August 2, 2026 • 41 mins
Chris, Kevin, and Jeffrey Talk Money, Health, Legal Protection, Medicare, Retirement, Family
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
New warning. I'm Paul Stevens, Fox News.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
The U.S.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Embassy in Jordan issuing a security alert urging Americans to
consider leaving the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
U.S.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Assets and its allies in the region facing targeting from Iran.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
That warning from the U.S.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Embassy in Jordan telling Americans not to travel to the
region or if they are here now to consider leaving.
And it comes as President Trump has issued a warning
that the U.S. could launch major attacks against Iran. The
president's saying those attacks could come as early as this
weekend and they could last for several days.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Here's the president.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We'll be hitting them.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We'll be hitting them very hard.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
At some point, they're going to say we.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Just can't take it anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You can sense some frustration in the president yesterday about
Iran's negotiating tactics, negotiating four days at a time and
then suddenly striking U.S. assets in the region, attempting to
strike U.S. military positions in the region and also attacking
civilian shipping.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Fox's Steve Harrigan, six months after Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped
from her Arizona home. Her family says they still hope
and pray for her safe return.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Now the Pima County Sheriff is releasing two ransom notes.
The first note that was sent February 2nd says this
in part, quote, we will be holding her for a
maximum of seven days. You will need to send Bitcoin
in the amount of $ 4 million before 5 p.m. on
Thursday the 5th. If payment is not received, the ransom
will be increased further. to six million USD, which will
(01:31):
need to be paid by 5 p.m. on Monday the 9th.
If payment is not received by the last deadline on
Monday the 9th at 5 p.m., she will be killed.
A second note sent days later said this in part, quote,
Guthrie family, we did not fully grasp the seriousness of
her physical condition. We never intended to hurt her. That
was not our intention. She perished shortly after she was taken.
(01:53):
We want your family to know this and hope you
all can find peace. We are truly sorry.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That update from Fox's Chanley Painter. America's listening to Fox News.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
From the WAM 1180 newsroom, I'm Anthony Panasowicz. The Puerto
Rican Festival Parade steps off today at 11 o'clock. Lineup
and float check-in starts around 9, with the parade closing
the area around Easton Alexander before concluding at the festival
grounds at Parcel 5. The festival continues until 11 o'clock
at night. DEC is still making sure that the waste-activated
(02:36):
sludge found leaking from a truck on 590 yesterday isn't spreading.
The leak shut down the Blossom Road exit around 10 a.m.
on Friday, with the state environmental authorities putting down absorbent
padding to catch the material. The ramp has since reopened.
And two people are being investigated in the 1985 death
of a Dansville woman in Florida. Remains belonging to Rosemary
(02:57):
Gayhart were finally determined to be hers just a few
weeks ago, with police saying they're investigating at least two people.
Robert Paddock was her boyfriend at the time she moved
to Cape Coral, and police are also investigating now-dead serial
killer Roland Davis, who was in the area at the
time of Gayhart's death. Your 13-way mother authority forecast today.
Hazy sun at times, warm and humid, but mainly dry.
86 for your high. I'm Anthony Panazowicz, NewsRadio, WAM 1180.
(03:21):
Next news in 30 minutes, breaking news when it happens.
Anytime on NewsRadio, WAM 1180.
Speaker 7 (03:25):
The following is paid programming by the Rock Your Life
Radio Show. The content of this show is that of
the Rock Your Life Radio Show and does not reflect
the views or policies of this station or iHeartMedia.
Speaker 8 (03:37):
News Radio Wham 1180 welcomes you to the Rock Your
Life Show, discussing safe money, estate planning, and Medicare with
an entertaining twist. Now from the News Radio Wham 1180
studios in downtown Rochester, here are your hosts, the Rock
Your Life guys, Christopher Krolak, Kevin Clark, and Jeffrey Kuhn.
Speaker 9 (04:04):
Welcome to Rock Your Life Radio, where every week we
help you make smarter decisions about retirement, Medicare, legal planning,
and everything that comes next. I'm Christopher Krolak with the
Jay Christopher Group, alongside estate planning attorney Kevin Clark of
Clark Peshkin, and Medicare advisor Jeff Kuhn of The Medicare Shop.
And today, we're talking about a question that I don't
(04:25):
think enough people ask before they choose a financial advisor,
an attorney, or even a Medicare specialist. The question is,
What happens after I walk out of your office? Because
believe it or not, I think the answer to that
question is just as important, if not more important, than
what happens while you're sitting in our office. Now think
(04:46):
about it for a minute. Almost anyone can have a
good meeting. They can give a nice presentation. They can
answer your questions, maybe even recommend a solution. But that's
only hours of your relationship. The real value is isn't
created during that meeting. The real value is created over
the weeks and months and years that follow.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I couldn't agree more. When someone comes into my office
to create an estate plan, signing the documents is only
a very small part of protecting their family. What really
matters is making sure that they understand what's in the
documents that they've helped create. The legal aspect is already done.
I have that down, but do they understand? And when
(05:28):
they leave, And in thinking about what really matters, it's
not just did they sign the documents right, but did
they know who and how and when and where their
estates can be taken care of after they're gone?
Speaker 9 (05:39):
And that's probably the part most people never even think about.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You know, Chris and Kevin, Medicare is really the same.
People think choosing a plan is really the finish line.
It's not. It's actually the starting line. Questions come up.
Doctors change. Formularies change. costs on prescriptions. Things change every
single year. And if you don't know who's going to
help you after you've enrolled, you've only solved part of
(06:03):
the problem.
Speaker 9 (06:05):
You know, and financial planning is no different, guys. Meeting
with me for an hour doesn't create a retirement plan.
Reviewing your investments, coordinating with your attorney, working with your CPA,
or making adjustments when market change, helping you make smart
decisions over the next 10, 20, or even 30 years,
that's where the real planning happens. So today, Each of
(06:26):
us is going to take you behind the scenes. We're
going to answer a question that very few professionals ever answer.
What actually happens after you leave our office? Because if
you're deciding who to trust with your retirement, your legal affairs,
or your healthcare, you deserve to know what the relationship
looks like after the handshake.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, Chris, I really like what we're talking about here. And,
you know, we're going to talk about our experiences in
our industries, but really for the listeners out there, this
applies to every kind of consumer transaction that you involve
yourself with, whether it's for a service or whether it's
for a tangible item like a car or a boat
or even a vacation. It's about spending a little time.
(07:09):
Last show, we talked about what's better. Now it's thinking
about what's this experience going to be and what do
I hope to get out of it when I'm done?
Speaker 9 (07:15):
Yeah, it's kind of intimidating. When you buy a car
and you get in it for the very first time,
you start it up and you've talked to the dealer
and And now that car is yours, and you have
to figure everything out. And it does get kind of intimidating, right? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
You don't know what to do next sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Right. And probably one of the most important things, let's
use the analogy of buying a car, is you've got
to maintain this thing. You can't just put gas in
and drive it for 100,000 miles and think everything's going
to be okay and ignore the whole process of maintenance
and touching base with it and saying, okay, is my
car okay? Let's get it checked up. and have somebody
actually look at it once in a while.
Speaker 9 (07:51):
Yeah, it's the responsibility after the sale, and who does
that responsibility fall on? Oh, it's 100% your responsibility. Right,
and that's intimidating.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Right.
Speaker 9 (07:59):
I think today's topic is going to be kind of
neat because we're going to talk about what happens after
all of this goes down, after you receive your documents,
after you get your plan in place. What do we
do now after that? And we're going to hopefully take
away some of that intimidation today.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You know, so Chris, as a consumer, I know it's
my responsibility. If I need to have work done on
my car, I've got to make the phone call. My
mechanic's not going to call me and tell me I've
got an oil change or my doctor that I need
a physical. So I preemptively have to take that step,
but I have to know who the professional is that
I'm going to call for each of these things. I'll
give you a recent example. I brought my truck in
for service, and I've got a great mechanic who looks
(08:37):
it over. Even if I just have my tires rotate,
he goes through the truck and comes back to me
and goes, you know, Jeff, everything looks great on your truck.
How do you feel? You walk out of there going,
you know, I feel comfortable driving. It's a little bit
of maintenance, whether you're seeking professional advice, you're looking at
your portfolio, your legal documents, your doctor, you get your physical,
your blood work. It's that after the visit, you know,
(08:59):
I've maintained it, I'm good to go again.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
So what's it like when somebody comes into your office, Jeff,
and you've set them all up, you've selected the plan,
now they've got that really cool kit that they walk
out with. What happens next?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, Chris, that's a great lead-in for what happens next,
especially when dealing with Medicare because it's not that simple.
It starts with just applying for a plan. People think
that I'm done and I walk out the door. So
once you've actually decided that you're applying for a plan,
You know, it's like going to the gym. You know,
you've got a goal, requires preparation, planning, and training, and
(09:37):
Medicare really works the same way. The goal is to
successfully get signed up and get on the best program
that really fits your needs at this particular time. So
let's imagine you reach your goals at the gym and
you just stop going. What do you think is going
to happen?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Well, you're going to decrease.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, the gains are gone Yeah, the gains are gone
or what's going to happen?
