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Video Transcript
Rebecca Powers 00:26
Welcome to this week’s edition of on the money with secure money brought to you by Brian Quaranta of secure money advisors. I’m Rebecca Powers. So happy to have you with us again this week. And thanks for always having me here learn so much.
Brian Quaranta 00:39
We do learn a lot on this show. Always good to see you again.
Rebecca Powers 00:41
Last week we were talking, and I want everyone to know Yes, it’s true. You can get this book for free. He will even pay for the shipping and handling. Right Track your retirement, you can also come in and get a comprehensive, free first visit with Brian and his team. But we were talking about income. Yeah, no one can plan to retire without income. And we kind of ran out of time. So, can we just kind of go back to what are some other places where you can start creating an income to last you through retirement? Yeah.
Brian Quaranta 01:10
Well, you know, we’ve talked about, you know, being able to get income from Social Security, pensions, dividend paying stocks, real estate, and even annuities. So-
Rebecca Powers 01:24
That’s like a creating a little personal pension, when you think of buying an annuity.
Brian Quaranta 01:28
That’s exactly what it is an annuity, an income annuity, is essentially a private pension. And that’s also security as Social Security is a form of an annuity. Right, you know, it’s designed to pay you a certain amount of money for the rest of your life. Now, the only difference between an annuity that you can buy on your own versus social security is that Social Security only pays you income while you’re living. And so, if you’re a married, if you’re married, and your spouse dies, you lose a Social Security check. But with an annuity, if you were to die, and your spouse were still living, that annuity would continue to pay your spouse, just like the old pensions used to do Gotcha. Most nobody’s getting any more than 85 90% of people retiring today, without pensions. And if you look at retirement planning 3040 years ago, compared to today, it was it’s so different, because people didn’t have to watch a television show to learn how to-
Rebecca Powers 02:28
To figure it out. That is so true, no matter what your politics are, in 1978, when the Carter administration in Congress, got rid of pensions and said, we’ll do the 401 K, that they can do it themselves. I think it was a grave injustice. And because we gave no education, you’re gonna rip it away. But we didn’t educate. So that’s why everyone feels kind of like ships lost at sea.
Brian Quaranta 02:50
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, there are still companies out there that offer the pensions. What’s happened, though, is that with the invention of the 401k, right, it was first really designed for high paid executives to be able to defer stock option bonuses. So, if an executive was getting a large sum of money at the end of the year in the form of bonus, rather than them paying taxes on it, they could put it in this 401K. And then of course, as time went on, the 401k, got more advanced and being able to do payroll deduction and contributions. And then companies started realizing this was a lot cheaper, and a lot more simple than doing a pension and having to worry about paying somebody an income for the rest of their life. It was a big legacy cost to a lot of companies, and a lot of companies want to get rid of them. And you can look at companies like Ford Motor Company, I retired a lot of individuals from Ford. They actually, you know, usually when you choose your pension option, once you choose it, it’s permanent. You don’t ever have to do over. And when you choose your pension option, they give you an opportunity to say Well, would you like this amount? But if you die, nothing goes to your spouse, or would you like to lesser amount? And if you die, some will go to your spouse, right? Or would you like to just take the lump sum? Well, my clients that had worked at Ford, a lot of them took the monthly pension that was guaranteed for their life guaranteed for their spouse’s life. But Ford came back many years later and said, Hey, I know you’ve been retired for five years. But would you like to take a lump sum of the rest of your pension? Now, why did they do that? But they wanted to get rid of the legacy cost. They don’t want the cost of having to administer that. So, the more people they can get to take that lump sum, the more they don’t have to worry about paying all of these people out, right?
Rebecca Powers 04:44
And do you, like, would you suggest to take the lump sum?
Brian Quaranta 04:47
Not always, not always. Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s very specific to people’s situation there is there’s a lot of cases out there where taking the monthly pension from the company isn’t the better option. Now, and that’s something that I You know, you really be careful if you have an option for a lump sum with your pension. Because, you know, if you go visit with a financial firm, a lot of are more than happy to tell you to take the lump sum because it gives them an opportunity to manage it themselves. But I will tell you that there is a specific calculation that you use to determine what would be better whether you’re taking the benefit from the company or taking the lump sum. So, you know, what I would encourage you to do, if you’re in that situation, where you’ve got to make that decision, come on into our office, you can go to on themoneyoffer.com and schedule a time to come in there. Or you can call the number at the bottom of the screen there. It’s 1-888-382-1298. But you’ve got to get that right. You know, getting getting that right is very, very important.
