Why Understanding The Difference Between Investment & Income Planning is Vital to a Successful Retirement

Join My Guest Financial Fiduciary Ken Orenstein and I as we discuss how to manage your investments with income planning to preserve wealth.

Ken will share how he teaches his clients on how to structure their assets into three different types of holdings.   

Book a complimentary Session with Ken to get your retirement questions answered here:

https://go.oncehub.com/KenOrenstein

 

Transcript

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.Hello, everybody, welcome back to another podcast episode. I'm your host, Jeff rediger, I'm gonna introduce my guest co host here in a second. This is replacing Wall Street with Main Street. My mission is to educate each of you out there, what you need to be prepared for in your financial world during your active years of employment, and retirement, and I interview, financial advocates, financial professionals across the country on different subjects that pertain to each of you. And the big one that has come up this year. And I think maybe because of the pandemic, it may be a lot of issues going on. But completing your will. And trust is very important in this day and age 80% of those that we've served a through our company have responded with their wills either outdated or they haven't completed it at all. So with that being said today, I've invited licensed financial fiduciary can Ornstein to be my guest. And Ken, I want to thank you for joining me on this important topic. Thank you, Jeff, appreciate being here. Well, before we get into completing your will and trust and the key decisions that need to be made to implement those important documents, let's give the audience a little background on you. Your planning firm, your affiliations, your target audience? Could you share with the with the those listening a little bit about your practice? Sure, I'd be happy to. So I am what's known as the licensed financial fiduciary, which means I'm held to a higher legal standard and say your average stockbroker or advisor, I represent a number of nonprofits that have contracts with the federal government to provide for both federal as well as state employees retirement and investment advisory services. I've been doing that for about half a decade, if not longer at this point. And one of the key here's why I want to have you on is because you and I've talked about this more than once is, you're in full agreement with the with the stat I threw out there a few minutes ago, about 80% of those we've talked to that don't have their will interest in order. And that's a that's an area you focus a lot on when you're doing with your clients and any new potential clients that come into your firm. Correct. I see a lot of my individual telephone consultations with state and federal employees, not only a lot of times, they don't have a well, they haven't updated beneficiary designations. Very, very important. I mean, the average state or federal employee started working for their respective governmental agency say 20 or more years ago, they might have been single, they might have been married, been married to somebody who now was an ex spouse. Maybe they had a brother or sister as a beneficiary initially, and now they're no longer talking. Unfortunately, it does happen a family dynamics are no longer talking to that individual sibling, and they've yet to update to current benefit with the proper beneficiary designations. It can cause very adverse problems down the road. Well, I'm one of the as we get into these questions, you know, some of the feedback we get is it's just overwhelming. It's complicated and confusing and and what I tried to share and you agree with this, it doesn't have to be so let's there's five key decisions that need to be made when implementing a basic will and trust. So let me share these with you and you can shed some light on how to handle these questions and help the audience So number one, who will manage the money when somebody dies, okay, a very end just to step back a second. I know these topics and all retirement investment. decisions can be very complex. I pride myself on taking the complex and trying to make it more easily digestible. And the wills and the trusts are not any different. So the question who will manage my money when I die very individualistic. You know, we get into it on, you know, in an individual consultation, but in broad strokes, ideally, you're going to pick a trusted family member, be it a spouse, a sibling, you know, or some other family member, and if one's not available, ultimately, it can be a trusted advisor. So then let's, let's elaborate on that a little more. So we're okay, so you you have somebody that you've assigned. So where where does the money go in a trust? Or what how does that process work? How do you make that decision? Okay, so that that's very important. And the money will end the money and not just money, the assets or belongings of the, I'm going to call the client, okay. Ideally, they're going to go where the client would have wanted the money to go, whether it be brokerage accounts, cash, a watch collection, or some other piece of real estate, whatever the case may be. Now, there are two components to help facilitate that. Everybody knows the simple will. Okay. Everybody knows, a will avoids probate. Not everybody knows what probate is. But it's basically getting tied up in the legal system longer than you would want to. If you were going through probate, probate. So A will think of it as a wish list, I like to joke and call it you're sending your teenage son or grandchild to the supermarket. And your grocery list says Pick up broccoli and milk. It's a teenager, they come back with ice cream and potato chips. That is the problem of a will. It's nothing but a wish list. Now, I have to say having a simple will is much better than having nothing. Okay, you have to have a will otherwise the government will write a will for you. And nobody wants that. In conjunction with the will we like the revocable so you have total control over it. Living Trust, it's a reinforcement to the will. So the client has better. What's the word? I'm looking for that there, there's better short chances of having the individual's wishes actually be come through? Yeah. It's directing your wishes from the grave? And yeah, having the government said it much better than me. But yes, that's what I was striving for. Yeah. Okay. So another question that needs to be addressed. And this is, you know, who's going to take care of minor children, I'd like to throw a caveat onto that, because I'm, I'm, personally my wife and I are dealing with taking care of elderly parents. So those are dependent upon you, how is that you know, who's going