How Americans Can Improve Their Retirement Plans in 2024

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Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only, and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment, and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to Retirement Results, the National Radio Show and Podcast for listeners like you who want to protect and grow their hard earned money. In a world filled with so much uncertainty and financial risk, we seek to cut through the noise and build successful plans for hard working Americans on their road to financial freedom. Retirement Results is powered by Active Wealth Management, a team of fiduciary advisors who always place your needs first and now your host. He's a registered social security analyst, member of the Forbes Finance Council, an author of multiple books on retirement planning. Here's your chief financial advisor, Ford Stokes.

Ford Stokes:
Welcome to Retirement Results. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. And we are so happy to be with you. I've got Sam Davis, who's our co-host and retirement income specialist with us as well. It's a big day for us. For the first time ever, we're going to be a syndicated radio show. We sincerely appreciate John Fredericks for giving us this opportunity. I know many of you are passionate patriots and Americans who are concerned about their retirement, concerned about what are they going to do in retirement, concerned about what's going on with current political environment, current economic environment. And we're here to try to help you make sense of all of that. We've had a radio show for almost five years based in Atlanta, Georgia, and now we're going to be across eight states on 13 total different radio stations, including the 12 with the John Fredericks Radio Network. And we sincerely appreciate the opportunity that John has given us. Uh, we're so glad to be able to jump on a zoom call with John, uh, to kind of get things going. Um, it's also great to talk to him on Friday on his show. Our goals are to try to help you protect and grow your hard earned and hard saved wealth. We're also going to try to educate you on how to build a more tax efficient, more efficient, and more market efficient portfolio. We're going to try to do everything we can to help you build for a successful retirement, and really try to help you take the IRS and delete the IRS from your retirement accounts. And you, believe it or not, that can be done. And Sam, I want to go ahead and bring you in here and introduce you to the folks. This is Sam Davis. He's been my executive producer and co-host for over four years, and he is also in charge of a lot of the retirement income. Planning that we do here at Active Wealth Management. Retirement Results is powered by Active wealth management. We're a private wealth management firm and we are so glad to be with you here on the radio. Sam, say hello to everybody.

Sam Davis:
Welcome to the weekend, everybody, and welcome to Retirement Results. Thank you. Ford. And you're right. It is a very special day. It's an exciting weekend for us. We've been doing this show for well you and I've been doing it together for well over four years now. And we continued through the troubles of the Covid 19 pandemic, when a lot of our listeners really needed the information that we were sharing and the aftermath of the pandemic as well. A lot of people have been struggling. I don't need to tell any of you listening how bad inflation has been over the last few years, and we talk a lot about that on this show. Thank you for listening. We're excited to be here and bringing you important information. And for really what this show is all about is getting people ready for that next step. A lot of people like to retire, but a lot of people like to relaunch as well. And 75 million of you out there will be retiring between now and the end of the decade. That's 75 million pre-retirees out there. And we know a lot of you are listening. So we're going to be coming to you on the new national network every weekend to bring you important information you need to hear in order to have that best retirement possible, because for a lot of people have concerns, there's a lot of risks out there. And that number one fear that people have is running out of money. And that's one of the concerns that we'll address on today's show. Yeah.

Ford Stokes:
And also, if you're trying to figure out how do you get in touch with us, all you've got to do is dial pound 250 on your phone. We try to make it as easy on you as possible, so all you have to do is dial pound 250 and give the keywords Retirement Results, just the name of the show, and you'll get directly dialed straight into our office. If you're just curious what our office number is, our office number is 1-888-814-0304. Again, that number is (888) 814-0304. But I would encourage you to try that pound 250 and just say the keyword Retirement Results. We want to make it easier on you. We don't want you to dial on the phone while you're driving. We want to keep you safe out there for sure. And we're really looking out for you as fiduciaries. We've got to put your needs ahead of our own, and we're here to try to help you really kind of navigate what's going on in the markets, what's going on politically? How should you plan your own portfolio? How can you possibly replace bonds within your portfolio and and pay less in advisory fees and portfolio fees? And then also just how to delete the IRS from your account by implementing a strategic Roth ladder conversion. And if you've got questions about how to implement a Roth ladder conversion, I would encourage you to go to reach out to us by dialing pound 250 and giving the keywords Retirement Results, and we'll get started on a Roth ladder conversion plan right after you talk with us here at Active Wealth Management. And we're the private wealth management firm that powers Retirement Results. And we're really happy to be with you, Sam. Go ahead and share our financial wisdom. Quote of the week.

