Big tax law changes always bring big rumors. But before you assume Social Security is now tax-free or that you’re getting a $40K deduction just for breathing, let’s set the record straight on what this new bill didn’t actually do.

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

Speaker 1:

The big tax law changes always bring rumors, so before you get too hyped up or worried about anything, we thought we'd have a little fun and debunk some of the Big Beautiful Bill myths this week on the podcast. Let's get into it.

 

Hey everybody, welcome into Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. And one more time, we thought we would revisit the Big Beautiful Bill, the OBBBA conversation. I like saying OBBBA, it's just fun. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Guys, just kind of hopefully maybe dispel some of these things, continue to have questions all throughout the year as we're closing out the year we're just trying to knock down some of those worries or some of those fears that people still have. So let's set the record straight a little bit. We'll have some fun with this. You guys can be myth busters on this episode, if you will. John, what's going on my friend? How are you?

 

John Teixeira:

Not too much. Just wondering if Nick gave my phone number to a list because all of a sudden today I'm getting bombarded with, "Do you need a driveway cleaned?" And some random stuff. So I think I'm getting punked.

 

Speaker 1:

Oh man, it's that time of the year. It seems like spam calls have gone just through the roof for the last couple of months, so I don't know.

 

Nick  McDevitt:

My hypothesis on that is I feel like businesses are slowing down and they're kind of going back to their-

 

Speaker 1:

They're getting creative too.

 

Nick  McDevitt:

Yeah, they're going back to their list client lists or different marketing tools. I feel like I've gotten re-added or added to a hundred new email lists in the last three weeks. So it's interesting.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a weird thing. And the text thing and the email, it's like they have so much access to you. Constantly getting stuff and of course the phones are always listening, so you just get all this weird stuff. But I'm with you, John, same thing. Would you like to sell your house?

 

John Teixeira:

No. Nick complained about it a couple of weeks ago and I was like, "I'm not getting too much." And all of a sudden I think he's like, "Well, if I got to deal with it, John's got it too." So.

 

Speaker 1:

Either that or your phone was listening and said, "Oh, you're not getting it? We'll get one, then. Here it goes."

 

John Teixeira:

It could be that one too.

 

Speaker 1:

All right, let's jump into a few myths. We'll have some fun here. Myth number one, Nick, Social Security is no longer taxed.

 

Nick  McDevitt:

Kind of for some. So just like most things, there's nuance to it. If your income falls within the threshold of where single or married filing jointly and singles, I think the 75,000 married filing jointly is the 150, then you actually get a $6,000 tax credit to help offset taxes that you may owe on your social security income. But it's not something that line item wise is gone. So for most people, up to 85% of their social security income is includeable in their overall taxable income. So this is a way that that amount can get reduced dependent upon the overall situation.

 

Speaker 1:

So technically no, they did not remove social security tax, but they're for certain brackets in certain age groups for a couple of years, you can definitely reap a benefit. So do that. But yeah, it didn't go away unfortunately. Myth number two, John, the new tax law means tax cuts for everybody.

 

John Teixeira:

Unfortunately not for everybody. Like we talked about in the last episode, the senior citizen tax deduction above the age of 65 is those single will get six, joint will get 12, but that's not even for everyone above 65. Well, because if you income level's too high, you also don't qualify. So not for everybody. And then even the SALT deduction, which Nick went into last episode as well, if your state doesn't have income tax, certain situations work for you, certain situations, and everyone's a case-by-case scenario here. So not for everybody. Some people might not see any tax benefits from this, but some people might see quite a bit.

 

Speaker 1:

Okay. All right. Nick, myth number three, the tax brackets are permanent, so I'm groovy. We're going to stay in this low tax bracket forever.

 

Nick  McDevitt:

Yeah, it'd be nice if things work that way, but as we know when it comes to taxes or really anything involving government or legislation, we can count on there being change at some point in the future. So although if people read through documents and they see, hey, this adjustment in brackets is now permanent, that's just kind of referring back to when they were originally reduced. There was a sunset provision that it had to get renewed at a period of time in the future. And so that's what happened is it was essentially renewed and locked into place, but a new president or a new Congress can adjust that and change that in the future. And based upon debt and all that kind of stuff, were of the opinion that at a certain point in time there will definitely be some changes. And the reality is that most likely they will be higher taxes.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they changed their mind as the wind blows and what they do with it. Right? So, all right, myth number four, John, we didn't really talk about the estate tax too much on that prior episode where we talked about some things, but they actually raised it up a tick, made it a nice even number. So it's a $15 million estate tax exemption, which means estate planning doesn't much matter anymore because most people aren't going to get to that level. What's your thoughts?

 

John Teixeira:

Yeah, so it's nice they made it a nice even number, just like when they changed the RMDH from a 70 and a half to a nice even number there. So we like simplicity here. But yeah, it doesn't mean estate tax planning doesn't matter anymore because certain states do have their own estate tax themselves. We live in Florida here.

 

Speaker 1:

Good point.

 

John Teixeira:

So we don't have to worry about that. But depending on the state you live in, important to understand what those estate taxes are.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a federal estate. Yeah, that's a great point. Yep.

 

John Teixeira:

Yep. So that's the federal level there, 15 million. So yeah, just make sure you understand where it is. And just because the exemption went up doesn't mean you don't need estate planning because we've come across some people that definitely needed to structure their assets correctly to make sure that Uncle Sam doesn't get all of it and also it goes to the right places. So.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's much more than just the tax is a good estate plan, so definitely you want to have the other pieces covered as well. So just because the number's high doesn't mean you don't need an estate plan. And you don't have to be a Rockefeller to need estate plan. A lot of people kind of surprised by the fact of what an estate plan can do for them. Just average everyday folks, it can still be very beneficial. So something to certainly consider.

 

Nick, we talked a little bit about the car loan interest on that prior one, but so I googled basically just common misconceptions about this, and that's how I'm wording these based on how some of these questions came up. So it's like, "Car loan interest is now fully deductible," and that's how with the internet and everything, that's how things get run amok. People think, "Oh, no, no, I totally saw that. Car loan interest is fully deductible. So great, I'm going to go out and buy a car and be able to write off the interest." But that's not the whole story.

 

Nick  McDevitt:

For sure. There are definitely... So there's a cap as far as the amount that can be deducted, it's about $10,000. From a deductibility standpoint, it is a temporary thing and there are certain thresholds from the perspective of income can't exceed a hundred thousand. And then the rules about the final assembly being the US for the vehicle. So it's not a blanket something that, just like anything else when it comes to rules and laws, especially on taxes, the devil's in the details and you want to make sure you have a full understanding of what it looks like. And on top of that, the reality is that a tax deduction is not usually a reason to spend money if you don't need something. So that's kind of like the famous last words of, "Yeah, but there's a tax deduction." But also if there's a cash flow issue, then it may not make sense. So just like anything else, you want to be smart about the decision.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And I'll take this last one, John for a little bit. Myth number six, it was really around the itemizing. "I can skip itemizing and still get deductions for charity giving." And I think people confuse the itemization and QCDs. And so I think there's a little bit different disinformation there and there is some above-the-line stuff. So just hit me with that one real quick.

 

John Teixeira:

So you can make the deductions with charitable gifting. And it's just recapping last episode, it's capped at 1,000 for single in 2,000 for couples. So you can get the standard deduction and go ahead and get these additional deductions for giving to charity without itemizing.

 

Speaker 1:

And I think for a lot of people, especially if you're making good money, they think, "Hey, I don't need the RMDs," especially for a lot of your client base. "I got to pull this RMD. I don't want to, but I have to. The government's making me. How can I maybe be charitably inclined but also be effective from a tax standpoint?" And that's where the confusion with the QCD comes in. Because you can satisfy that RMD by doing a QCD.

 

John Teixeira:

Yeah, these are... Yeah, thanks for clarifying.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

 

John Teixeira:

Yeah. These are two separate things here. The QCD is its own strategy and definitely take advantage of that if you are not, it's a great way to do it. And just let's kind of recap that strategy, Although it's not part of the bill here, but what you want to do is have your... Once you're above the age of 70, you can take advantage of it and you want the check or distribution that's coming out of the retirement plan to go pre-tax, let's emphasize that pre-tax, go directly from the retirement account to the charitable institution. So it has to be check made payable to that institution. They don't need to get it directly. I have some clients that will get it mailed to their house as long as it's written out to that institution. And the example, they go to church and they feel good about actually handing the check in.

 

And full disclosure, when you're doing your taxes, I don't want to say all, but most financial institutions aren't basically telling the IRS what you did. When you do your taxes, you actually need to say, this is what you did. So the 1099 will kind of reflect a little bit of that, but you have to actually tell your CPA, "I did this." Because if you do not, you will not get that tax deduction.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, for sure. And that's why I wanted to ask you that because it does get confusion around what the tax law changes were with the above line charitable deductions or gift giving and the QCDs, so there was definitely some confusion there. So thanks for clearing that up. And again, that's the whole point, right? Anytime there's legislation, it always brings confusion. So having a good strategy, a good plan, and a good team in place to help you deal with this stuff because dealing with it every day is a lot easier than us who just only see the headlines and whatnot. So if you need some help, reach out to John and Nick, get onto the calendar at PFGPrivateWealth.com, that's PFGPrivateWealth.com and schedule some time for yourself today. And with that, guys, thanks so much for hanging out. I hope everybody has a great holiday season. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or whatever podcasting app you enjoy. Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. We'll see you next time.

Today, John and Nick dive into the Big Beautiful Bill and what its changes mean for retirees and pre-retirees as the year winds down. They break down updates to tax brackets, standard and senior deductions, SALT caps, and Roth conversion strategies, while sharing tips on avoiding common pitfalls. Plus, they touch on credits and deductions like charitable giving, auto loans, and solar panels to help listeners make the most of these changes.

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

Speaker 1:

This week on Retirement Planning Redefined, still a lot of questions out there about the Big Beautiful Bill and what happened earlier this year and some of those changes. So, we thought we would talk about that and touch on that as the year is winding down here on the podcast. So, stick around. Let's get into it. Hey, everybody. Welcome into Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. Find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com.

 

Guys, I know it's been around for a couple of months now, half a year or whatever, but still a lot of questions and things going on with the Big Beautiful Bill changes, especially as it affects retirees and pre-retirees. So, we thought we would dive back in and have a conversation on some of this and just maybe touch on some of the things you guys are still hearing a few months later and see if we can break this down a little bit for folks and help them out. John, how are you doing this week?

 

John:

Hey, I'm doing all right. Just getting ready for Thanksgiving here and just looking for some downtime right now.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's right here upon us. Nick, you're double whammy. You got Thanksgiving and then you got a wedding right after that. So, congratulations and happy holidays.

 

Nick:

Thanks. Yeah, it's going to be a busy end of the year.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. Well, speaking of, let's get into our topic here because there's lot of stuff that's happening and changes and whatnot. So, let's just dive into some of the things and break some things down. The big piece obviously was that the tax brackets that we were under the TCJA since 2017 got extended. All year, we were wondering if that was going to happen as the year was winding down. This stuff was going to wrap up at the end of this year, but they extended it and they made it permanent. So, talk to me about that, whoever wants to take this. That's interesting language and confusion for some people, but what's your thoughts on the tax brackets being extended?

 

John:

Yeah, so the tax brackets from 2017 now remain in place where they were set to expire. So, they're as permanent as I guess you could be when it comes to tax brackets-

 

Speaker 1:

To Washington.

 

John:

... to Congress. Yeah, exactly. So, obviously, Congress can make some changes at some point, but for right now, this is where we are. For retirees, important to take a look at historically where tax brackets have been and if you really pay attention where in some pretty low tax brackets if you look throughout time. So, now could be advantageous to some people to really develop some strategies to take advantage of this low tax bracket period for themselves because permanent doesn't mean too permanent as we just discussed. Depending on what happens, the next administration, things could not become permanent.

 

Speaker 1:

So I mean, one of the things Roth conversions has been really on the radar for many people for the last number of years because to your point of the historical tax lows, so now you do have some time to Roth over time for at least a couple more years anyway, until what, '28 or '29 potentially.

 

John:

Yeah, so Roth conversions is definitely something we implement for clients, and while this is going to be in place for the next few years. Maybe we get a little bit more aggressive and I think we're going to touch on it a little bit more in the podcast. We'll talk about some of the pitfalls to avoid with that because there are some new deductions that you want to remain below.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, Nick, let's have you just jump in and tackle some of that. So, talk to me about some of the deductions, the standard stuff, some of these other pieces that they locked into place and some things we might want to know and think about.

 

Nick:

So for people that aren't familiar with the jargon when it comes to the tax or they don't prepare themselves, essentially people have two options. They can either use the standard deduction, which is what the majority of W-2 earners do especially or they can itemize. So, the reason that people would itemize historically is they would have enough expenses maybe through a business, maybe through interest from a mortgage or kids or different things that would allow them to itemize and there'd be a benefit to them from a tax perspective.

 

But when this was originally put into place and the standard deduction was increased, it really shifted it to people being able to just, for the most part, use the standard deduction, which previously about $29,500 for joint, $14,600 for single, and the updated number is going to be $31,500 for joint and then $15,750 for single. So, it's bumped up a little bit. Years ago, it was lower, and so there would be a lot of people that would get caught between the standard and the itemized, but it is a benefit for quite a bit of people.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. I mean, there's some decent numbers here we're talking about. When you take the standard deductions, it's going to be hard to get there, but you could really make a big dent. We'll talk about some of the add-on deductions as well here in a second. Does the SALT cap change a lot of things for you guys in Florida? I'm not sure versus other states like New York or California, New Jersey, and I guess maybe to clarify, John, what is the SALT cap and can you break that down a little bit?

 

John:

So I'll punt this to Nick. He just actually did this with a client. So, he can give a personal story, which is probably better than me.

 

Nick:

Yeah. So, the SALT cap is really state and local tax. It is or historically has been much more relevant in states that have higher property tax and/or state income tax. So, a lot of the northeast states, really just a lot of states in general. Here in Florida, we don't necessarily run into this a ton, however, we do have quite a few clients that do the snowbird thing.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sure.

 

Nick:

So they have to incorporate taxes in other states and that thing. So, the reality is that it had previously been a benefit for people that were paying a large state income and/or property taxes. They could use it to offset the tax that they paid against their federal income. I guess when the legislation was changed, I think it was like 2017, 2018, they had reduced that SALT cap to $10,000. So, that really had an impact from the perspective of especially high income earners in states that had those different taxes that were applicable. It did cause a decently effective increase in taxes for them.

 

So, with the good old lobbying that's done, they went ahead and increased that from the $10,000 that's been in place for the last five, six years to $40,000 cap for incomes below $500,000. So, although we don't see it here, we have recently had some clients moving into homes that do have pretty significant property taxes. Although they're not paying state income tax, the level of the property taxes where they've gotten with the run-up in real estate around this area, it has become a little bit more relevant than it was previously.

 

Speaker 1:

And so that could make a difference. So, again, you want to make sure that of all these changes that are potentially there, you're talking with your financial professional and your CPAs and working together on making sure that you're being as effective as possible. So, John, you punted that one back over to Nick. I'll give you this one, the senior deduction. There was a lot of talk, obviously, a lot of campaigning on just getting rid of taxes on social security. They did their bartering and their deals and they came up with this senior citizen deduction. I mean, it's not bad for a number of years. It's like you're not paying social security taxes, but it's a little confusing for folks. So, can you break down some of the data on that?

 

John:

Yeah, so it was initially discussed as, "Hey, we're going to eliminate social security tax." This has come up a little bit with some clients asking, "Hey, did they get rid of it?" And the answer is, your social security still is taxed, but if you're above the age of 65, you do get what they call a senior citizen deduction. That's $6,000 per person, $12,000 married filing jointly, and there are some income limits to it. The single is $75,000 and the joint is $150,000. So, I would say over the last few months, we have been doing quite a bit of planning to make sure people stay below these thresholds to maximize the deduction and when we're doing our projections for this year and upcoming years, for some people, it's a big difference.

 

It's a nice little benefit for these retirees who unfortunately over the last few years are really impacted with inflation. I mean, the cost of everything is up. I know CPI recently, I think last year was like 2 to 3% or something, which doesn't feel like that, but if you're on a fixed income, this is a pretty big deal. So, it's nice to see some of these retirees get some relief, but especially with this one more than others, I think if you can stay below those income thresholds, now's the time to do it because as of now, they're expiring in 2028. So, you really only have about two or three years to really take advantage of this.

 

Speaker 1:

Be effective. Yeah. I mean to your point, Nick earlier was talking about the $31,500 for the standard, and then you slap another $12,000 for married, right? Then you slap another $12,000 on here. I mean, that's pretty hefty, right? So you could get really efficient with this. It's just a matter of making sure that you're, again, jumping in and taking advantage of it while you can. Any thoughts on that, Nick?

 

Nick:

Yeah, no, just like anything else, what you can see a little bit with some of these changes are that there's certain gaps that it's stepped in to help with. The reality is a lot of times it's going to be people that are middle, upper middle class, but from a tax perspective, so if they can keep their income under the 150 for a joint household, that tends to be a middle, upper middle class family.

 

Speaker 1:

Well, it's funny you say that because there was so much argument about, "Oh, they're going to do stuff for just the wealthy," but a lot of the changes that were put in on the Big Beautiful Bill really actually do help lower and middle class like these. So, I mean, I think there's some good benefits to the bill for everybody. There's some things that obviously are a little weird too.

 

Nick:

Oh, for sure.

 

Speaker 1:

You got to be effective with it.

 

Nick:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. The devil's always in the details. Absolutely. That's the case with any legislation that is this large and this comprehensive. But those are the standard deduction and the senior citizen deduction are definitely two that are going to have a pretty substantial impact on a large group of people.

 

Speaker 1:

John, I'm going to go back to you for a minute because we were talking about the Roth earlier. We tossed that in there at the beginning piece there. Again, clearly, this is a good time to think about the fact that it is still alive for a little bit. So, again, Rothing over time is back on that table as we talked about, and so that may be a really effective part of your strategy. You do not want to ignore it because it still could be a limited window.

 

John:

Correct, yeah. So, definitely that's one thing we're looking at currently is what's the right amount of Roth conversions to be doing at this time. So, it is a great time to-

 

Speaker 1:

Any traps in there? Any pitfalls we should be aware of?

