On this week’s episode of Retirement Results, Ford and Sam discuss how the right estate and legacy plan should fit in seamlessly with your financial plan in retirement. Are you ready to get started and implement the right plan for your own retirement? We can help!

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About Retirement Results:
Welcome to Retirement Results! Each week, Ford Stokes and his team of fiduciary advisors help educate pre-retirees, retirees and business owners on ways to better protect and grow their hard-earned money.

With $36 trillion in national debt and counting, many economists believe that taxes are likely to increase in the future, affecting retirees for decades to come. Ford and his team will help you build a smart plan that is TAX-efficient, FEE-efficient and MARKET-efficient. Listen to the show every weekend on WGKA AM 920 The Answer in Atlanta, Georgia & subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

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1.10.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

1.10.25: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
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.

Speaker2:
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, and author of multiple books on retirement planning. Here is your chief financial adviser? Ford. Stokes.

Speaker3:
Welcome to retirement results. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us. Who's our senior financial advisor and co-host. And, Sam, second show of the year. Say hello to everybody. Welcome to the week end.

Speaker4:
Result, drivers. And welcome back to retirement results. Thanks to everyone who listened to the first episode of the show in 2025. Thanks to all of our new podcast subscribers. And that's a good reminder that if you missed part of today's radio show at any point, you can actually go to retirement results wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe and go back and listen to Ford and myself on any of our past episodes over the past years and months. So definitely subscribe. Take a listen and we've got another show coming up for you today.

Speaker3:
Yeah, it's going to be a great show. Today we're going to be talking about Smart Legacy. First and foremost, the next thing we're going to talk about is also still smart risk. Smart income and smart vision for retirement is all part of our smart retirement plan. And today we're going to talk about really about planning for today and tomorrow and why estate planning is essential for every stage of your retirement. But also you want to do a great job in planning for today with smart risk and smart safe investing. When we talk about smart risk, we're talking about investing with tactical asset allocation. Don't just hang in there with your assets. Don't just do a buy and hold. Try to rebalance, you know, each and every month to try to look at, hey, what could be the assets that are going to do the best over the next six months. And therefore, you won't ride the lowest of the lows at the bottom of the value of the markets when there's a market correction or a downturn in the market. Also, with smart risk, you can invest in different products like structured notes or um, also brokerage CDs, other things that things that are paying higher than a bank CD. And then smart safe investing. Then you're talking about replacing bonds. Again the go forward p e ratio on a lot of our corporate bonds out there these days is actually over 135. So 135 to 1 is the price to earnings ratio on you to get paid back on your corporate bonds? I mean there is a significant problem with the corporate bond market. And you know, as interest rates have gone up, there's a lot of people that held bonds prior to Covid.

Speaker3:
And since the Biden administration came in where interest rates were going up, now they're going back down a little bit. But there's also some things that Janet Yellen has done with refinancing 9 trillion of the $36 trillion in the US national debt. That's all coming due in 2025. In fact, there are reports there are $7.6 trillion that's coming due in the first quarter. And Trump and his new Treasury secretary, Vincent, are going to have to deal with it. And so I would be very careful on the bonds you're placing in your portfolio right now. I would also strongly urge you to consider a bond replacement strategy by replacing the bonds in your portfolio with fixed index annuities. We've got several fixed index annuities. We've got access to hundreds of them, but we've got two fixed index annuities. We really like a lot that you ought to consider doing. That can give you a 20% bonus or 15% bonus. And then also you can get up to 85% of how the Invesco Q index does with the Aspida synergy choice bonus, 10 or 20% immediate bonus, and a 290% participation rate less a 1% spread rate that goes into the nationwide pick ten fixed index annuity. That is, from a mutual insurance company called nationwide. They're the same folks. Yes, nationwide is on your side. And the blanket of coverage and all those people, they've got an exclusive product. Only 1% of financial advisors have access to. And we have access to that because I was an advisor mentor with one of their marketing partners, and I'm super excited to be able to offer the nationwide pick ten and the Synergy Choice SBA to our clients.