Producer:
And now wholesome financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Sam Davis:
Or this week's quote of the week comes to us from Warren Buffett, the renowned investor. Some call him the Oracle of Omaha, and Warren Buffett once said, rule number one never lose money. And rule number two, don't forget rule number one. And Ford, I think this is a great quote of the week for us this weekend because at Active Wealth Management, we're the independent firm behind Retirement Results. We're all about protecting first and growing second. Your hard earned money. So what do you think about Warren's quote forward?

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I think it's really important for people to understand it. If you can just never retreat within your portfolio, if you never take that big step back. Many of you may have had concerns about what happened in the markets and what happened with your own portfolio in 2022. You know, I understand that you may have had had huge losses or seen a lot of losses in 2008, 2009. Even 20 18th May have been a tough down year for you, and you may have been disappointed by what happened on the recovery. Uh, I'll give you an example. Like when you lose 50% of your assets as what happened from March oh eight to March oh nine, the S&P 500 lost 50.1% of its value during that 12 month period. And you're literally looking at a 50.1% loss. That means you've got to get 100% growth on the assets you have left over to come back to even. So what Warren's saying there is really important. Just don't lose the money. Do everything you can to protect the money you currently have and then grow it. One of the ways to do that is also implement a bond replacement with a fixed indexed annuity. We like working with bond replacement strategies with fixed indexed annuities or structured notes.

Ford Stokes:
They're two totally different products, but I want to focus on the fixed indexed annuity. Right now a lot of these annuities are paying 350% of how the index the underlying index performs. They're also offering between a ten and 20% immediate bonus. And we've even got one product that's offering an 8% guaranteed interest rate each year that you hold it and defer withdrawals, and 8% is more than a bank CD out there. You know, when you look at it, 3 to 5% on a bank CD, 8% is more than that. Now, there's obviously fixed indexed annuities are different products than bank CDs. They're not the same product. I'd encourage you to reach out to us by dialing pound 250 and giving the keyword Retirement Results, and you'll get dialed directly into our office. We just want to help you. We give a free financial consultation at no cost to you. It's a $1,500 value. And here's what you get. You're going to get number one. You're going to get an analysis of your current portfolio. You understand the risks you're taking, the fees you're paying, and the correlations of your assets. Number two is we're going to give you a Social Security maximization report.

Ford Stokes:
I'm a registered social security analyst. And there's not a lot of us in the in the United States. And we can help you maximize the retirement income benefit that you're going to receive over your lifetime. Third, we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with your current plan. That has nothing to do with us. You can understand what is that current plan look like in advance. We call this results in advance planning. Number four is we're going to give you a financial plan to your 95th birthday with our recommended portfolios. That also includes a Roth ladder conversion plan. And number five is going to give you a retirement income gap analysis after all that planning is done. So you can understand if you've got a positive income surplus or a negative retirement income gap with your current portfolio and your current plan, we've got to do everything we can to plan for successful retirement for you. We are passionate about this, folks. We love doing everything we can to help you reduce your fees, delete the IRS from your retirement accounts, and then also get more market efficient so you won't experience the big negative drops when there's market downturns in.

Sam Davis:
Ford, I think a lot of people are going to be interested in that Roth ladder conversion plan, particularly now, because one headline in the news this week is regarding the national debt, which just surpassed $34 trillion, that's 34 trillion t. That was earlier this week. Months ago, it was reported that annual interest payments on the national debt are now more than $1 trillion per year. And if you're interested in deleting the IRS out of being your partner in retirement, that Roth ladder conversion plan is a great way to start, and you can get in touch with us here at Retirement Results, just by dialing pound 250 on your cell phone and using the keyword Retirement Results. That's. 50 keyword Retirement Results. And Ford, when we come back from the break, we've got a fantastic guest, Eric Sussman with the Institute for Financial Wellness. They believe a lot of the same things we believe when it comes to properly preparing for retirement. And I'm looking forward to this interview with Eric. Yeah, I would also.