Speaker 8 (10:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, it's that you're going back to bad habits
and you just kind of forget about things and you
get out of it. Well, really, Medicare really works the
same way. You're really due to maintain things like a
car and requires yearly maintenance. So I'm going to walk
you through some of the basic steps because people always ask,
what's next or what do I do? Now that I've
got a plan picked out. So let's assume you've signed
(10:21):
up for Medicare. You haven't got your cards yet, right?
And you should get your Medicare cards in 30 days
of applying for Medicare. So this is a whole show
we could probably talk about. How do you enroll? What
do you need to do? But I'm going to skip
over that for this time. But let's assume you've enrolled
in a plan. You decide either a Part D, an
Advantage plan, a Medicare supplemental plan, and you've applied. So
(10:43):
your cards, when do they come? That's a question that
people need to be aware of. In 7 to 10 days,
the insurance carrier, whoever you pick, is required to send
you some notice that you've applied, that you're going to
get your cards. If you don't get that, something has happened.
So you as a consumer need to take this up
and say, I need to make a phone call. Why
(11:03):
am I not getting this information in a timely manner?
Because within two weeks, you should have your actual physical
cards in hand.
Speaker 9 (11:09):
Now, what if I don't have my cards? You know,
you dial that 800 number, then you're put into that
magical queue of pressing 1, 2, say this. You don't
get a response. How do you help them do that?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well, usually, Chris, for my clients, when they apply, I
know that they've applied. I keep an eye on it
because I do get reports. And the first step is
people don't realize it goes through CMS to make sure
that their Medicare number is showing active. And sometimes, even
though they have the card with Part B on it,
CMS hasn't gotten this information from Social Security. So before
they get that letter, I already know about it. I've
already made a phone call, and usually if I can
(11:42):
take corrective action, that happens. But for somebody that's trying
to do it on their own, this is where things
start getting quirky and mistakes happen. They don't know what
to do or who to call because who do you call?
Social Security. If you call Medicare, Medicare tells you to
call Social Security because they don't handle it. Social Security
is the administrator, where if you've got a really trusted advisor,
(12:03):
you can just make one phone call. Hopefully you don't.
Your advisor's already called you to let you know something's happening,
and they've already corrected it.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
Yeah, I think that's the key is just making sure
that follow-up, because we forget. We forget that that card
is supposed to be mailed to us in 7 to
10 days.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Exactly.
Speaker 9 (12:22):
When you're buying a car, you forget that you have
to bring that thing in for maintenance unless a little
light comes on. So is that kind of what you
guys do?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Exactly. I mean, once we apply, we've got to make
sure everything goes through because, again, I've found more times
than not, even though people have got a Medicare card,
CMS isn't showing they've got Part B. And people have
received letters showing their Part B is not active. And,
you know, today you think about all the mail you
get or don't get, and do people catch that stuff?
Speaker 9 (12:49):
So, Jeff, hold that thought because when we come back,
we're going to walk you through what happens after someone
leaves our office and why, in many cases— The most
important work hasn't begun yet. So stay with us here
on Rock Your Life Radio on WAM 1180. News is everywhere.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
I think there's a lot of questions that need to
be answered.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
News is happening all the time.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
I feel like information was held.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Back from me.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
News Radio, WAM 1180. Hey, Franz Lonsbury here, talking with Jason.
Speaker 8 (13:18):
Rochester's Traffic Station, News Radio, WAM 1180.
Speaker 9 (13:22):
Welcome back to Rock Your Life Radio. You're listening to
the Rock Your Life Guys. I'm Chris Krolak with the
Jay Christopher Group, and we have attorney Kevin Clark at
Clark Peshkin and Jeff Kuhn at the Medicare Shop. And
let's continue our discussion on this very important topic, what
happens after you leave our office. So, Jeff, you were
talking a little bit about what happens when people leave
your office. So, why don't you tell me a little
(13:43):
bit more about that?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, Chris, it's one of the things for everybody, it's
anxiety getting on Medicare and when does my plan start?
When do I get my cards? What do I bring where?
So everybody's got a very clear set of instructions of
what to expect, when they should be getting things. And
if things don't happen, right, that's when you as a
consumer have got to pick up the phone and call
me and say, hey, Jeff, by the way, and pay
(14:05):
attention to your mail. I can't tell you how important
that is and how many people say I never got
something in the mail because they're not really paying attention
to it. whether it's their Medicare cards or they get
a letter saying that there was an issue with an
enrollment or they need verification about employer group health plan coverage.
So we try to prepare them for all those things,
but we have that typically on file in case that happens.
(14:28):
We already can deal with it before they even get
a letter in the mail. But you have to pay attention.
You've got to look at your mail, look for things
that are coming. But the most important thing is the
service work. It's that maintenance, that oil change that you
need to do on your Medicare plan every year. And
we do classes for our clients every year as far
as the annual notices of change. What's changing with Medicare?
(14:52):
What's changing with all the companies? Because one of the
most important pieces that people get is what's called an
annual notice of change. And it comes in the mail.
Speaker 9 (15:01):
That sounds intimidating.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It does.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And as I'm listening to you, I would wonder, when
you say there has to be some service every year
to their plan, I think the average person is probably
shocked by that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I mean, right?
Speaker 4 (15:16):
You sign up for Medicare. It's the government-provided health care.
They should take care of us. It should be ready
to go. After I leave your office, I should feel
great I have health care.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Right, right.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Close the book and move on.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I'll tell you, some of the healthiest people are the
ones that tend to miss it because they don't pay
attention to it. It's like that old Ron Popeil rotisserie chicken.
You set it and forget it. And that's not the
case with us, if you remember those old commercials. But
the most important document I tell everybody you're going to
get in the mail that you have to pay attention
to is this annual notice of change. This annual notice
of change, it's like that old– I said this to
(15:48):
somebody yesterday. You remember the phone books you used to
get in the mail, that paper? It looks exactly the
same as the white pages. It's going to lay out
with your plan exactly what's changing from this year to
next year with what's cost differences are. Everybody gets this.
They're required to send it. And I've got so many
people say I never got it. Well, it did come.
You just got to make sure you're paying attention. By September,
(16:11):
you'll start getting these. If you don't get one of these,
you've likely have gotten a letter. And a lot of
people last year, especially in Rochester, got notices of their
plan was terminating. Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
That's scary.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah. So this January, here's an interesting fact. In the
Rochester area, there were 20,000 people that were without a
Medicare plan. And the Rochester, because it terminated and they
didn't realize it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
So they had it. We lost 22,000 Medicare plans.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
People were just– they had original Medicare. That's all. They
had no drug coverage. And guess when they found out?
When they went to their doctors or they went to
get a prescription filled, they were told their insurance was
no longer active. Oh, that could be devastating.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So they've got a month before they can get it.
I mean, they can get it put in place for February,
but nobody pays attention to a lot of those important documents. Wow,
that's really important. And that gets missed.
Speaker 9 (16:56):
So what happens if you do nothing? If you just say,
I'm just going to let it automatically renew, they'll probably
put me in the same plan.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Right.
Speaker 9 (17:04):
I don't really need to worry about it. I'm just
going to roll with the bunches.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
The most important piece in this comes down to prescriptions.
I get more calls about this because people say, I
went and got my prescriptions filled, and either it's not
covered now, I've got this massive copay, which is really
a deductible, or my drug isn't covered at all. So
you've got to make sure your prescriptions are in formulary.
That does change every single year. In formulary, what's that mean?
It means your insurance company covers it, right? Not all
(17:31):
drugs are covered the same by every company. Some covered,
covers Manjaro, let's say, for example. Some are covered, Trulicity, Zepbound.
I mean, these are some of the newer drugs and
not all of them are covered. They're not required to.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
How or when can they change coverage on the prescriptions?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
The annual election period runs from October 15th To December 7th.
And you can effectively change effective for January 1st. That's
the annual election period. Some people use the word open
enrollment period. That's a whole different thing. But starting October 1st,
all the insurance carriers can legally put out the information
on their new plans. But every single consumer has already
(18:08):
received their annual notice of change. That is the most
important document you can receive every year.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
So the insurance providers only change what they cover every year?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Through that notice of change.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
So if any of those drugs that you said, I'm
covered this year, you need to look in that paperwork
that you get sent to make sure it's covered next year.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Or call the insurance company, make sure it's in formulary,
because it may not be in there. They don't put
the formularies in there, but you can go online to
get a copy of the formulary from the insurance company
and look it up and see, is my drug in there?
Is it changing? But more importantly, how are my co-pays affected?
Speaker 9 (18:42):
Don't you do all that?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
We do for our clients. Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
All right. So I don't need to make that call.
That's some great information, Jeff. And thank you very much.
So is there anything else you want to add?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, Chris, just real quick. For the consumers out there
on Medicare, you're going to start getting your annual notices
of change. Please look for those in the mail and
pay attention to them.
Speaker 9 (19:02):
All right. Open your mail, right?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Open your mail. That's the most important thing.
Speaker 9 (19:07):
So Gavin, what is it like when somebody... has made
that trust document. They've attended your seminar. They sat down
with you. Now they've got that wonderful document. What do
they do with it? What happens next?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Chris, that's a really good question. You know, for me,
I got to push back a little bit because that's
one of the biggest misconceptions I feel like people have
in estate planning is that it's about that specific document
and the document only. And the reason I say it
like that is I can't tell you how many people
come in and meet with me and tell me, you know,
I ask them to tell me about their current plan
(19:46):
and they almost get white in the face and look
at me like, what are you talking about? It's the document. Well,
what did you learn about your document as you prepared it? Well, nothing.