 

John:

Yeah, so I was going to say there's definitely a good time to be aggressive with it, but with this new senior citizen deduction, if you're doing some conversions, you want to make sure you stay below those thresholds to take advantage of that additional $6,000 per person. So, now is a great time to be aggressive with this, but at the same time, you want to be cautious because there are some things you could be missing out on if you get too aggressive. So, like we've always said, look at the plan, talk to your CPA, talk to your financial advisor. One of the most important things going into retirement is avoid unnecessary taxes. So, it's just an eroding factor on your money. So, if you can avoid it, that just helps you overall.

 

Speaker 1:

Well, people tend to stay confused if we don't do this about the whole brackets and the steps anyway, right? Because I think a lot of people think, "Oh, I'm in the 22% bracket. That stayed. Yay, cool. I'm still there. I don't have to go up," but every dollar is taxed at that and that's not how it works. That's what I think confuses people. So, when you're talking about maximizing your Roth or something like that, you want to maximize those steps in that bucket, if you will. So, that you just don't pop into the next bracket if you can. Is that accurate?

 

John:

Correct, yes. You definitely want stay within the bracket, not really jump up, and sometimes it's okay to jump up as long as you understand how much-

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, not every dollar is going to be at 24 if you popped up to 24.

 

John:

Correct, yeah. I mean, we have some clients that are doing some Roth conversions from an inheritance standpoint, so they look at it and say, "Well, I'll pay 22 so my kid doesn't have to pay 30, whatever, whatever it is."

 

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah.

 

John:

Depending on your situation, you really want to pay attention to what bracket you'll be, what your effective rate is, and just don't do it willy-nilly. You want a strategy.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if you have $1 million you want to convert from a traditional 401 over to a Roth, you want to make sure that you're not going bracket busting on that, right? Don't do it all at one time. Again, Roth over time, right? That's the conversation piece there. So, what else is of note in the bills, guys? Nick, what's some other things that jumped out at you?

 

Nick:

Yeah, I think it's definitely less applicable for many people, but they did bring back bonus depreciation for... It's typically used by small businesses or landlords, oftentimes applies to qualified business expense or rental property purchase. For example, it can have to do with vehicles, large equipment where a company can accelerate the depreciation into the year, instead of spreading it out over multiple times, which can help offset if they're having a really good year from an income perspective or just bring down the taxes in general.

 

From the standpoint of a couple of other things, I'll have John speak to the EV credit because he took advantage of pretty much all the EV stuff that you could. But one of the deductions, additional deductions that they had put in place is for auto loan interest deduction. So, it's an above the line. It applies to cars purchased in 2025 or later, and the car has to have final assembly in the US.

 

Speaker 1:

That's a funny one right there. It's like how much of that this qualifies, right? So what's final assembly mean? Is there a percentage break?

 

Nick:

There's definitely cheat sheets out there. Ask your local AI machine.

 

Speaker 1:

Or dealership I suppose.

 

Nick:

Yeah, yeah, the dealers will definitely know, but once again, there's an income threshold on that. So, income above $100,000 won't qualify. From a charitable giving standpoint, there is an above the line deduction for people that do not itemize. So, $1,000 per person or $2,000 for married filed and jointly.

 

Speaker 1:

It's not a lot, but I mean it's still something, especially in the season of giving, right? It's above the line. So, give some money.

 

Nick:

Yeah, exactly.

 

John:

Better than nothing.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly.

 

Nick:

For sure.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. Well, what about that EV thing, John?

 

John:

Yeah, so the vehicle EV credit went away at the end of September, so that one can no longer be used. So, that was if you bought new, there was a tax credit you could obtain and then if you bought used, there was something you could actually get as well depending on the value of the car. If you were actually leasing, basically, the dealership got the credit, which would hopefully reduce your payment depending on how good you are at negotiating.

 

Speaker 1:

Got you.

 

John:

But the big one that we've been talking to clients about, and I did myself, which Nick was referencing, was solar panels. So, after 12/31/2025, you will not get that 30% reduction for solar panel installation on your house.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it might not be enough time now, huh? I wonder if you could get that done.

 

John:

It depends how quick your contractor is. I'll tell you, by the time I agreed to mine, I thought it'd be about a month out and I think within two to three weeks, they got me on the calendar and put it in. So, I had mine in much faster than anticipated, which I was happy about, but it's a 30% tax credit. If you put some solar panels on the roof, it just has to be installed by 12/31. It doesn't have to pass inspection or anything as far as I know. It needs to be installed by that date. But I'll tell you, for those that are comparing this, I just got my first bill from the energy company and there still is a fee to be on their grid.

 

In Florida here, apparently with these hurricanes, there's additional fees that we're getting charged to build the grid back up and to pay for the emergency services. A funny conversation with the person, I said, "Well, when it's built back up, does this go away or whenever we're done paying for the cost of the emergency services?" Yeah, that's a good question.

 

Speaker 1:

That's a question.

 

John:

Well, let's take a look at that.

 

Speaker 1:

On ours here in North Carolina, we have storm repair tax or whatever. It's been on there for a number of years now, and it's like, but when the storms are repaired, what then? Ongoing storm.

 

John:

I'm like, "Okay, so this is just an ongoing bill-"

 

Speaker 1:

Pretty much.

 

John:

... regardless of my usage that I'm doing here.

 

Speaker 1:

Another way for them to just hit us with something and go, "Oh, but it's necessary." Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, final one here I thought was interesting was the no tax on tips one, right? Might not affect necessarily your client base, but maybe their kids or grandkids, especially a lot of service industry in Florida. So, no tax on tips up to 25 grand, I think, and that's temporary as well, but that could be interesting. Any final thoughts as we go to wrap this up guys? Anything, Nick, on something we should do now or be effective as the year's winding down?

 

Nick:

I mean, I wouldn't say that there's a lot to do before the end of the year when it relates to this. I think this is a good example though, and one of the conversations that we have with people is that just because a certain strategy is best now doesn't mean it's going to be best in 5 years or 10 years or 15 years. So, when you see a bill like this and with the different changes, something's becoming permanent, something's changing, new rules that are built into sunset, it just shows you how important it's to plan, to build in flexibility, have options both now or later on in retirement, have different buckets of money and really just have a strategy moving forward so that you can benefit no matter what's happening.

 

Speaker 1:

All right. John, final thoughts from you?

 

John:

Not too much. I think we hit mostly everything. I think just being aware of where we are. Historically, tax brackets to me is something to take a look at because I think part of this new bill added, I think, 2.4 trillion of new debt over the next 10 years and I think 4 trillion increase in debt ceiling. So, there's a lot of-

 

Speaker 1:

Future tax liability.

 

John:

There's a lot of trillions getting created here. So, just be wary of what's down the road. So, it's good to just take a look at your overall strategy.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, good point. Timelines, definitely got still a couple of years left, but just be effective and get on it as soon as possible because we all know time just zings it right by. So, if you've got some questions, need some help, reach out to the team at pfgprivatewealth.com That's pfgprivatewealth.com and have a conversation with John and Nick and the whole team today and just get started. Don't forget to subscribe to Retirement Planning Redefined on Apple or Spotify or whatever podcasting app you enjoy.

 

You can find all that information again at the website as well or check the show links. There's some just stuff in the descriptions there. So, pfgprivatewealth.com. Guys, thanks for hanging out. Appreciate it. Hope everybody has a great holiday season and happy Thanksgiving everyone. We'll see you next time here on the podcast.

 

Well, you’re retired. Now what? Some people subscribe to the “first year rule” which says that the majority of your best retirement months will all take place in the first year of retirement. So how can you be strategic during that first year and set the tone in the right way, both emotionally and financially?

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

Marc Killian:

Well, you're retired. Now what? Some people subscribe to the first year rule, which says that the majority of your best retirement months will take place in that first year. So how can we be strategic during the first year and set the tone the right way, both emotionally and financially? Let's talk about it this week here on Retirement Planning Redefined.

 

Hey everybody, welcome in once again to another edition of the podcast with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth, as we talk about the five must do categories in year one, or things at least to be thinking about when we get to that first year of retirement. John and Nick have helped many families get to and through retirement, so it's a good conversation for us to have and get some insight from the fellows this week. If you need some help, go to pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. Nick, what's going on, buddy? How are you?

 

Nick:

Good, good. Just staying busy. Can't believe it's already almost October, so time flies.

 

Marc Killian:

Yeah. By the time we drop this, it might be closer to November, so time definitely flies for sure. John, my friend, how are you doing? Are you hanging in there with the family?

 

John:

Yeah, doing well, doing well. Family's good, the girls are getting back into gymnastics, I'm trying to get them into basketball, so having some fun.

 

Marc Killian:

Okay, nice.

 

John:

Got some solar panels put up on the house before the tax credit goes away, and I'm excited to try those out, I'll keep you posted.

 

Marc Killian:

Nice. Yeah, look at that, being efficient. So share some of that information with the listeners out there in case they want to, because that's a great point, the tax credit may be going away, I think pretty soon, so maybe something worthwhile.

 

John:

Yes, end of the year.

 

Marc Killian:

Yeah. Well, let's get into this first year conversation, guys. We'll start with some financial, then we'll transition to the more touchy-feely side of things, although it's not that touchy-feely, it's just important stuff to think about. But I guess you've got to learn how to adapt, that's going to be probably the overarching theme, that first year is a heck of a gear change from the working life to the retired life, so learn how to adjust financially, I suppose. John, you want to start?

 

John:

Yeah. So the first few years, I'd have to say, are typically the most difficult for retirees to adjust. I just had a meeting actually yesterday, and the person did a great job saving, actually had a pension, good retirement accounts, and there was this fear of how much should I be spending, what should I be doing? So it was that one month, two month shock of, all right, how do I get a paycheck and what should I be doing with my time? So it's important to take a look at what was on your bucket list, what do you want to accomplish, and like we say with anything, and I know Nick's going to jump into this a little bit more, what's your strategy for income moving forward?

 

Nick:

Yeah. Especially the first year, clients tend to break into A or B as far as the structure of how they like income. So for example, we'll go through the exercise, get the expenses on paper, go through the plan so we've got a pretty good idea of what the expenses are going to look like, and then create their distribution schedule for the first year. And some people like to look at the numbers and say, let's just say that their number works out to them needing income from their investments at 8,000 a month, so some of them, and it's interesting because you kind of see the mindset, some of them will start to say, "All right, well, hey, we built in a bunch of buffers in there, I want to make sure we're not spending too much money, so let's start at 6,000 a month and let's see how that plays out over the first year."

 

And so, one of the first questions that John and I will ask them is, "Will that prevent you from having any fun or doing any of the things that you want to do?" And if it will, then we'll oftentimes suggest that they do the 8,000, and then let's review it at the end of the year and see, hey, did savings go up, did savings go down over that period of time?

 

Marc Killian:

Yeah, that makes sense, because people will often say, "Hey, let me retire on less just so I can make the numbers work," and then it's like, well, maybe you should try that for a few months too, maybe even while you're still working.

 

Nick:

Yeah. We really look at that first year as the test period, and even to the extent a suggestion that we'll make is, especially if they've got maybe multiple credit cards they've used for different things, "Hey, consolidate the house down to one card, you can have the same account for both of you, put all your expenses on there so it's easy for us to track. We'll do a data dump at the end of the year, seeing where the money's actually going." And then, all we've got to do is we look at, all right, the total withdrawals that we took, did the savings go up or did it go down? And we look at the report on that credit card, and then we can mirror the expenses moving forward on that, and we use that as a test drive.

 

Others would say, "Hey, no, I feel very comfortable, I'll still do the things that you want to do. As long as you're okay with me sending you an email and saying, 'Hey, we need 10,000 for a trip,' I'd rather manage the day-to-day expenses coming from that lower amount. And then, if we need bigger chunks to come out for different specific reasons, then we'll just message you and have you send the money."

 

Marc Killian:

Yeah, that's a great point. So that first two pieces, really, these five things we're talking about is you've got to learn how to adapt, learn how to adjust financially to that gear change, and then establish that income plan with that withdrawal strategy so that you're giving yourself the salary really is what I'm hearing, Nick. So some people... Because I was talking with somebody not too long ago about this and they were like, "My wife is super frugal, and so she's scared in that first year to spend anything." And I talked to them a little later on, and it was like, "Yeah, after seeing the salary come in from the nest egg every two weeks or once a month or whatever it was, after a couple of months, she got comfortable."

 

"Okay, well, now we can roll, now I feel better about spending."

 

So that's a great point on how to just watch that over that first year.

 

All right. So then, John, then I guess the next piece would be to maybe start to shift a little bit and start thinking about the purpose. Again, we talk about this being a gear shift in that first year, you're working, you've got your job, you've got your career, many people are all about who they are at work, so what are you retiring to? What is your purpose in retirement? That's a struggle for folks.

 

John:

It is, it is, because you're trying to figure out, where do I fit now?

 

Marc Killian:

Who am I now, kind of thing?

 

John:

Yeah. I can tell you where my parents fit, they fit watching my kids, which they tend to enjoy, so that's where some grandparents are.

 

Marc Killian:

That's where many are, sure, yeah.

 

John:

[inaudible 00:06:27] conversations that Nick and I have, it's like, "Hey, I'm going to spend some time with the grandkids and take them on vacations and watch them," so that's perfectly fine and that's where some people do find where they want to start going.

 

We have others where they look at the first 10 years of retirement as these are the years we're going to go travel and do the things we really want to do while we're healthy enough to do it, whether it's go sightseeing, go to national parks, you're going to have more energy, you can go hiking, you can do things like that, so that could be the purpose is just enjoying the next five to 10 years of really doing some physical activity vacations. Then we have some others that will join some charities that they had an affinity towards, but now they have more time to volunteer and dedicate some time to or build something or just some hobbies. I think Nick, in our classes, does a great job of talking about some different activities people can get into and some resources of now what, what do you do now when it's not time to go to work anymore?

 

Marc Killian:

Right, yep.

 

John:

I'd say the most important thing is just building a routine, so you have a purpose, you have things to do, so you're not just sitting around watching the news all day, driving yourself crazy, because I'll tell you, I think I spent... One time, I wasn't feeling too well, so I had to take a break, I put on the news and I'm like, "Uh-uh, I can't do this."

 

Marc Killian:

No. And if you're doing that with a stock ticker or any of those financial shows, that is not good either. As a person with ticker problems of my own, that's the last thing I want to watch on a daily basis is the stock ticker. So Nick, he set you up for this next one, really the fourth piece is take stock of your health. It's the perfect time in that first year, if you didn't have time to maybe better your health as your career was winding down, man, get on it that first year retirement so you can do the go-go stuff.

 

Nick:

Yeah. And a couple of things, and I'll actually bridge the purpose one and then the health almost from a mental health standpoint, one thing that I've realized recently, and even a little bit with my parents, especially because we're down here in Florida and so many people here are from somewhere else and they've got siblings, kids, whatever, in other areas... I had a conversation with my mom maybe two weekends ago, and her older brother was going to turn 70, he's still up in Rochester, and she was thinking about going up for the birthday to get together, see my grandmother, see family, all that kind of stuff, and then she started complaining about the plane ticket. And I was like, "What are we talking about, $70? Is it $70 more than you thought it was going to be?" Which now is dinner at Chipotle. So the-

 

John:

Don't get me started on it, Nick, I just had dinner at Chipotle and it was about $70.

 

Nick:

Yeah, it comes from somewhere. And the point being is oftentimes when people have moved away, they're used to the day-to-day, they're used to working, they live within their means, they're frugal with their money, they've come to a peace and understanding of, hey, I'm not going to see my family that live in different parts of the country as much, that's just part of how it is, all these sorts of things. And a one-week trip or a five-day trip or just going for a weekend, these little trips and times that you can go and spend and make memories with people oftentimes put you in a much better mindset, from a mental health standpoint, from a, hey, feeling more purpose, like, okay, yeah, I can do these things, I can spend those important times, because... And what I told her was, "You're not going to remember the $70 in six months, you're going to remember the time that you spent at the party, so just go and do it." And so, doing those things are important.

 

I would say one of the biggest positives that I'll see people do for their health as they transition into retirement is having a dog, from the social aspect, from the exercise aspect, getting out, seeing people. I think these days, the kids call it touching grass, and just there's a social aspect to it where you're interacting, because it's funny how an eight-hour day can go by quicker sitting at home on the computer or watching TV than it did when you were going to the office.

 

Marc Killian:

Yeah. And as an animal lover in that regard too, it certainly can help that population, so adopting a dog or whatever can go a long way to helping that kind of stuff, just because you've got the time now. So if you're in the right position to take care of one, that's a great way to have some... Don't be like my in-laws, my in-laws did it and they barely spent any time with the dog, so don't be that way. Do it if you're going to do it, do it right. But that's a great point.

 

Nick:

Yeah. And maybe the concern is by getting a dog that you're worried that it'll prevent you from travel or doing different things, so number one, oftentimes there's options for that, doggy daycare, all that kind of stuff, or number two is maybe it really isn't a good fit to get a dog.

 

Marc Killian:

Maybe not, right.

 

Nick:

But I can tell you there's all sorts of charity, diving into the charity aspect, where I've got friends and/or clients that will go and walk dogs at-

 

Marc Killian:

Volunteer, yeah.

 

Nick:

Yeah, volunteer, go walk the dogs for a day, you're sure to come home in a better mood, that sort of thing. So yeah, there's opportunities. We used to joke, kids and dogs, for the most part, even if they're not your own, usually those are things that people will like and you'll feel better.

 

Marc Killian:

And that's why they're cute, because that way, you don't take them out when they're little. Keep them cute, right, John? All right, John, last piece here real quick, so basically just what I'm hearing is the fifth piece is just test drive the plans, whatever they might be, whether it's a downsizing conversation or relocating or doing the snowbird thing or living on less, whatever's potentially on your radar, test drive it out, and that way, you've got a long-term plan that you have now vetted it a little bit.

 

John:

Yeah, that's really important. I think we talked about that a little bit at the beginning, is just the first year as an experiment to figure out what makes sense, what is your spending going to be, how are you adapting to that paycheck? To give you some examples of what we've seen, where people may want to move to a different area, and it's, hey, why don't you spend a summer there, do a Vrbo for two or three months and see if you like it before you make a big move? Because I'll tell you, from things we've seen, you might make a move, there's a lot of cost to moving and buying something, closing costs, furniture, and all of a sudden, it's like, hey, this isn't for me. It's hard to adjust to those mistakes, so just do a trial run of things. If you can afford it, definitely do it. And even if you can't afford it, just try to figure out a way to do the trial run before you make it permanent.

