets. Sure, you’re paying the least amount of taxes, you could be paying, you’re protected and have good health insurance and health care, you’re protected if you have a health event of some sort. And then more importantly, we want to make sure that the money when the good Lord decides to take you home, that the money goes to the people that you love, not to the IRS, I know we’ve all paid enough money to the IRS over our working years, we don’t have to have them take a big chunk of that money when we die either. And most people believe it or not, are very exposed there. So so secure money advisors was really designed to help provide a comprehensive planning service to those individuals, because what’s happened is too many people to have their plan splintered in too many places, they have to go to their accountant, they have to go to their attorney, they have to go to their financial planner, and nobody’s on the same page at secure money advisors, we’ve created a one stop shop. So that’s, that’s, that’s very meaningful for people. Because, you know, when it comes to your legacy planning part, if you work with one of our attorneys, we’re on the same page with the attorney. If you work with one of our accountants, we’re on the same page with the accountant. Now we play in the sandbox nice with everybody. I mean, if you’ve already people already have their own attorneys, accountants, that’s fine. But we want to make sure that everything is seamless and cohesive. And everybody’s on the same page of what’s going on. So nothing’s missed.

Cynthia De Fazio – 18:48

Absolutely. And so it makes sense. Because basically having a one stop shop, any questions that need to be answered, they’re going to be addressed just by coming in to meet with you and to talk to the advisors you have on staff, if you will.

Brian Quaranta – 59

Yes. And it’s just the ease of getting the plan done. Absolutely. You know, it’s it’s a hassle. I mean, I know even for me, I mean, you know, there’s certain things that I need to do in my life. I’ll give you a great example. You know, I use you know, we use Allegheny Health Network as our insurance and, and they’ve got this big pavilion and up at the pavilion, they’ve got all the doctors, it doesn’t matter who you need the eye doctor, the knee doctor, you know, the, the, the, you know, the primary care doctor, the foot care doctor does, it doesn’t matter. They’re all in the same place. So you can go up there and you can spend the whole day there and get everything done. Yeah, rather than saying, you know, I’ve got this day I’ve got to go here and this day, I go here, and it’s the same thing with secure money advisors. It’s just an efficient way to do planning and it’s a way to get everything done right now.

Cynthia De Fazio – 19:48

Brian, it makes so much sense to me. I love that concept. And we’re about ready to open up the phone lines again to the viewing audience. Can you tell them what they can expect by calling?

Brian Quaranta – 19:56

absolutely, so the folks it for the next 10 callers who call in right now. Here’s What we’re going to do, we’re going to give you a complimentary Financial Review of your entire financial situation. And we’re going to look at everything from the what you’re currently doing with your current investments, what fees you’re paying, what you’re paying in taxes, whether your investments are in the most efficient places that they can be, we’re going to give you a true comprehensive plan. And what we’re going to do during that meeting, is we’ll go through a lot of those five things that I talked about the income, the investments, the taxes, the health care and the legacy part. So again, for the next 10 callers, that’s a complimentary, no obligation, Financial Review of your current financial plan for those of you that call 1888382129. A, again for the next 10 callers if you call 18883821298. That’s a complimentary financial plan. Brian, thank

Cynthia De Fazio – 20:51

you so much to the viewing audience at home and the phone lines are already lighting up, Brian, that number to call once again is 888-382-1298. Again, we know you have a lot of questions about your perfect retirement, we have some more answers for you coming back after this short commercial break, please stay tuned.

Brian Quaranta – 21:13

Retirement Planning is just all about getting to know somebody. I mean, retirement planning is really about just building trust with people. I have a responsibility that when I wake up in the morning to be the very best that I can be because people are relying on me to take care of a lifetime’s worth of work that they’ve worked 3040 years for, I don’t take that lightly. That’s what drives me. That’s what I’m passionate about. You know, our clients really are our family of clients. We know their grandkids, we know their kids, we see them often throughout the community, we see them at the coffee shop, we see them at lunch, we really enjoy it, you know, we take pride in the quality of the relationships that we build with our clients. Choosing the right advisors starts with choosing someone that shares the same beliefs about money that you have. At secure money advisors, our focus here is about building plans around principal protection, low risk investments are a great way to approach retirement. You know, when people have low risk investments, they’re not worried. They don’t have anxieties. They don’t have fears, they don’t have to worry about what’s going on in the stock market. There are other options available, other than risk options that people need to know about when it comes to retirement. And that’s what we do at secure money advisors. There’s a lot of responsibility and helping somebody plan for retirement. And that’s why we take the time to listen, we take the time to understand their concerns, their worries, their needs, so that we can put together a customized plan. You know, we believe in what we do. Everybody that works for secure money advisors is on a mission to be the very best that they can be and to serve our clients in the best way that they can possibly serve. You know, we just are a simple company. And it’s the simplicity in what we do that makes everything so powerful. You know, you don’t need to make this thing complicated. Retirement should not be complicated. It should be simple, easy, predictable. And we pride ourselves on providing that to people.