Speaker3:
And I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement. Com that's retirement results.com. Or you can visit retirement results plan. You can put your information in. That's retirement results.com/plan. But Sam today we're going to talk about estate planning is for everyone. Also how many American adults actually have a will. And we'll share the answer to that and why it matters. And legacy planning how to submit your legacy with a proper retirement estate plan. We're going to make sure that your kids, when you pass away, you're like, man, mom and dad sure were smart. And then also why working with a financial professional is a really good idea, especially in Especially in this time where Donald J. Trump's going to get inaugurated and on January 20th. And what to do next? Um, also, I would say if you don't know what you're paying an advisory and portfolio of fees or you don't know what your expense ratio is or what an expense ratio is, and even what it is within your portfolio, or if you don't know what the correlation of your assets are, or you don't know what the risk you're taking with your portfolio as measured by standard deviation, I would encourage you to reach out to us because we'll give you all those answers objectively, not subjectively, objectively. And we'll help you get started on the right path to building a successful retirement with a sound foundation to your retirement. And now, Sam, let's go ahead and share the financial wisdom. Quote of the week.

Speaker5:
And now for some financial wisdom. It's time for the quote of the week.

Speaker4:
This week's quote of the week comes to us from Richard Cushing, the former bishop and philanthropist. And Richard Cushing once said, plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark. And when it comes to smart, safe planning, Ford, that's really what it's all about. It's making sure that you've got that income portion of your retirement plan locked up, because you're going to need income in retirement the same way you needed income when you were working. You're going to have expenses in retirement that you're going to need a steady stream of income, if not multiple steady streams of income. We really believe in diversifying not just your investments, but your income streams. And that's why I really like this quote for today, Ford, because people really need to plan. You know, you don't need some of the things that you're planning for now, but you know, you will need them in the future also.

Speaker3:
And for those of you who think that Noah's Ark was just a figment of people's imagination, they believe they found Noah's Ark in Turkey on a mountain in Turkey. You ought to research that. It's a pretty interesting read. I thought that was an interesting historical tidbit there. I'd love to see that. It's really cool. Also, you know, we had a really successful show last week, and I would encourage people to go back to retirement Results.com and listen to that episode or wherever you get podcasts, whether it's Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, iTunes. And we got several calls, but one call was from a listener in Dunwoody, and he was blown away by what he realized was how much he was paying in fees. His his advisor is with a major Wirehouse major Wirehouses are people companies like Merrill and Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, and he was paying 1.2% for them to manage his portfolio. He brought his statements in and he had an expense ratio of 0.87%. He had a lot of mutual funds. He was paying a lot in 12 B1 fees and a share, fees and care fees. And he was really concerned about the fee level. And then his standard deviation was higher than his average rate of return over the last four years.

Speaker3:
And he realizes his assets were very correlated as well. And he just needed to make a change. And he felt like they weren't looking at his account enough. Those were his words, not mine. And if you feel the same way, if you don't know how much you're paying, an advisor and portfolio fees is an example. That's a really big motivator to give us a call at (770) 685-1777 again, (770) 685-1777. Also, if you don't know what the expense ratio is within your portfolio. That is, those expenses that are kind of hidden in your portfolio. I mean, they're there in the prospectus, but very few people actually read prospectuses of mutual funds. You want to be invested in ETFs more than you want to be invested in mutual funds, because ETFs are superior product because they're much lower in fees, and they still give you the diversification that you're looking for. So you don't have the huge swings of an individual stock of individual stock investment. But they also are traded within the trading day, whereas mutual funds are traded. At the end of the day when you can, they can assess a net asset value of the mutual fund shares. So there's a lot of reasons to invest in ETFs versus mutual funds, but specifically the big reason to pick up the phone and give us a call at (770) 685-1777 is if you don't know what the expense ratio is within your portfolio.

Speaker3:
That's a big reason. The other is if you don't know the risk you're taking as measured by standard deviation, I encourage you to pick the phone up and give us a call at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement results.com/plan. And we come back from the break. We're going to talk more about legacy planning. We're going to dive into how many Americans have a will, what you should be doing and what you need to do to make sure that, you know, your kids say, you know, mom and dad were really smart. They were really on it. So come right back. You're listening to Retirement Results right here on Am970. The answer, and again, thank you for making us the number one listened to radio show on Am 920. The answer on the weekends. We appreciate you coming right back. We're going to talk more about legacy planning and family planning, and also making sure you're doing everything you can to minimize the fees within your portfolio and the risk you're taking with your current portfolio.

Speaker2:
Schedule your free, no obligation Consultation now by calling toll free at (888) 814-0304.

We both know we don't talk too much about it.