You know, I told the attorney I wanted to trust.
They called us back in and this is what I got.
And I've since taken it to, you know, other folks.
I guess I just don't really understand it. And that's
what's the biggest driver of my passion for is that,
(20:09):
and I tell people all the time, estate planning is
one of the most undereducated area of law, not only
for non-attorneys, but for most attorneys alike. Because just by
the statistics, estate planning attorneys, it's a very small percentage
of attorneys. And then everybody else out there only thinks
about wills or thinks about the document, but don't really
(20:30):
understand what goes into it. So to be more clear,
what I'm talking about in my practice is, I believe
it's about the education aspect before you come to the office, right?
You're asking about what happens after you leave the office.
For me, it's about beforehand. You know, what education are
you getting from the estate planning attorney? Are you getting
(20:51):
that information from an attorney? Or are you getting it
from a financial advisor, an accountant? Those are three different areas.
It should be coming from an attorney. And how's the
attorney educating you? Because you have to be educated to
make the right choices in your estate planning. So then
you move into the designing it and the preparing the documents.
And when it actually comes to the signing of the documents,
(21:12):
I mean, a lot of people ask me, you know, yes,
I believe that revocable living trust is just the best
estate plan, but I got to fund that thing. What
does that mean? Well, you know, if you have a
really good provider, they're doing it for you. You know,
when I have people come and do the signings, it's
all done. So when they actually leave with that document,
just to go full circle now, They should have the
(21:35):
education of what created their document. They should be educated
with where and who their stuff is going to go
to and who's going to take care of it afterwards.
So that that document is only a quarter of the
whole plan. A quarter of it's the document, a quarter
of it's their understanding. Then we move to a quarter
of their survivor's understanding. And then finally, the funding of
(21:57):
it with the assets being changed.
Speaker 9 (22:01):
Kevin, we need to take a quick break. But, you know,
a question I want to ask you when we come
back is what is funding the trust mean? Maybe that
has a few misconceptions. So everyone stay with us. We'll
be right back here with Rock Your Life Radio on
WAM 1180. When at work, staying informed is also part
of work.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
The news impacts every business.
Speaker 9 (22:21):
You need to get all the information that's out there.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
At work, at home, all the time.
Speaker 8 (22:25):
Follow those stories and more on News Radio, WAM 1180.
If you run a business and need to get your
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Speaker 9 (22:37):
Life Radio, you're listening to the Rock Your Life guys,
and we're going to continue our discussion with Kevin Clark
of Clark Peshkin. Kevin, I had that question for you,
and I hear it all the time. What does funding
the trust mean?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
It's a great question, and it's one of those words
that really sometimes has a double meaning from the lay
perspective to the technical legal perspective. Funding a trust means
changing the asset that's in the grantor's name alone. So
if I'm creating a trust for myself, I'm the grantor,
I'm giving my asset to the trust, and then it
(23:13):
gets changed into the name of the trust. So I'm
Kevin Clark. If I have a house, Kevin Clark.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Is on the deed.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
When I fund it to the trust, we change that
deed to say the Clark Revocable Living Trust. So then
the trust is the owner.
Speaker 9 (23:29):
So big question, you know, one of the largest assets
that people have are retirement accounts, whether they're 401Ks, 403Bs, IRAs.
So you don't change the title on that individual retirement account.
You actually change the beneficiary information. Can you kind of
clarify that a little bit?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
And that is, thanks for bringing it up. It's a
big topic out there and a lot of misconception as
information gets translated from the attorneys to the financial professionals. professionals.
Here's the truth.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
On what to do there.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Can those accounts be transferred into the name of the trust?
The answer is it depends. If it's a qualified retirement account, no.
If it's an after-tax investment account, in other words, I
earned money, I paid income tax on it, now I
got cash and dollars and I put that into an
investment account and I buy stocks in the S &
P 500 fund. Okay, so that's after tax. I could
(24:29):
technically change that into the name of the trust, but
my perspective is you don't need to. If you've made
a contract where there's a beneficiary designation, you can just
make the trust the beneficiary. But hold on, one caveat.
If you're married, the advice is to always have your
spouse be the first primary beneficiary and then have the
(24:49):
trust be the secondary or contingent beneficiary.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Why?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Because spouses have a lot more options when they can
take the distributions, the longevity of it, and also for
some planning purposes for estate taxes, we want the spouse
first and then the trust second. So the question then becomes, well, okay,
if my spouse and I die together, will it still
go to the kids the same way it would have
in a will? And the answer is yes, because you've
(25:16):
done everything with the trust, you've funded it, you have
the trust as a beneficiary, It all goes to the
kids without court, without probate, and saves in time cost
and a lot of expense mentally too.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
Yeah, it sounds like a very easy process that gets
overcomplicated by a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Well, it does.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
And I've actually had somebody come in bringing their financial
advisor with them. And the financial advisor had his arms
crossed and was really upset from the get-go. And I
just asked him, you don't look very comfortable. And he's like,
I'm not. You people ruin retirement accounts by putting them
in the name of the trust or whatever. And it
(25:54):
took about five minutes to back down some of those
comments and actually explain what really happens. And at the end,
we shook hands and have been friends ever since. So
it's a lot about education, folks. Get the education.
Speaker 9 (26:06):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that happens after
you leave an office and you've been given bad information.
And then you get that big surprise at the end
without having to. good information. So I think it's really
important to get a couple of opinions on these types
of topics. If you're not sure, you got to ask, right?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, I think it's from the get-go. How open and
transparent are the providers you're considering with the information? How
passionate are they about their trade? Or is this just
a rote thing that they're going to do? That's a
really big question in our industry.
Speaker 9 (26:44):
Have you guys ever had that when you've purchased something
and you Something just doesn't feel right, like the little
hairs on the back of your neck are standing up,
and you're like, gosh, I just don't know if I
did the right thing right now, or you have that
open question.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, all the time. I mean, you get second opinions, right?
Like a medical diagnosis. If you're not feeling comfortable, talk
to somebody else and have them give you some validation
you're doing the right thing. We get that all the
time with Medicare plans. Am I in the right plan
or not?
Speaker 9 (27:13):
So did you guys both do that? I mean, if
somebody has a trust done or somebody already has their
Medicare plan, how do you guys work with somebody that
walks in with something that's already done?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
I get a big smile on my face because I'm just,
I'm so hungry for information of what everybody else is
doing and what, you know, I want clients to have
the best informed decision-making ability to get the best for them.
So when somebody comes in with their documents already in place,
I'm actually pulling for them to have great documents so
they don't have to do anything else. And it's interesting.
(27:46):
It's about 1% of the time that's actually the case
where they come in, and I look at it for free,
and I'm totally honest with them. Yeah, this is going
to work. Here's where it might not work perfectly, but
if you don't care about that, that's okay then. You're set.
And we send them on their way. So it's not
one of these situations, at least in my practice, where
everybody that walks through the door has to become my client.
(28:09):
You don't. If you're set, you're good.
Speaker 9 (28:11):
There's such a value to that second opinion. And I've
always said, you know, you can't get a second opinion
from the person that gave you the first. So go
out there and try to find some of those trusted
resources that are out there.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's important life decisions. You know, that's something you just
don't take for granted, that you're getting always the best
advice the first time around.
Speaker 9 (28:31):
Because, guys, here's what I've learned after more than 27
years of helping people retire. Most financial advisors spend all
their time trying to convince you to become a client.
Very few explain what happens after you become one. And honestly,
that's the part that matters. I think one reason many
people hesitate to meet with an advisor is because they're afraid.
They're afraid of being pressured, afraid to lose control, afraid
(28:55):
someone will tell them what they should do. Or maybe
they think, if I meet with someone, they're just going
to try to sell me something. I completely understand that.
In fact, I think everyone should be skeptical. Everyone should
be looking at that second opinion because this is your
life savings. You have every right to ask, hey, what's
the process? And today I'm going to pull back the curtain.
(29:17):
You know, the first meeting with me is surprisingly simple.
I'm not going to try to impress you. We're going
to try to understand you, not your portfolio, you. Who
are you? What does retirement look like? What keeps you
awake at night? And what would make retirement feel successful?
Because before we even talk about investments, we have to
(29:39):
understand purpose. You see, guys, most people immediately ask, hey, Chris,
what's the best investment? I think that's the wrong question.
A better question is, what job do you need your
money to perform? You know, I've always said retirement dollars
have three different jobs. Income, stability, and long-term growth. When
(30:00):
every dollar has one purpose, life becomes much simpler. And
the real work begins after the meeting. So we organize
everything you've shared. We review your entire financial picture, not
just one account. And we begin to look for opportunities,
not just problems. And we ask ourselves, how can we
make this person's retirement simpler, safer, and more predictable? The
(30:25):
next thing we do? We analyze your current plan. We
look at that investment allocation. Where is everything all spread out? And,
you know, listeners have been listening to me since last year.
We find those hidden investment fees. Those things can be
gigantic in people's accounts, and they have such a drastic
effect on returns. The next thing we look at is
(30:47):
some tax efficiency, those RMDs, and those things are something
everybody should be paying attention to. Required minimum distributions are
due by the end of the year. If you haven't
already taken yours, that's something you should definitely be considering.