Cynthia De Fazio – 23:35

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is the president and founder of secure money advisors, Brian, a great show that we have today. And I love how we’ve been talking about just how the concept of the company came together how important it is for people to have a true written comprehensive retirement plan. And one it’s easy to understand. That’s the key word there easy. It’s right. No one likes complicated

Brian Quaranta – 24:03

easy to understand, right? And I’ll tell you how I find out if it’s easy or not. Okay, right. When we put together our concepts, I call my mom. And I say, Mom, let me run this by you. I said do you get that? She says yeah, it makes perfect sense. why doesn’t everybody do that? I said, Well, that’s what I say.

Cynthia De Fazio – 24:16

I love that. That’s a great person to call. Right? It’s always ask. Well, Brian, I have to ask you a question we hear so many times people are talking about a retirement income gap. What exactly is that?

Brian Quaranta – 24:30

.
Yeah. Well, that’s what a lot of people are going to be dealing with. Right? This is an again, this is because 85% of the people retiring today are not retiring with pensions. So what’s happening is, you know, when they’re retiring, the only source of guaranteed income they’re going to have is Social Security. Okay, so let’s just say between husband and wife, you know, they’re getting a total of $3,000 a month in Social Security, but they need $4,000 a month or $5,000 a month. Well, if they need $4,000 a month. They’re getting 3000 in Social Security, that means we have a $1,000 income gap there, and we need to fill that gap. So how do we do that? Well, you know, there’s a number of different ways that you can do it. If you were to ask a traditional financial planner, how to do that, or a broker, I should say how to do that, they’ll probably recommend something called the 4% rule. And this is where, you know, let’s say you had a million dollars stake, they would tell you for the longest time that you could take out 4% starting in your first year, and you can increase those withdrawals every year by 3%. To keep pace with inflation. So you could take out $40,000, the first year and the next year, you could take out 42, and the next year 43 plus, so on and so forth, right? Well, the Wall Street Journal’s come out and said, Look, if you build your plan that way, depending on the volatility of the market, there’s over a 56% chance that the plan could fail, and you would run out of money before you die. Now think about that. Wow, the majority of the industry plans offer this 4% rule. Yeah, but when you look at the probability of success, it’s not very good. I mean, could you imagine sitting down with your planner and having them plan an income strategy that depending on market volatility, could potentially have a 56% chance of not working? Yeah, I mean, think about that. That would be like you and I get on an airplane. And and right before we’re about to back out of the gate, the captain gets on the intercom. And let’s say this airplane is headed for why? And the captain gets on the intercom right before we’re about to back out of the gate. And he says, folks, I just want you to know, we just got word from the tower, that there’s a 56% chance that we may crash into the ocean. Before we get to Hawaii, how many people would stay on that plane? I know, right? Most people would get off. And I always ask people, well, what percentage? Would you need it to go to? Would you need it to be 30%? Most people say no, I would need a 0% chance that the plane would crash into the ocean. Yeah. And so it’s secure money advisors. That’s exactly what we’re doing. Just like technology has increased increased over the years, right? So has the design of financial products. And we can build plans, we can create your own private pension that guarantees that stream of income that you need. So you never run the risk of running out of money,

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:08

which is so important. So important. And Brian, we have less than a minute left already to the show. Can you tell the viewing audience one more time what they can expect to receive by calling in today?

Brian Quaranta – 27:17

Absolutely, folks, for the next 10 callers who call in right now, again, all show we’ve been offering a complimentary Financial Review. And during that Financial Review, we’re going to do a number of things. Number one, we’re going to look at your income. We’re going to look at your investments, we’re going to look at taxes, we’re going to look at health care, and we’re going to look at the legacy planning part of it. Over a 45 minute to an hour meeting with my team, you’ll be very, very informed of what a real retirement plan should look like. So again, for the next 10 callers who call in right now that’s 888-382-1298 again 888-382-1298 as a complimentary Financial Review for the next 10 callers.

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:58

Thank you, Brian, to our viewers at home. Thank you for watching.