Speaker2:
You're listening to retirement results. And now back to the show.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results. Result drivers I'm Ford Stokes our chief financial advisor. Got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our senior advisor and also co-host to the show for the last five years. Sam a couple of things. One is a lot of people just don't like we were talking about the last segment. They don't know what the expense ratio is within their portfolio. They don't know the fees they're paying. They don't know the advisory fees and the portfolio fees are paying. And the beginning of the year is a great time of year to really evaluate who you're trusting your money with or where you're trusting your money to be invested in. And I would really encourage everybody to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. Also, with a new president coming in, there should be a shift within your portfolio. There really should be you should see an actual shift to investments. And we made a shift for our clients when Biden won, won to protect, for safety and to try to take advantage of the investment that's going to happen within sustainable energy and things like that. And some of it's early in the game and some of the solar stuff, you know, did well. But at the same time, solar panels still sunset after ten years usually, and things like that. But you really should be looking about where you should be investing your money when there's new, when there's a new president in the white House and then encourage you to reach out to us and make sure that your portfolio is optimized for the next four years and also optimize on a monthly basis, but specifically optimize to be more fee efficient, more tax efficient, and more market efficient for your portfolio.

Speaker3:
We've got to do everything we can to minimize the fees you're paying, because that's something we all can control and we're happy to help. And also, I want to make sure you understand that Sam and I really care if it's if your money is important to you, I promise you it's very, very important to us. And also, we don't forget the fact that it is your money. It's not our money. So we want to do everything we can to help protect your assets and also help reduce the fees that you're paying. Because that's a leaky hole in the bottom of your bucket. We don't want that to happen next. We also want to help you get more tax efficient with Roth conversion or life insurance, or both. More than likely, if you're over 60 or 65 years old, Roth IRAs are the best way for you to get more tax efficient. We're going to talk about that specifically. Sam. We want to dive into this legacy planning and what's going on with Wills and what we we can do for people and how we can help them actually avoid probate. You know, also, I want to answer this question of why legacy planning isn't just for the wealthy elite out there.

Speaker4:
To respond to some of the things you just mentioned. You know, we find a lot of people simply have a lot of questions about their retirement and their investments that aren't being answered. And in other cases, they don't know which questions to ask. And so what you and I really try to do is serve as that fiduciary and that person that sits on the same side of the table as them to help them make the best decisions about their money. Because to your point, it is their money. And our job as advisors to help them make the best decisions with that hard earned and hard saved money. And you have worked so long to save it and prepare for retirement. And legacy. And estate planning is really about that next step. And when some people hear about estate planning, they really think that that is for the elites. But that is not necessarily the case. You don't have to be a billionaire or have, you know, mansions to to actually have an estate plan. You know, if you have a home, if you have retirement savings, if you have children and loved ones that you want to make sure that your assets get passed on to, then you certainly have a need for an estate plan.

Speaker4:
And when you look at Americans and why they're not currently estate planning, because there's a lot of people out there that don't have an estate plan. Some of the reasons are procrastination. They're simply waiting too long, and you don't want to put something so important off like that. A lot of people believe they don't have enough assets, and most of those people would be incorrect, and others don't know how or believe it's too expensive. And on today's show, we're going to talk a little bit about, you know, some actionable steps that you can take and why it matters for everyone. Because even if you just have a home, a car, or some sentimental family items, you can really benefit from having an estate plan. And we've heard stories for, you know, having a good estate plan can really help prevent family disputes, which is not something that you want when someone in the family passes away.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, some other reasons. And this survey came from caring.com that no one to leave assets to. It also takes too long or is too complicated and inflation and economic concerns. Those are reasons why Americans have not engaged in estate planning. And we can help you. We can help you do that. We responded during Covid to our clients that were asking, hey, Ford, do you have a recommendation for an estate planning attorney that is cost effective? Because we're seeing crazy amounts of fees out there that we just think is too rich. You know, they were we were seeing like upwards of $10,000 for a revocable trust and wills that were costing over $5,000. And that was just too much money for a lot of our clients to pay. And it just didn't make sense. So we started working with the service that they will actually pair you with a licensed estate attorney that will review all the work. But everything we take in all the information and as fiduciaries, we're there to take care of you. And then we put it all into this portal, and then all the information is then delivered to the estate attorney. And the will or revocable trust or irrevocable trust is then developed and then the state attorney reviews it, and then we deliver the binder to the client in our office. Let's say it's a revocable trust. It's actually a big leather bound binder that we it's a three ring binder.