 

Marc Killian:

Yeah, don't buy the $70,000 RV if you're only going to like the RV life for about a month, maybe just rent one first and see how you like it.

 

John:

Exactly, yeah. If you find out, hey, after about six hours of driving, I can't really take this, or parking this thing, I'm hitting things.

 

Marc Killian:

Exactly.

 

John:

You've got to figure out exactly what works for you and what doesn't, and can't stress that enough is that do your plan, try things out and figure out what makes sense.

 

Marc Killian:

Indeed. Well, the habits, the routines, the choices you make early in retirement will echo through the remaining years as they roll down, so be intentional with your strategy and get a strategy. Reach out to John and Nick and get started today at PFG Private Wealth, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, and get some time onto the calendar, subscribe to the podcast, all that good stuff, so that you catch new episodes when they come out. But certainly, you want to talk about your unique situation, so reach out to them again at pfgprivatewealth.com for John and Nick. I'm your host, Marc Killian. We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined. Have a great day.

 

Medicare isn’t always as free as you think. In this episode, we'll explain IRMAA—the income-based surcharge that can raise your premiums and shrink your Social Security check. Learn what triggers it, who’s most at risk, and a few smart planning moves to help keep more money in your pocket.

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

Episode Transcript

Think Medicare is free once you hit 65. Well, not quite. If your income's too high, there's a hidden surcharge that can quietly shrink your social security check by thousands a year. It's called IRMAA, and we're going to talk about that today here on Retirement Planning Redefined. Hey everybody, welcome into the podcast. Thanks for hanging out with John and Nick and myself as we talk, investing, finance and retirement. And guys, we're going to talk about Aunt Irmaa this week instead of Uncle Sam. Seems like there's these two relatives that got their hand in your pocket. I've always been taught to call IRMAA, the Aunt Irmaa that comes by and pinches your cheeks really hard instead of the cool one that gives you candy when you're a kid. So we're going to talk about IRMAA, and what it is and why it exists and all that good stuff this week. How you doing, John?

 

John:

I'm doing all right. How are you?

 

Speaker 1:

Hanging in there. Doing pretty good. Looking forward to chatting with you guys about this, learning a little bit about what is IRMAA and what does it do to us. And Nick, my friend, how are you?

 

Nick:

Pretty good. Staying busy in the red zone for wedding planning and all that kind of stuff. And we are in football season so-

 

Speaker 1:

There you go.

 

Nick:

... I've had to adjust my sleep schedule a little bit.

 

Speaker 1:

Exactly. So between planning and football, you're burning the candle at both ends.

 

John:

Monday is a little slower for Nick-

 

Speaker 1:

Little slower. Gotcha.

 

John:

... the last three weeks, especially with the Bills, how good they look.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, my Lions look pretty good on Monday night this pastime.

 

Nick:

You sure do.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Well, let's get into the conversation a little bit, guys. What is IRMAA and why does it exist? Whoever wants to start?

 

Nick:

All right, I'll go ahead and start. So essentially IRMAA is an acronym that refers to essentially an income related monthly adjustment for the cost of Medicare part B and D. So essentially back in '03, as the plans both Medicare and social security continually get reevaluated due to the pressure that they're under from the standpoint of expenses and flows in, they decided to put this into place where to kind of tier it where people that were earning income currently, so if you're single earning income greater than 106,000 or married filing jointly earning income greater than 212,000, the premiums for part B start to go up. So this is something that we've dealt with quite a bit with clients.

 

It's based upon modified adjusted gross income, which nobody knows what that means, but it is a term that everybody's heard or most people have heard. As a reminder part A, there is no premium charge as long as you worked you or your spouse or former spouse work 40 quarters. This applies to the part B and part D. And it's not a penalty from the perspective of how they look at it. It's not like you're doing something wrong. It's more along the lines of almost just like tax brackets where lower income, lower bracket, the same thing on this, lower income, lower premium.

 

Speaker 1:

Gotcha. Yeah. And that interesting piece that catches people is that it's a two year ago look back. So they're going to adjust it based on what you made two years back. So as you move into retirement, that could feel a little... You're like, wait a minute, why is this going up? But they're looking at maybe the last couple of years.

 

Nick:

Yeah, for sure, and there is a form that people can fill out. We oftentimes help people fill them out. I think we've done it twice in the last two weeks where you can basically contest it. So especially if you've just retired and you were previously high income and they look back those two years, you can let them know that, "Hey, moving forward, this is going to be my income, it's going to be reduced."

 

Speaker 1:

Gotcha.

 

Nick:

Explain why, and oftentimes you can get it amended moving forward.

 

Speaker 1:

Okay. And John, so hit us with some numbers here. So who's at risk paying the most? Obviously, there's some data in here and Nick explained that the more you make, but what's some of those guidelines?

 

John:

Yeah. So just looking at the base levels here, single father who's modified adjusted gross income is over 106,000. Then they're going to be at risk of basically, we know it's not a penalty, but basically paying more for part B.

 

Speaker 1:

Right.

 

John:

And if you're married filing jointly, it's over 212,000. And the more you make, there's different phases of it where you might pay $74 and then it'll go up a little bit more as the modified adjusted gross income is up.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we'll talk about that here in just a second. So obviously it's not hard to get to 212 for a lot of couples, so this could impact a lot of people obviously.

 

John:

Yeah, so no, we do see this coming up quite a bit lately, and where we see it is when someone hits RMD age, where if they've been sending so much money into pre-tax buckets and all of a sudden it's, hey, you have a 50, $60,000 RMD, you have two social securities, and with the cost of living adjustments the last five or six years, some of these social security payments are getting pretty large compared to what they were about six or seven years ago, with the run-up in the market, these are getting really large. So that's where we start to really see it come into play is high income earners have been saving a lot into their pre-tax accounts, and all of a sudden, it's time to pull out of those. You can be forced into this.

 

Speaker 1:

Gotcha. Yeah.

 

Nick:

A couple other areas I would say too is if there's a situation where for whatever reason there's one spouse and a married filing jointly situation where one spouse is still working, other spouse is retired, and we've seen people, especially if they do it before they come and speak with us where they look and see like, "Oh, I should only pay the one 70 a month for part B," and not realizing that there is this test and the retired spouse goes on Medicare instead of going on their spouse that's still working's plan, health plan and not realizing that the income is going to take them over the threshold and they're going to pay more on part B than they would have if they were just a part of the plan at the work. And then...

 

Speaker 1:

It's kind of sizable too, right? I mean, you're talking-

 

Nick:

Oh, yeah.

 

Speaker 1:

... it could be some big chunks of money here.

 

Nick:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, especially if you get to... So single 167 to 200K is almost an additional $300 a month for part B and 57 on part D. So that's another $4,000 a year on an expense aside. Married filing jointly at that same amount, 334 to 400, and we'll see issues like this too, where maybe there's a small business owner or self-employed or maybe them in one or two employees and their premiums, they had been running through the business and they attempted to switch over to Medicare at 65 and/or fed some issues with people almost being, not necessarily forced, but almost forced that way with their policies when they are over the age of 65, if it's a small or a one person individual plan and not realizing that, again, that their premiums are going to be substantially higher than they expected. So it definitely happens more than people realize.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Well, John, you talked about what triggers it, a lot of the times being RMDs, people moving into that. What are some other things that might trigger IRMAA?

 

John:

Yeah. So what we've seen in the past where people run into trouble, and this is where if you listen to our podcast, we always talk about being able to prepare for unexpected events and having a balance. But let's say someone has most of their money in pre-tax and their dream home comes up and they really want to buy it and they got to jump through some hoops to potentially get it. They can afford it, but the majority of the money is in the pre-tax account and they got to pull it out, maybe a down payment or whatever it might be that could put your income up more than you expected. The unforeseen medical expenses where all of a sudden things are going along great, and emergency happens, you need to pull 20, 30 grand out to cover some medical expenses. That happened. I mean, oddly enough, I just had someone I think have to pull out almost 40, 50 grand for dental expenses unexpectedly, which as everyone knows typically not covered by any type of insurance, even if you have dental insurance, it's not covering that-

 

Speaker 1:

Right. Right.

 

John:

... what you need that for. So things come up, family emergencies. Another scenario I've seen in the past, just trying to give people some examples of things to consider before they make any moves that are permanent. Home sales, let's say if you had a second property, you've been depreciating it and all of a sudden it's like, "Yeah, it's time to sell this," or you're forced to sell it. There could be some pretty large capital gains that would actually put you above these thresholds as well.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So basically it's income generating items, right? That's what's going to trigger it. So I guess the opposite being said, Nick, is that things like Roth IRA withdrawals for example, wouldn't trigger it, right? Because it's tax, it's not against your income.

 

Nick:

Yeah, Roth IRA withdrawals, HSA distributions, income that you might receive from a reverse mortgage and then a life insurance policy loan are all things that could be helpful. One thing I'll say additionally is in line with this and with some of the reasons that will cause this. We've had clients quite a bunch recently where they've got substantial non-qualified money, so non-retirement money and they're looking to get a new home and/or they're in the process of selling their current home, looking at the new home, trying to avoid costs associated with mortgage, et cetera. And instead of selling the holdings, which oftentimes, especially over the last 3, 4, 5 years have substantial gains built in that then have this cascading effect that would impact this and that sort of thing where we've been using essentially what's called a pledge asset line or a line of credit on non-retirement accounts.

 

So they can take a loan bridge that period of time, get the access to the funds, have to pay interest, but it's non-taxable transaction, and then use that money, do it, wait for the sale of the original property and then just pay back the loan. And that's a perfect example of where with IRMAA where that could be an unforeseen consequence of somebody just maybe doing a traditional way, "Hey, I've got this money here, I'm just going to cash out. Yeah, I'll have to pay taxes." But that's in their case or their thought process, they might prefer that versus having to get a mortgage or paying a bunch of extra fees and expenses associated with the mortgage or having to go through the process of underwriting, et cetera, and this additional impact on IRMAA for a year.

 

Speaker 1:

Gotcha.

 

Nick:

So yeah, it's just one of those things where it's almost like a multiplier effect that falls down and just kind of a snowball going downhill.

 

Speaker 1:

Well, let's talk a few strategies guys as we wrap up this week on ways to maybe avoid or at least lower IRMAA, again, if it's income related. Obviously, John, you talked about the RMDs. Obviously, conversion could be one way to do that, a Roth conversion. Yeah?

 

John:

Yeah. And this goes back to the stressing, making sure that you have a plan in place to adjust to any situation. So what we find is let's say someone retires 62, 64 when we're doing the plan, we can estimate their taxes, what they're going to be now and in the future. And if we see a period where it's like five or six, seven years before RMD age is like, "Hey, we could start doing some Roth conversions here," and what we'll do is we'll estimate how much of a conversion to do to make sure they don't jump up into a higher tax bracket. So what that will do, ultimately, it'll give them a little bit more tax-free income so we don't trigger the IRMAA and then also it will lower their RMD. So IRMAA doesn't get triggered by that. So again, that's a great way to try to avoid any future IRMAA surprises basically.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Yeah. And Nick, what's some other ones besides that? I mean, obviously, that's going to be probably a bigger one for many people, but I mean like tax loss harvesting, things of that nature.

 

Nick:

Yeah. So if you have non-qualified assets and you're working with somebody that manages your account and/or you're handling it yourself, you want to make sure that you're taking advantage of tax loss harvesting in that account. Inevitably, any portfolio is going to have some winners and losers at the end of the year. If you can sell off some of the losers to offset previously recognized gains and/or get yourself some losses on paper to use to offset future gains, that's something that you can absolutely do. The qualified charitable deduction, being able to send money directly from your IRA qualified charitable distribution to reduce your taxable portion of the RMD that you have to take can be a great tool as well.

 

So you just want to... We always talk about with clients that it's really essential, should we have the time, you really want to have the three buckets of assets to generate income and retirement, those being pre-tax Roth and unqualified assets. And this is kind of a perfect example. I had a conversation with a client earlier, them just wrapping their mind around, hey, a distribution from a non-retirement account doesn't necessarily mean that it's taxable. And oftentimes those are some of the most flexible accounts and could provide quite a bit of a lot of different options on how to take income and reduce some of these hidden expenses like IRMAA.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So, I mean, it's a sneaky one that can get some folks, and again, we want to make sure we're being as efficient as possible with anything, and that's why a good strategy for your situation is important. I mean, these things can exist to affect all of us, but how you handle it, how you work with it, and based on your income and so on and so forth, and how you're pulling money and where you're pulling money and when you're pulling money can go a long way. So it's something worthwhile to make sure you're sitting down and having a conversation about that hidden Medicare penalty, if you will. However, you want to look at it. It's still something that frustrates people.

 

So if you need some help, get yourself onto the calendar. Don't let it sneak up on you and eat into your income. Reach out to Nick and John and have a chat today at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com or call them at 813-286-7776. That's 813-286-7776. Or again, just go to pfgprivatewealth.com, schedule that 15-minute chat, have that 15-minute chat and subscribe to the podcast on whatever app you enjoy using, Apple, Spotify, so on and so forth. Guys, thanks for hanging out and breaking it down. Always appreciate it. We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

 

We're excited to welcome back estate planning attorney Bill McQueen of Legacy Protection Lawyers! This episode dives into common estate planning mistakes, the nuances of trusts versus wills, and strategies to protect your assets and heirs. From funding trusts correctly to understanding step-up in basis, Medicaid planning, and safeguarding inheritances from creditors, Bill breaks down complex topics in a clear, practical way.

 

Learn more about Bill and Legacy Protection Lawyers

Contact info: www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com
Phone 727-471-5868

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

Marc:

It's time once again for another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick, Financial advisors at PFG Private Wealth. Find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. And we're excited to have our guest speaker, Bill McQueen, back with us to continue our conversation about estate planning, and trusts, and probate, and all these pieces that we need when it comes to our retirement strategies. And, of course, Bill is from Legacy Protection Lawyers based out of St. Petersburg, Florida, and we appreciate your time once again. Bill, welcome in. How are you?

 

Bill McQueen:

Doing wonderful. Thank you.

 

Marc:

Absolutely. Good to have you back. Nick, my friend. What's going on this week? You doing all right?

 

Nick:

Oh, yeah, just fighting the Florida heat.

 

Marc:

Well, if you picked Florida, right, it's hot.

 

Nick:

I will lose. Yeah, I will lose, for sure.

 

Marc:

I mean, versus Buffalo, right? You got your choice there.

 

Nick:

Yeah. Rochester, yeah, close enough. But, yeah-

 

Marc:

Oh, yeah. Okay.

 

Nick:

... for sure. This time of year, I'd rather be there, but it's understandable.

 

Marc:

Par for the course? All right, I got you. Well, we're happy to have Bill back. And, of course, if you guys have questions about estate planning, definitely reach out to he and his team at LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. That's LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. And Bill, we were talking a lot about, obviously, trusts and funding them, and all the different kind of pieces that go in there. So, on this final episode, this part four of the series, we want to talk about some of the common mistakes and things that you guys see as professionals, then try to help people avoid these or highlight some of the things. So, we talked as we finished off about the funding issue of a trust. What are some other common mistakes that you tend to see?

 

Bill McQueen:

First off, I would say it might not be considered a common mistake, but a common misconception. A lot of people who think that, "Well, hey, I've created this revocable trust, and so my assets aren't in my individual name. Now they're held by my trust. And so, if something were to happen and I were to be sued, for some reason, my wealth is protected inside this trust." And unfortunately, that's not the case with a revocable trust. Again, the revocable trust just acts as a substitute for your last will and testament. And because the person who creates it has so much control over those assets, they can do anything they want with those assets. If somebody were to sue them, there'd be a lawsuit of some sort, and a judgment was entered against that person who created that trust. Those creditors can get at those assets that are inside the revocable trust no differently than if they were held in the person's individual name. So, that's something that we always need to advise clients that they're well aware of. There may be other ways to protect their wealth from creditors, but putting them in a revocable trust does not give them credit or protection from that standpoint.

 

The other thing that comes up fairly frequently is, I have real estate, and should I put it in my revocable trust or not? If that real estate is something that's not your primary home or your residence here in Florida, we would definitely say do that, and especially if the clients own real estate outside the state of Florida. They might have a vacation home in North Carolina or something like that. If they own that home in their individual name and they die, and we're using a will-based plan, not only are we going to have to do a probate administration down here in the state of Florida, but we're also going to have to do one in the state of North Carolina as well, a second one, because each state's very protective of their real estate. Whereas if they go ahead and deed that real estate into the revocable trust, then we avoid probate both in Florida and in North Carolina.

 

The issue, though, as to the primary residence, because under Florida law or Constitution, that's considered your homestead, and there are certain benefits that come from that, like a tax break, and it makes your home creditor protected, there are some restrictions on where your homestead can go, who can get it after your death if you're survived by a spouse or minor children. And so, that comes into play as to can we put that home into the revocable trust? And it used to be we would usually advise people not to do that if they're married because of these restrictions that were involved. Now we can do it if it's done properly, but there needs to be some special waiver language and things that are included in the deed. And unfortunately, if somebody puts it into their trust and they don't do the deed properly, then when they die, it's considered what we call an invalid devise. And that home may be going to people other than where they wanted it to go underneath the terms of their trust. So you can do it, and we do it for clients, but you definitely want to make sure you're getting good advice when you're setting something up like that.

 

Nick:

Yeah, I would say that's one of the most common questions that people have. Oftentimes, what leads people to act, obviously, hopefully, it's from working with advisors and stuff like that, but people talk amongst themselves. A lot of times, it's friend or family that are like, "Hey, my brother just retired and they got a trust put into place. Do you think I should do something like that?" And sometimes, the answer's like, "Well, hey, we've been telling you to do it for the last 10 years. But also, yes, there's things that can make sense to do, but you need to make sure that you work with somebody to understand the nuances." Because I would say one of the most common mistakes that people make is when they do talk with their peers, siblings, etc., that oftentimes they don't understand the dynamics between the differences of their situations. And so, somebody like Bill and the people at Bill's team can help walk them through how that works. And the majority of people, no matter what the situation is, when they're working with an advisor or an attorney, they have some sort of real estate holding, and so that's often one of the most common questions.