Ford Stokes:
Encourage everybody to check us out at Retirement Results. Com you can click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. Again check out Retirement Results. Com and we'll be right back. My interview with Eric Sussman.

Producer:
The national debt is out of control. But your financial future doesn't have to be. Get on the path to a debt free retirement and schedule your free consultation now by dialing pound 250 from your cell phone and using the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250. Key word Retirement Results.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multiyear guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short terme investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

Producer:
You're listening to Retirement Results. And now back to the show.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back to Retirement Results. I'm your chief financial advisor, Ford Stokes. And I've got Sam Davis, our executive producer and co-host of Retirement Results and also retirement income specialist with us as well. We've got a special special guest, Eric Sussman with the Institute for Financial Wellness is with us. Eric, welcome to Retirement Results.

Eric Sussman:
Thank you so much. It's an absolute pleasure to be here with both of you.

Ford Stokes:
It's great to have you here. And Eric, you're a CFP. You're a certified financial planner. You're also president and one of the major partners with you and your brother in the Institute for Financial Wellness. Can you talk a little bit about why you guys started if?

Eric Sussman:
Absolutely. My brother has a wonderful media technology, uh, background. He started a company that focused on making theater more accessible for everyday Americans. And he started that in 1999. And it really went very, very well. And in 2017, he sold that company. I had been with the company, uh, with the um, in the financial services industry for 20 something years, and we wanted to create something that was fresh, uh, that would educate consumers. And our mission is to provide financial education resources and solutions to help people live their best life. That's what we're all about. And we think that it a lot of times financial information is provided to us, and sometimes it's like watching paint dry. So we're like, want to make it fresh? We want to make the content fun. And that's what it's all about. Well, I.

Ford Stokes:
Mean, you guys have done a great job. I know you guys have these weekly webinars on Monday nights where people can really get education. They get to hear from you directly as a CFP. Um, also, we're really proud to be part of the IFF team and working with you guys in the States in which we work with clients as well. I that's been a big partnership for us. We sincerely appreciate it because it's allowed us to serve more clients, more folks that are really lost. They were looking for, hey, what should I do about my when I'm rolling over my IRA or rolling over my 41K to an IRA, what do I need to do about how do I generate income in retirement? Also, you know, I've got this potential tax problem with my 401 K. What should I do about that? Is there I've heard about Roth ladder conversions. What should I do? And we've been able to really work with a lot of people that have come in through I w and have have just been like, you know, I'm, I just needed somebody to help me, help me navigate this. Um, we're also really proud to be certified with you guys as well. Just talk a little bit about the next level instead of just you guys did a great job creating it. You've got a great website. I want you to share that as well. But the educational, actual programs that you guys have available for customers across all 50 US states?

Eric Sussman:
Absolutely. Well, as you know, uh, Ford, we created something that we're very proud of called the if retirement score. And the score, we, we we kind of compare that if retirement score to a credit score, you know, who doesn't want to know their credit score? Who doesn't want to know how it works? Who doesn't want to know how to improve it? We found this gap that a lot of people don't know their retirement score. So what we did is we we worked with a technology, a fintech program, and we created this tool called the IFA Retirement Roadmap that delivers this retirement score. And obviously, the higher the score, the better. For example, if you plug in your data and your income, your expenses, your taxes, inflation, different asset classes, it'll give you a score and it'll tell you your likelihood based on Monte Carlo simulation, which is math and science used by NASA to launch spaceships. And in this technology is used by engineers to build bridges and tunnels. It's got its name from casinos that use it to make sure their slot machines and their roulette tables always win. And we know casinos always win. So the whole goal is to get your score up. So right now, this person might have a 41% chance of achieving their goals in retirement. And when we do some things to to make it better, we can get their score up to 90, 95, 99%. So it's all about increasing that retirement score. And as you know, Ford and being one of our if esteemed if you, uh, certified financial professional, your job is to meet with these people and say, hey, look, how can I help? Let me tell you about the score and see if I can help you improve it.

Ford Stokes:
No doubt. And also, I'm sure people are like, wait a second. I've heard a lot of really great stuff here. How do I get started with trying to get my own retirement score?