Speaker3:
It's got all the information for their trust in their signature documents, all those things. And we can even get it notarized for you and we deliver it to you if you need that. We feel like that's the right way to go. If you feel like you haven't really gotten a plan for estate planning and you don't have a will, or you don't have a revocable trust, and you haven't figured out a way for your kids to avoid probate when you go to heaven. Specifically, the last of you in a marriage in as a married couple go to heaven. Then I encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit retirement.com. Also, if you feel like you know what, I just don't want to pay too much for a revocable trust or a will. And yes, I'm interested in minimizing the estate taxes that my kids would pay and I would I would like them to avoid probate, so therefore at least they can avoid some of the fees that would come from a probate attorney. Then I encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. We're happy to help you. Again, it's your money. We're here to care for you. We're here to care about you and your kids and your loved ones. And specifically make sure that your money goes where you want it to go. You want to direct your money, where to go in any estate planning situation for sure.

Speaker4:
Yeah. And based on 2024 data for only 32% of us adults have a will, which means that more than two thirds of you out there listening do not have a will. Don't have those basic wishes outlined to really make sure that your assets go where they need to go after you pass away and make your journey to heaven. People have some things that they can do really basic just to make sure that your estate plan starts to get in place. And we've got a few minutes left in this segment. I'd love to get started on some of some of these. And step one is check your beneficiaries. This sounds very simple, but this is something that you want to check and make sure that your beneficiaries are updated after any major life change.

Speaker3:
Yeah, you really need to make sure that like specifically if somebody went through a divorce, you probably don't want to give your assets to your ex-wife. You want to make sure that you're updating your will then obviously, or you're getting a revocable trust. Also, if you really are making sure that, hey, I want to get a revocable trust, make sure you've got your beneficiaries in order for that, because that's going to direct where your money goes without it going to probate. Also, you don't want the state to make a decision when you die. You want to make sure you have a will. Yeah.

Speaker4:
So step one would definitely be check your beneficiaries. And step two is start small. Start smart. Start with a will and then gradually add things like powers of attorney, people who can make those decisions about your healthcare and your finances out of trust if that's necessary. But a will is really the cornerstone of any legacy plan. Plans. So do some thinking here. Early in 2025 about what you would put down in that will and then actually get started.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I'll share a quick story. I've got a female client who, you know, we talked to her about once a year and she's fantastic. She's kind of in her mid to late 70s. And I got a call from her trusted contact with which is her son. And he said, mom has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. We did health care power of attorney years ago. And I'm calling you because we want to make sure we leave the money with you because we were blown away. How much? How much less your advisory fees are than what our own were. And we're wanting to talk to you about getting a financial plan for you and potentially moving our assets to you as well. We were just so glad to see mom's assets in order. They also saw that 50% of her assets were in a Roth IRA, and 50% were in an IRA, but the IRA was was in a fixed index annuity that hadn't lost any value. And in paying her good income. But that income had actually been outpaced by the growth rate on the annuity. And he was just blown away by how that annuity had done and how it had performed. But he was also really excited that he and his sister were going to inherit a pretty sizable Roth IRA, which there would be no RMDs.

Speaker3:
There would be no taxation on that. And she implemented that over seven years with us. And it was very sad that to hear that she had Alzheimer's. And, um, but it was really great to hear from her son. And I, you know, we we make sure also that our clients, Sam, have trusted contacts within their, within their accounts. If we see something that's a little bit off, we'll actually reach out to them, make sure they're, they're they're avoiding fraud Situations or in scams or, you know, we had in one case, we had a client that was investing, was going to try and invest like a third of their assets into a home renovation because they were getting remarried late in life. And we called the son, and the son was actually able to tear down the home renovation in half and preserve the assets so that the client could continue to take money from the assets at a 4% withdrawal rate. And he that client son thanked me and all that kind of stuff. So these are the things that we do to protect you and to protect your assets and make sure that you've got trusted contacts in your accounts, and also that you're doing everything you can to really just invest in a smart way.

Speaker4:
And when we come back forward, we're going to have some more information about estate and legacy planning. What you need to know, including some advice from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. That's all. Coming up next on retirement results.

Speaker2:
Retirement results. We'll be right back. To learn more and schedule your complimentary retirement consultation, visit retirement Results.com.

Let's groove tonight. Share the spice of life.