 

Marc:

Yeah. No, it makes sense. With you asking that and talking about that, Nick, Bill, what's your thoughts on people who say, "Well, who should draft this?" Right? Or, "Can I just go on to one of these, for lack of a better term, robo-advisors or robo-lawyers?" Right? I mean, you should be sitting down with an attorney in your area because state to state, law is probably a little bit different. I'm sure there's some things that are probably the same from place to place, but you want to make sure you're getting advice on your specific situation, not one of these cookie-cutter type deals.

 

Bill McQueen:

No, a really good point. Estate planning is specific per the state where you're residing, and that's the laws that will apply at the time of your death, so it is important that you're talking to an attorney who is licensed in that particular state where you live. But I would definitely advise against a do-it-yourself estate plan.

 

Marc:

Right.

 

Bill McQueen:

And there are a lot of, especially with the internet nowadays, various online programs where you can draft your own will or trust. The big problem with that is you'll never know if you're the drafter of a do-it-yourself will or trust, whether you did it right, because we won't know that. We won't implement it until after your death.

 

Marc:

And you won't know until it's too late. Well, it's too late for you, obviously, but your heirs are suffering. Right?

 

Bill McQueen:

So, if there's problems with it, we can't go back and correct it or change it. So that's very important. I also always tell people it would be ... I highly recommend you go to somebody who specializes in the area of trust and estates planning. You wouldn't want me to handle a criminal law matter for you, and you probably don't want a criminal lawyer to try to draft your will or trust.

 

And just to show you what the problems can be, as recently as within the last decade here in our state of Florida, our Florida Supreme Court had a case, that's our highest court here in Florida, where a lady drafted her own will. Actually, I think it was pre-internet. It was a form will or whatnot, but she left out of that will what we call the residuary provision, which is where the remainder of her estate goes, and that's where the bulk of her estate would go. And it was very clear, the court said, that her intentions were to leave it to her sister, but that's not what the will said. It was done improperly. And so the wealth went to someone else, and the court said they felt really bad about that, but they have to go with what the will said. And the will was validly executed and everything. It just wasn't properly constructed, and so, unfortunately, her estate went somewhere other than where she wanted it to go, and we don't want that to happen.

 

Marc:

Yeah. In a world where we can turn to the internet for so much stuff, there's just certain areas where I feel like it's just not a good idea. Right? Legally has got to be one of those. It's got to be the tops for a lot of those things. Nick, what else?

 

Nick:

Yeah. And these things tie together a little bit. I was having a conversation with a client the other day, and I've seen this in other instances, where clients in their 40s, the parents of the clients are in their 70s, and there's some concern on future healthcare planning. And from the standpoint of the transition potentially to Medicaid and/or titling assets, whether it's a home, whether it's other types of assets like investments, so obviously non-retirement, putting the kids on accounts to try to protect those assets per se and the future inheritance while somebody to qualify. Now, I know this is a long, convoluted thing, but I guess, just in general, especially in the state of Florida, maybe helping people understand is that primary homestead residence protected and/or just the definition or an explanation of step up in cost basis and how big of a deal that can be to somebody down the road. I know it's a lot there, so break it up and down, whatever.

 

Bill McQueen:

That was a lot, Nick. The issue regarding Medicaid, what I would say there is if we have clients where somebody, a parent, has maybe been diagnosed with early onset of dementia or something like that, so there's a high likelihood that they are going to need long-term care in the future. When that arises, they'd like to qualify for Medicaid as soon as possible. We can help them do that through using a trust. It's an irrevocable form of a trust where we can move assets that otherwise would be what we call countable assets, meaning that the government says you have to spend those assets first before Medicaid will take over and start paying for the long-term care. And we can move them into this irrevocable trust so that when they do reach that stage that they need the long-term care, hopefully, they can qualify right away. And this wealth that's in this trust will then ultimately still be there and able to go on to their kids rather than go to pay for the nursing home care.

 

That, though, has to be done well in advance of qualifying for Medicaid or trying to, basically, five years in advance. So, this is definitely a very proactive, forward-looking planning-type procedure. And it's not something that can be done once they need to get on Medicaid right away or on the near-term standpoint from that part of the equation. Here's my basic advice. Whether it's Medicaid or anything else, people will say, "Hey, well, what I'm going to do, I'm going to put my children's names on accounts with me in joint names, so one, they can maybe help pay my bills and stuff like that. Two, when I die, that asset will just pass by operational law to my child, so it won't go through the probate process, and I don't have to worry about probate."

 

I highly advise clients typically not to do that. One: when you put your child's name on that account with you jointly, at least as to regards to the bank or the brokerage house, that child now has the right to take all those funds that are in that account. Hopefully, they won't do that while you're still alive, but that could possibly happen. But two, the child might get sued or go through a divorce, and somebody else now might be trying to take those funds that are in the parent's account. So we would highly advise against that and instead, let that child maybe be given a durable power of attorney that I think Nicole spoke with you about in one of the earlier episodes so that they can help pay bills and do stuff like that, but they have no ownership rights in those accounts that maybe somebody else could get at those accounts that the parents will need before their death.

 

One big thing for estate tax or death tax planning purposes, the amount of wealth now that people can leave at their death or give away during their lifetime is at an all-time high watermark. Very few people pay federal estate taxes anymore, less than one-tenth of 1% of the US population. And here in Florida, as a Florida resident, all we're concerned about is the federal estate tax laws. So, instead, what we focus on is income tax planning for our clients. And so it would be much better for actually those parents not to, for instance, give away assets before they die to their children because what happens is if the parents die owning assets that have a lot of appreciation in them, that's been unrealized, and by example, maybe they've got a house that they bought for $200,000 30 years ago that today is worth a couple of million dollars here in Florida, if they give that house away to the child before their death, the child gets what we call a basis in that asset that's a carryover basis. It's equal to the $200,000 the parents paid for it.

 

And so, if the children ever sell that house, maybe after the parents die, they're going to have to recognize income tax or capital gains tax on that million eight of gain. If instead they hold onto the home, the parents, and when they die, they leave it to the children, that home then gets a step-up in basis for income tax purposes to what the house is worth at the time of the parent's death, the $2 million. So if the children sell the house soon after their parent died, they're going to pay no income tax, no capital gains tax, they get the full $2 million, and Uncle Sam doesn't take any of it in the form of income taxes. So, it's very important that people be cognizant of what the potential income tax effects could be if they're talking about giving away assets prior to their death versus holding onto them and passing them to their beneficiaries after death.

 

Marc:

Yeah, tax efficiency, right? It's just as important when we're no longer here, and our heirs would certainly appreciate that as well. Any final thoughts or anything that I didn't cover, Bill, that you'd like to share with folks when it comes to estate planning in general and what you guys do at your firm?

 

Bill McQueen:

Sure. I guess one thing I would just mention, and we've talked a lot about probate avoidance, but with a trust, a trust can do a whole lot more. And I guess I would just give one example. It's not uncommon for us to have families nowadays that are often blended families, so it's a married couple and they have children from earlier marriages. For those of my generation that grew up watching The Brady Bunch, a family like that. And by using a trust properly, what usually most married couples want to do, one thing we don't know from an estate planning standpoint which spouse is going to die first. And usually, the spouses want to make sure the surviving spouse is well taken care of for his or her remaining lifetime, and then the assets go down to all of their children from both sides of the family.

 

So, one way to do that is just when the first spouse dies, they leave everything outright to the surviving spouse, with the hope and understanding they're going to leave everything to all six children in this example. But what can happen is when they do that and they leave the assets to the surviving spouse, that now becomes his or her assets. And again, they can change their estate plan after that first spouse died. Instead, what can be done through that revocable trust is we leave assets into a new trust, a marital trust for the benefit of that surviving spouse, so he or she's well taken care of for the rest of their life, but that trust, that marital trust, is irrevocable. And so, the first spouse to die knows their surviving spouse is going to be well taken care of, but they also know when the surviving spouse dies, where the assets are going to go, and it's locked in that it will go to their children as well and not just maybe the surviving spouse's children.

 

And then the last thing I would say is when we pass the assets to the children, often, most people think the easiest thing is just to leave assets to the children outright. And that can be done that way, but it's often not the most effective. Often, nowadays, we will leave the assets to the children in a trust, and we'll let the children be the trustee of their own trust so they get their share of the inheritance. They have it in their own trust that they're the trustee of, but this type of trust does give that child asset protection. So, if the child ever gets sued during their lifetime, be it age 25 or 85, a creditor can't get at the inheritance inside that trust.

 

Also, if the child is married or gets married and unfortunately goes through a divorce, their former spouse has no rights to the assets inside this trust either, because legally, the child does not own those assets individually. They're owned by this trust that the child controls and the child's the primary beneficiary of, but it's insulated from what I'll call bad people being able to get at their inheritance from that standpoint. So, that's really how we try to protect that inheritance and pass it down to the people we want and keep those creditors and predators away from their inheritance from that standpoint.

 

Marc:

Got you. Yeah. I'll ask you this final question, and I set Nicole up with this as well. Just in general, I think, mindsets have changed through the years, but people often, many years ago, thought, "Well, you have to be really wealthy to A, have a financial advisor, and B, have a trust. You must be a Rockefeller or something like that." And that's just not the case anymore. So, are you seeing more people starting to realize or understand that this could be a useful tool for them in working with someone, and not just something for the ultrarich?

 

Bill McQueen:

Oh, definitely. We serve clients of all different sizes and net worths, and I tell my clients there is no bright line test as to when it makes sense to have a trust as your primary estate planning document versus a will. But if I had to use a rule of thumb, I would say if somebody has assets that are over a couple of hundred thousand dollars, it probably is more beneficial to use a trust as the primary estate planning document rather than a will because, again, looking back to my youth, there used to be a commercial, the Fram oil filter commercial, that they always said, "Pay me now or pay me later."

 

Marc:

Right, yeah.

 

Bill McQueen:

Yes, putting a trust-based plan into place is probably more expensive than a will-based plan, but it's not that much more expensive, and all the benefits you get far exceed the cost of when they do die, what it's going to cost going through the probate process. So, just looking at it from a cost factor alone, I would say most anybody would pretty much benefit from having a trust-based plan versus a will-based plan.

 

Marc:

Bill, does that include the home value as well? Obviously, those have skyrocketed the past few years, so it'd be pretty easy to get to a couple of hundred grand.

 

Bill McQueen:

It would, yes. And I would include the home value in that as well, yes.

 

Marc:

Okay. All right, Nick, any final thoughts from you before we go?

 

Nick:

Really, I think the takeaway, and a lot of things have been pointed out, and something that we try to emphasize with people, whether it's financial planning, whether it's legal planning, is that strategy and how just a couple of decisions can make a dramatic impact on somebody's overall situation and plan. Oftentimes, and Mark, you alluded to it, where people, for many years, had this perception of, whether it's an advisor or an attorney, it's something that only people with really substantial amounts of money have. And if anything, people with substantial amounts of money, they have a bigger buffer. You know what I mean? And can make more mistakes and recover, but really, a handful of decisions for a typical client that's worked hard their whole life, saved a whole bunch, paid off their house, want to enjoy their retirement and hopefully pass on some money to their kids, they can really benefit from strategy planning and adapting to what's going on.

 

Marc:

Yeah. For lack of a better term, Middle America, right? I mean, a lot of folks in Middle America could certainly use a team, a financial and legal team. And so, if you need some help, reach out to, of course, Bill and Nicole and their team there at Legacy Protection Lawyers. That's LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. That's where you can find them online, Legacyprotectionlawyers.com, or call 727-471-5868. We'll put a link in the show descriptions of this week's podcast as well. And you can also, as always, go to Pfgprivatewealth.com to get in touch with John and Nick. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, Retirement Planning Redefined, on Apple, or Spotify, or whatever podcasting app you enjoy using. Bill, thank you so much for your time. Great information. We really enjoyed having you here.

 

Bill McQueen:

Thanks for having me, Mark and Nick, appreciate it very much. Enjoy it.

 

Nick:

Thanks, Bill.

 

Marc:

And we'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

This episode, we welcome estate planning attorney Bill McQueen of Legacy Protection Lawyers to break down the essentials of trusts and why they matter. Bill explains the key differences between wills and trusts, clears up common misconceptions, and highlights the importance of properly titling assets to avoid probate. You’ll also learn why beneficiary designations can override your trust, the pitfalls of leaving your trust unfunded, and how working with both financial advisors and attorneys ensures your plan truly carries out your wishes.

 

Learn more about Bill and Legacy Protection Lawyers

Contact info: www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com
Phone 727-471-5868

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

 

Marc:

Time once again for another edition of Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. We're continuing our conversation, our great conversation, with the folks from Legacy Protection Lawyers. Nicole Cleland was on the podcast, and Bill McQueen is going to be joining us now on this episode as we talk a little bit more in-depth about what they do, and some of the differences when it comes to getting these financial and legal documents into place. As always, Nick's here with me. Nick, my friend, how are you doing?

 

Nick:

Doing great. How about yourself?

 

Marc:

Doing pretty good. We had John on the last episode, so good to have you here with us, and Bill McQueen is joining us. So Bill, welcome in. Thanks for being here.

 

Bill:

It's my pleasure. Thank you all for having me.

 

Marc:

Absolutely. Looking forward to chatting with you. And again, you guys are from Legacy Protection Lawyers, and you can find you guys online at LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. That's LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. Give us a little background on you, Bill. You've been doing this for how long, and all that good stuff. Tell us a little bit about you first.

 

Bill:

Certainly. Well, I've actually been an attorney for almost 40 years, but I sort of had a circuitous professional career. I was a CPA for my first few years out of undergrad and then I went back to law school, practiced law for about seven years, but then I actually ran a family business. My father died when I was getting out of law school, so I took over a family business and ran that for about 15 years, and then came back to the practice of law about 15 years ago now, after I got a Master's of Law in Estate Planning, and so that's where my full focus has been over the last 15 years or so.

 

Marc:

Nice. Gotcha. Yeah, I mean, so obviously you've been doing this for a while, and you guys work with Nick and John, occasionally helping them out with some of their client situations as well?

 

Bill:

Yes, yes. We work closely with Nick and John and they help our clients out with financial planning and wealth management, and we help out in the estate planning arena when his clients need that.

 

Marc:

Nice. Nick, how long have you guys known each other?

 

Nick:

Bill, when you said 15 years, I was thinking about that, so I think it's got to be close to 10 years, something like that? Around 10 years?

 

Bill:

Been at least that, because I started the firm back up in, I guess, 2013, so too soon after that. I met you through your other former partner and we started doing seminars and stuff together.

 

Nick:

Sure [inaudible 00:02:11]

 

Marc:

We all lose time in that COVID era, right? It seems like everybody always does that. We're thinking about time and we're like, "Oh, man, there's like a three, four-year window I've lost when trying to think of some things." Well, let's get into our conversation today.

 

When Nicole was on, we kind of left off, Bill, where she was talking a lot about probate. She went through a lot of great topics and kind of broke some stuff down for us, needing an estate plan, what makes an effective estate plan, things of that nature. We kind of wrapped up a little bit on the probate conversation, and then we started to get into trusts, and she said you were the man when it comes to talking about trusts, so we thought we'd kind of kick things off there. So, tell us a little about what is a trust and just kind what some of the, I guess, misnomers that come with that conversation, or with that word.

 

Bill:

Sure. Well, actually, technically or legally, a trust is actually a relationship where legal title of the assets are held by one individual or an entity for the benefit of somebody else. But I tell people, "The easiest way to think of a trust is more analogize it to like creating a corporation or a limited liability company." Again, technically it's not an entity. We typically use trusts so that, as Nicole mentioned, I'm sure during the episodes that she was on with you, a last will and testament only controls where assets that are titled in somebody's individual name go.

 

But in order to get those assets to the desired beneficiaries after the owner dies, we have to go through the court system to do that. And so many, if not most, of our clients instead use a substitute for a will, which is a trust, or a revocable trust, which allows us to take assets that are in somebody's individual or joint name and retitle them into this trust while they're alive so that when they die, the trust is basically still alive and it can direct where the assets go, but we don't have to get the courts involved, which obviously saves a lot of money, time, and keeps everything private.

 

Marc:

Yeah, I think that's a big piece for people too is the difference when going through probate ... And I was telling Nicole, she said she was going to steal this from me and use it, and I said, "Hey, go ahead." But I was like, I was always taught that a will just means you will go through probate, and she's like, "Oh, I like that." And obviously that's public record, whereas if you do a trust, you can kind of keep those things private from creditors and things of that nature, correct?

 

Bill:

Yes. Oftentimes people think, "Well, I have a will, so because I have a will, I'll avoid probate," and that's not the case. It's all how the assets are titled. So, if they have a will, they're executing their privilege to sort of personalize their estate plan where assets go. Otherwise, if they have something in their individual name and they don't have a will, then Florida law basically gives them a will and says where the assets will go. But in either instance, we got to go through the court system.

 

With a trust, we don't, and the trust definitely does remain private, so we do not have to posit a trust instrument if things are done correctly with the court system, as we do with a will. When somebody dies, by law, at least here in Florida, whoever has their original will or comes across it is required to posit it with the court in the county where they were residing at the time of their death, and at that time it becomes a public document. So, anybody, be that the nosy neighbor or the newspapers, reporters or whoever, could go down to the courthouse and read your will, see where you're leaving your assets, maybe who you're not leaving assets to, and even get some sense of what your assets are. That's not the case when we use a revocable trust. All of that remains private.

 

Nick:

And just for clarity, for most of the people listening, the terminology, and correct me if I'm wrong, Bill. But the most popular or frequently used sorts of trusts are either living trusts or revocable trusts, which oftentimes are the jargon or the terminology goes hand-in-hand with each other, just from the standpoint of sometimes we've had clients confused between the difference of the two, or if there is a difference between those.

 

Bill:

Right. That's right, Nick. Actually, when we talk about trusts, there can be trusts that are revocable trust, also revocable trust, I guess potato, potato, but a trust that's revocable, which also sometimes is called a living trust or even a living revocable trust. But then there can be trusts that are irrevocable, and those are much more often used for more advanced planning type techniques, be that asset protection or estate tax minimization, or planning for nursing home care in the future, Medicaid planning.