Rebecca Powers 05:45
Absolutely. All right. Stay with us, more with Brian Quaranta, actually do want to say before we go to break, yeah, for those just joining us, tell them where your offices are. Wife, Kate, is there a lot? What Tell me about your team and kind of the feeling of what they can expect when you first walk in the door?
Brian Quaranta 06:00
Yeah, well, we, you know, we’ve always wanted secure my advisors to be a, you know, a welcoming experience. And you know, a lot of people the feedback I get, which is the greatest feedback as a CEO that you can get, is I love your team, you know, you guys take such good care of us. I mean, those are just magical words that a CEO can hear. But yeah, after my two boys were born, you know, I had kids later in life, you know, I’ve got a one-year-old and going to be four-year-old. So here I am at 46. I always tell people look, if you if you’re choosing a financial advisor, choose the 46-year-old guy that’s got a four-year-old and a one-year-old, because, you know, I’m gonna be around for a long time. But, but yeah, the office, you know, it’s an environment for people to come in and feel safe, that they can actually talk about their concerns without being sold anything. Yes, I guess the one thing I really want you to understand how secure money advisors as a fiduciary firm, we’re not there to sell you financial products, we’re there to help you solve problems, whether it’s income, or taxes or investments or your health care that has to do with your Medicare, choosing your Medicare, we’ve got a Medicare specialists at our office to help you get your Medicare and we do that complimentary to all of our clients, we help them choose their Medicare get their benefit, we also help you put together your estate plan with our strategic partners in the estate planning. So, we’re there to help you piece this all together, we’re not there to judge you on where you are, what you’ve done, or what investment you have, we’re there to help you make it better. And this is why I would encourage you go to onthemoneyoffer.com Get a copy of my book, it’s absolutely free. Okay, we pay for the shipping and handling, you’ll get it, we ship it out the next day. But I also want you to go there and schedule a time to come in and meet with my team, you’ll get a lot of value out of that appointment. And as I always promised people, nobody will ever say anything. Nobody will ever tell you anything. But the appointment itself will be very informative and very eye opening. And even if you’re working with somebody, wouldn’t it be nice to just get a second opinion? And the reason I wrote the book right track your retirement is because that’s the number question number one question we always get is, Am I on the right track? Am I doing the right things? Let me ask if you weren’t on the right track, when would you want to know. So, call 1-888-382-1298 schedule that time my team standing by come on up for the appointment, don’t kick the can down the road, take advantage of the right track appointment.
Rebecca Powers 08:23
Absolutely. And stay with us more right after this.
Brian Quaranta 08:27
So, everybody can tell you how to invest your money. There’s not a lot of people out there and a lot of firms that can teach you how to use your money. Most people will also tell you that they’re scared. And the reason they’re scared is because they’re afraid of running out of money.
Neil Major 08:40
The last thing you want to do is have a really good job and you’re in your 60s retire and be looking for work again in your late 70s.
Brian Quaranta 08:48
The average person might say, well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds and mutual funds can have a good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning.
Neil Major 09:03
Because we’re not just product pickers here, what we do best here as we build retirement plans.
Brian Quaranta 09:08
9 out of 10 people when they walk through the door would ask us, we just want to know if we’re on the right track. And I always say if you’re not on the right track, when would be a good time to know it. Probably now.
Neil Major 09:18
People, you know, can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan.
Brian Quaranta 09:25
This is about you if you’re not getting what you need. And you feel that when you walk out of the advisor’s office, it’s time to get a second opinion and you can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first the difference at secure money advisors as a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income and give you the retirement you dream of.
Rebecca Powers 09:54
Welcome back to On the money with secure money. I’m Rebecca Powers here with Brian Quaranta. We’re talking about getting Your retirement on the right track. Do you have a plan? It is so amazing to me when you had a lot of people in your team saying that most people who come in be millionaires, they’ll come in and say they’ve never had a written retirement plan. That’s shocking.
Brian Quaranta 10:15
What we’ll hear a lot of times, you know, my advisor is really good, but he doesn’t do any of this stuff.
Rebecca Powers 10:23
What are you paying him?
Brian Quaranta 10:26
You know, I think the biggest challenge for people, when they’re when they’re exploring the idea of, of getting better advice, is breaking up with whoever they’re with people who sell the oil. As a matter of fact, the last chapter of my book, let me say, braking to do. Yeah, I their last chapter is, I softened it, I don’t think I actually called it how to fire your advisor. Let me see what was titled. Yeah, well, it is how to fire your advisor and hire a team. So, if you’re trying to figure out how to fire your advisor and hire, I actually talk about how to do it.