Speaker2:
While Washington's spending keeps growing, your retirement doesn't have to shrink. Protect and grow your hard earned money today by calling us at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777 to connect with a qualified advisor.

Speaker3:
And welcome back to retirement results. I'm Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor. And we got Sam Davis here with us on the mic. He's our senior financial advisor and co-host of the show. Sam, you're talking about legacy planning and the basic steps that you need to know. We went through the first two steps. Number one, check your beneficiaries. Step number two is start small. Start smart. Begin with the will and gradually add powers of attorney health care proxies and trusts. Specifically, a revocable trust is a good idea to avoid probate. Also, one hint here if you've got a state attorneys that are trying to take 2 or 3% of the overall estate as fees in in satisfying the state with a probate, make sure that they're not including transfer on death account values, because that will really drive up the bill. Um, specifically, like if you got IRAs or investment accounts, those are going to transfer on death outside of the probate process. And the estate attorney really should not be charging a percentage of those accounts. Then also step number three, Sam, can you share what that is for the basic steps you need to know in legacy planning?

Speaker4:
Yeah. And you shared a great example of why this is a good step before the break. And that is work with a financial professional and experienced advisor can help you make sure your assets are organized. Make sure that when possible, you're taking advantage of the transfer on death accounts so that those aren't getting folded in with what an estate planner and an estate attorney would do for you. A financial pro can help you make sure that comprehensive plan for your retirement really meshes seamlessly with your estate plan, and really provide guidance for your family after you're gone, or when you're experiencing some health complications, just like in the example you shared before the break.

Speaker3:
Yeah. And that trusted contact is just often ignored by other advisors that we've seen. And it's just a professional thing to do for us. As fiduciaries, you really should have someone that you really trust. And maybe it's outside the marriage because that way, you know, it's your son or daughter. Let's say, you know, the husband passes away first. And, you know, all those accounts still exist because you might have a joint account or the, you know, it's an inherited IRA for the for the spouse, for the wife. It'd be a really good idea if your son or daughter are on that, on those accounts, so that that way your advisor could pick up the phone and say, hey, we're seeing an exorbitant amount of withdrawal requests. You may want to talk to her and talk to this person and figure out why those requests are coming. Coming in. Um, just just something to really consider, because a lot of people see old people's money as a great place to go get money to transfer wealth from them to themselves and, um, and sometimes in a fraudulent way. Or it could be just in a way where they're trying to make sure that they're getting the money. And, and the older person is not. And that older person may need that money to be able to survive and to be able to be admitted into an assisted living facility or a skilled nursing facility. And your needs need to go first, in my opinion. And if you work with us, your needs, if you're our client, are going to go ahead of your children and they're going to go ahead of of relatives, business associates, whatever. So you really need to work with a financial professional that's going to do that for you.

Speaker4:
And the last little bit here, Ford is making sure that you're taking action with proactive estate maintenance. So if you're building an estate plan and establishing an estate plan before you retire, I mean, your retirement could last 20 or 30 years, sometimes longer. So make sure you're reviewing your estate plan every five years or so throughout retirement. If you have any major life events like marriage, divorce, birth of some grandchildren that you want to include in your estate plan, or maybe establish a trust as you get later on in your retirement. Ford we hear a lot of people start getting really involved in philanthropy. Charitable giving during retirement. So that's something to consider with your estate plan as well. And if you have any questions about estate planning, and you're ready to take your finances to the next level in 2025, and estate plan is a good thing to include in that and we can help. We'd love to answer your questions. You can give us a call at (770) 685-1777. You can meet with us right here in one of our Atlanta offices. Again, the number is (770) 685-1777. Or learn more about us and schedule a consultation at retirement results.com.