And then we start looking at your estate planning coordination.
So we're going to walk across the street and we're
going to be talking with Kevin about some of the
(31:08):
best ways that we can look at how your estate
plan is coordinated. Then we also look at your liquidity needs.
your risk exposure, and then finally we talk about the
sequence of return risk. And when someone walks out of
my office, I don't immediately start filling out paperwork. I
start thinking. So stay with us because our final segment,
(31:28):
we're going to be asking the questions clients never think
to ask. So stay with us on Rock Your Life
Radio on WAM 1180. Documents we will.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Release revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. be fully
confirmed what does that.
Speaker 8 (31:46):
Mean it means keep it here use radio wham.
Speaker 9 (31:52):
I'm not great with words after a fight and I'm sorry,
wasn't cutting it this time. So to rock your life radio,
where every week we help you make smarter decisions about retirement, Medicare,
legal planning, and everything that comes next. All right, guys,
we spent the first three segments talking about what happens
after someone leaves our office. Now let's have a little fun.
(32:12):
I'm going to ask each of you a few questions
that I don't think our listeners have ever heard us answer.
So Jeff, What's the biggest misconception people have about what
you do?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, Chris, I'll tell you, one of the things I
get the most and people that come in ask, number one,
I don't work for the insurance company. I work for you. Yes,
we're contracted with them. And the second part is, how
do I get paid? Because are they going to get
a bill? Are they going to pay a fee? And
absolutely not. I don't charge for my services in most cases.
(32:46):
But at the end of the day... Medicare regulates it.
I get paid the same amount. It doesn't matter which
carrier plan you pick. I get paid the same. So
it doesn't cost my clients anything to have me.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, that's a huge value for your clients. I think
everybody should use you. There's no expense to them.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It's just a benefit. Yeah, my fees are very reasonable
and free.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
That is a good misconception. Actually, Chris, I'd like to
take a swing in answering this question because it's something
that really, really does drive my passion. The biggest misconception
people have about what I do is that it's all
about death. And it's all about the sad things that
happen and the loss. And I like to hit that
(33:26):
head on when I meet with people in my workshops.
And I have a slide that says, why don't people
create an estate plan? And it's number one, the fear
of facing your own mortality. And then I make a
little joke about, hey, Benjamin Franklin said it, death and
taxes are the most certain things that we have. So
it's not a hypothetical that we're all going to eventually
pass away. It is a real thing, but how I
(33:48):
help people understand and take away that kind of bummer
down depressing aspect of this topic of what I do,
estate planning, is switch the perspective into it's about a plan.
Everything is about a plan. If you look at, you know,
I like to challenge, you know, prospective clients and say,
you know, take out a picture of your kids if
(34:08):
you have kids or if you don't, your loved ones
or your organizations that you support the most. And think about,
you know, in my case, my kids, I look at
them and think, I'm going to be gone and they're
going to go through it. You know, it's not a hypothetical.
It's going to happen. But how do I want them
to feel about the planning job that I did to
make their grief that they're going to go through with
(34:31):
the losing of me make it easier, though, with respect
to what they have to do with my estate? So
is it meant to be a dark, you know, bummer subject?
But I do, it's meant to be a positive planning.
And I've said before on our show, you know, if
you look at your life in four quarters like a
sporting event, why don't you plan for the fourth quarter
(34:52):
the way you've done the first three? Because the more
you plan, the easier it is. And the better gifts
that you give to your loved ones is having a
good plan.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Just knowing they're taken care of. Yeah. The feeling that,
you know. That's it.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
And clients, they walk out after signings and they literally
say that. You know, I was really nervous about this,
but you've relieved the stress. I know what I have
and my kids are better off now.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (35:16):
I think it feels like you're playing offense and when
you can walk in and saying, okay, I'm setting everything
all up. You're setting up your offensive plan. One of
the worst things to do is, is to play defense
when you have to pick up all the pieces and
try to figure how everything goes out and scrambling around everywhere.
That's even worse. Correct.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
That's the, It's the hardest thing, and it goes really to,
I break people up into two categories when they come
to the workshop or do a consultation. Those that know
and have been educated about estate planning, a lot of
times through experience, handling their parents' estate, and then those
that don't know. And it's interesting because I've seen it
(35:59):
hundreds of times and time and time again. When I
say something that's really true and validating about making a plan,
those that have been through it, they shake their head vigorously.
Speaker 9 (36:09):
And would you guys agree that when you meet successful people,
does it always feel like they're on offense?
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, I think you have to define successful, right? I
think it's people that deal and have a plan in
place for all of these things, right? It's not a
successful meaning I've accumulated net worth necessarily, but I've got
a plan and I've got all the stuff figured out
and worked out.
Speaker 9 (36:34):
And then on the flip side, you know, when we
encounter people in our lives that just can't seem to
catch up, just can't seem to get things right. It
seems like they're always playing defense all the time.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
I mean, as you were saying that, our most successful
people on offense, I think of all the generosity and
gifts that Mr. Golisano has given to the healthcare communities,
not only around here, but I see it down in
Pennsylvania too, in my travels. And When somebody's giving that
amount of a gift, do you think they're then, after
(37:06):
signing the documents, wondering how they're going to pay for it?
Or how are we going to make this happen? No,
it's an offensive thing. It's a plan. These have been
well-thought-out gifts, and all the I's have been dotted, T's crossed,
and it's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Defense, you don't have much choice. I just maybe have
this visualization question you mentioned. I had these crazy videos
out there. Somebody does something bad, and all of a sudden,
You know, police are coming, the tax man's coming, and
if you haven't prepared, you really don't have a lot
of choice in that matter.
Speaker 9 (37:36):
Yeah, I see that in the investing world all the time.
You know, you see on TV, everyone seems to always
own the right thing at the right time. It always
seems like they're on offense. Well, listen, here's a little myth.
People will always talk to you about their winners. They
rarely ever talk to you about their losers. So, you know,
having a good offensive plan is important, but also having
(37:58):
a good defensive plan in place for when things don't
go your way is really critical to having a good plan,
whether it's in investments or Medicare or, you know, legal work.
I think having both sides of the equation figured out
is the secret.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Absolutely. It makes up the whole team. Gives you the
sport analogy.
Speaker 9 (38:19):
Guys, if someone only remembered one thing from today's show,
what would you want.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It to be? I think, Chris, it's easy. Your annual
notes have changed. Be attentive to what's happening with your
plan year over year because there are going to be
changes again in Rochester this coming year and We're going
to start doing free educational classes in August on this
for our clients and anybody that wants to come.
Speaker 9 (38:41):
How many pages is that annual notice of change?
Speaker 4 (38:44):
It's not thick.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
It's a thin booklet. You're talking maybe 10, 12 pages,
and it's just a few pages of really relevant information
right in the beginning. It's very easy to understand. It's
laid out very simply with side-by-side comparisons of your plan
this year versus next. All right.
Speaker 9 (39:01):
Good.
Speaker 7 (39:01):
Kevin?
Speaker 9 (39:02):
If someone only remembered one thing from today's show, what
would you want it to be?
Speaker 4 (39:08):
When you're considering buying or engaging with someone for services,
or like we've been talking about, or buying a car,
whatever it is that you're out there to purchase, I
think it's first make the decision that you need that
service or product, make a decision, and then make a plan,
whatever that plan is. Planning can be the... magic wand
(39:32):
to eliminate a lot of the dangers and mazes that
Jeff talked about. What do you try and call Medicare
and get an answer? That's a whole maze. Or when
we talk about retirement planning, understanding that each dollar has
a job to it. You know, make a plan for
that when you're talking about estate planning. It's not a
down subject. There shouldn't be. It's a good planning opportunity
(39:55):
because it's the best gift you can give your kids.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Well said.
Speaker 9 (39:58):
You know, if there's one thing we hope you take
away from today's show, it's this. Don't just ask what
happens during the meeting. Ask what happens after you leave
because that's where the trust is built. That's where plans
come together, and that's where having the right team can
make all the difference. So if today's conversation sparked a question,
(40:18):
or if you'd simply like to learn more about retirement planning, Medicare,
or estate planning, we'd love to continue the conversation. So
visit us at our new website. It's rockyourlife.com, R-O-C, your life.com,
where you'll find information about our hosts, upcoming shows, past episodes,
contact information, and other helpful resources. We'd also like to
(40:42):
thank IQventory for building the new site. IQventory helps small
businesses save time with simple tools for managing quotes, invoices, jobs,
and customers. They've also built professional websites at a low
upfront cost. So to learn more, give them a call
at 585-626-7860.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's 585-626-7860.
Speaker 9 (41:09):
And you can also visit them at their website at iqventoryllc.com. Again,
visit us at rockyourlife.com. And thanks for spending part of
your Saturday with us. For Kevin Clark, Jeff Kuhn, and
everyone behind the scenes, I'm Christopher Krolak. This has been
Rock Your Life Radio, where we're helping you make smart
decisions about money, health, legal protection, retirement, and everything that
(41:35):
comes next.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
So here we are.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Five months later.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
Iran, they haven't seen anything yet.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Win the war.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
It's a gift to the world.
Speaker 6 (41:43):
What happens next?
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Costing lives.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Happens here.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
In taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Use radio. WAM 1180. Here's the deal.