 

But when most people talk about, "Oh, I have a trust as part of my estate plan," we're talking about a revocable trust. And so like a will, when somebody creates a revocable trust, they keep a lot of control over that, and they have the ability to amend the trust document at any point in time in the future. So, if they like their son-in-law today, but maybe they don't like their son-in-law somewhere down in the future, they can change the trust and take the son-in-law out. They can even revoke the trust in its entirety if they want to, and if that were to happen, the assets would come back into their individual or joint name. So, when we're typically talking about estate planning, we're talking about a revocable trust, which again is just really a substitute for a last will and testament, because it's going to direct where the assets go once you die.

 

When you have a revocable trust, sort of to give a little more clarity on it, typically, when someone sets up a revocable trust, the person who creates the trust serves as the trustee of the trust while they're alive. And the role of trustee is sort of similar to being the president of the corporation, if we're thinking of it like an entity, so that trustee has the authority to deal with those assets in the trust. What the trust says is that while the person who created the trust is alive, they can do anything they want with the assets in that trust, so they can consume them, they can give them away, they can put other assets in the trust, they can make loans or sell assets, just like they could if they were in their individual name.

 

But then the trust goes on to say, "If the person becomes incapacitated or they die, here's what happens to the assets now," and that's when we put the same types of terms that we would normally put it in their will into that trust document. And so, the fact that when they die, they don't have any assets in their individual name, hopefully they're all in this trust, or they have beneficiary designations that put them into the trust, then those assets will go to where they want them to go, but we don't have to get the court system involved again.

 

Marc:

Gotcha. Yeah, when you started talking about that, I was going to ask you, sometimes people ... For folks who don't deal in this world, or very often, we hear about being the executor of an estate, right? Is that different when you're kind of in charge of the trust? Are those terms interchangeable, or is that different?

 

Bill:

No, good question. The executor is the common name for who would administer a probate estate or be in charge of a probate estate if you had a will and the assets were going through the court system. Here in Florida, we call that role something else, but it's the exact same thing as an executor. We call it the personal representative of the estate.

 

A trustee is similar to that role of executor, but the trustee is in charge of assets that are in the trust or owned by the trust, and so they're not assets going through the probate. So, both the trustee of a trust-based plan does pretty much the same types of things when someone dies as the executor or personal representative of a estate would have to do, a probate estate, if we're using a will. And what I mean by that is, your revocable trust is responsible for paying any and all valid creditors that the deceased individual might've had at the time of their death, just like what happens with a probate system. And the trustee is also responsible to make sure that the deceased individual's, all of their tax returns have been filed and taxes have been paid, things of that nature. So, they do a lot of the same sorts of things like an executor.

 

But again, they're handling that initial administration outside of the court system, and so we can start right away. We're not waiting for a court to appoint the person as trustee. In fact, on the day the individual who created the trust dies, we could appoint the successor trustee on that day even, because again, we don't have to get the court involved, and we can start paying creditors and making sure all the tax returns are filed and taxes are paid, and we're not waiting on the court system to handle all this. So, things go a lot quicker and smoother from that standpoint.

 

Marc:

Gotcha. Okay. Do you set up beneficiaries kind of the same way you would do with other things, and I guess you're putting all the different assets under the trust umbrella, and then you have beneficiaries for individual items? Or is it like an overview in the trust, if that makes sense?

 

Bill:

I mean, what happens is, again, it sort of could mimic what's in somebody's will if they're using a will.

 

Marc:

Okay. Gotcha.

 

Bill:

But what happened would be ideally, we're either going to put all the assets into the trust during the person's lifetime, or there's some assets we can't put into a trust. They have to stay in the individual's name during their lifetime. The most common one for that would be retirement accounts. IRAs or 401k plans have to stay in the individual name of the owner or the participant under the plan up until their death, but we can direct those assets by a beneficiary designation into the trust once the individual dies, so we avoid the probate process by doing that.

 

Marc:

Gotcha.

 

Bill:

We may very well name individual beneficiaries, and occasionally, there might be specific assets that people want to leave to certain individuals, and so we would put those specific provisions in the trust document. Maybe they want to leave this house to somebody, their boat or some other piece of real estate or something of that nature. There might also be specific cash gifts they want to make. And then ultimately, we have what is typically referred to as the residuary of the estate, everything else that's left over, where does that go?

 

We more often use percentages of somebody's estate when we're putting together an estate plan rather than specific assets or specific dollar amounts. And the reason we advise to do that is because whenever we're doing an estate planning, I tell people, "We're taking a photograph or a snapshot of what your life looks like today, what your assets are, what the current law is, who do you want to benefit, things of that nature. But hopefully, we're not going to have to use these instruments until somewhere far out into the future, and we just don't know what your estate might look like when that day comes, your death, that we have to now implement the plan."

 

And if somebody is making a large gift, let's say today their estate's worth $3 million or something, and they're going to give away $1 million to somebody, and then the rest they want divided among their children. If due to healthcare or other reasons, their estate goes down in value before they die to maybe it's only $1,000,001 when they die, that individual's still going to get the million dollars, and then their children are only going to split $100,000 versus the $2 million that they thought they were going to split when they put the plan in place. If instead they use percentages rather than specific dollar amounts, then it doesn't matter as much whether their estate goes up in value or goes down in value. At least regarding the relative size of the gifts, they'll be the same, and so that's usually an approach we would prefer to take, really, than using specific dollar amounts for gifts within a trust.

 

Nick:

And I'll jump in on that a little bit too.

 

Bill:

Yeah, please.

 

Nick:

Just because oftentimes, from a front line standpoint as an advisor, we're sitting with clients and they're adjusting beneficiaries. So one example of a conversation I've had with a client is, so maybe they have a 401k at a previous company and maybe it's a couple hundred thousand bucks, and they have a beneficiary listed there. And then they have a second 401k that they've had at their current employer for the past few years, and there's less money in there, and so people tend to segment accounts in their minds. And so they'll say, "Well, I'll put this other person on this one, because I have my sister or my brother or ..." on the first one.

 

Just them not thinking that, "Well, hey, later on in life, things may be consolidated," or you may spend from one account before you spend from another account, and using the percentage kind of strategy tends to be much more effective for people. And just to kind of jump on that beneficiary side of things too, because I know that you guys run into this and we run into it, but I think one of the things worth mentioning is, and you can kind of walk us through it more thoroughly, Bill, is just the conflict between beneficiaries listed on an account and a trust, and how one can supersede the other, because maybe somebody didn't update their beneficiaries or things like that.

 

Bill:

Sure. When somebody dies, how assets can pass are in one of three ways, but one of the ways is by contract law, and those are assets that you can put a beneficiary designation on. And I mentioned earlier, retirement accounts are common accounts that you really need to put a beneficiary designation on. But on a lot of financial accounts, be that a bank account or a savings account or a brokerage account, if somebody wants to, they can hold that account in their individual name, but they can put a beneficiary designation on those that are referred to like a pay on death designation if it's a bank account, or a transfer on death designation if it's a securities or brokerage account. And what that means is that when the owner of that account dies, by contract law, the institution agrees to pay that account to whoever their named beneficiary is. All they have to do is take a death certificate to the institution, and that becomes that beneficiary's account.

 

The issue that people need to keep in mind, though, is sometimes people put beneficiary designations on assets, and yet let's say they have three children, and then through their will or their trust, they say, "When I die, I want to leave everything equally to my three kids," but for whatever reason, they put a beneficiary designation on an account that named just one of the three children. Legally, that one child will inherit that account, because that's what's going to control that account, that beneficiary designation. And it doesn't matter what their will or trust says, because it will pass outside of going through the probate process, and it also won't go through the trust if it's an account that was in their individual name with a beneficiary designation in favor of one individual.

 

And so, people need to make sure when they're doing their estate plan that everything lines up and is in alignment, as far as accounts, if they have beneficiary designations on them, that they agree with whatever their trust or will that they're using calls for. Or at least they have an understanding of how that's going to flow. I don't know if that's what you're referring to [inaudible 00:17:13]

 

Nick:

Yeah, yeah, just kind of the uniformity and the importance of, I think, from the extent from how we see things, that a lot of times as an advisor we suggest to a client to get an estate plan done, and then we stand ready, willing, and able to help them implement, like retitling accounts in the name of a trust or updating beneficiaries. But there's instances where not all the accounts are through us or just different things that happen. And so that implementation, that second phase is super important, and I think people do kind of tend to assume that, well, hey, if I have my trust and I've gone through and I've done this process and I've written out exactly what I want to happen in my trust, then all my accounts should just automatically follow those rules. And I think people understanding that that's not the case, that a beneficiary designation on an account can supersede a trust, is super important, especially if it happens to be an ex-spouse or something like that, which is not a great situation. So, I just wanted to bring that up.

 

Marc:

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And what we'll do is we'll do one more question here and then we'll wrap this episode up, and that way we keep these at a normal timeframe, and then we'll have Bill back on again for a continuing session to chat some more about this topic. One of the things I was going to ask you when you guys were running through some of this stuff, and I've heard this before from other advisors, that a common mistake is that you go through the time and the effort to get a trust put together, Bill, and then people don't fund the trust. Can you kind of explain what that means?

 

Bill:

Right. Yes. That can be a common problem with a lot of individuals, and not with our clients, but [inaudible 00:18:53] the standpoint that some people think that, okay, I go to my attorney, they create this trust document for me that's going to avoid probate. I sign the agreement and then everything's done. That's not the case.

 

What happens after you create the trust, you now have to what we call fund it, which means retitle assets out of that person's either individual or joint name into the trust, or add beneficiary designations onto the assets, if they're able to use a beneficiary designation that would be in favor of the trust so that when they die, even though the account is in their individual or joint name, it automatically passes into the trust. If somebody doesn't do that, if they don't fund the trust, if they just sign the instrument, but they don't go out and retitle these various assets, then what's going to happen? They're going to die, at the time of their death, the trust doesn't have anything in it yet.

 

And when you have a trust-based plan, if it's done right, you're still going to have a last will and testament that we refer to as a pour-over will. That's really there to catch assets that for whatever reason were not put into the trust, or a beneficiary designation was not put on them directing them to the trust at the time of the person's death. So that pour-over will says, "Hey, when Bill dies, if we find anything in his individual name, this will's going to take that asset and pour it over into Bill's trust that will direct where the assets go." But to get that asset or assets out of Bill's name over into that trust, we got to go through the probate process to do it.

 

Marc:

Oh, wow.

 

Bill:

We don't want that to happen, so it's very important that when your trust is put in place, that your attorney and your financial advisors and everybody, that we have all this information. That's why we work very collaboratively with advisors like Nick and John to make sure that we've identified all their assets, and that they are titled into the trust at the time they create the trust, or they get a beneficiary designation on it.

 

And the way you title those assets into the trust, I tell people the rule of thumb is, if you were going to sell that asset to somebody else, how would you do it? So if it's real estate, we have to do a deed and deed it from that person's individual name into the trust. If it's a interest in a closely-held company like a corporation or an LLC, we have to do an assignment of that interest over to the trust, or a new stock certificate. If it's accounts like that Nick and John are managing, then it's very easy. They go ahead and retitle those accounts from the person's individual name into the trust. But all those steps have to be taken, because otherwise they've got this trust document that ultimately will direct where the assets go after they die, but we're going to have to go through the probate process to get the assets into that, and it sort of defeats one of the primary purposes of having a revocable trust.

 

Marc:

Exactly, so you've got kind of like a shell with not much in it, I suppose.

 

Bill:

Right, exactly.

 

Marc:

Okay. Well, look, so as Bill said, a lot of times they got to work hand-in-hand, so that's the importance of a team and working with financial planners and estate planning attorneys, and so on and so forth. We talked quite a bit about that the last couple episodes. If you need some help, we're going to jump out, we'll come back in with a new episode here in about a week or so, so reach out to John and Nick, or reach out to Bill and Nicole as well. You can find Bill and Nicole at LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. That's LegacyProtectionLawyers.com. They're based out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can check the show description. We'll have a link down there for you. Or you can also just call 727-471-5868, 727-471-5868.

 

And of course, if you want to talk with John and Nick, as always, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and find them online, and all that information is at PFGprivatewealth.com. That's PFGprivatewealth.com. Nick, thanks for being here, my friend, as always, and of course, Bill, thanks for being here and being our special guest. A lot of great information and really did a great job kind of breaking that down for folks.

 

Bill:

Thank you. I enjoyed it.

 

Marc:

Absolutely, so we'll have you back on in about a week or so. We'll talk a little bit more about our four-part series on estate planning with John and Nick on Retirement Planning - Redefined.

This episode, we welcome back estate planning expert Nicole Cleland to discuss important topics such as how property passes after death, the rights of spouses and blended families, challenges minors face when inheriting, and the benefits of avoiding probate. Whether you’re single, married, or navigating a complex family dynamic, this episode offers valuable insights to help you protect your legacy and plan effectively for the future.

 

Learn more about Nicole and Legacy Protection Lawyers

Contact info: www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com
Phone 727-471-5868

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

 

Marc:

Time once again for another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. And once again, we're going to continue our conversation with Nicole Cleland on estate planning. So really happy to have her back on this chat with us. And if you've got questions, need some help when it comes to the legal side of things, reach out to them at legacyprotectionlawyers.com. That's legacyprotectionlawyers.com. And of course, if you've got some questions on the financial side, reach out to John and Nick at pfgprivatewealth.com, pfgprivatewealth.com.

 

Nicole, welcome back in. Thanks for being here again.

 

Nicole Cleland:

Thanks for having me again.

 

Marc:

Lovely to talk with you. And John, my friend, thanks for being here as we continue this chat with Nicole. We covered a lot of stuff and I want to kind of circle back to a few pieces. We were talking about property, how it passes on death. Who should inherit your assets? I think that's kind of maybe a big question for people in general.

 

Nicole Cleland:

So this is what we call testamentary intent, meaning you can leave your assets to whomever you want. There is no restriction or requirement on who takes from your estate. However, most states, Florida included, has a law that says if you are married, you cannot disinherit your spouse. And sort of the philosophy behind that is if you had, back in the old days, husbands were the breadwinners, wife stayed homemaker. And if husband wanted to leave assets to someone else, his children, a mistress, something like that, the law would not allow you to disinherit that spouse. And that's sole control.

 

So the law presumes that spouses are meant to be taken care of and you cannot leave your spouse less than a certain percent. In Florida, that percent is 30%. So although you can disinherit the rotten children, you can't disinherit the spouse.

 

Marc:

Okay. I like that.

 

John:

So I'd also say this becomes very important when you have blended families. I'll say that.

 

Nicole Cleland:

Absolutely.

 

John:

Working with clients where it's second marriage, kids. This becomes a very important topic that I think most people I'll say that haven't gone through an estate plan or just haven't made that decision yet to go through it, have no idea this even exists. And also I've even talked to some pretty savvy attorneys that I've talked to and I mention it, like, "What are you talking about?" And they look it up and they're like, "I had no idea."

 

Nicole Cleland:

Yeah, it's one of those things that a lot of people don't realize because again, circling back to that testamentary intent, you should be able to leave your assets to whomever you want, but the law's not going to say that for a spouse. And you're right on the money there, John, with the blended family situation.

 

And I usually try to even say it's not always that later-in-life marriage couple. So if you've got a husband and wife that get married later in life, they both have children from prior relationships, we usually find that they honor that testamentary intent, meaning, all right, husband, whenever you pass, you can leave your money to your children and then I'm going to leave my money to my children. We don't need to leave anything for each other. We're getting married later in life. We've built our wealth so we don't need to support each other.

 

But what ends up happening is if my husband passed away and I'm still alive, I might be older and a little bit more vulnerable. And usually I find that it's the kids of the surviving spouse that end up saying, "No, mom, you're entitled to that elective share. You're entitled to that 30%. You need to pursue it." And it's usually the children of that surviving spouse in that blended marriage that end up trying to push for things that that married couple really had no intent to do.

 

Marc:

Is it easier or more complicated for folks on a... I guess if you've never had children and just you're single or whatever, do people feel like, "Well, I don't need any of this stuff because it's just me"? But you still have to leave your stuff somewhere, right?

 

Nicole Cleland:

Right. No, and I think it's where whether you're single, whether you're married, like I mentioned on our last podcast, I made a comment that everyone has an estate plan, you just may not know what it is.

 

Marc:

Right.

 

Nicole Cleland:

So a lot of people where let's say you have a young person who's working out in Silicon Valley, they graduated from an Ivy League school, they're making a ton of money out there, and they were raised by their mom but have no relationship with their father. In that instance, if that single individual passes away, not married, no children, their money's not going to go to the mom that raised them single-handedly. It's going to go 50/50. And I see that. I see those instances where you have money going to estranged family members, family members you had no relationship with because you just did not know what the law was going to presume you wanted.

 

Marc:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it gets really interesting because it's more complex than I think people realize, but yet it's also something simple to handle. You just need to get it done. And that's where making sure that you're checking off beneficiaries and all those things come into play as well.

 

John:

And I'll jump in here. Just I'd say that the biggest thing I think doing estate plan, and I'll say guilty where I didn't officially do one until my daughter, my first daughter was two, it was just kind of peace of mind that it was done. Because it was always kind of lingering there like, "Hey, you got to get this done." And finally when I did it was just like, "Hey, I'm good." And then we make updates to it. But it was a relief to get it done and know that my wishes would be taken care of if something happened to me and Jenny.

 

Nicole Cleland:

And I think that type of planning is very important for younger couples that do have children. You can name who you would want to have what I call custodial care for your child, who your children would live with if something happened to you and your spouse. But that also doesn't mean that has to be the same person that's managing the money. So you might have one person that decides whether your child goes to public or private school, whether they go to church or not, but then you can have someone else be the one to manage the checkbook, so to speak.

 

But the other thing that's wrecking havoc on our world a little bit is ancestry.com, believe it or not. We're having children that no one knew existed come to the forefront. So that's where planning could be even more important is you might have biological children that you did not know about.

 

John:

So I got to ask, I know this isn't a topic we were going to discuss, but how often is that happening and do those surprise kids, let's call it, have any rights?

 

Nicole Cleland:

Great question. So I've had it come up once, and it was in the context of what we call an intestate estate. So there are two different types of probates in the sense of who are your beneficiaries, meaning an intestate estate is a probate administration where the decedent had no will. So the law declares who your beneficiaries are, who your heirs are. A testate estate is a probate administration where you have a will. And so your will that you've created dictates the beneficiaries under your estate administration.