Eric Sussman:
I think the best thing to do is go to our our website. Uh, the dash I. Com to learn more, and you can sign up for one of our webinars right off the home page. I think that is a wonderful beginning. We on the webinar. On the educational session, we'll talk about what is the Eye of retirement score? How does it get calculated? How can I improve it? Who can help me with it? Where? That's where the. If certified financial professionals that we connect with, that we select from all across the country. And let me say this. All of the financial professionals that become, if certified are independent financial professionals. We're a big believer in that. We don't want any of our financial professionals to be beholden to any financial institution. We want them to have open architecture and have accessibility to all different product manufacturers. That makes.

Ford Stokes:
Sense. That makes sense a lot. Also, one of the things that you see that's improving those retirement scores is when people are replacing the bonds in their portfolio. We've seen that bonds have had a really rough go over the last three years, and the 60 over 40 portfolio in 2022 had the worst year in the last 41 years. It also that 60 over 40 portfolio, that modern portfolio theory that was born by Harry Markowitz in 1952 is now 71 years old, almost going to be 72 years old in in 2024. What are you seeing that the best way that people can improve is, is really trying to do something about that income portion of their portfolio and also reducing their advisory and portfolio fees when they make some of these transitions, because you see a lot of plans out there and you you see what a lot of other advisors recommend. I'd love the independent part, but just as a CFP, just if you could just share a few thoughts on what you see really helps improve someone's retirement score.

Producer:
Sure, sure.

Eric Sussman:
Uh. My pleasure. So the the controversial annuity actually has been proven mathematically by Roger Ibbotson. He did a study over the last 46 years, and he found mathematically that a fixed indexed annuity, which is a very unique product that was introduced, you know, 20 something years ago, he found that a portfolio of 40% fixed indexed annuities, as opposed to bonds, outperforms. And he did a study again 46 years back. So that in and of itself, you know, what else is there to talk about? Ernst and Young has done studies to find that you're better off with a fixed indexed annuity than a bond. Blackrock. I mean, Blackrock manages $9 trillion. They're a Wall Street company. It's just there's so much evidence now mathematics, science, not anybody's opinions like some of the media personalities out there that have opinions. But the bottom line is the fixed indexed annuity as part, not the entire portfolio as part of a well-rounded retirement portfolio is by far the most efficient way. And it's not me saying that it's not just the Institute of Financial Wellness saying that it's a it is all of these third parties that are completely disinterested. They're not even from the insurance industry. Blackrock, Ernst and Young, you know, Roger Ibbotson. So that's my take on on that. Uh, for.

Ford Stokes:
That makes sense. It makes sense a lot. I mean, you also, it's great that you allow independent financial advisers to act independently on behalf of their clients because they're the ones that really know their that client situation and they're all different. And it's also great that you work with a lot of people who are fiduciaries like ourselves, that have to put our the needs of our clients ahead of our own. And, and that's really great. It's just it's been a fantastic situation to be certified as, you know, an advisor with the Institute for Financial Wellness and still have that freedom and flexibility to be able to take care of my clients and put their needs ahead of our own. We really appreciate that mindset that you guys bring to the table each and every day over there at Ifwu.

Eric Sussman:
Thank you. And you know, interestingly, forward I, I come from what I call the big box, uh, companies out there. And I spent, you know, over 20 years and again, not say anything in a negative way. But I just know all the, the size of of which type of financial professional, uh, American should be using. And there's no doubt in my mind the independent financial professional is the way to go. So commend you on on seeing that for your practice and for your clients.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I appreciate that so much, Eric. When we come back from the break, we're going to talk more to Eric Sussman with the Institute for Financial Wellness right here on Retirement Results.

Producer:
Retirement Results will be right back. To learn more and schedule your free retirement consultation, dial pound 250 from your cell phone and use the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250 key word Retirement Results.

Hope you got your things together.

Producer:
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Ford Stokes:
And welcome back to Retirement Results. We're here with Eric Sussman with the Institute for Financial Wellness. Eric is a CFP. He's also president and partner in if. And Eric, so glad you're able to find enough time to be able to come back with us on for one more segment. We appreciate that. Can you please just share? I'm sure people heard the first segment. They've just got questions about what can they expect, how can their information be protected? Um, they don't necessarily have to give their Social Security number. They don't have to they don't have to actually give statements and things like that, um, on the front end to be able to get their retirement score. They can just put some amounts in there. Just if you could walk people through what they can expect when they go to the dash if.