Speaker 9 (41:52):
The government is over $ 38 trillion in debt, which means
the IRB.
There's a.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
New warning. I'm Paul Stevens, Fox News.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
The U.S.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Embassy in Jordan issuing a security alert urging Americans to
consider leaving the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
U.S.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Assets and its allies in the region facing targeting from Iran.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
That warning from the U.S.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Embassy in Jordan telling Americans not to travel to the
region or if they are here now to consider leaving.
And it comes as President Trump has issued a warning
that the U.S. could launch major attacks against Iran. The
president's saying those attacks could come as early as this
weekend and they could last for several days.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Here's the president.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We'll be hitting them.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We'll be hitting them very hard.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
At some point, they're going to say we.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Just can't take it anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You can sense some frustration in the president yesterday about
Iran's negotiating tactics, negotiating four days at a time and
then suddenly striking U.S. assets in the region, attempting to
strike U.S. military positions in the region and also attacking
civilian shipping.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Fox's Steve Harrigan, six months after Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped
from her Arizona home. Her family says they still hope
and pray for her safe return.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Now the Pima County Sheriff is releasing two ransom notes.
The first note that was sent February 2nd says this
in part, quote, we will be holding her for a
maximum of seven days. You will need to send Bitcoin
in the amount of $ 4 million before 5 p.m. on
Thursday the 5th. If payment is not received, the ransom
will be increased further. to six million USD, which will
(01:31):
need to be paid by 5 p.m. on Monday the 9th.
If payment is not received by the last deadline on
Monday the 9th at 5 p.m., she will be killed.
A second note sent days later said this in part, quote,
Guthrie family, we did not fully grasp the seriousness of
her physical condition. We never intended to hurt her. That
was not our intention. She perished shortly after she was taken.
(01:53):
We want your family to know this and hope you
all can find peace. We are truly sorry.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That update from Fox's Chanley Painter. America's listening to Fox News.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
From the WAM 1180 newsroom, I'm Anthony Panasowicz. The Puerto
Rican Festival Parade steps off today at 11 o'clock. Lineup
and float check-in starts around 9, with the parade closing
the area around Easton Alexander before concluding at the festival
grounds at Parcel 5. The festival continues until 11 o'clock
at night. DEC is still making sure that the waste-activated
(02:36):
sludge found leaking from a truck on 590 yesterday isn't spreading.
The leak shut down the Blossom Road exit around 10 a.m.
on Friday, with the state environmental authorities putting down absorbent
padding to catch the material. The ramp has since reopened.
And two people are being investigated in the 1985 death
of a Dansville woman in Florida. Remains belonging to Rosemary
(02:57):
Gayhart were finally determined to be hers just a few
weeks ago, with police saying they're investigating at least two people.
Robert Paddock was her boyfriend at the time she moved
to Cape Coral, and police are also investigating now-dead serial
killer Roland Davis, who was in the area at the
time of Gayhart's death. Your 13-way mother authority forecast today.
Hazy sun at times, warm and humid, but mainly dry.
86 for your high. I'm Anthony Panazowicz, NewsRadio, WAM 1180.
(03:21):
Next news in 30 minutes, breaking news when it happens.
Anytime on NewsRadio, WAM 1180.
Speaker 7 (03:25):
The following is paid programming by the Rock Your Life
Radio Show. The content of this show is that of
the Rock Your Life Radio Show and does not reflect
the views or policies of this station or iHeartMedia.
Speaker 8 (03:37):
News Radio Wham 1180 welcomes you to the Rock Your
Life Show, discussing safe money, estate planning, and Medicare with
an entertaining twist. Now from the News Radio Wham 1180
studios in downtown Rochester, here are your hosts, the Rock
Your Life guys, Christopher Krolak, Kevin Clark, and Jeffrey Kuhn.
Speaker 9 (04:04):
Welcome to Rock Your Life Radio, where every week we
help you make smarter decisions about retirement, Medicare, legal planning,
and everything that comes next. I'm Christopher Krolak with the
Jay Christopher Group, alongside estate planning attorney Kevin Clark of
Clark Peshkin, and Medicare advisor Jeff Kuhn of The Medicare Shop.
And today, we're talking about a question that I don't
(04:25):
think enough people ask before they choose a financial advisor,
an attorney, or even a Medicare specialist. The question is,
What happens after I walk out of your office? Because
believe it or not, I think the answer to that
question is just as important, if not more important, than
what happens while you're sitting in our office. Now think
(04:46):
about it for a minute. Almost anyone can have a
good meeting. They can give a nice presentation. They can
answer your questions, maybe even recommend a solution. But that's
only hours of your relationship. The real value is isn't
created during that meeting. The real value is created over
the weeks and months and years that follow.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I couldn't agree more. When someone comes into my office
to create an estate plan, signing the documents is only
a very small part of protecting their family. What really
matters is making sure that they understand what's in the
documents that they've helped create. The legal aspect is already done.
I have that down, but do they understand? And when
(05:28):
they leave, And in thinking about what really matters, it's
not just did they sign the documents right, but did
they know who and how and when and where their
estates can be taken care of after they're gone?
Speaker 9 (05:39):
And that's probably the part most people never even think about.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You know, Chris and Kevin, Medicare is really the same.
People think choosing a plan is really the finish line.
It's not. It's actually the starting line. Questions come up.
Doctors change. Formularies change. costs on prescriptions. Things change every
single year. And if you don't know who's going to
help you after you've enrolled, you've only solved part of
(06:03):
the problem.
Speaker 9 (06:05):
You know, and financial planning is no different, guys. Meeting
with me for an hour doesn't create a retirement plan.
Reviewing your investments, coordinating with your attorney, working with your CPA,
or making adjustments when market change, helping you make smart
decisions over the next 10, 20, or even 30 years,
that's where the real planning happens. So today, Each of
(06:26):
us is going to take you behind the scenes. We're
going to answer a question that very few professionals ever answer.
What actually happens after you leave our office? Because if
you're deciding who to trust with your retirement, your legal affairs,
or your healthcare, you deserve to know what the relationship
looks like after the handshake.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, Chris, I really like what we're talking about here. And,
you know, we're going to talk about our experiences in
our industries, but really for the listeners out there, this
applies to every kind of consumer transaction that you involve
yourself with, whether it's for a service or whether it's
for a tangible item like a car or a boat
or even a vacation. It's about spending a little time.
(07:09):
Last show, we talked about what's better. Now it's thinking
about what's this experience going to be and what do
I hope to get out of it when I'm done?
Speaker 9 (07:15):
Yeah, it's kind of intimidating. When you buy a car
and you get in it for the very first time,
you start it up and you've talked to the dealer
and And now that car is yours, and you have
to figure everything out. And it does get kind of intimidating, right? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
You don't know what to do next sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Right. And probably one of the most important things, let's
use the analogy of buying a car, is you've got
to maintain this thing. You can't just put gas in
and drive it for 100,000 miles and think everything's going
to be okay and ignore the whole process of maintenance
and touching base with it and saying, okay, is my
car okay? Let's get it checked up. and have somebody
actually look at it once in a while.
Speaker 9 (07:51):
Yeah, it's the responsibility after the sale, and who does
that responsibility fall on? Oh, it's 100% your responsibility. Right,
and that's intimidating.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Right.
Speaker 9 (07:59):
I think today's topic is going to be kind of
neat because we're going to talk about what happens after
all of this goes down, after you receive your documents,
after you get your plan in place. What do we
do now after that? And we're going to hopefully take
away some of that intimidation today.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You know, so Chris, as a consumer, I know it's
my responsibility. If I need to have work done on
my car, I've got to make the phone call. My
mechanic's not going to call me and tell me I've
got an oil change or my doctor that I need
a physical. So I preemptively have to take that step,
but I have to know who the professional is that
I'm going to call for each of these things. I'll
give you a recent example. I brought my truck in
for service, and I've got a great mechanic who looks
(08:37):
it over. Even if I just have my tires rotate,
he goes through the truck and comes back to me
and goes, you know, Jeff, everything looks great on your truck.
How do you feel? You walk out of there going,
you know, I feel comfortable driving. It's a little bit
of maintenance, whether you're seeking professional advice, you're looking at
your portfolio, your legal documents, your doctor, you get your physical,
your blood work. It's that after the visit, you know,
(08:59):
I've maintained it, I'm good to go again.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
So what's it like when somebody comes into your office, Jeff,
and you've set them all up, you've selected the plan,
now they've got that really cool kit that they walk
out with. What happens next?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, Chris, that's a great lead-in for what happens next,
especially when dealing with Medicare because it's not that simple.
It starts with just applying for a plan. People think
that I'm done and I walk out the door. So
once you've actually decided that you're applying for a plan,
You know, it's like going to the gym. You know,
you've got a goal, requires preparation, planning, and training, and
(09:37):
Medicare really works the same way. The goal is to
successfully get signed up and get on the best program
that really fits your needs at this particular time. So
let's imagine you reach your goals at the gym and
you just stop going. What do you think is going
to happen?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Well, you're going to decrease.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, the gains are gone Yeah, the gains are gone
or what's going to happen?
Speaker 8 (10:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, it's that you're going back to bad habits
and you just kind of forget about things and you
get out of it. Well, really, Medicare really works the
same way. You're really due to maintain things like a
car and requires yearly maintenance. So I'm going to walk
you through some of the basic steps because people always ask,
what's next or what do I do? Now that I've
got a plan picked out. So let's assume you've signed
(10:21):
up for Medicare. You haven't got your cards yet, right?