to who's going to take care of those people, those family members that are dependent upon you, God forbid something happens. Ideally, the individual, the client will have a trusted family members, trusted friends, persons or people over the age of 18, that they could tap upon to help them in lieu of that, you know, in some times, we do have to get governmental agencies and Guardian ships involved. But you know, hopefully that would not be the case. And then, who's going to make medical decisions? Let's say somebody is incapacitated. How's that process a very important document to consider when an individual is developing their their will and trust is the medical power of attorney or directive and basically what that document does. Let's say I'm the client and I become sick hurt. I'm unable to communicate my wishes. And you know, talk about my medical care, you're going to be naming an individual to make medical decisions for you. Okay. And then on the on the same incapacitated, subject if somebody is physically mentally incapacitated, what about financial decisions? There's another document similar to the Medical Directive known as the financial power of attorney or directives were ahead of time while the individual is cognizant and able to make, you know, sound decisions. They name an individual in the event of their incapacitation, to handle their finances and all their financial decisions. These are all very, very important documents that individual should have in place. So let's talk about that a minute. So you're not an attorney? No, you don't even play one on TV. No, I do work with attorneys, I advise attorneys. But no, I am not a licensed attorney. So you are a facilitator and as a fiduciary, and if some of you out there, don't understand that definition, we've done podcasts. Within the last couple months, we've done a podcast specifically on what a financial fiduciary is, and kin is one and I always recommend you need to find a fiduciary. So your role is to help facilitate the will and trust working with estate planning, attorneys. And the advantage you have is that there there is a software of will and trust documents that estate planning attorneys have basically formatted in a portal similar to TurboTax, for your tax work, and you help facilitate those. So the advantage Ken brings to the table is that he can help facilitate, get this done, and really help be the admin to get these legal documents that the attorneys put together in force, is that correct? That is correct. And the respective state because I do this on a national basis, respective state and in which the governmental employee resides, I mean, I've worked I've done this in a number of different ways. I mean, when I started doing this, I would just find a local attorney. And you know, forward the client to them, and then I find either it doesn't get done. And that's terrible. Or I found such a vast array of different price points, or way more expensive than the client could have had done using a different avenue. So that didn't work. And then I started using, I'm not going to name names, but I used another software where it was glitchy I couldn't really lend a lot of help or assistance. And I didn't get good feedback now newest software package that we're utilizing legacy lock, I could actually be instrumental in getting this done, you know, these documents done for a client at a fair price point. And nine times out of 10. It's going to be less if it's the basic will interest and what they would be charged listed to family members and attorney if they go find a tourney on their own. Oh, yeah, definitely. Lots. Yeah. So what we're doing is we're helping solve problems. Take something that's perceived to be complicated and confusing, simplifying it and put you in touch with a financial fiduciary that is, you know, ethically is gonna is gonna help make sure this is done in your best interest. That's what a fiduciary is. So great information. And I want to thank you for taking the time today to share that with our audience. Oh, excellent. Thank you. So if somebody, somebody's listening, and they say, You know what I'd like talk to Ken, it's there's no cost to have a consultation with you. How do they get ahold of you? You could call me on my national toll free number, and leave a detailed message because I'm usually in telephone consultations, and that number is 188883153608. Again, 1-888-315-3608. Okay, and then if you would like a complimentary booklet on understanding the importance of a basic loan trust, it's a it's a great 26 page booklet, and it explains as to why if you have an asset, you should consider completing a will and trust package with somebody like Ken and the estate planning firms behind him. You can give us a call at 888-545-8840. Let us know that you attended this podcast we'll get you in touch with Ken and we'll get that booklet out. So that's also something we're offering. Alright, so Kevin, Ken and I are going to focus a series on helping the government employee as they prepare for retirement. And so you're going to want Look for the next episode to drop. And what is the next episode? We talked about a checklist for pre retirement for government employees, correct? Yes. And so you go through what is it three years. What I like to do when I do this my initial telephone consultation with a governmental employee, the three years before retirement, and the three years after, are the most crucial as far as decision making. And I go into much greater detail on a consultation. But I think for our next podcast, what we want to do what I think would be very beneficial. Why don't we look at everything a governmental employee should be thinking about, once they're three years or less, this I have people calling me up that they're retiring in about two months. You know, I think they have plenty of time in August. Spoiler alert, they really don't. But anyway, why don't we do a podcast every single a governmental employee should be thinking about once their three years or less from full separation from service, which is just a fancy way of saying retirement. That sounds like a great topic. And we will go through a checklist. So government employees out there, look for the next episode to drop, Ken and I will be discussing what you need to prepare for three years prior to retirement. And that's a coral. So Orlando loss. So that's what, that's what Ken does. And we're here to help each of you. So. Alright, well, very informative. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jeff. All right. This concludes our session today. Look for upcoming sessions. We're out on 14 different networks, and we're here to help each of you. Be educated so that you make good decisions prior in during your retirement years. Thank you very much.