 

Most wills, at least I will say most good wills define who your children are. So for example, if I was creating a will for someone, I would say, "Okay, your children are A, B, and C. and for purposes of this document we're limiting your descendants or your children to those three kids."

 

Now, with an intestate estate, the one that I'm speaking of that we had happen is the family sort of was suspicious of this individual being a descendant. And after a paternity test, it was deemed true. But that didn't come to fruition until after the person had passed and the parent of this minor wanted to stake a claim in the estate. And they were successful because they were a biological child, even though there was no relationship at all, the child did not know the other family members. But they were an equal child to all the other children, even though they're technically half sibling. But it was a direct child of the decedent.

 

Marc:

Wow. Yeah, it gets a little sticky there. So we tend to think about that with celebrities or something like that. But I guess, yeah, it can happen anywhere.

 

Nicole Cleland:

Yeah, it really can. And it's not fun to manage because now as the attorney, I'm having to really make sure my clients understand, my executors or my personal representatives, I have to ask them, "Are you sure these are the only children of the decedent?"

 

Marc:

I'm sure you get, "What kind of question is that?"

 

Nicole Cleland:

Correct. Yeah, it's not a fun one, but it's something that I have to say, really make sure we've got the right heirs here.

 

Marc:

Yeah, that certainly, it was a great question by John. I didn't even think about that, kind of kids coming out of nowhere. And maybe this is one reason, Nicole, why people want to avoid probate amongst other reasons, right? Because if you're going to a trust or something like that, you have more privacy, correct? Where probate is out in the open.

 

Nicole Cleland:

That's correct. So trust administrations are typically private, meaning we don't file the trust anywhere. We don't have any sort of public record of the administration process. But probate is the opposite. We have to deposit your will with the court. The probate administration is all public record. So whenever you have a probate proceeding, we talked in our last session about how long it can take. I'm saying now the average is about 12 to 18 months. And a lot of that is, I think directly dependent on your fiduciary, your personal representative that you have serving in that role. Some of it is the court, but a lot of it is that person that you have named.

 

But a lot of people tend to shy away from probate administrations, not because it's necessarily public and not so much because of the delay, but the cost. The cost for probate proceedings here in Florida are statutory, which means there is a Florida statute dictating the schedule on what is deemed a reasonable fee for not just your personal representative but the lawyer.

 

And in Florida, 3% of the probate estate is deemed reasonable. So if you've got a million dollar investment account that needs to go through probate, and it could just be the one account, what would be presumed a reasonable fee under Florida law would be 3%, 3% for the lawyer and 3% for your personal representative. So just right there, you've got 6% coming from that million dollar account, $60,000 for a probate administration. So the cost can add up fairly quickly, especially the bigger and the more complex the size of the estate.

 

John:

Yeah. And I'll add to that just kind of personal experience. You don't know what you don't know. And I'll tell you that even though I'm somewhat in the industry, not an attorney, there's a lot of questions that I'm having for helping my wife be the executor of her father's estate. And it's like, "Hey, what about this?" So we're emailing the probate attorney quite a bit of just, "Hey, what about this scenario? What about this?" And there's a lot of nuances that I think the average person just is not aware of.

 

Nicole Cleland:

Absolutely. I think for most administrations, we always joke here in the estate planning world in the administration side is there's no easy probate. There's something new in every single probate administration that you have just because the family dynamic could be different, the type of asset that could be different. You could have what I would deem a very easy probate where the only thing we have to transfer title to is maybe the house. But let's say the house isn't selling. Let's say the mortgage is worth more than the house, or there's a special assessment on the condo or one of the beneficiaries doesn't want to consent to the sale. Something, anything can just come up at any time with a probate administration that can turn what I would deem an easy probate into a very, very complicated one.

 

And like John said, you don't know what you don't know, and sometimes you can't envision or foresee what's going to happen at the end of the probate proceeding. But surprises do often come along. And that's where I think sometimes experience can really matter in terms of the type of attorney that you pick because they're going to have experience dealing with this type of issue, this type of condo that's being sold or this type of family dynamic that's occurring or something like that.

 

John:

Nicole, how about something that comes up a lot with I would say Nick and I is minors. Minors that potentially could or have inherited money that maybe they were listed on a beneficiary account and the person didn't know the rules in Florida with minors inheriting money. How does that work?

 

Nicole Cleland:

Yeah, that is just not great planning, frankly. I think a lot of people who maybe don't have a lot of wealth or have young children, they name their minor children as a default, and it becomes really sticky very quickly. And even in the best of scenarios where let's say you've named your minor as the beneficiary on an account, and let's say we have to do a guardianship for that child because minors can't manage over a certain dollar amount, or let's say you even have a custodial account, even if all of those get teed up perfectly, at the end of the day when those minors inherit the money, they're 18 years old or 21 years old, or even 25 years old. And I don't know about you, but I don't see a lot of financially savvy or financially prudent 18-year-olds or 21-year-olds.

 

So it ends up being where even in best of scenarios, without proper planning for young kids, it's really hard for someone in their early twenties to inherit any type of money, not just a significant amount.

 

John:

Yeah, I'd say one thing we come across when we're doing initial consults, we'll do reviews of beneficiaries and we'll see minors as contingents. And that's where, going back to who needs an estate plan or why, I think people really need to take a look at that with kids.

 

Nicole Cleland:

They really do. Because that's the one where, again, even if we're able to do the guardianship for that minor or a custodial account or something, it just doesn't work well when you have a young person inheriting.

 

I've had a minor, no, actually take that back, they were an adult, inherit a life insurance policy, and I think they were 21, what the law presumes financially mature enough to inherit money. And this 21-year-old spent over half a million dollars in life insurance in a year.

 

Marc:

Wow.

 

Nicole Cleland:

And they had nothing to show for it at the end of that year, nothing. It was you almost felt guilty asking them what did you even spend that money on? Because they're just so young. And it wasn't necessarily their fault in the sense that that was not the planning that should have been put in place for that person.

 

Marc:

Yeah, their sneaker collection was amazing.

 

Nicole Cleland:

Yeah, I couldn't even say that. There was no collection to speak of.

 

Marc:

Oh, geez.

 

Nicole Cleland:

I have no idea where the money went.

 

Marc:

Really? Oh, no. Well, that's terrible. That's the importance, right? That's the importance of, and that's a great way to wrap up this episode, Nicole, the importance of planning for the individual, for the situation, just it's paramount. Right?

 

So get onto the calendar, have a conversation. If you need some help, reach out to Nicole and the team at legacyprotectionlawyers.com, that's legacyprotectionlawyers.com, or call them at 727-471-5868. That's 727-471-5868 to have a conversation about your situation. And of course, as always, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick. You can find that on Apple or Spotify. And of course, if you need to make it easy, just go to their website and get some time with them as well, pfgprivatewealth.com. That is pfgprivateweath.com.

 

Nicole, what does it look like if people want to reach out to you and the firm?

 

Nicole Cleland:

We would love for clients to reach out and ask to meet with one of our attorneys to get a little bit more of a specific recommendation as to their family and their situation. Everyone is different. There's no cookie-cutter approach to planning, and it's important that people talk to an attorney or a professional that can be a little bit more custom approach to their type of plan. So they can give us a call and we can offer a complimentary consultation to kind of go over that in more detail with them.

 

Marc:

All right, there you go. So thanks so much for listening to the podcast. We appreciate it. Again, reach out to them at legacyprotectionlawyers.com. That's legacyprotectionlawyers.com. And thanks for tuning in to Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

 

In this special episode of Retirement Planning Redefined, John and Nick welcome their first-ever guest, Nicole Cleland of Legacy Protection Lawyers, to kick off a new estate planning series. Nicole shares key insights into what estate planning really involves, who needs it (hint: it's not just for the wealthy), and how proper planning can help avoid confusion and conflict later. They cover the differences between estate planning and elder law, the importance of incapacity planning, and how assets actually pass after death.

 

Learn more about Nicole and Legacy Protection Lawyers

Contact info: www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com
Phone 727-471-5868

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

 

Marc:

Once again for another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth, and we've got a special show this week. We're going to be talking about understanding estate planning. We've got a little series planned around this. We've got some special guests coming up also. So really looking forward to today's conversation. John's going to be joining me along with Nicole Cleland, who is our special guest from Legacy Protection Lawyers based outside of St. Petersburg, Florida. And we're going to have a great conversation around understanding those estate planning basics and some other details and information. So it's going to be an excellent episode, so stay tuned and we'll get right into it. John, my friend, how are you this week, buddy? What's going on?

 

John:

Hey, I'm doing all right. I'm excited to have Nicole as our first guest that we've ever had on our podcast here.

 

Marc:

Yeah, our very first guest here on this, so it's excellent to have Nicole here. Nicole, welcome in. How are you?

 

Nicole:

I'm doing great. Thank you both for having me. I'm really excited to be here today.

 

Marc:

Absolutely. So we'll jump in real quick. Just tell us a little bit about you and your firm, what you guys do.

 

Nicole:

Sure. So we are a boutique trust and estates firm, meaning this is all we practice is trust and estates. We do primarily planning, and secondary administrations of estate planning documents, and we also do a little bit of litigation and a little bit of tax planning as well. So we do have a trust and a estates only litigation lawyer and a tax lawyer with us too.

 

Marc:

Okay, excellent. And Bill McQueen is going to be joining us as well on probably the next episode, so we'll get into some conversation with him. But for now, let's just kick things off and get started. Although I do have to ask, I was looking at the website and I see that you are a super lawyer. What is a super lawyer?

 

Nicole:

Yeah, it means that we get a cape every year.

 

Marc:

Nice.

 

Nicole:

No, a super lawyer designation is a designation that you receive from other lawyers in the area and about 5% of practicing attorneys get this designation. So I'm very honored to have been a rising star super lawyer for seven years now, I think.

 

Marc:

Awesome.

 

Nicole:

And yeah, it's nice to know that the professionals that I work with enjoy working with us in our firm too.

 

Marc:

Yeah, that's great. John, you need something like that? You need super advisor or something.

 

John:

I don't know if there's a super advisor, but if there is one, I'm about to see how I can get that.

 

Marc:

There you go.

 

John:

I feel like got as much work as I do, I need a cape as well.

 

Marc:

There you go. Yeah, capes are good. Well let's get into our conversation here. So I wanted to kick things off with just a really simple question for you, Nicole, because a lot of people, I think it's probably changed through the years and you can maybe talk about that as well, but people, I think around estate planning, even financial advisors, tend to think that, well, this is for the ultra wealthy. Those kinds of things are for people that really have a lot of money, and I don't think that's the case. So explain, do you really need an estate plan and if so, why? Can you give us some kind of parameters and some breakdowns on that?

 

Nicole:

Yeah, that's a really great question. And I think a lot of people do think estate planning means you have to have a large estate, but that's really not all estate planning is, I kind of think of it as twofold, you've got planning on the incapacity side and then you've got planning on the after-death side. So you don't really have to have a lot of wealth, or really any wealth, to do estate planning, because if you're incapacitated, you might have very specific wishes on your care, whether that's through any sort of long-term incapacity, through any end-of-life care wishes, whether it's where you want to live, how you would like to be buried, things like that. So it's not necessarily always based around dollar amounts, and I'm sure you all see this and sometimes you have the most complex cases that really aren't the super ultra-high net worth people.

 

It could just be your run-of-the-mill, middle-class American that has very specific wishes in terms of they've got a blended family, or stepchildren, or maybe a child that has addiction issues. So it can really be more broad than, "Hey, I have all this money and I need a plan for taxes." It's really more complex than that.

 

Marc:

Gotcha. Okay. Is there a difference between estate planning attorneys and elder law? I think people get those confused as well.

 

Nicole:

Oh my gosh, yes, there is a difference. And that's a big one we get too. And for us, the estate planning is planning for... What I say is, you've got tax planning, you've got incapacity planning, asset protection planning, and kind of encompassing all of that, just your run-of-the-mill estate planning, meaning how you would want to plan for things after your passing. But elder law is a little bit more on the incapacity side and planning for one day potentially needing Medicaid, so thinking more of the disability planning. That's how I sort of equated in my mind is you've got an elder law lawyer that's a little bit more on the disability planning side, but a lot of elder law attorneys still do estate planning, but there is a slight distinction between the two and that is important to note.

 

Marc:

Great point. All right, good. What makes an effective estate plan?

 

Nicole:

Oh, that's a fun one too because I like to say the one that works is the one that we have no hiccups with after the testator, or the creator of the plan, has passed away. And that's sort of the hard part on estate planning is my best witness is no longer here to verify that this is what they wanted. So I would say that the best estate plan is one that you can keep family harmony at the end, as much as possible, at least preserve it or maintain that family harmony as much as possible, and administer and execute that settler or that testator's intent. Really kind of making sure that that is the theme throughout the whole administration.

 

John:

So Nicole, you mentioned incapacity, what type of planning goes into that because that comes up quite a bit with Nick and I's clients, where it's coming up where we'll talk about beneficiaries and the estate stuff, but I'll say the incapacity planning is not my strong suit. So I think from our listeners standpoint it'd be good to hear, what does that include?

 

Nicole:

Yeah, that's also a great question because a lot of people, when they think of themselves in the incapacitated context, they think of themselves more in, there was an emergency, I had a bad accident and now I'm on life support for a week and then I'm deceased and then I've passed. And the reality is that's not what happens to most people, especially as we're aging and living longer, more people are experiencing longer bouts of incapacity. And with that, a lot of family members don't really know what that person wanted, where they would've wanted to live, what kind of care they would've wanted to receive.

 

So when I'm talking to clients about incapacity planning, I try to tell them, don't think of yourself in the context of, "Oh, there was an emergency, I'm out for a week and then I'm gone. I want you to think of it as you've developed some sort of dementia, you've developed some sort of condition where we're going to have long-term incapacity.So when you're thinking about who should be making those types of decisions on your behalf, think about it in the context of you've just signed these people up for a part-time job, if not full-time job." When you're thinking of these individuals, a lot of people default to their children, which is usually best for most people, but it isn't for everyone. And I think it's important for people to sort of think of themselves, which is really hard to do in the situation that they've gotten, they will need long-term care, not the short-term one-week care, but really that long-term care piece, and it's really hard to think of yourself in that boat.

 

Marc:

That makes sense. And documentation has got to be crucial in all of this, right?

 

Nicole:

Absolutely. There's no statutory authority or person that can make any sort of financial or legal decision if you become incapacitated. There is a healthcare statutory order, but it's just spouse, then parents, then children, there's no one after that. So if you're an elder person with no children, not married, you don't have that default person, so it's really important that you do have documents in place. But for most people, whenever you're thinking of who to name in this role and what documents you should have in place, it's so important that you really have a robust plan and documents that really spell out all of the things that you want your named agent to do because there are certain types of statutory forms. So you can look on Florida Statute and just look online and find a statutory form for a living will, but if you present that form that was created by lawyers to a doctor, that doctor's not going to be able to honor that living will. It's not clear enough, it doesn't really express what someone's true intent might be.

 

So sometimes there is a disconnect between what the lawyers prepare and what the doctors are executing, or what the bank is executing under a durable power of attorney or something like that. And it's important you have a lawyer that's preparing your documents that knows both, that really can make the connection between the different areas of your life in any sort of end-of-life care incapacity situation.

 

John:

When you're meeting with clients, I'm assuming this comes up quite a bit, when someone's having an issue picking who their power of attorney or health care surrogate is, what kind of advice could you provide for that?

 

Nicole:

Yeah, great question too. I tell clients, think of two things when you're considering who you should name in these roles. And the first condition I say, is you want someone who's going to have the time because most people want to name their more intelligent child or, "This child is very smart, they're a doctor, they're a lawyer, they're going to know what to do. They're very smart." But those people typically don't have the time. They're too busy, they've got a family of their own, full-time career, other obligations outside of their job and family that even though they could probably do and be fine with it, they usually don't have the time that's needed to devote to something like this. So I always say, look for someone who's going to have the time. And then two, you're going to want someone who's going to know when to ask for help.

 

And I always tell clients too, is when we have people do things that are bad, it's not because they're a bad person. Most people aren't doing things to be evil or have any bad intent behind the action, but it's because they didn't know when, or they didn't want to ask for help. I think people still have that, "I want to save money, I don't ask the professional for help." Or, "I think I can do it. I don't need to ask all of these people for advice and things like that." And I think if you have someone who's going to know their limitations, then they're going to get advice, they're going to get opinions from people, and they're going to get a little bit more well-rounded approach on how to provide for mom or dad's care, or whatever it is, or whatever person that we've got here, making decisions on your behalf.

 

So I would say those two things is, someone who's going to have time, someone who's going to know when to ask for help, because again, it's not always our children, but usually it can be, but it's something where they really need to, if they're comfortable, have that conversation with that person. And that's sort of sometimes a hard conversation to have, especially if you have children that are, "I don't want to talk about it, we don't need to talk about this." But it's really important that you do talk about it because what you don't want is you don't want to name John Doe, and then when John Doe is being called to serve, he's completely taken off guard, he has no idea what to do, he's not prepared. So it's nice to kind of have these conversations with your prospective agents just so that they can start asking questions that they might need to know the answer to one day.

 

Marc:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, certainly you want to get people in the loop on these things and when you're setting up all your documentation and putting the basics together, I guess we should probably switch and talk a little bit about some of the assets then, because that's where people get confused and kind of wonder about the different rules that are in place. So how does property pass at your death? I guess we can start there.

 

Nicole:

Whenever someone dies, there's really three ways that property can be transferred. The first way is by operation of law, and a good example of that is if you own something jointly with rights of survivorship with someone. So for example, if I own my house joint with my husband, when I die, by operation of law, he will own the home. Nothing else has to occur. He doesn't have to record anything, that's his house.

 

The second way that property passes is through contract law, and a good example that would be a beneficiary designation. So if you've got a life insurance policy, you could have a contract with that company that says when you die, whatever the death benefit that life insurance policy would be, that would be paid to your named beneficiaries. Another example of a contract is A trust. A trust is a contract you have with typically yourself as trustee, and we could talk a little bit more about trusts later today too. But the third way that property passes is through probate, and probate is really just a fancy court-supervised process of transferring assets out of someone's individual name to your heirs. And if you have a will, then your will says who your beneficiaries are. But if you don't have a will, then the state of Florida tells you who your beneficiaries are.

