August 6, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of The Financial Huddle, Brian, Ed, and Ryan dive into the power of focus - in family, finances, and your future. From navigating wedding season and NFL internships to strategic college funding and business-owner tax planning, the team highlights how intentional financial strategies can create confidence and certainty at every life stage.
They also explore long-term care planning, Social Security optimization, and the rising need for tax-free retirement strategies.
Whether you're saving for college, running a business, or planning for retirement, this episode has something you need to hear! Listen closely to learn how to have a better game plan.
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Disclosure: Information contained in this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. Financial Planning and Advisory Services are offered through Prosperity Capital Advisors (“PCA”), an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Keystone Financial Group and PCA are separate, non- affiliated entities. PCA does not provide tax or legal advice.
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Announcer (00:00):
The Financial Huddle does not provide tax, legal,
financial, or other professionaladvice.
Listeners are encouraged toconsult with their own advisors
in these areas.
All right, everybody, huddleup.
The play calls in.
This is The Financial Huddle.
Ready, break.
Brian Minier (00:14):
Welcome once again everybody to the Financial
Huddle.
I am Brian Menear.
I am joined by my businesspartners and co-hosts, Ed B.
Miller.
Hello, hello.
And Ryan Fleming.
Ryan Fleming (00:24):
Let's get it done today.
Let's do it.
Brian Minier (00:25):
Let's get it done.
Very good.
Ed, you are in the thick ofwedding planning season.
Ed Beemiller (00:32):
What's going on with that?
I am.
And not just wedding planningseason.
That's right.
Weddings.
I have the pleasure of both ofmy children, my daughter's 30
and my son's 20, are bothgetting married within less than
a month of each other.
We need to have a prayer vigilafter this session.
(00:52):
Let me tell you, and thank Godfor appropriate financial
planning, because as most peopleknow listening, weddings are
not cheap.
And my daughter, and we lovethe fact that she is, is
actually getting married up inour summer community.
in northern maine and so thatthrows a whole nother glitch of
(01:16):
you know we have people comingin from everywhere it's not
necessarily easy to get thereAll prices are about double what
they are within the continentalU.S.
Brian Minier (01:28):
Lobster bisque isn't cheap, man.
No, it's not.
Hey,
Ed Beemiller (01:32):
I get my lobsters cheap.
I get them straight from thelobstermen down at the dock.
That's
Brian Minier (01:36):
called poaching.
Ed Beemiller (01:37):
That one, no, no, no.
Let me tell you, that's aserious offense up there in
Maine.
That's
Brian Minier (01:42):
phenomenal.
Ed Beemiller (01:42):
You pick up any traps and you don't have
appropriate licenses.
I mean, you get put away.
A little more of a slap on thewrist.
I mean, you don't mess with it.
That's the economy up there.
Don't do that.
Ryan Fleming (01:55):
In 2004, I was playing in the Eastern League,
and Portland was in AA for theRed Sox.
We had an off day, so we wentdown to the wharf.
I'd never been to Maine beforein my life.
We ate in this little tin shackright by the wharf.
Boat pulled in.
This place was just big enoughto have a circle bar, ice all
(02:18):
around it.
Guy walked in with a bucketfull of clams and lobsters,
dumped the lobster I said, Iwant that one and that one.
$14.95 for one lobster.
Best meal I've ever had in mylife.
Ed Beemiller (02:29):
All right, so $14.95.
If we get them right from thelobstermen, we're probably
paying about $6, $7 for a poundand a quarter.
For our seafood lovers outthere, ain't nothing like a
Maine lobster.
Nope.
Brian Minier (02:43):
But you're in the thick of it,
Ed Beemiller (02:44):
planted too, pulling your hair out.
Yeah, I'm not pulling my hairout as much.
I am obviously the father ofthe bride, and I'm not pulling
my hair out as much.
father of the groom and my wifeand my daughter are talking
several times a day and havebeen for about three four months
and it is all wedding planningare you in avoidance mode no i
just if if if my opinion isasked which is infrequently i i
(03:09):
will interject outside of that ijust i just get the uh invoices
and when bills are due and howmuch you know this cost and that
cost and i've i've gone beyondtrying to say well wait a minute
it's Isn't there somethingcheaper or can we do this?
Not a fight to pick when yourdaughter gets married once a
(03:30):
year.
Hopefully not once a year.
Once in their lifetime is whatI'm hoping.
I was going to be willing topay for some counseling
sessions.
I may
Brian Minier (03:41):
need it.
I wish you luck.
I look forward to attending oneof those.
Alright, Ryan.
I've been watching your son'sInstagram and I see he's on on
LinkedIn now and he's got apretty cool internship.
It's a miracle.
Yeah.
Ryan Fleming (03:57):
Um, yeah, he, he, he really does really excited
for him.
He landed a paid internshipwith the Cleveland Browns and
that's starting here real soon.
I mean, gosh, a paid internshipfrom an NFL team.
It's a, it's a good resumebuilder, great experience.
And, um, I think he's excitedfor the opportunity.
And hopefully he'll have somegood stories to tell us.
(04:18):
Hopefully he can bring somewinning culture
Ed Beemiller (04:20):
to the finals.
Maybe he can give us a littleinside information on who's
going to start a quarterback forthe Browns this year.
Who's QB1 this year?
Yeah, QB1.
Yeah, yeah.
That's great.
Ryan Fleming (04:28):
Starting up real soon.
And it works out good because,you know, he goes to
Baldwin-Wallace University, andit's just right there, you know.
Brian Minier (04:34):
Yeah, for those of you that don't know, Ryan's son
and my oldest go to schooltogether.
They're both going to be risingseniors this year.
Isn't that crazy?
It's hard to believe.
Isn't it crazy to say that?
Reed plays baseball at BW, andJosh plays football.
So we're going to be gettingready for the final season here.
It's interesting.
Josh has an internship atDayton, at Dayton 24-7.
(04:58):
How about that?
Yeah.
Reppin'.
Ed Beemiller (05:02):
Reppin' UD.
Great timing on that.
My daughter went to UD.
So I do have a place in myheart.
Although, you know, this is myalma mater here.
Kenyon College.
This was unplanned today.
This was unplanned.
So
Ryan Fleming (05:17):
this is Dayton's, my alma mater.
This is your daughter's almamater.
Brian Minier (05:21):
I'm wearing lobsters.
You're wearing my lobsters.
That's right.
There we go.
We didn't even plan that.
We did not plan that.
That's how good we are, folks.
That's how good we are.
I was talking to Josh earlierin the week about his
internship, and he really wantsto get into broadcasting over
this last year.
Him doing a lot of spots on theradio, calling different games.
Ed Beemiller (05:41):
I've heard a few of those softball, women's
softball games for the BW.
Seriously, he's talented.
WBWC.
Brian Minier (05:50):
He's talented.
Try to stream a little bit ofthat.
If he's listening to that,he'll appreciate that.
Shout out, Joshy.
It's really interesting,though.
He's been thinking aboutbroadcasting.
One of the guys that, being afootball player and getting into
broadcasting, he actually looksup to Tom Brady, out of all
people.
Who doesn't?
(06:10):
Has it all, right?
With And the thing about TomBrady and getting into
broadcasting is we were talkinga little bit about that
transition, what that lookslike.
But what I've always beenfascinated with Tom Brady is his
ability to change a culture.
It was interesting in hiscareer, he went to Tampa Bay and
(06:32):
changed that culture around,and they won a Super Bowl.
And I think a lot of that hasto do with his focus, with his
ability to just get in there.
This is the mission.
This is what we want to getdone.
And he's able to not only do itfor himself, but he's able to
create a culture where thepeople around him are able to do
Ed Beemiller (06:52):
that.