Rebecca Powers 11:04
And then a quote from Babe Ruth about what a true team is, yes, right. That’s right.
Brian Quaranta 11:08
That’s because you do need a team in today’s environment. And sure, we should talk about that a little bit. Because, you know, if your financial advisor is the same guy that is actually placing your trades and making the decisions on the investments themselves, and he’s responsible for trading that on a day-to-day basis, I would really encourage you to think differently about it. Because there is no way an advisor in today’s marketplace can give you the financial advice that you need, at the same time, pay that much attention to the market, and trade in and out of positions, and secure money advisors, we employ the traders, we employ the money managers, right. So, they work for us, they work for you, if you’re a client of ours, and if they’re not getting the job done, we sit on the same side of the table as you and we fire them, right. And we vet them very carefully. And we there’s very specific rules and guidelines that we want for the type of planning that we do. But we work for you, not for anybody else. And so, we hire those individuals. And that’s not how it is most of the time, usually, the financial advisor is actually picking the individual stocks picking the investments. Now you tell me if that advisors got 300 clients, 400 clients, whatever, how is he going to service all of those individuals, at the same time, pay attention, on an hour to hour basis, a minute to minute basis in the market and figure out what the buy and sell he’s not going to be able to do, it’s not possible not possible the days of the individual stock broker are gone. People want a team surrounding them. And that’s exactly what you get at secure money advisors. So, we’ve got a wonderful staff, it takes a long time to really be patient enough to find the right people to hire the right people. And I’m very proud to say that I’ve got a great team, very smart team, but more importantly, very compassionate and caring team. And that’s what matters.
Rebecca Powers 13:05
And for those who are just joining us or never seen our show before, Brian’s history is really interesting. You were so gung-ho, your first job was with that big box and you sat in that cubicle with your quotas. And you started answering the phones telling people Oh, it’s fine. I your last bet to present is ride the wave hang in there. And you felt icky about it? Yeah. And that’s why you went independent as an independent, you can do anything. Yeah, look around and all the products-
Brian Quaranta 13:29
That’s right. Well, the independence is very important, because very early on 25 years ago, you know, the world of being an independent boutique firm was is was not accessible the way it is, today, you’re seeing a lot more advisors go the direction of going out independent, because there’s a lot of great advisors out there that want to sit on the same side of the table as their client, right, and work together with them, and then go out and find the very best products that they can find to solve the concerns or solutions for that individual’s particular case.
Rebecca Powers 14:02
And you are fee based just like a physician, you’d go in and pay $100 at a doctor’s office, right? You’re not commission based,
Brian Quaranta 14:08
We’re not commissioned big difference. That’s right. So, if we’re making a recommendation, right, you don’t have to worry about the fact that we’re trying to make it just to generate Commissions Act, we’re making that recommendation because as a fiduciary, right, we have an obligation by law to do what’s in the best interest of the client. So, we’re working in the client’s best interest at all times. And I would hope that every advisor out there would be working in the client’s best interests. But just like in the medical community, where you just have bad doctors in the financial community, you have really bad advisors, but advisors that don’t surround themselves with a team, the disadvantages, not being able to service the client appropriately, not being able to take care of the client on a year-to-year basis the way that they should be taken care of. And one of the things that secure money advisors that we do is we have a 411-writing process, we have a whole roadmap that we show people of how we get them from point A to point B. But the part that people really like is that we actually do have a servicing model, right. So, we do for client events a year, very specific events, some of our fun. Yeah, our biggest event that we have, and is a shredding event, I rent a big shredder truck, everybody brings all their tax documents and documents. And they throw it in the shredder, we get a little barbecue, that’s fun. But then we have more serious events where we might bring in guest speakers to do a talk about taxes or estate planning or something along those lines. So, we’re engaged with our clients throughout the year. Not only that, but we have the TV show where we educate the client radio, we have the radio show. And then we have the educational events, which by the way, you know, if you go to www.securemoneyadvisors.com, you can actually find out where we’re going to be next in your area. And you can come out to one of our live events and meet the team. And we’ll spend a time talking about the basic fundamentals of retirement. And you get to kind of see a little bit more about what we do. So, the team approach is very, very, very important in today’s environment,
Rebecca Powers 16:08
But it’s also keeping in touch. Yeah, you know, it’s not some big box where they don’t know who to call, they know they can walk into your office, or they know they can go to your next event or they- and I think that’s the big part and would a fiduciary why it’s so important for people to know who is managing their money. That’s right.