 

So really rounding out, how does property transfer whenever someone dies? Those three things are in order of priority, so joint ownership usually supersedes beneficiary designations or other types of contracts, and then both of those items supersede your will. So a lot of people don't realize this, but your will only governs assets that go through probate, and your will would only kick in if you have probate assets. So that's why sometimes when we talk about estate planning, it may be where you really need to confirm with a professional what your estate plan is, because whether you have a will or not, you have an estate plan in place, you just may not know what it is.

 

Marc:

You have the state's plan, right?

 

Nicole:

Correct.

 

Marc:

Yeah, I was always taught, and tell me if this is accurate, that a will just means you will go through probate.

 

Nicole:

I love that. Actually, that's a great phrase there that I should probably start using.

 

Marc:

There you go. You're welcome.

 

Nicole:

Absolutely. Yeah. Your will only is going to govern those assets that have to go through probate, which if you've done other type of planning, you may not need probate, and so you may not need your will. There are, of course, other reasons to do one, but yeah, that phrase is right on point.

 

Marc:

You can jot that down.

 

John:

And Nicole, I think going to get onto some of this stuff deeper in the podcast or maybe next week, but something that always comes up, is how long does someone expect probate to last?

 

Nicole:

Yeah, really good question. I used to say most probates are anywhere from 6 to 12 months. Since COVID, it's been more 12 to 18 months, and I used to kind of say that the 6 to 12 month mark was really dependent on the court process and where the court's cue is and how backlogged they are. I am finding, I think the longer I practice, that your probate administration is probably 60% to 80% indicative of how efficient, and organized, and on top of it your executor or personal representative is. Because if you've got someone who's going to take charge, hop on things, get things done, it can be more on the 12-month mark. But if you have someone who's sort of dragging their feet, and it's, again, part of the grieving process for people. Some people need to dive into stuff, others need to take time to process before they can dive into stuff.

 

But I would say now probably more 12 to 18 months because I think people are busy, I think people sign up for a lot of things and maybe don't necessarily know they've been signed up for this, but it definitely can take I think more 12 to 18 months now.

 

Marc:

All right, well I want to ask, is a will part of that advanced directive as part of that incapacity conversation? Is that part of that documentation you want to have?

 

Nicole:

A will is what we call an ambulatory document, meaning it actually isn't a valid document until after the testator has passed away. So I sort of joked earlier that when you have an estate plan, your best witness is gone by the time we're effectuating that estate plan, and that's sort of the case with the will. So when it comes to most people's estate plan, when we think about what's included in all of those documents, those legal documents we would prepare, the will is the after-death document, the advanced directives are the pre-death documents. And most estate plans are going to have, at the very least, a durable power of attorney and a healthcare surrogate, with the durable power of attorney being the person that makes financial or legal decisions on your behalf, and your healthcare surrogate being the document where you name someone to be your healthcare proxy or who's making healthcare decisions on your behalf.

 

So part of a robust advanced directive packet, you should really have those two documents, and a few more if it is your wish to have the additional documents. One of the probably more common questions I get on the incapacity planning side is people generally don't want to be kept on life support, they want that pull the plug document, which we call your living will. That's a document where if you have no cognitive function that you do not want any life-prolonging procedures. You want all of those heroic measures withdrawn so that you can pass naturally, but a lot of clients get that confused with a DNR. A DNR is different, that is what I call heart function. So a DNR is also on yellow paper, it's signed by your doctor, and a lot of doctors typically don't like to sign those types of, Do Not Resuscitate or DNR documents, unless you have some sort of terminal condition.

 

So that's why, circling back to the beginning, really kind of making sure that your client, if they have a lot of these end of life or incapacity specific wishes, that they're talking to all of their professionals, not just a lawyer but their doctors and things like that.

 

Marc:

Well look, we're doing this multiple part series on estate planning, obviously a wealth of information here from Nicole. So if you've got some questions, you need some help, definitely make sure that you're reaching out and having conversations with qualified professionals and talking about the situations that you're in and what you might need. So if you'd like to get in touch with the team at Legacy Protection Lawyers, visit them online at legacyprotectionlawyers.com, or call them at (727) 471 5868. Again, (727) 471 5868. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, you can catch future episodes as they come out because we are doing a multi-part series on this so there'll be more information to come. And you can find all of that, of course, at John and Nick's website, pfgprivatewealth.com. And don't forget to subscribe to us on whatever podcasting app you like using, like Apple or Spotify and so on and so forth. Nicole, thank you so much for being here and sharing a lot of great information with us.

 

Nicole:

Thanks for having me. This has been fun.

 

Marc:

Been excellent. And John, of course, thank you for being here, my friend, and facilitating as well. Hope you have a great week.

 

John:

Thanks, appreciate it. Have a good one.

 

Marc:

We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

 

Markets crash. Taxes shift. Congress waffles on Social Security. You can’t control any of that. And stressing over it won’t help. What will? Focusing on the four things that actually move the needle in retirement.

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

 

Marc:

Market crashes, taxes shift, Congress waffles on Social Security, you can't control any of that, and stressing about it will not help. So, let's talk about the things this week that we can control in our retirement.

 

Welcome into the podcast, everybody. This is Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth, and guys, we're going to talk about a couple of examples of stuff we can control in our retirement world, because there's a whole lot of stuff we can't control, right? So, let's have a chat about some of that this week. What's going on, John? How you doing, my friend?

 

John:

Doing good. I'm doing good. How are you?

 

Marc:

I'm hanging in there. We were just chatting before we jumped on here about the AI getting crazy. We can't control that either, so we got to factor that in, right?

 

John:

No, no. I think [inaudible 00:00:50] right now.

 

Marc:

Yeah, we got to factor that in when we're looking up information and things of that nature, so that's another piece we can't control, so be careful out there with that. Nick, what's going on, my friend? How you doing?

 

Nick:

Good, good. Staying busy. The heat is on here.

 

Marc:

The heat is on. That's right.

 

Nick:

Yeah, we are inching our way into summer.

 

Marc:

Yeah, well, it's that time of the year. It's hot and rainy on a regular basis, but let's get into this conversation this week here. I got a couple items I want to run through. Like I said in the teaser, you can't control what happens in the market, guys, right? Look what happened earlier this year. We knew the tariff thing was going to start. Took a bit of a beating for a while, then it started to rebound pretty well, but you can control how you're positioned, right? That's obvious, but people forget that. When they see the market taking that dive, they panic, "Oh, my gosh, it's going down. The S&P is down 12%, that means I'm 12%." Well, no, John, not really. Not if you're not 100% exposed to the market risk, right? That's the point.

 

John:

Yeah, that is. This is actually perfect timing for what's been going on this year.

 

Marc:

Exactly.

 

John:

We're doing some of these reviews, and we really kind of pride ourselves on making sure people are invested in the right asset allocation per their goals and their plan and their risk tolerance. So, when people put on the news, it seems like doom and gloom, and we're doing some of these reviews and it's like, "Oh, okay, that's good to hear." And part of that is you can't control what the market's going to do, you can't control what politicians are going to do and how that might affect the market, but you can control how you at least take a look at your overall investment portfolio and how you structure it to be able to ... Not saying you're going to weather every storm, but to limit some of the volatility that's happening.

 

Marc:

Sure. Yeah, I can't even begin to say how many advisors I'd talked to where most of them only had a few nervous Nellies, right, and that's okay. It's understandable. A couple would call here there during the height of some of that there in April and saying, "Oh, my God, I see it every five seconds. It's down 12%. I need to go through my numbers." And so they'd run through the portfolio with them and they're like, "You're only down about two at this moment," because they're like, "Oh, well, two's a whole lot better than 12." Well, yeah, so that's the point of not buying into just the straight media all the time and understanding what your risk tolerance is and how much you're exposed to it, so that's one area.

 

Nick, another area is kind of the same thing. It's the great multi-risk multiplier. It's our longevity. We don't have a stamp on us that says when we're going to pass away. It would make things easier and scary all at the same time. But you can control how much emphasis you put into your lifetime income streams, like, how are we setting up these lifetime income streams? And that longevity factors into market risk and all the other stuff too.

 

Nick:

Yeah, for sure. As we kind of start going through the planning process with clients, and then obviously the clients that have been with us for a long time, things will kind of ebb and flow depending upon how well they tolerate things like the market, how focused they are on upsider growth. And we've had multiple clients over the last, I'd say, 12 to 24 months where they've had substantial run-ups in the market over the last 10 years, and have wanted to carve out a certain amount to just kind of give them additional baseline of income.

 

And I think one of the things that's really brought that home to people has been the inflation factor that we've kind of dealt with over the last couple of years, where it's like, okay, they were chugging along and things were going great and felt very comfortable, and then prices and inflation really kind of kicked into gear. And we have a conversation about, "Well, hey, if this happened 10, 12 years down the line, are there things that you would do differently than you've done previous to now?" And a lot of them have wanted to increase that baseline, especially with Social Security being in the news as much as it is, and for a lot of people, that being kind of their baseline lifetime income stream.

 

Marc:

Yup. For sure. And these four things we're talking about this week, guys, they all really play with one another when it comes to building that retirement strategy. And of course, if you need some help, please reach out to a qualified professional before you take any action, like John and Nick. Again, you can find them at pfgprivatewealth.com.

 

But John, I'll kick it back over to you, where we're still waiting to see what's going to happen with the passing at the time we're talking for this Pick the Top Podcast, the Big Beautiful Bill is still hanging out there, and taxation is a piece of that. So, part of what we're waiting to find out is, are the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that we're currently under, are they going to expire at the end of 2025 in just a few months, or are they going to extend that, right? So we can't control what they're going to do, but we can start thinking about how to be as tax-efficient as possible.

 

John:

Yeah, this is a big one, because taxes are just an eroding factor in your money, and it's best to avoid unnecessary taxes at all costs. And the best way to do that isn't trying to predict what taxes is going to be in the future, it's positioning yourself where you can adapt to any situation. So, if tax rates do go up quite a bit, you have some tax-free money or some after-tax dollars somewhere that you can take advantage of. So, it's important to look at, hey, kind of call it asset location, where are my assets and how are those being taxed? And if taxes go up, how do I adjust? Or if taxes go down, maybe that's a good time to make some moves and make some adjustments.

 

And part of this is, and I found this quite a bit when we're bringing on prospective clients that maybe haven't worked with an advisor or working with an advisor, they're really not projecting what their taxes are going to be in the future. It's just kind of like, "Hey, what's my return? How have I been doing?" But with a comprehensive plan, you can actually look at it and say, "Hey, based on today's numbers, here's what taxes look like. And if taxes go up, you're going to be in a bad situation the way you're currently positioned." So we want to just stress how important it is to allow yourself the ability to adapt.

 

Marc:

Yeah, and Nick, I'll keep that conversation going with you for a second, because if they do nothing, the tax code is going to revert back to the Obama administration era, so rates will go up, brackets will change. If they extend the TCJA, which a lot of people are hoping for, then our tax rates will probably stay the same. And if you're doing Roth conversions, for example, that's going to be great, because you're going to have a longer timeline now to Roth over time and do converting, whereas if the tax rates go up, maybe that changes your strategy.

 

Nick:

Yeah, for sure. And I think the biggest takeaway in the biggest point that this proves is that things continually change. And so, having a proactive plan on how you want to address ... And really what this boils down to is your distribution plan or your withdrawal plan, and how heavily dependent is your withdrawal plan on current environment?

 

And even just to bring that up, I think one of the things that we've found, and we've emphasized it with clients, especially over the last 10 years or so, but clients that have taxable investment accounts, so non-retirement, non-traditional, non-Roth, but just regular taxable investment accounts, they really find themselves in a position to be able to adapt to the environment better than people that don't. So, things that pop up that happen, whether there's a substantial withdrawal that needs to happen, or just flexibility on cash flows, their ability to be able to adapt to what's going on is significantly better, because ... And we are a fan of Roth conversions when they make sense, but there is a risk there from a timing perspective. There's absolutely risks, so that's something that I think is important to point out.

 

Marc:

Well, the fourth one, we said we were going to talk about four items today, guys, and of course you know it's coming because I hadn't mentioned it yet, that's Social Security. We can't control what these folks are going to be doing up there on Capitol Hill, but we can control our strategy, or least start to kind of look, like, how heavily is it relying on Social Security? Or the conversation, John, of when do you turn it on? When do you not? How does that affect your withdrawal strategy and withdrawal rate from other accounts? So, that's something you can control.

 

John:

We can control when you take it and when to defer it and what to do with it if you take it. And again, just going back to the plan on this and stress-testing the plan, how does someone's plan look like if Social Security loses the cost of living adjustments that we've seen recently, which have been pretty significant over the last five or six years. What does the plan look like if all of a sudden that stops? Are you in good shape? And if you're not, how can we mitigate some of that risk? And maybe that does make a difference as to when you take it or how you take that distribution there, but that's one way to look at it.

 

Or assuming, going back to the Social Security podcast, if people are listening, if they don't make any changes in 2034, there'll be about roughly 21% reduction in your benefit. What does your plan look like in that situation? Are you in a good position to weather that storm? I mean, ultimately, we do think they'll make some adjustments to it, but you just want to just know what would happen in that situation, and how do you adapt to it.

 

Marc:

Yeah, I mean it's certainly a big one that you're going to wind up. You're running different stress tests and different kind of scenarios just to kind of see how all this stuff's going to play in with each other. And Nick, I'll toss it back to you for a final point. Anything I missed on those four items that we can control? Those are four pretty big ones. Is there anything else you'd like to touch on, or did we tackle it?

 

Nick:

No, I think those are good. I know just one other point, because there's been some talk about the tax bill that's going through Congress right now, and there was some initial discussion about making Social Security benefits tax-free, and at least from what I've read, that's not the case in this. I know I've had some clients kind of bring that up and ask, and obviously we never know what happens once it kind of works through the Senate and all that kind of stuff. But they did end up, I think, the way that they had handled it was they put in something about an additional credit for seniors, an additional tax credit of, I think, maybe up to $4,000 or something like that, but-

 

Marc:

Yeah, I think that's where they're still kicking around. It went through the House, right, so now it's still got to go through the Senate, and they're still kind of arguing back and forth about what's going to be what, so yeah.

 

Nick:

Yeah. And the reality is that the other thing that this tax bill does point out is that from the standpoint of in the future, and the amount of debt that the government has and all that kind of stuff, there are risks of things that will be taxed in the future that maybe aren't taxed now and stuff like that. So yeah, I think the emphasis is really beyond anything else is that whatever strategy is best today is probably not best tomorrow.

 

Marc:

True.

 

Nick:

And so, the ability to be able to position your assets in a way to kind of adapt, like you mentioned, income streams, have pre-tax money, have Roth money, have taxable brokerage account that's more subject to capital gains versus ordinary income taxes. Even if you're in a position where you can invest in something like real estate, maybe when the prices are a little bit more reasonable, but where you can use the tax benefits of real estate, that's something that could make sense for people. So, it's just giving yourself the ability to adapt to whatever's going on is the most important takeaway I think people should have.

 

Marc:

Yeah, at the end of the day, there's a lot of stuff that we cannot control, but there are many things inside that subsets that we can control, and that's where working with a financial professional can certainly help. So, if you're not already doing so, sit down and have a chat with one. Talk about your unique situation on something you hear on our podcast or any other. Don't just take action without running that through your specific and unique scenario. And of course, John and Nick can help with that. If you're not already working with them, then reach out to them at pfgprivatewealth.com. That is pfgprivatewealth.com. You can call them at (813) 286-7776. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or whatever podcasting app you enjoy using. It's Retirement Planning - Redefined, and share the podcast with others that might enjoy the content and get a useful nugget of information along the way as well.

 

So guys, thanks for hanging out and breaking it down. I always appreciate your time. We'll see you guys next time here on Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick.

You’ve worked hard, saved well, and now you’re thinking about giving back—maybe to your kids, your grandkids, or a cause you care about. But should you wait and pass that wealth on later, or give while you’re still around to enjoy the impact? Let’s talk about how to make that decision with confidence.

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

 

Marc:

Welcome in once again to another edition of Retirement Planning, Redefined with John and Nick, and we're going to talk about gifting money while you're alive or leaving a legacy. You work hard, you saved well, so let's talk about how to gift and leave a legacy.

 

Welcome into the podcast everybody. Thanks for hanging out with John and Nick and myself as we talk about these topics this week. And guys, it's gifting, right? So I want to go over some basics here. It seems like there's been a trend the last couple of years for people to enjoy their retirement legacy with the family versus the old way of you pass and you'll leave a check, right? Here's your inheritance, we're gone, that kind of thing. So let's talk about that a little bit this week on the show and just kind of see what you guys are seeing in your neck of the woods. How you doing this week, Nick?

 

Nick:

Good, good. How about yourself?

 

Marc:

Doing pretty good's. How's the wedding action coming?

 

Nick:

Planning's moving along.

 

Marc:

Nice.

 

Nick:

Did some, hopefully we got the food picked out, so trying to check off all the big things, so.

 

Marc:

That's important. Got to have that good food going on for sure. Well, good. Kudos. Good. Glad to hear that. And John, my friend, how are you this week?

 

John:

I'm good. I'm good. Summer just started for the kids, so getting used to waking up in the morning and they're hanging out with me as I'm getting ready for work-

 

Marc:

And they're ready to go.

 

John:

Versus me just dropping them off. Yeah.

 

Marc:

That's right.

 

John:

It's a lot of fun.

 

Marc:

There you go. Are you guys seeing this trend that I talked about, not necessarily a new trend. It's been going on for a number of years now, but I think where people just want to maybe enjoy some experiences with their loved ones while they're still here versus just leaving that check, so to speak? Are you guys seeing that in your practice as well?

 

Nick:

Yeah, I'd say so. We've had, what are we on now? A 14, 15 year bull run from the standpoint of people have kind of exceeded what their perspective on goals was for the money that they might have in retirement and, so especially I would say, at least from what I've seen, the vacation side of things is kind of the biggest thing that people have been doing where they'll do a large family vacation and pay for the kids and their families to go so that they can all enjoy that together.

 

Marc:

Yeah, that's very cool. And we'll talk about some of the numbers and things in just a few minutes, but John, I'll kick this over to you. I'd say the first step probably still should be, make sure you are covered first, right? We all want to leave and do things for our kids and loved ones, but don't sacrifice your own retirement in order just to do that. Is that a fair place to start?