Eric Sussman:
Com absolutely. So the first thing that we want to do is really educate everybody. We always believe that the education and the knowledge that we can empower people with is is really, really critical. So the first thing when you go to our website, you see the if Retirement roadmap webinar, that's where you get your your if your retirement score. So you sign up, we're going to walk you through a 40 minute, you know, not too long 30 to 45 minutes. Simple clear. Webinar live by the way that shares with our consumers. What is this retirement score? How is this score calculated? Why is it as important, if not more important than your credit score? And most importantly, how you can work and be guided by an IFA certified financial professional to potentially improve your score? And as you shared forward, it's so important to to not be concerned. There's so much identity theft and all that craziness out there to get your retirement score. We don't ask you for any sensitive information. Keep your Social Security number, keep your account numbers, keep your driver's license number, keep your credit card numbers. We don't want any of that information. We are able to produce an if retirement score simply by having your goals and objectives, your age, your assets, and how they're broken out in between stocks, bonds and cash. Uh, how much you have in insurance and annuities when you want to retire, how long you believe you're going to spend in retirement. So all that information which takes, you know, 15, 20 minutes for us to get through a phone call again without any of that sensitive information. And it really gives us the ability to do that.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. Ronald Reagan for once said, you know, trust but verify. And I feel like we all kind of need to inspect. We expect a little bit regarding our retirement. There's been studies out there to say that people spend more time planning their annual summer vacation or spring break than they do when they're working or planning their retirement, which is pretty shocking. And and all of us are really worried about what the impact of inflation, uh, you're seeing things like the Social Security Administration saying that the old Age Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is going to be completely depleted now by 2033, which would mean a 23% cut across the board for all Social Security income benefit recipients. And so there's a lot of worry out there. Eric and I would I would think that people would like to go to the if. Com and at least get started, watch one of your webinars and also the fact that you lead it weekly and and live and it's not some recorded thing where people could actually ask questions, I think is remarkable. And it's a great time investment on your part. And as an advisor works with if you prospects. I really appreciate your time investment. I in our family Eric we spell love Tim. And I feel like you give a lot of time and and a lot of love. Back to the I of folks that that want to visit the if. Com and sign up for that webinar. I just I just want to say as an advisor, I just want to say thank you for your investment into these folks that are really desperate to try to figure out what's going on with their retirement.

Eric Sussman:
Yeah. And and, you know, that whole thing about improving your score, we spend so much time there's really three key ways that we help all of these Americans improve their retirement score. And one of the biggest ones is lowering or possibly even eliminating the taxes that they're going to have to pay in retirement, as we know, as you brought up Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan, the one of the reasons why he used to only make two movies a year is because he would have to give 90% of his income away. So he, like, literally was dis incented to make movies. I mean, that is just not making sense, right? So lowering or eliminating taxes could be a huge way. If you can keep more money for yourself and your family and give less to the IRS. What a great way to improve your retirement score. The other thing is protecting your portfolio, I should say, from market volatility. I mean, what's going on in the world today? All the wars, uh, inflation, it's it's really important, more important than ever to limit your market volatility, especially when it comes to retirement, because the rules of money work a little bit differently in accumulation than in distribution. So when you're distributing your money, let's just say it this way.

Eric Sussman:
It's much more important to have less volatility when you're using your money later on down the road. And then segue into that is, we want all of the Americans that work with the Institute of Financial Wellness, and they're our certified financial professionals. We want them to to have confidence and clarity in never running out of money in retirement. And one of the tools that's used is lifetime income annuities, which, again, is a little different than the fixed indexed annuity. It's it's it's a feature of some fixed indexed annuities. But having lifetime income I mean think about it. We all love our pension plans. We all love our our Social Security income that we receive. There is not. A person that would not want to know that as long as they're alive, they're going to continue to receive income. And yet there's media personalities out there that that say negative things about annuities. I'm just. I'm just blown away at where that's coming from. Now, should you put all of your eggs in any one basket? Of course not. But when it comes to retirement planning, nobody can produce guaranteed lifetime income other than a lifetime income annuity.