Most people felt he was well onthe downside of his career when
he left, and yet he was able togo into a new organization and
bring that culture and thatfocus.
Ryan Fleming (07:10):
This actually, spur of the moment, this
actually made me think of aquote.
So I actually looked this quoteup.
I mean, because this hits itthe nail on the head perfectly.
This is a quote from Steve Jobsabout focus.
And he said, people think focusmeans saying yes to the thing
that you've got to focus on, butthat's not what it means at
(07:31):
all.
He says, it means saying no tothe hundred other good ideas
that there are out there.
You have to pick verycarefully.
And When you bring up thatanalogy about him, you can't
think of too many other peoplethat were just laser focused on
what to focus his time andenergy on.
(07:52):
Peyton Manning might be in thatsame,
Brian Minier (07:55):
but that laser focus.
Just locked in and being ableto change people.
And I was thinking about thatand just thinking about focus,
mission, and how important thatis to every organization and
every group.
And that's something that wehave, when we first started our
business, we Yeah.
And I remember when we
Ed Beemiller (08:24):
first started Keystone, us sitting down for...
Ours, going throughwordsmithing, going through what
do we do, what do we want ourmission to be, and what we came
up with, and it's very prominentin our offices, is we provide
personalized financial servicesthat create confidence and
(08:46):
certainty throughout your life.
Ryan Fleming (08:49):
During all phases.
Ed Beemiller (08:50):
Yep, all phases of your life.
And that's important.
And, of course, anyone can kindof just say, oh, yeah, yeah,
okay, you basically do planning,you put a plan together, and
you're good at it, and everyoneshould just believe that's the
thing to do.
But that whole confidence andcertainty, and Ryan, you've
(09:12):
talked a lot about this, and youkind of use this statement
quite a bit, is we try to avoidwhat?
Ryan Fleming (09:19):
Taking unnecessary
Ed Beemiller (09:20):
risks.
You know, know, like, andtrust.
That's the other thing.
Confidence and certainty as youbuild that relationship.
And that's a very importantpart of what we do on a daily
(09:41):
basis with our clients.
Ryan Fleming (09:42):
Yeah.
If people can accomplish whatthey're trying to accomplish,
whatever that is, got to definethat.
But if you can accomplish whatyou're trying to accomplish
without taking unnecessaryrisks, then why would you?
Ed Beemiller (09:53):
Right.
Brian Minier (09:54):
Right?
Yeah.
And I think part of that withall phases, you know, there's
different phases that are goingto allow you to either take...
some risk or at certain partsyou have to identify where you
don't want to take them right soand i know when we we work
really hard on trying to havethose personalized services and
we do that in different waysyeah ryan i know when you are
(10:18):
looking at your specificpractice you have some different
areas of focus that help uh thepeople that you work with in
those different uh time periodsin their life
Ryan Fleming (10:28):
yeah you used a good word that's in our mission
statement during all phases oflife and so one of the things I
focused the majority of mycareer on is the phase of
college planning you knowfamilies that have rising high
schoolers parents of sixthseventh and eighth graders
freshmen sophomore juniors andseniors in college and during
(10:49):
that phase of life where they'retrying to juggle saving for
college but also knowing thatthey have this massive burden
staring them in the face calleda college education potentially.
I mean, as we sit here today, Imean, there's dozens of schools
that have a sticker price over90,000 plus dollars.
There's several that have 100plus thousand dollars per year
(11:11):
sticker price.
And so during that phase inlife, you know, you have
multiple kids like I do and youdo and Ed, you know, it's not
just one kid or two kids.
You're looking at potentiallytwo, three, four, $500,000 of a
sticker price during a timewhere you're trying to safe for
retirement and there may be nomore time in their life more
(11:31):
prevalent where more money willexit their future retirement
dollar bucket than what they'redoing trying to fund gaps of
college and so we focused a lotI've built a lot I've focused a
lot of my time and energyengineering a team to help
people usher through that topick the right schools for the
(11:52):
right value to become bettershoppers if you will for this
thing thing called college, totry to maximize an ROI.
If I asked 1,000 people, howwould you justify a good return
on your investment for collegeplanning, I don't think I'd get
very good answers, to be quitehonest with you.
I don't blame them in some way.
(12:15):
I understand that their focusis drawn in a lot of different
places like paying the bills andmaybe the car needs replaced.
So we talk about focus, laserfocus.
16, 17, 18 years goes by andboom, college is breathing in
your face.
You haven't focused on it verymuch.
But the reality is that we havea suite of services, an amazing
(12:37):
team, and ways that we canpartner with people to mitigate
the cost of college.
And I always tell peopleCollege is kind of like
investing into a house.
You would never invest into ahouse.
You wouldn't pay $500,000 for ahouse that was appraised for
$200,000.
That's a bad investment.
(12:58):
But the reality is that manymillions of people buy college
that way because they're notfocused on it, and it's just a
whammy right
Ed Beemiller (13:05):
in front of them.
How do most of your clients,when they come in and you sit
down with them, what's theirplan for paying for college?
Brian Minier (13:12):
Yeah.
Ed Beemiller (13:13):
Before you talk to them.
And I'll jump in because I havea great story with that.
(13:57):
University of Dayton, where mydaughter went.
She had taken her ACTs a coupletimes, and at that time, I
don't know if UD still does it,but they superscored the ACT.
So that just basically meansthat you take the top score from
(14:17):
each segment, and then thatequals your total average ACT.
And There was one area, and mydaughter, very intelligent, did
very well in classes.
She would say herself, wasn'tthe greatest test taker when it
came to those types of tests,those kind of more general
(14:41):
tests.
And so she was at a point whereshe's like, I'm not taking it
anymore.
She needed one point higher toactually get to the next level.
scholarship level and in thenext scholarship level would
gave her another like five sixthousand a year so over four
years that's real money so ibasically made her take it
(15:01):
kicking and screaming i i don'tbelieve you're making me do this
you know and she was not happyabout it guess what happened She
got that additional point,which then qualified her for
that additional...
Ryan Fleming (15:13):
30 grand?
Ed Beemiller (15:14):
Yeah, 20, 30 grand over the course of her career
at UD.
That's real money.
Ryan Fleming (15:19):
Right.
And in my workshop, what youjust described there is what we
would call, in our office, as awealth transfer.
And a wealth transfer, for ouraudience out there, is simply
defined as money that you wouldunknowingly or unnecessarily
give away throughout the courseof your lifetime.
So in this particular case,because she studied, she put
forth the effort, She focused.
(15:39):
She was able to raise it.
And you avoided unnecessarilygiving away $30,000.
And it's not just the $30,000.
It's what it could have earnedthe rest of your life, the true
Brian Minier (15:50):
opportunity cost.
A lot of people don't realizethe impact on that.
Not only what you lose, but thegrowth potential.
The lost opportunity.
Ed Beemiller (15:58):
Yeah, opportunity cost.
Ryan Fleming (15:59):
That's the true cost.
And so these are things that wefocus on quite a lot during all
phases of life is collegefunding.
And it's just been an awesomeopportunity.
opportunity to serve hundredsand hundreds of families trying
to figure that out.
And many of those people haveturned into long-term
comprehensive retirementplanning clients.
(16:19):
So that's a phenomenalopportunity there.
Brian Minier (16:22):
Yeah, Ed, tell us a little bit about some of the
focuses that you work with, theclients and the people that you
work with every day.
What are some of those areas offocus that you've been able to
help those folks?
Ed Beemiller (16:52):
I was 17 years as a commercial lender, middle
market commercial lending, thenwent to work for one of my
clients as their CFO.
So I had relationships withbusiness owners, small,
mid-sized business owners for agreat part of my career.