 

John:

That is 100% where you should start. The last thing you want to do is start gifting and spending money on a vacation, and then you look at it and you're like, "Oh man, I don't have enough money to live anymore." So first thing we do in this situation where it comes up with clients is like most things we say, we look at the plan and we will stress test it and look at different scenarios to make sure, hey, if this were to happen, how does your plan react to it? So we'll throw out some scenarios out there, whether it's healthcare, inflation, social security, things like that. And if the plan looks solid, we will typically give somewhat of a green light of, we think you should budget X amount for this. Or we can also look at scenarios where Nick talked about vacation, but we've seen some others where it's like, "Hey, I want to help my son, daughter with a home purchase." And with the way prices are going now, it's very difficult for first time homeowners to be buying houses. So we've seen a lot of people basically lending, not giving money to their kids for buying homes. So we will put that in the plan and say, "Hey, what does your plan look like if you were to give X amount for a down payment?"

 

Marc:

Gotcha. Okay. And we'll talk about some of those numbers and ways to do that here in a few minutes. So I would say if step number one, as John pointed out is make sure you are covered. The next step number two is maybe just kind of clarify your motivation. He kind of touched on that a little bit, but why are you giving, I mean, again, we all love our kids. We want to help, but what's the purpose? Is that an important kind of factor to decide through?

 

Nick:

Yeah, I've had some recent conversations where maybe there's specific topics like, okay, we're off conversions, and because somebody has read or seen an article or something like that, the thought process is, all right, well let's go ahead and let's convert all of our qualified money to Roth accounts and leave the money to them. And a tricky thing with that can be, as an example, is maybe their kids are not in the same sort of economic space as they are and they're not going to ever make nearly the same amount of money. Them taking a hit right away from a tax perspective maybe doesn't make sense, so try to take them back to the initial point in, Hey, what's your motivation? What are you trying to do? What's most important to you? Is it making sure that your plan is structured well to protect you first and then start to do some giving while you're alive? Or is it more focused on you want to give after you pass away and let's structure your assets accordingly?

 

So just so many things, making sure that you fully understand what your objectives are because it can be a little bit of the shiny new thing or a shiny new strategy that weren't familiar with at first or initially, and then once you go through and evaluate it in more detail, maybe it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But yeah, really understanding how account types work, what your goals are and really what your focus is really important.

 

Marc:

And of course, working with a financial professional is going to help you identify that because often we're not going to know what the account types and the rules and the taxation things are going to be, so that's why you want to turn to the pros on that. So let's get into some of the numbers a little bit, guys, because I actually want to point out a couple of things that based on what you've said so far, and just kind of ask you some clarifying questions on that. But let's start with understanding the gifting rules. So John, what's some of the numbers that we need to know if we just want to gift money in general?

 

John:

So you want to look at what is the gifting amount before you trigger having to file a gift tax return or putting that on your return that you gifted money. So this number changes from year to year typically, and in 2025, it's $19,000 per person. So example, let's say you have a mother, father, and they want to gift to a child. They can each give $19,000 apiece.

 

Marc:

So married couples 38 grand, right?

 

John:

Yes. So that's a good starting point. And then if you have grandkids involved or whatever, you can start gifting to that. So it's $19,000 per person per year without triggering the gift tax filing.

 

Marc:

And that's hefty. Now I'm sure somebody listens going, "I love my kids, but I ain't giving them 38 grand."

 

John:

Again, everyone's situation's different.

 

Marc:

And you can do that. And it doesn't matter if it doesn't have to be family either, right? This could be anybody, right? You can give 19,000.

 

John:

It can be anybody. Yeah. If you want to just find a random person in the street, you're more than welcome to-

 

Marc:

Your favorite podcast host. I mean, podcast hosts need love too, so I'm just saying.

 

John:

Yeah. So that's definitely the starting point. If you're going to be gifting money to any particular individual. If you want to help out with tuition and medical expenses, as long as it's paid directly towards those institutions, you don't have to file any type of gift tax return.

 

Marc:

Now, I wanted to ask you about that because a minute ago you guys were talking about helping with school. Now you can't gift the money and pay the loan, right? It's not paying the student loan, it's paying the tuition. There is a difference there, correct?

 

Nick:

Yeah. And you want to pay it directly to the institution.

 

Marc:

Gotcha. Okay. That's important to know too, right? I'm sure from a tax standpoint as well. All right. What about QCDs, John? Can we do that in that arena as well? If you want to do some gifting?

 

John:

Yeah. So let's explain what that is. So it's qualified charitable distributions from your IRAs. Nick and I use this quite a bit. So when we're doing the fact-finding with clients, one of the main, not one of the main, but one of the questions we go through is, do you do any charitable gifting? And if they check that box, we'll typically find out what institutions and how much they're giving. And once someone hits RMD age, a great way to save on taxes is gifts directly from your IRA. So you could save quite a bit depending on how much someone's gifting. So example, we have someone that doesn't necessarily need their distribution from the IRA, and they were just taking money out of just cash flow, whether it was social security or pension, they were gifting it to their church. What we would typically do is say, "Hey, let's kind of switch this. Let's go to, let's pull out of the IRA." Let's just use number. Maybe it's 10 or 15 grand and we're going to go directly from the IRA to the charitable institution. In this example, it's a church, and you don't pay any taxes on that amount that came out.

 

Marc:

That's ideal, right? And Nick, thinking about how you, if you're a charitably minded person and talking about leaving a legacy, since this kind of rolls into this conversation, people often ask, "Well, which account should I use for what?" And John mentioned that earlier. So if you're thinking about leaving money to your kids and you've got money in a Roth, you might want to leave the kids that right? And then maybe QCD some money from the IRA over to the church, for example, because that's a tax benefit to everybody. Correct?

 

Nick:

Yeah, for sure. That makes sense. I would say to one kind of red flag, or at least something to be very aware of and had this conversation recently with a client is, while you're alive, if you're in a position to be able to gift and if you're in a position to be able to choose where you want to gift money from, avoid gifting from highly appreciated assets from the standpoint of let's say there's a property or there's a taxable brokerage account that maybe you've held 10 different stocks for 20 years and they have a substantial gain. If you gift that while alive, then the recipient, when they sell those is going to pay taxes on the gain versus if you gift it after you pass away, those investments will get a step-up in cost basis, which can save a significant amount of money from a tax perspective. So I would say where you gift from is absolutely, probably if this is something that's important to you, that's where the largest amount of strategy comes into play and doing it from the right place.

 

Marc:

Nick, any other things we missed as far as with the QCD or some of the numbers there?

 

Nick:

Yeah, one thing that we have run into is that some custodians, including the one that we use, Charles Schwab, they don't send out a specific tax document when somebody processes a qualified charitable distribution. So that's something that you want to keep records of and indicate that you've done that with your tax preparer. We've had a couple of clients where they were anticipating that they were going to receive a specific document that laid out exactly what they did, who it paid to, and that sort of thing and that was not the case. It shows the distribution via the 10-99, but they have to notify the tax preparer and usually provide some sort of documentation showing that they made that gift to a charity. So just from a best practice sort of standpoint, that's something to keep in mind.

 

Marc:

All right. All right. Good stuff guys. So as always, if you've got questions and concerns, need some help when it comes to any kind of the financial pieces, the X's and O's when it comes to retirement, you always want to check with qualified financial professionals who do this day in and day out. And John and Nick certainly do so if you need some help, reach out to them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or whatever podcasting app you enjoy using. You can reach out to the guys on the website. You can also call them at (813) 286-7776. And don't forget to tune in for new episodes as they come out. I appreciate the time guys. Thanks so much for being here and we'll catch you next time here on Retirement Planning, Redefined with John and Nick.

 

Get yourself a plan, get yourself a strategy. Reach out to John and Nick today at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, to get started on your situation or to tweak your situation and dive into that process with the guys. You can reach out to them at 813-286-7776. Or again, find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. Don't forget to subscribe to us on the podcast on Apple or Spotify, or whatever platform you like using. We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

 

This episode is all about the emotional side of investing during market turmoil, especially the conversations (or arguments) happening at kitchen tables right now.

 

Helpful Information:

PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/

Contact: 813-286-7776

Email: [email protected]

 

Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

 

 

Speaker 1:

This episode is all about the emotional side of investing during market turmoil, especially the conversations that might be happening around kitchen tables all across America right now. Let's get into it this week here on Retirement Planning Redefined.

 

Welcome into the podcast, where we're going to talk about talking to your spouse or loved one about market crashes and fears. If you're sitting around the dinner table and stressing out about the stuff we've been seeing over the past few weeks, it's been a volatile March and April. It's maybe worthwhile to have a chat about how do you go about that, because obviously when it comes to dealing with money and talking about money, that's sometimes where families and relationships struggle. This week, the guys are going to help us break it down from things they say from their clients, maybe their own personal perspective and mine as well, as we have this conversation.

 

What's going on, John? How are you doing, buddy?

 

John:

Doing good. Just found an electric fireplace.

 

Speaker 1:

Oh, nice, nice.

 

John:

For my remodel. I can't wait to have it installed.

 

Speaker 1:

There you go. Yeah, we got one of those as well when we did ours. Nice, very good. Works well. My wife's always got that thing on. I'm like, "Really?"

 

John:

Yeah.

 

Speaker 1:

Even when it's warm. I'm like, "You're killing me." Well, hey, there you go. Couples and spouses already over the fireplace, we haven't even got to the money yet.

 

What about you, Nick? How are you doing, buddy?

 

Nick:

Good, good. Staying busy.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Well, let's dive into this since you're about to have this situation start to prop up because you've got some nuptials coming soon. Again, congratulations on that.

 

I got a few questions I just want to run through. Feel free to drop in some real life scenarios that you've seen from your own life, or clients, or whatever you guys want to share when it comes to this. It's an important question, because I so many advisors like yourselves say, "Hey, when you're building a retirement plan and a strategy, make sure both people are involved so that you understand what you've got and what you're into." Even if it's not your thing, that way everybody just feels like they're on solid ground when it comes to knowing what's happening.

 

How do you deal with that? As a married couple or in a relationship, how do you deal with market downturns? Because when you start seeing your accounts go down, you start to freak out a little bit. Is it a good idea to talk about that, guys? Or do you think that should be saved for talking, Nick, like in front of you guys, where you're there as a mediator kind of thing?

 

Nick:

I think the number one most important part is that people actually start to have the conversation.

 

Speaker 1:

Just talk, right?

 

Nick:

Yeah, just talk. There's a reason that, I would say from the standpoint of therapy, 50% of the stress probably comes from guidance and 50% just comes from getting it out kind of thing.

 

Speaker 1:

Right.

 

Nick:

The act of literally just talking and trying to get on the same page I think tends to be helpful. The reality is most couples with many things, the way that they approach a decision, the way that they feel about something that's happening tends to be different. It's pretty rare that they're both the same.

 

Speaker 1:

Right.

 

Nick:

John and I talking about that quite a bit with clients, where many of our clients, we'll work as a team. In a lot of ways, we feel like it benefits us because we have similarities and differences just like couples do. Often times, we can pick up on more information because of that.

 

I think having the conversation to get a baseline of how they're feeling about the direction of things. Then, really, I do think it is important to reach out to their advisor and get an idea, a better idea of what's going on. Because the other part about that is that the phase of life that they're in really has a significant impact on how much they could be impacted. We've got clients that are working and just saving, they're often times feeling less concern. Those that are approaching retirement or very early on in retirement, they're probably the ones that are the most freaked out. Those that have been retired for a little bit longer have gotten a better feeling of it and I would say are a little bit more stable when it comes to this sort of thing. Just really getting on the same page is important.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. John, to expand on that, what's each person's natural reaction to financial stress? The two top things that couples fight about is money and in the bedroom, and love. Do you fight, do you flight, freeze, freak out? When you start seeing your accounts drop, are you thinking, "Hey, my dream is fading away?" How do you react to that can go a long way into how you deal with that financial stress.

 

John:

Everyone's personality is different. Everything you just listed there, Nick and I have seen it across the board.

 

Speaker 1:

Oh, sure. Yeah.

 

John:

I definitely say if someone's reaction is to fight over something, it's definitely a good time to do a check with your advisor to avoid those unnecessary fights about it. Everyone reacts differently. It's good to have conversations. Back to what we were saying, just having the plan reflect how is this actually affecting your situation. Once you see that, that might actually take some of the stress away to help you make better decisions.

 

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, because to that point, Nick, number three is that no matter what you do, whether you fight, flight, freeze, or freak out, is it because you don't know the longterm plan or you're not on the same page? Typically, the panic comes in when you don't realize what's going on, especially if one person is leading the financial charge and the other one is just along for the ride because it's not their thing or they don't care about paying that much attention to it. But then, in these times of turmoil, now they want to pay attention and now they're freaking out because they don't really understand the plan or they don't know it at all. That's the importance of both people working together.

 

Nick:

For sure. I think over time, we realized that when people are uncertain or they don't understand something, that leads to anxiety. And the anxiety builds up and then blows, and that leads to the freak-out factor or fighting between each other, or things like that. We've got clients who have told me one spouse can tell when the other spouse is really freaking out. They're not the personality to say something, but they become ornery or short.

 

Speaker 1:

Right.

 

Nick:

It's like, "Okay, I knew it was time to reach out so that we can have a conversation about this."

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

 

Nick:

That absolutely is something that makes a lot of sense. Having that plan to be your guide and stay on path is super important.

 

One of the things that we tend to tell clients over time is, and this is really playing out, where the reality is there's a lot of people, for the last 10-plus years, that have been very heavily invested in the Magnificent Seven, or heavy in tech, and all that kind of thing. It's been a safe haven and out-performed almost everything and pulled the market. Now we've got a little bit of a cycling out of that and it seems like things are shifting a little bit more to diversification is important, that sort of thing.

 

One of the things that we'll tend to say to clients, at all times, you should have something in your strategy that you're very happy about having and something that maybe you're not so happy about having. When markets are going really good, you hate that maybe you've got six, 12 months in cash that's not getting a ton of return. But when markets are going bad, you're really, really happy that you have that six to 12 months in cash for different things. All those things go together to try to help stay on the same page and go back to your plan.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. With headlines and internet stuff, and everything like that, it's really easy to get sucked into reactionary moments, John. How do you balance facts with feelings? That's one of the biggest things that we're dealing with. Money and feelings go hand-in-hand. How do you balance the facts in? If you're a couple at home, any thoughts or advice for folks? I know we talked a couple of weeks ago about not doom-scrolling and turning the TV off.

 

John:

Yeah.

 

Speaker 1:

Aside from that, what's some other ways to maybe balance the facts?

 

John:

Yeah. I think it's ultimately looking at your situation, not just what a particular stock or index is doing that day. Like I said, last week, when someone was a little nervous and when we looked at their year-to-date return it was like, "Oh, that's not bad." It's like, "No, it's not bad. This doesn't affect you whatsoever, you can go ahead and travel." It's like, "All right, good to know that."

 

I think it's always going back to your personal situation, and how does it affect you, and how can you adapt. And in some situations, how can you take advantage of what's happening currently? Is there something you could do that would actually be beneficial to your overall over the next two or three years, or overall throughout your whole strategy?

 

Speaker 1:

Good point. Yeah, definitely. You've got to get some facts in this situation because again, so many people just see the headlines, they run with it. They assume that's what's happening to them, and it may not be at all.

 

I guess the final piece here is, Nick, does that play back to have you talked with one another about your-

 

Nick:

Sorry to cut you off.

 

Speaker 1:

No, that's fine.

 

Nick:

I'll give you one example of this. This was what the news will do to people. I have one client who's very risk averse and is concerned about the markets. It was good she checked in because she was getting pretty upset over what was happening. When we checked in it was, "Hey, everything you have is in fixed income." It was, "There's really not much risk." She was like, "Oh, it's just this news, I'm watching it, and it's all this stuff." It's like, "No, you're in really good shape. Nothing is affected." But again, it's just a matter of knowing the facts for her situation. Not everyone's like, obviously.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

 

Nick:

She's extremely risk averse. It was good that she's in the right asset allocation based on her risk tolerance, because she wouldn't be able to handle what's happening right now.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's hilarious. I'm glad that she got that sorted out too, so that she didn't have to stress. Nick, I was getting ready to ask you that. Is it time for you and your loved one, you and your spouse, to talk about your risk tolerance? Do you assume you're on the same page, are you on the same page? Or does your advisor even know what your risk tolerance is? Have you gone through and updated that stuff and had those pulse checks?

 

Nick:

Yeah, it's really interesting because we'll have clients, for example, clients that are still working. Depending upon their personalities, I have a lot of clients that, if it's a couple, one person picks their own 401K investments, the other person picks their own 401K investments. Sometimes they might compare or look, and they'll pick their investments based upon ... These are, often times, people that, when they come in before they become clients, pick based upon what their own set of fact that they're using and all that sort of thing. When they shift to the phase of, okay, maybe retire, and now they're making more decisions together and trying to get on the same page.

 

Where we'll literally have situations where it's like, okay, say it's a couple, he's got his rollover into an IRA, she's got her rollover into an IRA, and then they have a joint account. The joint account's invested completely differently than either of the IRAs because they have to come to an agreement on it. It's interesting, the dynamics of how that works and how they slowly have to get on the same page often times. But having that conversation, those I would say that are more advanced at having those conversations earlier on, definitely end up in a better position.

 

Speaker 1:

Yeah. At the end of the day, guys, it all comes down to conversations and chatting with one another, and being honest, about what you need to do. Especially with you and your loved one, if you're thinking that your retirement or your financial dreams are dissipating, well, A, are you on the same page with each other? And B, are you on the same page with your advisor and do they know that? It's important to sit down, have a conversation, have a chat. Reach out to your advisor, especially in these times.

 

I saw a line the other day, I don't know if I'll remember it exactly what it is. It was like, "Advisors, you're really earning your keep in times like these. This is when discipline and consistency beats brilliance." You're not trying to time the market and things of that nature, because there's always going to be these ups and downs. It's having a good, consistent plan to help you get to and through all kinds of different environments that are going to happen if you're retired 20, 25, 30, 35 years.

 

Get yourself a plan, get yourself a strategy. Reach out to John and Nick today at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, to get started on your situation or to tweak your situation and dive into that process with the guys. You can reach out to them at 813-286-7776. Or again, find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. Don't forget to subscribe to us on the podcast on Apple or Spotify, or whatever platform you like using. We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.