Ford Stokes:
No doubt about it. I think a lot of people don't understand that retirement. They don't understand really two big things. Number one is the IRS is their partner in retirement with their IRA account. And a lot of people have big tax problems. They don't have a plan for doing a Roth ladder conversion or using using life insurance or things like that, that there's only two types of tax reinvestments out there. There is life insurance and Roth IRA, so people should consider that. But back to the income piece. The big thing that people don't realize is that retirement is much more about income than it is about building one big nest egg. And you really hit on a really big point there, Eric, which is you really don't have a lot of market volatility when you're withdrawing from your nest egg, because if you've got a 20% loss in a year and you're taking another 4 or 5, 6% out of your portfolio, and some wirehouses are saying, oh, go ahead and take 7.2%, you'll be fine. I don't know if that's true. I think you you need to be a little bit more careful, a little bit more conservative.

Ford Stokes:
A lot of independent advisors I work with, they they work on a 3.2% withdrawal rule. And with these fixed indexed annuities that you're you're referencing, they've got an opportunity to get a growing distribution rate every single year that they age. And they're able to take advantage of mortality credits. And I think that's just a remarkable thing that a lot of people don't know. But the main thing is they don't even understand that there's an accumulation phase. And then there's a distribution phase. They think they're in an accumulation phase the whole way. And when you stop that check from coming in the mailbox every two weeks, that ACH deposit, every two weeks, life changes and you are suddenly on fixed income with Social Security and whatever, you withdraw from your assets, and you've got to really have a plan for it. You got to have a plan. I just appreciate everything you guys are doing on on the AI side to help educate people on, you really need to have a plan for your distribution phase.

Eric Sussman:
Yeah, we're very passionate about this and there's a lot of, of talk and and the good thing is there's a lot of talk now about the positive effects of, of of lifetime distribution planning, which encompasses assets under management, you know, professionally managed portfolios. But there's another piece that really needs to be included on the protection side, which is where annuities and insurance come into play. So we didn't even talk about long tum care, which could devastate, you know, somebody's entire retirement nest egg. And there's plans and strategies for that as well. So yeah, we're really excited. We were really grateful to to be communicating with all of your listeners forward from from your program Retirement Results. And, uh, we'll, we'll be happy to come back anytime you ask us to.

Ford Stokes:
Okay. And again, folks, if you're looking to get your own retirement score from a certified financial advisor with the if with the Institute for Financial Wellness, all you've got to do is visit the if. Com that's h e with a dash I f.com. And um so that way you can get educated and really see what's going on. And just a 40 minute webinar and then they'll get started on getting you your retirement score and introducing you to a certified advisor with the if you. Eric, again, thanks for being with us here on Retirement Results. All the best and we look forward to having you on Retirement Results again soon.

Producer:
While Washington's spending keeps growing, your retirement doesn't have to shrink, protect, and grow your hard earned money today by dialing pound 250 from your cell phone and using the keyword Retirement Results, that's pound 250. Key word Retirement Results.

Mom and. Dad. Way.