And so kind of a niche withinour group.
is working with businessowners.
(17:13):
And there's a lot ofintricacies with working with
business owners.
A lot of times these smallbusiness owners, you know, cash
is king.
They do not want to, they needthat cash.
Maybe they can't gettraditional financing sources
from a bank because they're notbig enough.
They don't show the profitsbecause what are they doing?
Well, their accountant istelling them to manage that
(17:33):
bottom line.
Then they don't show enough tobe able to borrow funds.
So there's also the tax side ofit, right?
Because the CPA is trying tominimize that taxable liability
and what they have to pay inthose taxes.
So beyond traditional planning,what we kind of in the industry
call advanced markets, there'sspecific plans, especially for
(17:56):
the small business owners thatdon't have a lot of employees
that allow them to save and toactually realize tax benefits
well above normal IRAguidelines.
And those are plans that wetalk with our business clients a
lot about, 412E3 plans, SEPaccounts, cash balance plans.
(18:21):
These are plans that they couldput in $60,000, $70,000,
$80,000.
412E3 plan, I have a smallbusiness client that is putting
$450,000 a year pre-tax so thatthat's basically that that comes
right off of his you know AGIand lowers his taxes so that
(18:42):
there's a lot of specific thingsto business owners that they
could take advantage of that Iguarantee you they have no idea
you know
Ryan Fleming (18:52):
well when they find out they become very
focused on
Ed Beemiller (18:54):
right and it goes back to you know what we talked
about in our initial podcast isyou know what do we feel is
what's the why of what we'redoing well what is it financial
What?
Literacy.
Evangelical literacy, that'sright.
(19:15):
You know, that's true.
That's true.
And so, you know, part of ourjob is, a big part, is to
educate and inform, you know,our clients.
So that business side, youknow, for any small business
owners out there, there are alot of different options and you
just, you know, need to get infront of people that understand
(19:35):
that business side of things andcan offer, you know, real
options to help with bothbuilding wealth and tax planning
at the same time.
But I
Brian Minier (19:47):
like how when you do work with your business
owners, it's not just, here'sthe one thing that we do.
Like you said, you justmentioned a couple different
things.
And some of those plans wouldwork great for lowering taxes in
the year that they're filingtheir returns, but that plan may
(20:07):
not give them capital that theyneed.
And I think there's other plansthat you help business owners
with that.
Ed Beemiller (20:14):
At the end of the day, I always say this.
a business owner is anindividual so at the end of the
day we're doing individualfinancing financial planning for
someone that just happens toown a business so that opens up
realm of other potentialstrategies that can help and
some may be tax advantage butthen we also got to look at long
term what's in the best andit's really it's like a pie
(20:37):
right there's pieces of the pieso you know trying to put into
place what is the best long term
Ryan Fleming (20:44):
and you talk about this all the time i mean one of
the biggest risks to a businessowner is lack of capital right
so Maybe you can speak to alittle bit more about what do
you do or what are somestrategies that you can help our
business owners with to createaccess to capital to be nimble?
Ed Beemiller (21:02):
Yeah.
One of our strategies that Iwould probably say of our
clients that use this strategy,70% to 80% had never heard of
it.
And it's an actual strategythat's been around for not a
decade now.
Not several decades, but acentury plus.
(21:22):
And Ryan, you referred to thisone in your term.
What's the acronym you use onthis one?
Ryan Fleming (21:30):
I don't know.
Ed Beemiller (21:31):
Well, I think it's a LERP,
Ryan Fleming (21:32):
right?
Oh, a LERP, yeah.
LERP.
For those people that are outthere that don't understand all
this LERP or acronym jargon inour world, LERP stands for Life
Insurance Retirement Plan.
And that's a broad acronym, but
Ed Beemiller (21:47):
yeah, there's certain types, and we'll talk
about those.
Really, with that, you know, sowe're able to use, you know,
and this has some taxadvantages, it has liquidity
advantages, and what I like tosay that, you know, this one
specific strategy that we usethat really does help with the
business owners who need accessto capital, but they're holding
on to their own cash, and theycan't get traditional financing.
(22:09):
So we basically have a strategythat enables them to build
wealth that is liquid, that'saccessible, grows tax-free,
similar to a Roth, and can beused for business owners.
Real estate professionals lovethis, once again, building that
access to capital, but so doesan individual.
Ryan Fleming (22:29):
Darrell Bock
Ed Beemiller (22:29):
Life has many expenses, and we like to say we
have a lot of life happensevents.
What that means is you're goingalong, you've got a plan,
you've got a process, and thenall of a sudden your furnace
breaks down and there's a$6,000, $7,000 bill.
An engine goes out in your car.
It's important to have that,which we all really believe in,
(22:53):
that part of life.
Your plan should have thatliquidity and accessibility.
And you're in control, not athird-party bank or finance
company, because they can alwayssay no.
And that's important, onceagain, dealing with business
owners, that specific strategy.
But once again, it's a piece ofwhat we do.
(23:13):
It's a piece of that overallplan.
It could be used great forbusiness owners, real estate
professionals, but even better,and we can all basically raise
our hands here, we all utilizethis strategy ourselves.
Ryan Fleming (23:27):
Yeah, we'll do it justice.
We'll actually do an episode onsome of this LERP stuff that we
talked about for sure.
But yeah, the liquidity use andcontrol is amazing.
your focus of ours.
People need it to access it forcollege funding, financing
cars, maybe funding the realestate deals and putting money
into
Ed Beemiller (23:45):
the business.
Kind of another kind ofexpertise that we have, and
Brian, you're kind of leadingthe charge on this, is for
people that, you know, which weall get there, right?
Because, you know, we all turna certain age and, you know, one
of the benefits we still have,you know, from the government is
Social Security.
So I know that you spend a lotof time in dealing in that
(24:08):
senior and more of a seniormarketplace.
So tell us a little bit
Brian Minier (24:11):
more about that.
For people that are gettingready to retire or in
retirement, They're trying tofigure out, well, when should I
take it?
You mean it's not going away?
That may be another episode aswell.
I have some thoughts on that.
I do not think it's going away.
I think it will change.
But when you look at SocialSecurity, what I find is the
(24:32):
number one way people try tofigure out how do I take my
social security?
Is this break even?
Well, if I live to a certainage and I wait to take it at a
certain age, then I know if Ilive a certain amount of years,
it'll offset the years that Ididn't take the benefit.
And I just don't think that'sthe best way to take it because
there's so many variables.
(24:53):
If you're married, did yourspouse work?
If your spouse didn't work,there's spousal benefits,
there's survivor benefits.
What if you and your spousehave an age gap?
There's some interesting rulechanges that happened back in
January this year with thegovernment pension offset and
the windfall eliminationprovision.
(25:14):
I mean, there's just all ofthese elements that people are
just not...
aware of and what does thatlook like so one of the areas
for that particular phase andthat focus is how do you use
social security for incomeplanning versus looking at
social security in a way thatyou're going to try to optimize
(25:34):
or gain what you get from thesocial security administration
and I think if you look at itfrom a standpoint of it's an
income it's a part of yourincome plan and if you look at
it and maximize it that way whatI have found is working with
people, it makes thoseretirement distribution plans
that much better.
Ryan Fleming (25:52):
Maybe you can speak to this.
A lot of people will tell mewhen it comes to the topic of
Social Security, they honestlythink it's not going to be
there.
Oh, we're not counting on thatin our plan.
And there's a lot of jargon outthere saying that in the next
few years or so that the trustfund is going to exhaust itself.
It's going to go bankrupt.
(26:13):
But that doesn't mean thatSocial Security in total is
going to be gone.
Can you maybe
Brian Minier (26:19):
speak to that?