And you should get your Medicare cards in 30 days
of applying for Medicare. So this is a whole show
we could probably talk about. How do you enroll? What
do you need to do? But I'm going to skip
over that for this time. But let's assume you've enrolled
in a plan. You decide either a Part D, an
Advantage plan, a Medicare supplemental plan, and you've applied. So
(10:43):
your cards, when do they come? That's a question that
people need to be aware of. In 7 to 10 days,
the insurance carrier, whoever you pick, is required to send
you some notice that you've applied, that you're going to
get your cards. If you don't get that, something has happened.
So you as a consumer need to take this up
and say, I need to make a phone call. Why
(11:03):
am I not getting this information in a timely manner?
Because within two weeks, you should have your actual physical
cards in hand.
Speaker 9 (11:09):
Now, what if I don't have my cards? You know,
you dial that 800 number, then you're put into that
magical queue of pressing 1, 2, say this. You don't
get a response. How do you help them do that?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well, usually, Chris, for my clients, when they apply, I
know that they've applied. I keep an eye on it
because I do get reports. And the first step is
people don't realize it goes through CMS to make sure
that their Medicare number is showing active. And sometimes, even
though they have the card with Part B on it,
CMS hasn't gotten this information from Social Security. So before
they get that letter, I already know about it. I've
already made a phone call, and usually if I can
(11:42):
take corrective action, that happens. But for somebody that's trying
to do it on their own, this is where things
start getting quirky and mistakes happen. They don't know what
to do or who to call because who do you call?
Social Security. If you call Medicare, Medicare tells you to
call Social Security because they don't handle it. Social Security
is the administrator, where if you've got a really trusted advisor,
(12:03):
you can just make one phone call. Hopefully you don't.
Your advisor's already called you to let you know something's happening,
and they've already corrected it.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
Yeah, I think that's the key is just making sure
that follow-up, because we forget. We forget that that card
is supposed to be mailed to us in 7 to
10 days.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Exactly.
Speaker 9 (12:22):
When you're buying a car, you forget that you have
to bring that thing in for maintenance unless a little
light comes on. So is that kind of what you
guys do?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Exactly. I mean, once we apply, we've got to make
sure everything goes through because, again, I've found more times
than not, even though people have got a Medicare card,
CMS isn't showing they've got Part B. And people have
received letters showing their Part B is not active. And,
you know, today you think about all the mail you
get or don't get, and do people catch that stuff?
Speaker 9 (12:49):
So, Jeff, hold that thought because when we come back,
we're going to walk you through what happens after someone
leaves our office and why, in many cases— The most
important work hasn't begun yet. So stay with us here
on Rock Your Life Radio on WAM 1180. News is everywhere.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
I think there's a lot of questions that need to
be answered.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
News is happening all the time.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
I feel like information was held.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Back from me.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
News Radio, WAM 1180. Hey, Franz Lonsbury here, talking with Jason.
Speaker 8 (13:18):
Rochester's Traffic Station, News Radio, WAM 1180.
Speaker 9 (13:22):
Welcome back to Rock Your Life Radio. You're listening to
the Rock Your Life Guys. I'm Chris Krolak with the
Jay Christopher Group, and we have attorney Kevin Clark at
Clark Peshkin and Jeff Kuhn at the Medicare Shop. And
let's continue our discussion on this very important topic, what
happens after you leave our office. So, Jeff, you were
talking a little bit about what happens when people leave
your office. So, why don't you tell me a little
(13:43):
bit more about that?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, Chris, it's one of the things for everybody, it's
anxiety getting on Medicare and when does my plan start?
When do I get my cards? What do I bring where?
So everybody's got a very clear set of instructions of
what to expect, when they should be getting things. And
if things don't happen, right, that's when you as a
consumer have got to pick up the phone and call
me and say, hey, Jeff, by the way, and pay
(14:05):
attention to your mail. I can't tell you how important
that is and how many people say I never got
something in the mail because they're not really paying attention
to it. whether it's their Medicare cards or they get
a letter saying that there was an issue with an
enrollment or they need verification about employer group health plan coverage.
So we try to prepare them for all those things,
but we have that typically on file in case that happens.
(14:28):
We already can deal with it before they even get
a letter in the mail. But you have to pay attention.
You've got to look at your mail, look for things
that are coming. But the most important thing is the
service work. It's that maintenance, that oil change that you
need to do on your Medicare plan every year. And
we do classes for our clients every year as far
as the annual notices of change. What's changing with Medicare?
(14:52):
What's changing with all the companies? Because one of the
most important pieces that people get is what's called an
annual notice of change. And it comes in the mail.
Speaker 9 (15:01):
That sounds intimidating.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It does.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And as I'm listening to you, I would wonder, when
you say there has to be some service every year
to their plan, I think the average person is probably
shocked by that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I mean, right?
Speaker 4 (15:16):
You sign up for Medicare. It's the government-provided health care.
They should take care of us. It should be ready
to go. After I leave your office, I should feel
great I have health care.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Right, right.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Close the book and move on.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I'll tell you, some of the healthiest people are the
ones that tend to miss it because they don't pay
attention to it. It's like that old Ron Popeil rotisserie chicken.
You set it and forget it. And that's not the
case with us, if you remember those old commercials. But
the most important document I tell everybody you're going to
get in the mail that you have to pay attention
to is this annual notice of change. This annual notice
of change, it's like that old– I said this to
(15:48):
somebody yesterday. You remember the phone books you used to
get in the mail, that paper? It looks exactly the
same as the white pages. It's going to lay out
with your plan exactly what's changing from this year to
next year with what's cost differences are. Everybody gets this.
They're required to send it. And I've got so many
people say I never got it. Well, it did come.
You just got to make sure you're paying attention. By September,
(16:11):
you'll start getting these. If you don't get one of these,
you've likely have gotten a letter. And a lot of
people last year, especially in Rochester, got notices of their
plan was terminating. Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
That's scary.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah. So this January, here's an interesting fact. In the
Rochester area, there were 20,000 people that were without a
Medicare plan. And the Rochester, because it terminated and they
didn't realize it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
So they had it. We lost 22,000 Medicare plans.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
People were just– they had original Medicare. That's all. They
had no drug coverage. And guess when they found out?
When they went to their doctors or they went to
get a prescription filled, they were told their insurance was
no longer active. Oh, that could be devastating.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So they've got a month before they can get it.
I mean, they can get it put in place for February,
but nobody pays attention to a lot of those important documents. Wow,
that's really important. And that gets missed.
Speaker 9 (16:56):
So what happens if you do nothing? If you just say,
I'm just going to let it automatically renew, they'll probably
put me in the same plan.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Right.
Speaker 9 (17:04):
I don't really need to worry about it. I'm just
going to roll with the bunches.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
The most important piece in this comes down to prescriptions.
I get more calls about this because people say, I
went and got my prescriptions filled, and either it's not
covered now, I've got this massive copay, which is really
a deductible, or my drug isn't covered at all. So
you've got to make sure your prescriptions are in formulary.
That does change every single year. In formulary, what's that mean?
It means your insurance company covers it, right? Not all
(17:31):
drugs are covered the same by every company. Some covered,
covers Manjaro, let's say, for example. Some are covered, Trulicity, Zepbound.
I mean, these are some of the newer drugs and
not all of them are covered. They're not required to.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
How or when can they change coverage on the prescriptions?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
The annual election period runs from October 15th To December 7th.
And you can effectively change effective for January 1st. That's
the annual election period. Some people use the word open
enrollment period. That's a whole different thing. But starting October 1st,
all the insurance carriers can legally put out the information
on their new plans. But every single consumer has already
(18:08):
received their annual notice of change. That is the most
important document you can receive every year.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
So the insurance providers only change what they cover every year?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Through that notice of change.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
So if any of those drugs that you said, I'm
covered this year, you need to look in that paperwork
that you get sent to make sure it's covered next year.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Or call the insurance company, make sure it's in formulary,
because it may not be in there. They don't put
the formularies in there, but you can go online to
get a copy of the formulary from the insurance company
and look it up and see, is my drug in there?
Is it changing? But more importantly, how are my co-pays affected?
Speaker 9 (18:42):
Don't you do all that?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
We do for our clients. Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
All right. So I don't need to make that call.
That's some great information, Jeff. And thank you very much.
So is there anything else you want to add?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, Chris, just real quick. For the consumers out there
on Medicare, you're going to start getting your annual notices
of change. Please look for those in the mail and
pay attention to them.
Speaker 9 (19:02):
All right. Open your mail, right?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Open your mail. That's the most important thing.
Speaker 9 (19:07):
So Gavin, what is it like when somebody... has made
that trust document. They've attended your seminar. They sat down
with you. Now they've got that wonderful document. What do
they do with it? What happens next?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Chris, that's a really good question. You know, for me,
I got to push back a little bit because that's
one of the biggest misconceptions I feel like people have
in estate planning is that it's about that specific document
and the document only. And the reason I say it
like that is I can't tell you how many people
come in and meet with me and tell me, you know,
I ask them to tell me about their current plan
(19:46):
and they almost get white in the face and look
at me like, what are you talking about? It's the document. Well,
what did you learn about your document as you prepared it? Well, nothing.