Speaker3:
Exactly right. And definitely reach out to us. We'd love the opportunity to help you, whether it's getting your finances properly set up for real growth and also first to protect your assets first and foremost, and next is to grow your assets and then and then also try to protect your assets going forward after you pass away and go to heaven, we want to make sure that the money is going exactly where you want it to go. Um, this is also a really good time, Sam, to encourage people to set a budget, their monthly budget, so they can determine where they want their money to go. And so they won't wonder where their money went. Um, just in today. Because again, this show is about planning for today and tomorrow, not just tomorrow. So let's do everything we can to reduce the expenses we've got. Let's also try to make sure that we're directing the money to go where we want it to go while we're living, and also when we pass away and go to heaven. And let's just really get a good plan so we can plan for the long term, build that successful retirement from a bedrock foundation and not just build it on sand. Let's try to make sure that our retirement plan is starting with a positive retirement income surplus, not a negative retirement income gap. Let's also make sure that the balance between risk and reward is in our favor. We'd rather have a lower standard deviation than the average interest rate that is projected in the growth of our accounts. We'd like the growth, the percentage interest growth, the average annual growth of our accounts, at least the projected average annual growth is higher in percentage than the high than the actual standard deviation is a percentage. So if you have questions about that and how you could see on a scale of 0 to 100 how your plan currently looks versus what you could get with our recommended portfolios and a strategic, raw, flatter conversion, then I would encourage you to reach out to us at retirement plan. That's retirement results.com/plan. And we're happy to get started for you.

Speaker4:
Yeah it's a fantastic time of year to get that plan in place for our phone has been ringing with lots of Lots of Pre-retirees and recent retirees looking to have their portfolios reviewed with some questions for us, and we look forward to working with you as well. And we've got one more bit on estate planning before we move on to the rest of the show. Whenever we hear some sage advice from Warren Buffett, we like to share that with our listeners. Warren Buffett, of course, one of the world's wealthiest people, one of the chairmen behind Berkshire Hathaway. And he's talking about how he has approached estate planning, and also his former business partner, who recently passed away at the age of 99, Charlie Munger. How they have handled estate planning. And Warren Buffett has some advice for all parents, regardless of their wealth. He actually says, quote, when your children are mature, have them read your will before you sign it. He says, over the years, Charlie and I saw many families driven apart because of the will that left beneficiaries confused and sometimes angry. Buffett wrote this, referring to Charlie Munger, his longtime business partner, who I mentioned passed away recently at the age of 99. Buffett said Charlie and I also witnessed a few cases where a wealthy parents will was fully discussed before death that actually helped the family become closer, instead of leaving the family and beneficiaries with questions after they pass away. This advice came alongside an announcement that he had recently donated more than $1 billion of Berkshire stock to his late first wife's and children for charitable foundations, and the 94 year old pledged to donate 99% of his fortune to charitable causes within his lifetime or shortly after his death. So transparency for it is, is what Warren Buffett is suggesting, and he's a charitable man, and he plans to give away quite a bit of his wealth before he passes away. And he's getting up there in age. And I want to take every opportunity we can to to share Warren Buffett's advice and words while he's still here with us.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, what could be more satisfying than actually sitting down and discussing with your kids. Here's how we want to divide the assets once we pass away. Um, here's what we're trying to do to take care of you guys. We love you. Um, that's just a great way to go and a great way to start. Um, and I would listen, if you've just put it off, you haven't done anything about a will or you haven't done anything about getting a revocable trust or an irrevocable trust. But I would encourage you to consider a revocable trust. And you want to do it at a lower cost. I'd encourage you to reach out to us at retirement. Com forward slash plans. Put your information in and we'll get started. Um, you can also reach out to us. Diane and her team are standing by. Take your calls at 770685177777706851777. And remember, you know, two thirds of Americans don't have a formal estate plan. We want you to have a formal estate plan. Don't wait to protect your legacy. Call us today at (770) 685-1777 for complimentary consultation and take the first step towards securing your future legacy, but also securing your future. Now we want to get you more fee efficient, more tax efficient and more market efficient with your portfolio. We also want to make sure that you've got more income coming in on a monthly basis than you are putting out, especially with what's going on with inflation. And we're here to take care of you because remember, if your money is important to you, I promise you it's important to us.

Speaker4:
All right. Ford, and when we come back, we've got one more segment of retirement results. Don't forget that if you've missed part of today's show, you can go back and listen wherever you get your podcasts. To all of our recent episodes, including this one, we'll be right back. You're listening to Retirement Results.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to retirement results. Schedule your complimentary consultation now at retirement Results.com.

All the things that I know you'll like. Making good conversation. I got a handle.

Speaker2:
Are you concerned about rising taxes and how that could affect you and your family during retirement? If you have an IRA balance over $400,000, you could save six figures in retirement taxes that you would be paying during a 35 year retirement. Find out how much you could save today by scheduling your no obligation Roth conversion consultation with Fort Stokes of retirement results. Learn more and schedule an appointment at retirement. Com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. Visit retirement results.com for more information. Miss part of today's show. Retirement results is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at retirement.