Yeah, that's a really goodpoint, Ryan.
So when you think of how SocialSecurity is funded, it's
through our FICA taxes.
We have to pay into those whenwe're working.
And it does phase out at acertain limit, but that income
or those taxes is not goingaway.
The issue is there's not enoughFICA taxes that people are
paying into.
There's just not enough peopleworking to support everybody
(26:41):
taking a Social Securitybenefit.
So to make up what else isneeded comes from the Social
Security Trust Fund.
So if no changes are going tobe made, what's going to happen
is in 2033 or 2034, whateveryear it is, that trust fund will
be exhausted, which means theonly monies that are coming in
are through the FICA taxes,which will represent about 77
(27:05):
cents or so for each dollar thatis
Ryan Fleming (27:08):
owed.
So that could mean that SocialSecurity today might get
depleted a little bit.
Maybe you get a little bitless, but it's
Brian Minier (27:18):
not going to totally go away.
No, and I think for thegeneration that's getting ready
to collect their benefits now, Idon't think there's going to be
any changes.
That's my personal opinionfrom...
articles, things that I haveread, and people that I trust in
the industry, and justdifferent videos and things that
I've studied.
What are the potential changesthat you
Ryan Fleming (27:36):
think that could happen?
Brian Minier (27:37):
I think there'll be a delay in benefits.
There could be a tax change.
There could be an impact incost of living adjustments.
And
Ed Beemiller (27:44):
we're already seeing the delay in benefits
here over the last decade.
And it's
Ryan Fleming (27:48):
happened before, and it'll happen again.
It's happened in pension plans,like state teachers.
You have to work five
Ed Beemiller (27:53):
extra years.
Additional years to qualify forthat same benefit.
Ryan Fleming (27:56):
And then you get less overall percentage of your
top five versus your top threeright yeah
Brian Minier (28:01):
so and there's just those all those variables
that people just don't considerand that is an area that we we
help people with we help themfocus on
Ryan Fleming (28:09):
absolutely absolutely well another major
area that is is very prime umit's it's definitely a very
relevant topic is this idea oftaxes going up in the future you
know the old should you paytaxes on the seed or the harvest
and we're gonna we're gonnareally really dive into this in
(28:29):
some later episodes.
But another thing that we focuson at Keystone is this idea of
tax-free planning withdrawals atthe end.
You know, is there a way toorganize your affairs to where
you are at or as close to a 0%withdrawal rate in retirement?
Yeah.
Okay.
Are
Brian Minier (28:47):
taxes going to go down anytime soon?
I mean, I would bet my left armnot.
Wow.
What do you think, Ed?
Are taxes going down in thefuture?
Ed Beemiller (28:57):
Well, I think it's a topic of discussion we have
with every single client that wemeet with.
Now, I think the temperamentand attitude has changed a
little bit, obviously, with theRepublicans and Mr.
Trump controlling the House,who's always favored a little
more positive taxation,especially for that upper middle
and wealthy class.
(29:17):
Yeah.
The reality of it is everysingle person we listen to or
hear ourselves at some pointwith a $37 trillion in growing
deficit, there's two ways tocure that deficit.
You either decrease spending orincrease income.
Well, income is taxes.
So, yeah, the probability,whether it happens in the next
(29:41):
several years or five, tenyears, you know, Taxes are going
to have to go up.
Ryan Fleming (29:47):
There's a good chance that Trump extends the
Trump tax cuts.
There was a really positivemomentum with that.
Now it's been a little bit of apause, but there's still a lot
of...
Experts out there, they'resaying there's a good chance
that's going to get extended.
And it's not just the debt,right?
But if they do get extended,that's going to add about
another almost $5 trillion toour national debt.
(30:08):
Our national debt is going togrow at $2 trillion per year for
the next decade, not includingthe potential Trump tax
extensions.
But it's not just the debt.
It's also the interest on thedebt.
It's also Medicare, Medicaid,and Social Security.
Ed Beemiller (30:25):
Have interest rates gone up or down here in
the last couple of years?
So what does that mean for thedebt?
Ryan Fleming (30:31):
We have $200 trillion unfunded obligations
between Social Security,Medicare, and Medicaid.
So your statement aboutbringing in more revenue, the
tax train's coming.
So one of the things we focuson are what are strategies, what
are places that we can park ourclients' money so that at the
end, if you're pulling money outof Roth IRAs, Roth 401ks, I
(30:55):
mean, Shucks, if theseextensions happen Roth
conversions are justunprecedented.
Life insurance, retirementplans, all of these vehicles
have tax-free implications atthe end.
And if you've got four, five,six different streams of income
that don't show up on the IRS'sradar, then, you know, zero
(31:15):
times, if taxes double, zerotimes two is still zero.
So again, we will get into someof these.
There's six or seven tax-freestrategies out there to help
people.
I think it's the right messageat the right time in history.
But we do focus quite a lot onthat.
And a lot of people are veryanxious to learn about this
because they want to pay theirfair share, but they don't
(31:37):
really fully understand the
Brian Minier (31:38):
scope of what's coming down the line.
Well, and we talk to people,here's why we're in the
situation that we're in.
People get a job they invest ina 401k because you get a match,
right?
So they're like, great, I'mgoing to invest, I'm going to
get a match.
Well, with so many people thatwe work with, the only option
that they had at the time was apre-tax 401k.
And when we were all incollege, what were we taught?
(32:00):
You will eventually retire, youwill have all your debt paid,
and you will be in a lower taxbracket, which means you're
going to pay lower taxes.
Without any conversation of,hey, those tax brackets may
change, By the time that youretire.
Ed Beemiller (32:15):
And you're going to spend 50% of your
pre-retirement spending inretirement.
Which we know is not true.
I
Brian Minier (32:22):
always ask this question at my classes.
I put this bullet point up andsay, you're going to be at 80%
to 100% of your pre-retirementincome in retirement.
And people are like, kind oflook at me.
And then some get it.
And I'm like, because what doyou have in retirement that you
don't have while you're working?
You've got a little bit of timeon your hands, right?
Yeah, exactly.
That's right.
What does that time usuallyequate to?
Ryan Fleming (32:40):
Yeah.
Ed Beemiller (32:40):
Travel, visiting, taking vacations, visiting
family.
That's
Ryan Fleming (32:45):
right.
Somebody told me this story onetime to kind of get the point
across.
They were saying, okay, let'ssay you needed $10,000 and I was
willing to lend it to you.
And I'm going to cut you acheck for $10,000.
And I always ask the client,what would be two questions
you'd ask me when I give youthis check?
And they always say, well, howmuch interest are you going to
(33:07):
charge me?
And how long do I have to payyou back?
And I would say, those arefantastic questions.
Thank you for asking.
I like you.
You're my friend.
I don't need the money rightnow.
And I probably will need themoney in about 15 to 20 years.
And at that time, what I'll dois I'll sit down at my table in
15, 20 years, and then I'll justfigure out how much interest I
want to charge you.
Would you like to cash mycheck?
(33:29):
And they laugh, and they'relike...
Heck no, right?
No.
And I'm saying, well...
I know we're laughing, but thatis the exact relationship.
That's the exact partnershipthat you're in when you put your
money into a pre-tax retirementplan like a 401k.
The government's not sayingthat you, you know, they're just
letting you postpone it, right?
You're in a big partnershipwith Uncle Sam, and they're
(33:50):
like, well, I don't like that,right?
And so that opens up a littlebit of a conversation.
Ed Beemiller (33:53):
Once again, any financial planner and what we
work on is trying to mitigate oreliminate risk, right?