You know, I told the attorney I wanted to trust.
They called us back in and this is what I got.
And I've since taken it to, you know, other folks.
I guess I just don't really understand it. And that's
what's the biggest driver of my passion for is that,
(20:09):
and I tell people all the time, estate planning is
one of the most undereducated area of law, not only
for non-attorneys, but for most attorneys alike. Because just by
the statistics, estate planning attorneys, it's a very small percentage
of attorneys. And then everybody else out there only thinks
about wills or thinks about the document, but don't really
(20:30):
understand what goes into it. So to be more clear,
what I'm talking about in my practice is, I believe
it's about the education aspect before you come to the office, right?
You're asking about what happens after you leave the office.
For me, it's about beforehand. You know, what education are
you getting from the estate planning attorney? Are you getting
(20:51):
that information from an attorney? Or are you getting it
from a financial advisor, an accountant? Those are three different areas.
It should be coming from an attorney. And how's the
attorney educating you? Because you have to be educated to
make the right choices in your estate planning. So then
you move into the designing it and the preparing the documents.
And when it actually comes to the signing of the documents,
(21:12):
I mean, a lot of people ask me, you know, yes,
I believe that revocable living trust is just the best
estate plan, but I got to fund that thing. What
does that mean? Well, you know, if you have a
really good provider, they're doing it for you. You know,
when I have people come and do the signings, it's
all done. So when they actually leave with that document,
just to go full circle now, They should have the
(21:35):
education of what created their document. They should be educated
with where and who their stuff is going to go
to and who's going to take care of it afterwards.
So that that document is only a quarter of the
whole plan. A quarter of it's the document, a quarter
of it's their understanding. Then we move to a quarter
of their survivor's understanding. And then finally, the funding of
(21:57):
it with the assets being changed.
Speaker 9 (22:01):
Kevin, we need to take a quick break. But, you know,
a question I want to ask you when we come
back is what is funding the trust mean? Maybe that
has a few misconceptions. So everyone stay with us. We'll
be right back here with Rock Your Life Radio on
WAM 1180. When at work, staying informed is also part
of work.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
The news impacts every business.
Speaker 9 (22:21):
You need to get all the information that's out there.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
At work, at home, all the time.
Speaker 8 (22:25):
Follow those stories and more on News Radio, WAM 1180.
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Speaker 9 (22:37):
Life Radio, you're listening to the Rock Your Life guys,
and we're going to continue our discussion with Kevin Clark
of Clark Peshkin. Kevin, I had that question for you,
and I hear it all the time. What does funding
the trust mean?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
It's a great question, and it's one of those words
that really sometimes has a double meaning from the lay
perspective to the technical legal perspective. Funding a trust means
changing the asset that's in the grantor's name alone. So
if I'm creating a trust for myself, I'm the grantor,
I'm giving my asset to the trust, and then it
(23:13):
gets changed into the name of the trust. So I'm
Kevin Clark. If I have a house, Kevin Clark.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Is on the deed.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
When I fund it to the trust, we change that
deed to say the Clark Revocable Living Trust. So then
the trust is the owner.
Speaker 9 (23:29):
So big question, you know, one of the largest assets
that people have are retirement accounts, whether they're 401Ks, 403Bs, IRAs.
So you don't change the title on that individual retirement account.
You actually change the beneficiary information. Can you kind of
clarify that a little bit?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
And that is, thanks for bringing it up. It's a
big topic out there and a lot of misconception as
information gets translated from the attorneys to the financial professionals. professionals.
Here's the truth.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
On what to do there.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Can those accounts be transferred into the name of the trust?
The answer is it depends. If it's a qualified retirement account, no.
If it's an after-tax investment account, in other words, I
earned money, I paid income tax on it, now I
got cash and dollars and I put that into an
investment account and I buy stocks in the S &
P 500 fund. Okay, so that's after tax. I could
(24:29):
technically change that into the name of the trust, but
my perspective is you don't need to. If you've made
a contract where there's a beneficiary designation, you can just
make the trust the beneficiary. But hold on, one caveat.
If you're married, the advice is to always have your
spouse be the first primary beneficiary and then have the
(24:49):
trust be the secondary or contingent beneficiary.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Why?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Because spouses have a lot more options when they can
take the distributions, the longevity of it, and also for
some planning purposes for estate taxes, we want the spouse
first and then the trust second. So the question then becomes, well, okay,
if my spouse and I die together, will it still
go to the kids the same way it would have
in a will? And the answer is yes, because you've
(25:16):
done everything with the trust, you've funded it, you have
the trust as a beneficiary, It all goes to the
kids without court, without probate, and saves in time cost
and a lot of expense mentally too.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
Yeah, it sounds like a very easy process that gets
overcomplicated by a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Well, it does.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
And I've actually had somebody come in bringing their financial
advisor with them. And the financial advisor had his arms
crossed and was really upset from the get-go. And I
just asked him, you don't look very comfortable. And he's like,
I'm not. You people ruin retirement accounts by putting them
in the name of the trust or whatever. And it
(25:54):
took about five minutes to back down some of those
comments and actually explain what really happens. And at the end,
we shook hands and have been friends ever since. So
it's a lot about education, folks. Get the education.
Speaker 9 (26:06):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that happens after
you leave an office and you've been given bad information.
And then you get that big surprise at the end
without having to. good information. So I think it's really
important to get a couple of opinions on these types
of topics. If you're not sure, you got to ask, right?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Yeah, I think it's from the get-go. How open and
transparent are the providers you're considering with the information? How
passionate are they about their trade? Or is this just
a rote thing that they're going to do? That's a
really big question in our industry.
Speaker 9 (26:44):
Have you guys ever had that when you've purchased something
and you Something just doesn't feel right, like the little
hairs on the back of your neck are standing up,
and you're like, gosh, I just don't know if I
did the right thing right now, or you have that
open question.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, all the time. I mean, you get second opinions, right?
Like a medical diagnosis. If you're not feeling comfortable, talk
to somebody else and have them give you some validation
you're doing the right thing. We get that all the
time with Medicare plans. Am I in the right plan
or not?
Speaker 9 (27:13):
So did you guys both do that? I mean, if
somebody has a trust done or somebody already has their
Medicare plan, how do you guys work with somebody that
walks in with something that's already done?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
I get a big smile on my face because I'm just,
I'm so hungry for information of what everybody else is
doing and what, you know, I want clients to have
the best informed decision-making ability to get the best for them.
So when somebody comes in with their documents already in place,
I'm actually pulling for them to have great documents so
they don't have to do anything else. And it's interesting.
(27:46):
It's about 1% of the time that's actually the case
where they come in, and I look at it for free,
and I'm totally honest with them. Yeah, this is going
to work. Here's where it might not work perfectly, but
if you don't care about that, that's okay then. You're set.
And we send them on their way. So it's not
one of these situations, at least in my practice, where
everybody that walks through the door has to become my client.
(28:09):
You don't. If you're set, you're good.
Speaker 9 (28:11):
There's such a value to that second opinion. And I've
always said, you know, you can't get a second opinion
from the person that gave you the first. So go
out there and try to find some of those trusted
resources that are out there.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's important life decisions. You know, that's something you just
don't take for granted, that you're getting always the best
advice the first time around.
Speaker 9 (28:31):
Because, guys, here's what I've learned after more than 27
years of helping people retire. Most financial advisors spend all
their time trying to convince you to become a client.
Very few explain what happens after you become one. And honestly,
that's the part that matters. I think one reason many
people hesitate to meet with an advisor is because they're afraid.
They're afraid of being pressured, afraid to lose control, afraid
(28:55):
someone will tell them what they should do. Or maybe
they think, if I meet with someone, they're just going
to try to sell me something. I completely understand that.
In fact, I think everyone should be skeptical. Everyone should
be looking at that second opinion because this is your
life savings. You have every right to ask, hey, what's
the process? And today I'm going to pull back the curtain.
(29:17):
You know, the first meeting with me is surprisingly simple.
I'm not going to try to impress you. We're going
to try to understand you, not your portfolio, you. Who
are you? What does retirement look like? What keeps you
awake at night? And what would make retirement feel successful?
Because before we even talk about investments, we have to
(29:39):
understand purpose. You see, guys, most people immediately ask, hey, Chris,
what's the best investment? I think that's the wrong question.
A better question is, what job do you need your
money to perform? You know, I've always said retirement dollars
have three different jobs. Income, stability, and long-term growth. When
(30:00):
every dollar has one purpose, life becomes much simpler. And
the real work begins after the meeting. So we organize
everything you've shared. We review your entire financial picture, not
just one account. And we begin to look for opportunities,
not just problems. And we ask ourselves, how can we
make this person's retirement simpler, safer, and more predictable? The
(30:25):
next thing we do? We analyze your current plan. We
look at that investment allocation. Where is everything all spread out? And,
you know, listeners have been listening to me since last year.
We find those hidden investment fees. Those things can be
gigantic in people's accounts, and they have such a drastic
effect on returns. The next thing we look at is
(30:47):
some tax efficiency, those RMDs, and those things are something
everybody should be paying attention to. Required minimum distributions are
due by the end of the year. If you haven't
already taken yours, that's something you should definitely be considering.
And then we start looking at your estate planning coordination.