Speaker3:
Com welcome back to retirement results on Fort Stokes, the chief financial advisor at Sam Davis here with us, our senior financial advisor and co-host is Sam. We're also going to talk about some land mines here that people need to avoid, too.

Speaker4:
We're always looking to help people avoid mistakes when planning for retirement, because we find a lot of people try to do retirement planning on their own, but just with a little bit of help from a fiduciary like the folks over here at Active Wealth Management, you can avoid some of these mistakes. And mistake number one to avoid is allowing your money to be mismanaged. This includes setting it and forgetting it. You know, if you're a consistent saver, that's great. But if you don't know where your money actually is and how it's being managed, then you're not really in a safe place.

Speaker3:
If you don't know where you're at, it's very difficult to know where you're going to go if you don't know what your holdings are. You don't know what your current asset allocation is. You don't know what your expense ratio is within that allocation. Like how many mutual funds do you have? What's the percentage of mutual funds within your portfolio? You know, those are things you really need to know. How much have you got in ETFs exchange traded funds? How much are you invested in to individual stocks? Have you taken too much risk with things like bank stocks as an example? Also, what's the bond exposure within your portfolio and can you get out and how much have you lost in actual market value within your portfolio just because of the bonds? And why are you taking interest rate risk when you don't have to with the income portion of your portfolio? I would encourage you to consider a bond replacement strategy. And if you've got questions about what a bond replacement is, I would encourage you to reach out to us at (770) 685-1777 or visit us at retirement.

Speaker4:
Plan. Yeah. Ford, I like to tell people, if you can track it, you can change it. And that's why we try to give people a really thorough analysis of where their portfolio is at now. So as we work with them and move forward in their retirement plan, we can make sure we're improving on some of those key figures. Landmine number two to avoid is thinking you can beat the market. Remember, it's not about timing the market. It's about time spent in the market. And make sure you're not engaging in any excessive and risky speculation. We've gotten so many questions over the years about should I invest in gold or a gold IRA? Or what about cryptocurrency and bitcoin? Or maybe this stock that's a startup. You don't want to be too risky with your hard earned retirement savings. This is about setting yourself up for income and success over a 20 or 30 year period in retirement. And we don't want people taking big swings and missing out on these speculative investments.

Speaker3:
Yeah, you don't want to invest in, you know, tactical asset allocation and manage portfolios for six weeks. You want to do it for 6 to 26 years. And we would encourage you to really reach out to us and give us a call at (770) 685-1777. If you're looking for a financial advisor partner, who cares? Who is considerate? Who is going to put your needs ahead of your own. It's going to seek to first protect your assets and then second, going to grow your assets. Then I would encourage you to reach out to us at Retirement Plan. You can also check out our main website at wealth.com. But on both retirement Results.com and active Wealth.com, there's a button to schedule a consultation. You can book directly into our calendars. Also New Year's resolution time. What I would encourage you to do is try to get a second opinion on your current investment plan. Go ahead and reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. And the advisors here at Active Wealth com look forward to helping you and I will be involved in every step of the way.

Speaker4:
I think that's a great goal for all of the listeners today to have for the year forward, because getting that analysis and everything we provide at Active Wealth Management, it's a $2,500 value. All it's going to cost you is a little bit of your time. And and that is going to be a valuable investment of your time to really learn these answers that you've been looking for, or maybe getting the answers to some of the questions you didn't know you should be asking. Here's the next landmine to avoid when you're planning for retirement, and that is not having a plan for your Social Security benefits. And thankfully, here at Active Wealth Management Ford, you are a registered Social Security analyst. We put together so many Social security roadmaps for folks in 2024 to help them make the best decision about when to receive their Social Security benefit for both them and if they're married for their spouse as well. It's an important piece of the income picture for folks in retirement, and so we want to make sure they have the right plan. Yeah, I'm proud.