And, you know, one of the othervery significant risks that we
try to address with each of ourclients, especially as they're
getting closer to, you know,mid-age and beyond, and Brian, I
(34:16):
know you talk a lot about this,so what is that risk there as
you get close to retirement?
What happens to people whenthey get old?
Brian Minier (34:27):
Maybe running out of money?
Is that what you're getting at?
Ed Beemiller (34:29):
Well, running out of money, that's the longevity
risk.
Oh, you're talking
Brian Minier (34:33):
about health.
Ed Beemiller (34:34):
Yeah, what happens if the health diminishes?
Brian Minier (34:37):
Maybe potential long-term care.
Ed Beemiller (34:38):
Yep, yep.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat.
This is an
Brian Minier (34:41):
area where it's unexpected, and I would bet $99
out of 100 people, maybe that'spretty close to that.
Do not plan for long-term carebecause it's not something that
you want to think about.
And then you hear people saythings like, well, if I'm not in
a right state of mind, justroll me out into the woods
(35:02):
somewhere and let me walk off acliff.
And leave me.
That's never going to happen.
And so the thing aboutlong-term care is, of course,
there's different strategies anddifferent products that we can
offer and help.
But the number one thing that Iwould say is you just have to
have a plan.
(35:22):
What would happen to you?
What would happen to your lovedones, your spouse, your kids?
if you had to go into afacility because you couldn't
take care of yourself?
What would that mean for youfinancially?
And what would that mean foreven the level of care and who
would deliver that care
Ryan Fleming (35:41):
to you?
100%.
I mean, I think the statisticsare there's a 70% chance one of
the existing living spouses isgoing to experience a long-term
care event.
I had this happen recently withmy grandmother who, she passed
away recently, but was in anassisted living, then a little
bit more care needed after that.
It's an insidious risk that canhave devastating impacts on
(36:03):
people's estates and lifelongsavings habits.
And this amazing lifestyle thatthe spouse thought that they
were going to live, their spousegets sick, they drain their
account, and they're left withthis subsistence of living.
And it's a real thing.
It's not fun to talk about.
But again, relative to thisidea of what do we focus on at
Keystone, we talk about thisquite a
Brian Minier (36:23):
lot.
Ryan Fleming (36:24):
Yeah.
You've
Brian Minier (36:24):
got to have a plan for it.
And not only do you have tohave a plan for it, you need to
understand what theramifications are.
Yeah.
If you spend on your assets, ifyou have Medicaid that comes in
and helps you with that, whatdoes that mean depending on what
state you live in?
What can they do with yourhouse and put a lien on it?
There's just things that youneed to be aware
Ed Beemiller (36:43):
of.
Most people, once they hit 65,well, I have Medicare.
Well, guess what?
Medicare does not cover what?
Long-term care.
Long-term care.
Yeah.
I have a personal experiencewith my mother-in-law being in
independent living and thengoing into assisted care.
And full assisted care can costanywhere from $9,000, $10,000 a
(37:07):
month.
Ryan Fleming (37:08):
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Ed Beemiller (37:09):
And most of that is private pay.
So effectively what the planfor most people is, self-insure.
Brian Minier (37:16):
That's right.
Ed Beemiller (37:16):
But this is a whole other podcast, honestly,
when we're dealing with thelong-term care.
But once again, it just kind ofgoes back to what do we focus
Brian Minier (37:26):
on?
Yeah.
Ed Beemiller (37:26):
you know, what types of things does our company
focus in working with ourindividual clients?
And it's important that we,going back, ask the appropriate
questions of, well, how are theyplanning for this?
Or what is their plan?
Yeah.
Brian Minier (37:41):
I have a client that I've been working with, a
married couple, been workingwith them for a number of years
now.
And we talked about long-termcare.
Well, guess what?
We didn't provide or sell anylong-term care products, but
they have a plan for it.
And that plan, I think, is agood plan.
And And it doesn't mean we haveto implement, here's your
long-term care coverage, butthey have a plan.
(38:02):
They know what they're going todo.
And I think that's what we takea lot of pride in is creating
those personalized services anddoing that at different phases
of each person's life.
Agreed.
So anything you want to add tothis discussion as we get ready
to wrap this up?
Ed Beemiller (38:19):
No, I think, you know, we really just try to
touch upon each of the...
areas that every individualwill face and how we try to
spend time understanding andlistening and then developing a
full holistic plan to help them.
Ryan Fleming (38:33):
Yeah, I would say tune back in for more
information about individualstrategies and things that we
talked about.
But if you guys are likingthis, please share this
information with your lovedones, your coworkers.
We want to not only educateyou, but we want to educate
people that we don't even knowyet.
So we appreciate you guys.
Appreciate you all tuning in.
(38:54):
And look forward to talking toyou guys on the next episode.
Great words, guys.
Thank you, everybody.
We'll see you next time.
Brian Minier (39:01):
Take care.
Announcer (39:03):
Take care.
Bye-bye.
The Financial Huddle does not provide tax, legal,
financial, or other professionaladvice.
Listeners are encouraged toconsult with their own advisors
in these areas.
All right, everybody, huddleup.
The play calls in.
This is The Financial Huddle.
Ready, break.
Brian Minier (00:14):
Welcome once again everybody to the Financial
Huddle.
I am Brian Menear.
I am joined by my businesspartners and co-hosts, Ed B.
Miller.
Hello, hello.
And Ryan Fleming.
Ryan Fleming (00:24):
Let's get it done today.
Let's do it.
Brian Minier (00:25):
Let's get it done.
Very good.
Ed, you are in the thick ofwedding planning season.
Ed Beemiller (00:32):
What's going on with that?
I am.
And not just wedding planningseason.
That's right.
Weddings.
I have the pleasure of both ofmy children, my daughter's 30
and my son's 20, are bothgetting married within less than
a month of each other.
We need to have a prayer vigilafter this session.
(00:52):
Let me tell you, and thank Godfor appropriate financial
planning, because as most peopleknow listening, weddings are
not cheap.
And my daughter, and we lovethe fact that she is, is
actually getting married up inour summer community.
in northern maine and so thatthrows a whole nother glitch of
(01:16):
you know we have people comingin from everywhere it's not
necessarily easy to get thereAll prices are about double what
they are within the continentalU.S.
Brian Minier (01:28):
Lobster bisque isn't cheap, man.
No, it's not.
Hey,
Ed Beemiller (01:32):
I get my lobsters cheap.
I get them straight from thelobstermen down at the dock.
That's
Brian Minier (01:36):
called poaching.
Ed Beemiller (01:37):
That one, no, no, no.
Let me tell you, that's aserious offense up there in
Maine.
That's
Brian Minier (01:42):
phenomenal.
Ed Beemiller (01:42):
You pick up any traps and you don't have
appropriate licenses.
I mean, you get put away.
A little more of a slap on thewrist.
I mean, you don't mess with it.
That's the economy up there.
Don't do that.
Ryan Fleming (01:55):
In 2004, I was playing in the Eastern League,
and Portland was in AA for theRed Sox.
We had an off day, so we wentdown to the wharf.
I'd never been to Maine beforein my life.
We ate in this little tin shackright by the wharf.
Boat pulled in.
This place was just big enoughto have a circle bar, ice all
(02:18):
around it.
Guy walked in with a bucketfull of clams and lobsters,
dumped the lobster I said, Iwant that one and that one.
$14.95 for one lobster.
Best meal I've ever had in mylife.
Ed Beemiller (02:29):
All right, so $14.95.
If we get them right from thelobstermen, we're probably
paying about $6, $7 for a poundand a quarter.
For our seafood lovers outthere, ain't nothing like a
Maine lobster.
Nope.
Brian Minier (02:43):
But you're in the thick of it,
Ed Beemiller (02:44):
planted too, pulling your hair out.