Producer:
Fixed indexed annuities can help protect your retirement savings against market ups and downs. Nationwide's peak ten can help protect against market risk and provide guaranteed income for life. Peak ten also has an optional rider that offers an immediate 20% bonus based on your principal. Apply to your income benefit base. Dial pound 250 and use the keyword Retirement Results to connect with a qualified advisor. Now that's pound 250. Key word Retirement Results indexed or fixed annuities are not designed for short Tum investments and may be subject to caps, restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Any bonuses mentioned may be subject to additional restrictions and regulations based on the offering annuity company that may include higher surrender charges, longer surrender charge periods or lower caps. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Guarantees and protections referenced within are subject to the claims paying ability of Nationwide life and annuity insurance company nationwide. Peek ten is issued by Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company, Columbus, Ohio. Neither nationwide nor its other entities are associated or affiliated with Brookstone Capital Management, LLC. The national debt clock is ticking, but your retirement clock is too. It's time to take control of what you've worked so hard for. Schedule your free financial consultation now by dialing pound 250 from your cell phone and using the keyword Retirement Results. That's pound 250 key word Retirement Results.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back to Retirement Results I'm Ford stoker chief financial advisor I've got Sam Davis our co host here on the mic. And Sam you know those guys over at if you're great. Eric's just so sharp CFP just really sharp guy. Really nice that they kind of believe the way we do. The bond replacements could be a really good idea to help delete fees within portfolios that you can reduce your fees. Let's say if you did a bond replacement of 40%, you really could delete the fees of up to 40% of your portfolio where you pay zero fees, zero advisory and portfolio fees on that. And that helps you get more fee efficient and then also you can let the rest of that money grow and just take the income from the 40% that you replace of your portfolio from the bonds. And again, the big question I would ask all of our listeners, they're listening in states across the the eastern seaboard states. I would just say, hey, if you're driving around in Pittsburgh or Philly or you're in Fairfax, Virginia, or you're in Atlanta, Georgia or Nashville. Or Wilmington and you're just concerned about, you know, what is my retirement income plan? How much am I going to pay in taxes? How can I reduce the taxes that I'm paying? I'd encourage you to reach out to us at Retirement Results. Com you can just go to Retirement Results. Com you can see any of our episodes, but also you can click that schedule a consultation button, your upper right hand corner and you'll get booked directly into my calendar. Sam and I are happy to help you. We've got multiple advisors. They're there to help you. But you'll talk directly with me first. I want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to take care of you and your needs. For sure. And, Sam, just your thoughts on bond replacement. And also, we've got an important problem solver that talks through how to get more tax efficient as well.

Sam Davis:
And if you missed any of that interview and you're listening to Retirement Results out there, just so you know, Retirement Results is available wherever you listen to podcasts as well. So you can go back and catch up on previous episodes or anything that you missed from this show before. What I love so much about the conversation we had with Eric of VFW about bond replacement is there's millions and millions of hardworking Americans out there who don't have a pension. Pensions just aren't offered as much as they used to be in the workplace these days. But there's millions and millions of people out there that still want that guaranteed income they can count on. They want to have their assets and their savings protected. And so that bond replacement is just a really quick move that you can make. It's a great tip if you're looking to improve one thing about your retirement plan in 2024, I would consider a bond replacement.

Ford Stokes:
If bonds are supposed to give you income, why are you paying advisory and portfolio fees on that income? There's no reason. So we can help you with replacing the bonds with fixed indexed annuities or structured notes, or a brokerage CD or any of those different types of things. But now I want to kind of get into this problem solver.

Producer:
It's time for this week's Problem Solver.

Ford Stokes:
We've got a couple that we work with. Their names are Jim and Susan. We changed the names to protect the innocent here. Jim is 60 years old and Susan is 62. They own a small sign business. Jim and Susan been doing a great job saving for retirement, but they've called because they have some concerns about managing taxes in retirement and building a retirement income plan that they can count on so they can focus on enjoying their retirement as a couple. They have $1.8 million saved for retirement, but 1.5 million is in their tax deferred IRAs. Between the two of them, retirement accounts like your 401 K's, your 403 B's, 457 Sep, IRAs and other traditional IRAs are tax deferred. This allows your money to compound and grow, but the IRS is a significant partner in your retirement because the money has not yet been taxed. Let's say your marginal tax rate is in the 24% bracket. You and your spouse are retired and decide to withdraw $10,000 to take a family vacation or go on a cruise. The IRS is going to tax you $2,400 of that, leaving you with $7,600 for your vacation. If you're taking money out of your IRA to go on a vacation. So if the vacation again is going to cost you $10,000, you would actually need to withdraw $13,158 in order to pay for the vacation and the taxes due. The solution is to implement a Roth ladder conversion. Also, if you're in your 40s or 50s and you're listening to this, you can also invest in index universal life policies. Next week we'll talk about our problem solver. There's a female marketing executive who's 50 years young who is invested into that plan.