Speaker3:
To be one of only 15 registered Social Security analysts here in the state of Georgia. And I'm happy to run our SSA roadmap for you, absolutely at no cost to you. All you've got to do is reach out to us at (770) 685-1777. I will tell you, what we look for is people to send us their XML files from SSA gov. So it encourages you to reach out to ssa.gov. Get your username and password. It's the link right underneath the PDF download link on ssa.gov. And if you get those to us and then also you know your contact information, we can run a RSA roadmap, which is kind of like a Social Security maximization report. What's great about that is you can really get an understanding of how you can maximize the retirement income benefit that is due you from your Social Security income benefit. And so we want to do everything we can to help you maximize that, because income planning is going to be really important during retirement. And Social Security is going to be a big portion of the income you're going to receive on a on a monthly basis during your retirement years. Honestly, Sam, you know, we tell people all the time, but when to take Social Security is one of the number one or number two most important decisions you can make regarding your retirement. Don't leave that up to chance. Go ahead and reach out to us at retirement. Com we'll get started with your RSA roadmap to help you maximize your Social Security income.

Speaker4:
All right. We've got two more landmines to avoid before and during retirement. And the next one is depleting your savings too quickly because you didn't have a plan. You know, this could be just failing to establish a sustainable withdrawal strategy. I mean, you have to be disciplined and follow that 4% rule if you're not establishing a personal pension for yourself.

Speaker3:
Yeah. I mean, we help people get more than 4% of their assets for the income portion of their portfolio, which is generally about 40% of the portfolio. We can help you do that with a bond replacement strategy. Just reach out to us at retirement. Com forward slash plan. We'll get started right away.

Speaker4:
And the last landmine to avoid I want to recap them all. Um first allowing your money to be mismanaged to thinking you can beat the market. Remember it's more about time in the market, not trying to time the market. Uh, three not having a plan for your Social Security benefits. That would definitely be a mistake. Depleting your savings too quickly. And the last landmine to avoid is not aligning your investments with your risk tolerance. So if you're an investor that is quite conservative and you're afraid of market loss, make sure your portfolio and your investments align with that. Or if you're someone that wants to take some swings and have some more aggressive investments in their portfolio, make sure that you're getting the proper amount of reward for the risk you're actually taking.

Speaker3:
Yeah, you really do need to really focus in metrically and objectively, not subjectively, but metrically on that trade off between risk and reward. We really want to make sure that we're getting more reward for the risk we're taking. If you don't know how to do that, I would encourage you to reach out to us at Retirement results.com/plan, or pick up a phone and give us a call at (770) 685-1777. And now for the final countdown. It's the final.

Speaker2:
Countdown. So let's recap what you may have missed. It's the final countdown. The Final.

Speaker3:
Countdown. So the title for today's show was planned today and provide for tomorrow and why estate planning is essential for every stage of your retirement. We went through and talked about how estate planning is for everyone, not just for the wealthy folks. American adults actually have a will, which only 32% over 68% of you don't have a will. So I would encourage you to reach out to us. We can help you get started on that. And we've got lower costs estates and wills and and trusts and revocable trust and irrevocable trusts. That's below what we're seeing in the marketplace, because our clients ask for it. We delivered with a service that we have also we and we do work with the licensed estate attorneys. We're not doing the estates and the wills or the trusts ourselves. We only work with licensed attorneys that are licensed to work in the states that we operate. We talk about legacy planning, how to cement your legacy with proper retirement and estate plans. We also talked about why working with a financial professional is a great idea on this segment, on segment. On this last segment, Sam just went through five landmines to avoid. And with your financial situation and we hope that you really got educated today, we hope that you learned a lot about estate planning.

Speaker3:
You learned a lot about how to reduce the expenses you've got within your portfolio, and also how to get more fee efficient, more market efficient, and more tax efficient with your assets. Next week, we'll talk more about smart tax with our smart Retirement plan. And we're so glad you've been with us here. And thanks again for making us the number one listened to radio show on Am 920. The answer on the weekends here in Atlanta. Also, thanks to everyone who is listening to our podcast. We sincerely appreciate you, and let's make a New Year's resolution to go ahead and be that first time caller and give us a call at 77068517777706851777 or visit us at retirement results.com. Listen, if you're seeking information about retirement, remember, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Be as aggressive as you can. Seek as much information as you can. Trust your instincts, and you'll succeed in building that successful retirement plan by first protecting your assets and then growing it. Have a great week, everybody, and come right back next week where we talk more about smart tax solutions for your retirement portfolio.

Speaker2:
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 complimentary financial consultation, call us now at (770) 685-1777. That's (770) 685-1777. To connect with a qualified advisor. To learn more about our mission and our team, visit retirement Results.com. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, VCM, a registered investment Advisor, VCM and Active Wealth Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through VCM, 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.

Speaker1:
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 disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV To.a item for for additional information. Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short term 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. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.

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