Yeah, I'm not pulling my hairout as much.
I am obviously the father ofthe bride, and I'm not pulling
my hair out as much.
father of the groom and my wifeand my daughter are talking
several times a day and havebeen for about three four months
and it is all wedding planningare you in avoidance mode no i
just if if if my opinion isasked which is infrequently i i
(03:09):
will interject outside of that ijust i just get the uh invoices
and when bills are due and howmuch you know this cost and that
cost and i've i've gone beyondtrying to say well wait a minute
it's Isn't there somethingcheaper or can we do this?
Not a fight to pick when yourdaughter gets married once a
(03:30):
year.
Hopefully not once a year.
Once in their lifetime is whatI'm hoping.
I was going to be willing topay for some counseling
sessions.
I may
Brian Minier (03:41):
need it.
I wish you luck.
I look forward to attending oneof those.
Alright, Ryan.
I've been watching your son'sInstagram and I see he's on on
LinkedIn now and he's got apretty cool internship.
It's a miracle.
Yeah.
Ryan Fleming (03:57):
Um, yeah, he, he, he really does really excited
for him.
He landed a paid internshipwith the Cleveland Browns and
that's starting here real soon.
I mean, gosh, a paid internshipfrom an NFL team.
It's a, it's a good resumebuilder, great experience.
And, um, I think he's excitedfor the opportunity.
And hopefully he'll have somegood stories to tell us.
(04:18):
Hopefully he can bring somewinning culture
Ed Beemiller (04:20):
to the finals.
Maybe he can give us a littleinside information on who's
going to start a quarterback forthe Browns this year.
Who's QB1 this year?
Yeah, QB1.
Yeah, yeah.
That's great.
Ryan Fleming (04:28):
Starting up real soon.
And it works out good because,you know, he goes to
Baldwin-Wallace University, andit's just right there, you know.
Brian Minier (04:34):
Yeah, for those of you that don't know, Ryan's son
and my oldest go to schooltogether.
They're both going to be risingseniors this year.
Isn't that crazy?
It's hard to believe.
Isn't it crazy to say that?
Reed plays baseball at BW, andJosh plays football.
So we're going to be gettingready for the final season here.
It's interesting.
Josh has an internship atDayton, at Dayton 24-7.
(04:58):
How about that?
Yeah.
Reppin'.
Ed Beemiller (05:02):
Reppin' UD.
Great timing on that.
My daughter went to UD.
So I do have a place in myheart.
Although, you know, this is myalma mater here.
Kenyon College.
This was unplanned today.
This was unplanned.
So
Ryan Fleming (05:17):
this is Dayton's, my alma mater.
This is your daughter's almamater.
Brian Minier (05:21):
I'm wearing lobsters.
You're wearing my lobsters.
That's right.
There we go.
We didn't even plan that.
We did not plan that.
That's how good we are, folks.
That's how good we are.
I was talking to Josh earlierin the week about his
internship, and he really wantsto get into broadcasting over
this last year.
Him doing a lot of spots on theradio, calling different games.
Ed Beemiller (05:41):
I've heard a few of those softball, women's
softball games for the BW.
Seriously, he's talented.
WBWC.
Brian Minier (05:50):
He's talented.
Try to stream a little bit ofthat.
If he's listening to that,he'll appreciate that.
Shout out, Joshy.
It's really interesting,though.
He's been thinking aboutbroadcasting.
One of the guys that, being afootball player and getting into
broadcasting, he actually looksup to Tom Brady, out of all
people.
Who doesn't?
(06:10):
Has it all, right?
With And the thing about TomBrady and getting into
broadcasting is we were talkinga little bit about that
transition, what that lookslike.
But what I've always beenfascinated with Tom Brady is his
ability to change a culture.
It was interesting in hiscareer, he went to Tampa Bay and
(06:32):
changed that culture around,and they won a Super Bowl.
And I think a lot of that hasto do with his focus, with his
ability to just get in there.
This is the mission.
This is what we want to getdone.
And he's able to not only do itfor himself, but he's able to
create a culture where thepeople around him are able to do
Ed Beemiller (06:52):
that.
Most people felt he was well onthe downside of his career when
he left, and yet he was able togo into a new organization and
bring that culture and thatfocus.
Ryan Fleming (07:10):
This actually, spur of the moment, this
actually made me think of aquote.
So I actually looked this quoteup.
I mean, because this hits itthe nail on the head perfectly.
This is a quote from Steve Jobsabout focus.
And he said, people think focusmeans saying yes to the thing
that you've got to focus on, butthat's not what it means at
(07:31):
all.
He says, it means saying no tothe hundred other good ideas
that there are out there.
You have to pick verycarefully.
And When you bring up thatanalogy about him, you can't
think of too many other peoplethat were just laser focused on
what to focus his time andenergy on.
(07:52):
Peyton Manning might be in thatsame,
Brian Minier (07:55):
but that laser focus.
Just locked in and being ableto change people.
And I was thinking about thatand just thinking about focus,
mission, and how important thatis to every organization and
every group.
And that's something that wehave, when we first started our
business, we Yeah.
And I remember when we
Ed Beemiller (08:24):
first started Keystone, us sitting down for...
Ours, going throughwordsmithing, going through what
do we do, what do we want ourmission to be, and what we came
up with, and it's very prominentin our offices, is we provide
personalized financial servicesthat create confidence and
(08:46):
certainty throughout your life.
Ryan Fleming (08:49):
During all phases.
Ed Beemiller (08:50):
Yep, all phases of your life.
And that's important.
And, of course, anyone can kindof just say, oh, yeah, yeah,
okay, you basically do planning,you put a plan together, and
you're good at it, and everyoneshould just believe that's the
thing to do.
But that whole confidence andcertainty, and Ryan, you've
(09:12):
talked a lot about this, and youkind of use this statement
quite a bit, is we try to avoidwhat?
Ryan Fleming (09:19):
Taking unnecessary
Ed Beemiller (09:20):
risks.
You know, know, like, andtrust.
That's the other thing.
Confidence and certainty as youbuild that relationship.
And that's a very importantpart of what we do on a daily
(09:41):
basis with our clients.
Ryan Fleming (09:42):
Yeah.
If people can accomplish whatthey're trying to accomplish,
whatever that is, got to definethat.
But if you can accomplish whatyou're trying to accomplish
without taking unnecessaryrisks, then why would you?
Ed Beemiller (09:53):
Right.
Brian Minier (09:54):
Right?
Yeah.
And I think part of that withall phases, you know, there's
different phases that are goingto allow you to either take...
some risk or at certain partsyou have to identify where you
don't want to take them right soand i know when we we work
really hard on trying to havethose personalized services and
we do that in different waysyeah ryan i know when you are
(10:18):
looking at your specificpractice you have some different
areas of focus that help uh thepeople that you work with in
those different uh time periodsin their life
Ryan Fleming (10:28):
yeah you used a good word that's in our mission
statement during all phases oflife and so one of the things I
focused the majority of mycareer on is the phase of
college planning you knowfamilies that have rising high
schoolers parents of sixthseventh and eighth graders
freshmen sophomore juniors andseniors in college and during
(10:49):
that phase of life where they'retrying to juggle saving for
college but also knowing thatthey have this massive burden
staring them in the face calleda college education potentially.
I mean, as we sit here today, Imean, there's dozens of schools
that have a sticker price over90,000 plus dollars.
There's several that have 100plus thousand dollars per year
(11:11):
sticker price.
And so during that phase inlife, you know, you have
multiple kids like I do and youdo and Ed, you know, it's not
just one kid or two kids.