Brian Quaranta 16:25
And the other thing is a lot of the big box firms, if you meet with one advisor, and then you know, let’s say that advisor leaves and they put you with somebody else, that person might have a different opinion on how to do something, see it secure money advisors, we follow the same philosophy. So, it doesn’t matter whether you’re meeting directly with me or you’re meeting with Neil, or you’re meeting with Michael or Maggie, if you’re sitting down, we’re talking about the basic fundamentals of what it means to keep your retirement on the right track. So if you’re talking to me, and all of a sudden, I’m out because I’m filming TV, or I’m on vacation with my family, and you sit down with my right hand adviser Maggie who has been with me for going on 17 years, she’s going to talk to you about the same things I talk about because we all believe passionately about the work that we do to help you protect your retirement, keep it safe throughout retirement and more importantly, give you the peace of mind that every one of us deserves. Nobody wants to be looking at the stock market when they’re retired and thinking oh my gosh, there’s absolute pandemonium on the market. What am I going to do? I need to call my advisor and sell right now. And just like I was taught 25 years ago, right? When you get into the financial district, one of the things they teach you is to tell people that, hey, look, if you’re losing money, just tell the folks that it’s going to be all right, that is just a paper loss to hang in there. You’re in it for the long haul. Look, the long haul works if you have time. Right? But if you’re getting close to retirement or you’re retired, and you lose money, the question isn’t, if the market is going to come back, the question is, when is it going to come back. And if you need your money, like most people do to live off of, and it doesn’t come back in the time period, you need it to come back in. That’s where the big problems start to arise. And I don’t want to see you go through that I don’t want to see you be stressed with those anxiety. So go to onthemoneyoffer.com. Again, it’s onthemoneyoffer.com Get a copy of my book right track your retirement, I wrote it for you. It’s a simple guide to help you build a plan, show you how to build income, but more importantly, give you a peace of mind. You can also call 1-888-382-1298 My team is standing by to get you scheduled for your appointment. And they’ll also send you a copy of that book. Take advantage of it don’t procrastinate on this 1-888-382-1298 We’ll see at the office.
Rebecca Powers 18:49
And peace of mind is what it is all about. If you do not have a written retirement plan with all of your income and everything else you’ll need to the end of your life. That is the red flag that you need to start with that written plan, give us a call. And also make sure you get this free book we’ll be right back.
Announcer 19:12
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Rebecca Powers 20:03
Welcome back to On the money with Brian Quaranta. We’re laughing just now because it’s like, it’s just the last segment of the show. I thought we just started. Because there’s so much information and it’s you’re such a great speaker. It’s fascinating. Purchasing Power inflation is squeezing as every angle. How do we know we’re not going to run out of money when our purchasing power is just dwindling?
Brian Quaranta 20:24
Yeah, you know, it is the biggest fear of retirees running out of money. And with the right plan, it shouldn’t happen. You know, there, there are financial solutions out there that will guarantee you money for the rest of your life. So, you know, when I look at people that have longevity in their family, and they’ve got parents that are living into their 90s, and grandparents that lived in their 90s, and you look at the retirement plan, and they’ve got 100% of their money in the market, and they’re trying to pull income out of those accounts every single year, here’s what happens, market goes down, they lose money, but then they still have to take the money that they need. And so now they compound that loss further because they take the money that they need. And there’s you can create buffer accounts are a buffer strategy, which I talked about in the book, to where if you were trying to take money out of your market accounts, and the markets were down, rather than taking money out of that account that year, you can go to the buffer account and pull it from there. Because the buffer account is set up to not lose money. And this is a way that you can help mitigate, you know, getting your money to last longer. You can also buy guarantees, you know, so for example, personally, myself, I do purchase income annuities for myself and my wife. And the reason is, is because I know when I purchase an income annuity, I know if I purchase it today, the insurance company will tell me, Brian, in 10 years, here’s how much money we give you in 15 years, how much money we get you in 20 years, here’s how much money we give you. So, I get to decide when to turn down. But I have peace of mind knowing because I bought these, I don’t have to worry about what my stock accounts are doing. Because I know that this portion of money at 65 is going to produce this amount of income regardless of what happens because I bought a contractual guarantee. And I always say, Look, we insure everything. We insure our homes, we insure our cars, we insure our health, jewelry, everything. How many people out there