So we're going to walk across the street and we're
going to be talking with Kevin about some of the
(31:08):
best ways that we can look at how your estate
plan is coordinated. Then we also look at your liquidity needs.
your risk exposure, and then finally we talk about the
sequence of return risk. And when someone walks out of
my office, I don't immediately start filling out paperwork. I
start thinking. So stay with us because our final segment,
(31:28):
we're going to be asking the questions clients never think
to ask. So stay with us on Rock Your Life
Radio on WAM 1180. Documents we will.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Release revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. be fully
confirmed what does that.
Speaker 8 (31:46):
Mean it means keep it here use radio wham.
Speaker 9 (31:52):
I'm not great with words after a fight and I'm sorry,
wasn't cutting it this time. So to rock your life radio,
where every week we help you make smarter decisions about retirement, Medicare,
legal planning, and everything that comes next. All right, guys,
we spent the first three segments talking about what happens
after someone leaves our office. Now let's have a little fun.
(32:12):
I'm going to ask each of you a few questions
that I don't think our listeners have ever heard us answer.
So Jeff, What's the biggest misconception people have about what
you do?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, Chris, I'll tell you, one of the things I
get the most and people that come in ask, number one,
I don't work for the insurance company. I work for you. Yes,
we're contracted with them. And the second part is, how
do I get paid? Because are they going to get
a bill? Are they going to pay a fee? And
absolutely not. I don't charge for my services in most cases.
(32:46):
But at the end of the day... Medicare regulates it.
I get paid the same amount. It doesn't matter which
carrier plan you pick. I get paid the same. So
it doesn't cost my clients anything to have me.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, that's a huge value for your clients. I think
everybody should use you. There's no expense to them.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It's just a benefit. Yeah, my fees are very reasonable
and free.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
That is a good misconception. Actually, Chris, I'd like to
take a swing in answering this question because it's something
that really, really does drive my passion. The biggest misconception
people have about what I do is that it's all
about death. And it's all about the sad things that
happen and the loss. And I like to hit that
(33:26):
head on when I meet with people in my workshops.
And I have a slide that says, why don't people
create an estate plan? And it's number one, the fear
of facing your own mortality. And then I make a
little joke about, hey, Benjamin Franklin said it, death and
taxes are the most certain things that we have. So
it's not a hypothetical that we're all going to eventually
pass away. It is a real thing, but how I
(33:48):
help people understand and take away that kind of bummer
down depressing aspect of this topic of what I do,
estate planning, is switch the perspective into it's about a plan.
Everything is about a plan. If you look at, you know,
I like to challenge, you know, prospective clients and say,
you know, take out a picture of your kids if
(34:08):
you have kids or if you don't, your loved ones
or your organizations that you support the most. And think about,
you know, in my case, my kids, I look at
them and think, I'm going to be gone and they're
going to go through it. You know, it's not a hypothetical.
It's going to happen. But how do I want them
to feel about the planning job that I did to
make their grief that they're going to go through with
(34:31):
the losing of me make it easier, though, with respect
to what they have to do with my estate? So
is it meant to be a dark, you know, bummer subject?
But I do, it's meant to be a positive planning.
And I've said before on our show, you know, if
you look at your life in four quarters like a
sporting event, why don't you plan for the fourth quarter
(34:52):
the way you've done the first three? Because the more
you plan, the easier it is. And the better gifts
that you give to your loved ones is having a
good plan.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Just knowing they're taken care of. Yeah. The feeling that,
you know. That's it.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
And clients, they walk out after signings and they literally
say that. You know, I was really nervous about this,
but you've relieved the stress. I know what I have
and my kids are better off now.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (35:16):
I think it feels like you're playing offense and when
you can walk in and saying, okay, I'm setting everything
all up. You're setting up your offensive plan. One of
the worst things to do is, is to play defense
when you have to pick up all the pieces and
try to figure how everything goes out and scrambling around everywhere.
That's even worse. Correct.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
That's the, It's the hardest thing, and it goes really to,
I break people up into two categories when they come
to the workshop or do a consultation. Those that know
and have been educated about estate planning, a lot of
times through experience, handling their parents' estate, and then those
that don't know. And it's interesting because I've seen it
(35:59):
hundreds of times and time and time again. When I
say something that's really true and validating about making a plan,
those that have been through it, they shake their head vigorously.
Speaker 9 (36:09):
And would you guys agree that when you meet successful people,
does it always feel like they're on offense?
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, I think you have to define successful, right? I
think it's people that deal and have a plan in
place for all of these things, right? It's not a
successful meaning I've accumulated net worth necessarily, but I've got
a plan and I've got all the stuff figured out
and worked out.
Speaker 9 (36:34):
And then on the flip side, you know, when we
encounter people in our lives that just can't seem to
catch up, just can't seem to get things right. It
seems like they're always playing defense all the time.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
I mean, as you were saying that, our most successful
people on offense, I think of all the generosity and
gifts that Mr. Golisano has given to the healthcare communities,
not only around here, but I see it down in
Pennsylvania too, in my travels. And When somebody's giving that
amount of a gift, do you think they're then, after
(37:06):
signing the documents, wondering how they're going to pay for it?
Or how are we going to make this happen? No,
it's an offensive thing. It's a plan. These have been
well-thought-out gifts, and all the I's have been dotted, T's crossed,
and it's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Defense, you don't have much choice. I just maybe have
this visualization question you mentioned. I had these crazy videos
out there. Somebody does something bad, and all of a sudden,
You know, police are coming, the tax man's coming, and
if you haven't prepared, you really don't have a lot
of choice in that matter.
Speaker 9 (37:36):
Yeah, I see that in the investing world all the time.
You know, you see on TV, everyone seems to always
own the right thing at the right time. It always
seems like they're on offense. Well, listen, here's a little myth.
People will always talk to you about their winners. They
rarely ever talk to you about their losers. So, you know,
having a good offensive plan is important, but also having
(37:58):
a good defensive plan in place for when things don't
go your way is really critical to having a good plan,
whether it's in investments or Medicare or, you know, legal work.
I think having both sides of the equation figured out
is the secret.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Absolutely. It makes up the whole team. Gives you the
sport analogy.
Speaker 9 (38:19):
Guys, if someone only remembered one thing from today's show,
what would you want.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It to be? I think, Chris, it's easy. Your annual
notes have changed. Be attentive to what's happening with your
plan year over year because there are going to be
changes again in Rochester this coming year and We're going
to start doing free educational classes in August on this
for our clients and anybody that wants to come.
Speaker 9 (38:41):
How many pages is that annual notice of change?
Speaker 4 (38:44):
It's not thick.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
It's a thin booklet. You're talking maybe 10, 12 pages,
and it's just a few pages of really relevant information
right in the beginning. It's very easy to understand. It's
laid out very simply with side-by-side comparisons of your plan
this year versus next. All right.
Speaker 9 (39:01):
Good.
Speaker 7 (39:01):
Kevin?
Speaker 9 (39:02):
If someone only remembered one thing from today's show, what
would you want it to be?
Speaker 4 (39:08):
When you're considering buying or engaging with someone for services,
or like we've been talking about, or buying a car,
whatever it is that you're out there to purchase, I
think it's first make the decision that you need that
service or product, make a decision, and then make a plan,
whatever that plan is. Planning can be the... magic wand
(39:32):
to eliminate a lot of the dangers and mazes that
Jeff talked about. What do you try and call Medicare
and get an answer? That's a whole maze. Or when
we talk about retirement planning, understanding that each dollar has
a job to it. You know, make a plan for
that when you're talking about estate planning. It's not a
down subject. There shouldn't be. It's a good planning opportunity
(39:55):
because it's the best gift you can give your kids.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Well said.
Speaker 9 (39:58):
You know, if there's one thing we hope you take
away from today's show, it's this. Don't just ask what
happens during the meeting. Ask what happens after you leave
because that's where the trust is built. That's where plans
come together, and that's where having the right team can
make all the difference. So if today's conversation sparked a question,
(40:18):
or if you'd simply like to learn more about retirement planning, Medicare,
or estate planning, we'd love to continue the conversation. So
visit us at our new website. It's rockyourlife.com, R-O-C, your life.com,
where you'll find information about our hosts, upcoming shows, past episodes,
contact information, and other helpful resources. We'd also like to
(40:42):
thank IQventory for building the new site. IQventory helps small
businesses save time with simple tools for managing quotes, invoices, jobs,
and customers. They've also built professional websites at a low
upfront cost. So to learn more, give them a call
at 585-626-7860.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's 585-626-7860.
Speaker 9 (41:09):
And you can also visit them at their website at iqventoryllc.com. Again,
visit us at rockyourlife.com. And thanks for spending part of
your Saturday with us. For Kevin Clark, Jeff Kuhn, and
everyone behind the scenes, I'm Christopher Krolak. This has been
Rock Your Life Radio, where we're helping you make smart
decisions about money, health, legal protection, retirement, and everything that
(41:35):
comes next.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
So here we are.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Five months later.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
Iran, they haven't seen anything yet.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Win the war.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
It's a gift to the world.
Speaker 6 (41:43):
What happens next?
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Costing lives.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Happens here.
Speaker 6 (41:46):
In taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Use radio. WAM 1180. Here's the deal.
Speaker 9 (41:52):
The government is over $ 38 trillion in debt, which means
the IRB.
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