You're looking at potentiallytwo, three, four, $500,000 of a
sticker price during a timewhere you're trying to safe for
retirement and there may be nomore time in their life more
(11:31):
prevalent where more money willexit their future retirement
dollar bucket than what they'redoing trying to fund gaps of
college and so we focused a lotI've built a lot I've focused a
lot of my time and energyengineering a team to help
people usher through that topick the right schools for the
(11:52):
right value to become bettershoppers if you will for this
thing thing called college, totry to maximize an ROI.
If I asked 1,000 people, howwould you justify a good return
on your investment for collegeplanning, I don't think I'd get
very good answers, to be quitehonest with you.
I don't blame them in some way.
(12:15):
I understand that their focusis drawn in a lot of different
places like paying the bills andmaybe the car needs replaced.
So we talk about focus, laserfocus.
16, 17, 18 years goes by andboom, college is breathing in
your face.
You haven't focused on it verymuch.
But the reality is that we havea suite of services, an amazing
(12:37):
team, and ways that we canpartner with people to mitigate
the cost of college.
And I always tell peopleCollege is kind of like
investing into a house.
You would never invest into ahouse.
You wouldn't pay $500,000 for ahouse that was appraised for
$200,000.
That's a bad investment.
(12:58):
But the reality is that manymillions of people buy college
that way because they're notfocused on it, and it's just a
whammy right
Ed Beemiller (13:05):
in front of them.
How do most of your clients,when they come in and you sit
down with them, what's theirplan for paying for college?
Brian Minier (13:12):
Yeah.
Ed Beemiller (13:13):
Before you talk to them.
And I'll jump in because I havea great story with that.
(13:57):
University of Dayton, where mydaughter went.
She had taken her ACTs a coupletimes, and at that time, I
don't know if UD still does it,but they superscored the ACT.
So that just basically meansthat you take the top score from
(14:17):
each segment, and then thatequals your total average ACT.
And There was one area, and mydaughter, very intelligent, did
very well in classes.
She would say herself, wasn'tthe greatest test taker when it
came to those types of tests,those kind of more general
(14:41):
tests.
And so she was at a point whereshe's like, I'm not taking it
anymore.
She needed one point higher toactually get to the next level.
scholarship level and in thenext scholarship level would
gave her another like five sixthousand a year so over four
years that's real money so ibasically made her take it
(15:01):
kicking and screaming i i don'tbelieve you're making me do this
you know and she was not happyabout it guess what happened She
got that additional point,which then qualified her for
that additional...
Ryan Fleming (15:13):
30 grand?
Ed Beemiller (15:14):
Yeah, 20, 30 grand over the course of her career
at UD.
That's real money.
Ryan Fleming (15:19):
Right.
And in my workshop, what youjust described there is what we
would call, in our office, as awealth transfer.
And a wealth transfer, for ouraudience out there, is simply
defined as money that you wouldunknowingly or unnecessarily
give away throughout the courseof your lifetime.
So in this particular case,because she studied, she put
forth the effort, She focused.
(15:39):
She was able to raise it.
And you avoided unnecessarilygiving away $30,000.
And it's not just the $30,000.
It's what it could have earnedthe rest of your life, the true
Brian Minier (15:50):
opportunity cost.
A lot of people don't realizethe impact on that.
Not only what you lose, but thegrowth potential.
The lost opportunity.
Ed Beemiller (15:58):
Yeah, opportunity cost.
Ryan Fleming (15:59):
That's the true cost.
And so these are things that wefocus on quite a lot during all
phases of life is collegefunding.
And it's just been an awesomeopportunity.
opportunity to serve hundredsand hundreds of families trying
to figure that out.
And many of those people haveturned into long-term
comprehensive retirementplanning clients.
(16:19):
So that's a phenomenalopportunity there.
Brian Minier (16:22):
Yeah, Ed, tell us a little bit about some of the
focuses that you work with, theclients and the people that you
work with every day.
What are some of those areas offocus that you've been able to
help those folks?
Ed Beemiller (16:52):
I was 17 years as a commercial lender, middle
market commercial lending, thenwent to work for one of my
clients as their CFO.
So I had relationships withbusiness owners, small,
mid-sized business owners for agreat part of my career.
And so kind of a niche withinour group.
is working with businessowners.
(17:13):
And there's a lot ofintricacies with working with
business owners.
A lot of times these smallbusiness owners, you know, cash
is king.
They do not want to, they needthat cash.
Maybe they can't gettraditional financing sources
from a bank because they're notbig enough.
They don't show the profitsbecause what are they doing?
Well, their accountant istelling them to manage that
(17:33):
bottom line.
Then they don't show enough tobe able to borrow funds.
So there's also the tax side ofit, right?
Because the CPA is trying tominimize that taxable liability
and what they have to pay inthose taxes.
So beyond traditional planning,what we kind of in the industry
call advanced markets, there'sspecific plans, especially for
(17:56):
the small business owners thatdon't have a lot of employees
that allow them to save and toactually realize tax benefits
well above normal IRAguidelines.
And those are plans that wetalk with our business clients a
lot about, 412E3 plans, SEPaccounts, cash balance plans.
(18:21):
These are plans that they couldput in $60,000, $70,000,
$80,000.
412E3 plan, I have a smallbusiness client that is putting
$450,000 a year pre-tax so thatthat's basically that that comes
right off of his you know AGIand lowers his taxes so that
(18:42):
there's a lot of specific thingsto business owners that they
could take advantage of that Iguarantee you they have no idea
you know
Ryan Fleming (18:52):
well when they find out they become very
focused on
Ed Beemiller (18:54):
right and it goes back to you know what we talked
about in our initial podcast isyou know what do we feel is
what's the why of what we'redoing well what is it financial
What?
Literacy.
Evangelical literacy, that'sright.
(19:15):
You know, that's true.
That's true.
And so, you know, part of ourjob is, a big part, is to
educate and inform, you know,our clients.
So that business side, youknow, for any small business
owners out there, there are alot of different options and you
just, you know, need to get infront of people that understand
(19:35):
that business side of things andcan offer, you know, real
options to help with bothbuilding wealth and tax planning
at the same time.
But I
Brian Minier (19:47):
like how when you do work with your business
owners, it's not just, here'sthe one thing that we do.
Like you said, you justmentioned a couple different
things.
And some of those plans wouldwork great for lowering taxes in
the year that they're filingtheir returns, but that plan may
(20:07):
not give them capital that theyneed.
And I think there's other plansthat you help business owners
with that.
Ed Beemiller (20:14):
At the end of the day, I always say this.
a business owner is anindividual so at the end of the
day we're doing individualfinancing financial planning for
someone that just happens toown a business so that opens up
realm of other potentialstrategies that can help and
some may be tax advantage butthen we also got to look at long
term what's in the best andit's really it's like a pie
(20:37):
right there's pieces of the pieso you know trying to put into
place what is the best long term
Ryan Fleming (20:44):
and you talk about this all the time i mean one of
the biggest risks to a businessowner is lack of capital right
so Maybe you can speak to alittle bit more about what do
you do or what are somestrategies that you can help our
business owners with to createaccess to capital to be nimble?
Ed Beemiller (21:02):
Yeah.
One of our strategies that Iwould probably say of our
clients that use this strategy,70% to 80% had never heard of
it.
And it's an actual strategythat's been around for not a
decade now.
Not several decades, but acentury plus.
(21:22):
And Ryan, you referred to thisone in your term.
What's the acronym you use onthis one?
Ryan Fleming (21:30):
I don't know.
Ed Beemiller (21:31):
Well, I think it's a LERP,
Ryan Fleming (21:32):
right?
Oh, a LERP, yeah.
LERP.
For those people that are outthere that don't understand all
this LERP or acronym jargon inour world, LERP stands for Life
Insurance Retirement Plan.