are walking around that haven’t insured their retirement income? I’d say most people, yes, we want to know why. Because they’ve been taught that this product called an annuity is a bad thing. And it’s such a disservice to the public. Because the problem that that solves is so powerful. That’s like people saying life insurance is a horrible thing. Let me tell you something, Rebecca, I have never delivered a death check a check when somebody died. And they regretted having that life insurance. When you have an individual that dies. And you give that family a million-dollar check. The first thing they ask you is Is this real? Yeah. Right. And the second thing they asked you is, should I deposit this money? And then the third thing they ask you is how much am I going to owe in taxes? Yeah, and the answer to that is zero. Because life insurance is a tax-free benefit. That windfall of money is 100%. tax free. And that’s why with a really good retirement strategy. Yeah, life insurance should potentially be a solution to helping offset taxes, pass money on to your beneficiaries. I’ll give you a great example. Let’s say you had a $500,000 IRA account, right? Okay. And you wanted to let’s say you didn’t need to take any money because you had social security and a pension. Okay. Well, that 500,000 or IRA account that you have over time is going to grow, but let’s just say at death, it’s 500,000. Okay, and you have a child that you want to leave that money to? Well, if that child receives that money, and they want to take it all out, all $500,000 of that is going to count as tax or as taxable income to them, which means they’re going to pay at this rate about 37%. Okay, so you’re talking about close to half $230,000 of the $500,000 going to Uncle Sam. Yeah. Now, you’re better off saying, well, if I’m just going to pass the IRA along, well, what if I just took a little bit of money out of the IRA every year and bought a $1 million life insurance policy with the income that my IRA could generate? So rather than, you know, rather than just leaving it there, you take a little bit of money out each year, you buy a $1 million dollar life insurance policy, and now when you die, your child gets whatever’s left in the IRA, right, which could be a half a million if you’re getting the right rate of return. Still could be a half a million dollars and you’ve maybe just paid for the life insurance. As with the interest, yeah. And then on top of that they get a million-dollar tax free life insurance policy. Wow, this is how you create generational wealth. It’s also how you protect purchasing power from generation to generation. Because the younger generation is going to have a tough time accumulating money over time. We were I was just reading. I was just reading this article here that was given to us by one of the folks here at our studio, about Social Security. And it says Social Security benefits lose 36% of buying power since 2000. And it goes on to say that the latest research on buying the buying power of social security benefits finds that older adults who retired before 2000, now age 85, have lost 36% of their buying power and would need an extra $516 more a month, or $6,200 a year. So, we have to prepare for these things. Because take the question marks out you got to take the question marks out and the more in the more certainty that you can build into your plan. The more certainty you can build in a plan, the more confidence you’re going to have in your plan. And the more the more calm your mind is going to be. The peace of mind you’re going to have.
Rebecca Powers 26:15
Right? Don’t you find most people that come in to you, that is what they’re searching for is that peace of mind?
Brian Quaranta 26:20
You know, this is a true story. We have you do this. So, we had some folks come to us about two years ago. And we talked to them about protecting some of their money, okay, because they had all their money at risk. And they had more than enough money, meaning they won the game, all they had to do is protect a portion of that they would have been fine. Yeah. Well, the market had been up so much, that people get overconfident. They think it’s going to continue to do the same thing. And people get a little arrogant about it. Right? Like, why would I want to take this out and protect the money, you know, I’m only going to get four or 5% return if I protect the money. I’m making 25 30% Over here. You know, two years later, they came in, and we’re sitting there, and the wife is crying because they have lost so much money that she said I wish we would have listened to you last year. Because greed is a funny thing when it gets a hold of you. You think you’re just going to keep making that money. Folks go to onthemoneyoffer.com Get a copy of my book, learn how to get your retirement on track. I lay it out and map it out and put all the five key areas in here income taxes, investments, health care planning, estate planning onthemoneyoffer.com You get a copy of my book, you’re also going to be able to schedule an appointment there schedule that appointment to come in. We’d love to see you, or my team is standing by call 1-888-382-1298 We’ll see at the office.
Rebecca Powers 27:39
Absolutely the book is not only free face for shipping and handling that first appointment to analyze everything going on in your financial picture is also complimentary. They want to make sure that you have the empowerment to retire on the right track. Thanks so much for joining us. We’ll see you next week.