Ford Stokes:
And she's really happy she did because she's able to grow her money tax free because there's no taxes on life insurance withdrawals. If you can implement a Roth ladder conversion over time, as we're going to do for Jim and Susan, you can literally delete the IRS out of a large portion of your assets. The problem is they've got a huge tax bomb later, because a vast majority of their assets are sitting in IRAs, and you've got to do something to convert that money. Also, if you're worried about legacy at all with your retirement and you want to pass on money to your heirs, the nicest thing you can give them is a Roth IRA or life insurance, or both. Because both of those are truly tax free. There's only two types of tax free investments available to Americans today. Number one is a Roth IRA. And number two is life insurance. Because life insurance withdrawals from the properly set up life insurance policies where there's cash value in the inside, the policies with a whole life policy or an indexed universal life policy. We happen to like indexed universal life policies. Those are considered loans against the policy, and there's no taxes on loans against a life insurance policy. It's called a rule 7702 plan for the IRS code IRC 7702. You can look it up if you're worried about taxes going up in the future and how that can affect your retirement. It's real if you go to US debt clock org, Sam just brought it up here on the screen because you can actually see the video of us doing this radio show every week at RetirementResults.com just click on that, click on the episodes, you'll see it.

Ford Stokes:
But we're over $34 trillion right now in US national debt. That's scary. And the only way they're going to be able to get rid of this debt, they might be able to inflate it away. We've seen a lot of inflation over the last year and a half. But I will say this, they're likely going to come after the folks with money and they're going to come after the retirement accounts. And so what I would strongly encourage and urge you to do is implement a Roth ladder conversion, where you convert a little bit of money each year from your IRA. You move money from your IRA to your Roth IRA. We'll talk more about that in depth. We're also going to talk about specifically the most tax efficient way to implement a Roth ladder conversion. I think you're going to love hearing that. And now I just want to share what it's like to work with us. All you've got to do is dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. Or you can dial 1-888-814-0304. That's (888) 814-0304. Or dial pound 250 and give the keyword Retirement Results. You'll get dialed straight into our office, and Deborah and Diana and our team are standing by to take your call, and you'll get booked directly into my calendar. You can also go to RetirementResults.com and click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. And we're happy to work with you. We're going to help you get more tax efficient, fee efficient and market efficient. We're going to analyze your current holdings. And we're also give you a recommended portfolio plan as well. It's the final.

Producer:
Countdown. So let's recap what you may have missed. It's the final countdown. The final countdown.

Ford Stokes:
So on this week's show, we welcomed you to the Retirement Results. We're so happy to be with the John Fredericks Radio Network. And thank you to John Fredericks for giving us this opportunity to be syndicated across eight states and your 12 stations. It's a big deal for us. It's a step up for us, and we're we're ready for the task. We're ready to absolutely take care of business and to take care of your retirement. All you've got to do to reach out to us by dialing pound 250 and give that keyword Retirement Results. We also had a really in-depth interview about bond replacement with Eric Sussman with the Institute for Financial Wellness. You've heard from Sam and me both talking about how to delete the fees with bond replacement, how to get more tax efficient with a Roth ladder conversion or life insurance, or both. There's only two types of tax free investments out there. That's Roth IRAs and life insurance. And if you're in your 60s, it's probably a little too late because the cost of insurance is probably a little bit too high. I would encourage you to go ahead and reach out to us, and we can help get more tax efficient with a Roth ladder conversion.

Ford Stokes:
You've got a lot of money sitting in your IRA, and next week we're going to start on our full series on how to build a smart retirement plan that matches to my Smart Retirement Plan book that's coming out in Q1 of 2024. And we're going to talk about specifically, we're going to talk about smart risk, smart, safe and smart tax investing. And so glad you've been listening to us on Retirement Results this week. This is our first show ever on the John Fredericks Radio Network. Shout out to John Fredericks and the entire team. Nance. And everybody done a great job taking care of us. And Sam and I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you. And we're going to be with you every weekend for 2024 and beyond. We're here to help you build a tax efficient, efficient and market efficient portfolio. And remember, if you're seeking information about retirement, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly, get after it. Try to really study about what's going on out there so you can build a successful retirement for yourself. Have a great week everybody.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to Retirement Results. You deserve to work with an independent team of fiduciary advisors that will strategically work to protect and grow your hard-earned assets. To schedule your free financial consultation, dial pound 250 on your cell phone now and use the keyword Retirement Results to connect with a qualified advisor. That's pound 250 key word Retirement Results. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit RetirementResults.com Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, BCM, a registered investment Advisor, BCM and Active Wealth Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Registered investment advisors and investment advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosure of any conflicts of interest, if any exists, please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV two, page four, for additional information.

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