And that's a broad acronym, but
Ed Beemiller (21:47):
yeah, there's certain types, and we'll talk
about those.
Really, with that, you know, sowe're able to use, you know,
and this has some taxadvantages, it has liquidity
advantages, and what I like tosay that, you know, this one
specific strategy that we usethat really does help with the
business owners who need accessto capital, but they're holding
on to their own cash, and theycan't get traditional financing.
(22:09):
So we basically have a strategythat enables them to build
wealth that is liquid, that'saccessible, grows tax-free,
similar to a Roth, and can beused for business owners.
Real estate professionals lovethis, once again, building that
access to capital, but so doesan individual.
Ryan Fleming (22:29):
Darrell Bock
Ed Beemiller (22:29):
Life has many expenses, and we like to say we
have a lot of life happensevents.
What that means is you're goingalong, you've got a plan,
you've got a process, and thenall of a sudden your furnace
breaks down and there's a$6,000, $7,000 bill.
An engine goes out in your car.
It's important to have that,which we all really believe in,
(22:53):
that part of life.
Your plan should have thatliquidity and accessibility.
And you're in control, not athird-party bank or finance
company, because they can alwayssay no.
And that's important, onceagain, dealing with business
owners, that specific strategy.
But once again, it's a piece ofwhat we do.
(23:13):
It's a piece of that overallplan.
It could be used great forbusiness owners, real estate
professionals, but even better,and we can all basically raise
our hands here, we all utilizethis strategy ourselves.
Ryan Fleming (23:27):
Yeah, we'll do it justice.
We'll actually do an episode onsome of this LERP stuff that we
talked about for sure.
But yeah, the liquidity use andcontrol is amazing.
your focus of ours.
People need it to access it forcollege funding, financing
cars, maybe funding the realestate deals and putting money
into
Ed Beemiller (23:45):
the business.
Kind of another kind ofexpertise that we have, and
Brian, you're kind of leadingthe charge on this, is for
people that, you know, which weall get there, right?
Because, you know, we all turna certain age and, you know, one
of the benefits we still have,you know, from the government is
Social Security.
So I know that you spend a lotof time in dealing in that
(24:08):
senior and more of a seniormarketplace.
So tell us a little bit
Brian Minier (24:11):
more about that.
For people that are gettingready to retire or in
retirement, They're trying tofigure out, well, when should I
take it?
You mean it's not going away?
That may be another episode aswell.
I have some thoughts on that.
I do not think it's going away.
I think it will change.
But when you look at SocialSecurity, what I find is the
(24:32):
number one way people try tofigure out how do I take my
social security?
Is this break even?
Well, if I live to a certainage and I wait to take it at a
certain age, then I know if Ilive a certain amount of years,
it'll offset the years that Ididn't take the benefit.
And I just don't think that'sthe best way to take it because
there's so many variables.
(24:53):
If you're married, did yourspouse work?
If your spouse didn't work,there's spousal benefits,
there's survivor benefits.
What if you and your spousehave an age gap?
There's some interesting rulechanges that happened back in
January this year with thegovernment pension offset and
the windfall eliminationprovision.
(25:14):
I mean, there's just all ofthese elements that people are
just not...
aware of and what does thatlook like so one of the areas
for that particular phase andthat focus is how do you use
social security for incomeplanning versus looking at
social security in a way thatyou're going to try to optimize
(25:34):
or gain what you get from thesocial security administration
and I think if you look at itfrom a standpoint of it's an
income it's a part of yourincome plan and if you look at
it and maximize it that way whatI have found is working with
people, it makes thoseretirement distribution plans
that much better.
Ryan Fleming (25:52):
Maybe you can speak to this.
A lot of people will tell mewhen it comes to the topic of
Social Security, they honestlythink it's not going to be
there.
Oh, we're not counting on thatin our plan.
And there's a lot of jargon outthere saying that in the next
few years or so that the trustfund is going to exhaust itself.
It's going to go bankrupt.
(26:13):
But that doesn't mean thatSocial Security in total is
going to be gone.
Can you maybe
Brian Minier (26:19):
speak to that?
Yeah, that's a really goodpoint, Ryan.
So when you think of how SocialSecurity is funded, it's
through our FICA taxes.
We have to pay into those whenwe're working.
And it does phase out at acertain limit, but that income
or those taxes is not goingaway.
The issue is there's not enoughFICA taxes that people are
paying into.
There's just not enough peopleworking to support everybody
(26:41):
taking a Social Securitybenefit.
So to make up what else isneeded comes from the Social
Security Trust Fund.
So if no changes are going tobe made, what's going to happen
is in 2033 or 2034, whateveryear it is, that trust fund will
be exhausted, which means theonly monies that are coming in
are through the FICA taxes,which will represent about 77
(27:05):
cents or so for each dollar thatis
Ryan Fleming (27:08):
owed.
So that could mean that SocialSecurity today might get
depleted a little bit.
Maybe you get a little bitless, but it's
Brian Minier (27:18):
not going to totally go away.
No, and I think for thegeneration that's getting ready
to collect their benefits now, Idon't think there's going to be
any changes.
That's my personal opinionfrom...
articles, things that I haveread, and people that I trust in
the industry, and justdifferent videos and things that
I've studied.
What are the potential changesthat you
Ryan Fleming (27:36):
think that could happen?
Brian Minier (27:37):
I think there'll be a delay in benefits.
There could be a tax change.
There could be an impact incost of living adjustments.
And
Ed Beemiller (27:44):
we're already seeing the delay in benefits
here over the last decade.
And it's
Ryan Fleming (27:48):
happened before, and it'll happen again.
It's happened in pension plans,like state teachers.
You have to work five
Ed Beemiller (27:53):
extra years.
Additional years to qualify forthat same benefit.
Ryan Fleming (27:56):
And then you get less overall percentage of your
top five versus your top threeright yeah
Brian Minier (28:01):
so and there's just those all those variables
that people just don't considerand that is an area that we we
help people with we help themfocus on
Ryan Fleming (28:09):
absolutely absolutely well another major
area that is is very prime umit's it's definitely a very
relevant topic is this idea oftaxes going up in the future you
know the old should you paytaxes on the seed or the harvest
and we're gonna we're gonnareally really dive into this in
(28:29):
some later episodes.
But another thing that we focuson at Keystone is this idea of
tax-free planning withdrawals atthe end.
You know, is there a way toorganize your affairs to where
you are at or as close to a 0%withdrawal rate in retirement?
Yeah.
Okay.
Are
Brian Minier (28:47):
taxes going to go down anytime soon?
I mean, I would bet my left armnot.
Wow.
What do you think, Ed?
Are taxes going down in thefuture?
Ed Beemiller (28:57):
Well, I think it's a topic of discussion we have
with every single client that wemeet with.
Now, I think the temperamentand attitude has changed a
little bit, obviously, with theRepublicans and Mr.
Trump controlling the House,who's always favored a little
more positive taxation,especially for that upper middle
and wealthy class.
(29:17):
Yeah.
The reality of it is everysingle person we listen to or
hear ourselves at some pointwith a $37 trillion in growing
deficit, there's two ways tocure that deficit.
You either decrease spending orincrease income.
Well, income is taxes.
So, yeah, the probability,whether it happens in the next
(29:41):
several years or five, tenyears, you know, Taxes are going
to have to go up.
Ryan Fleming (29:47):
There's a good chance that Trump extends the
Trump tax cuts.
There was a really positivemomentum with that.
Now it's been a little bit of apause, but there's still a lot
of...
Experts out there, they'resaying there's a good chance
that's going to get extended.
And it's not just the debt,right?
But if they do get extended,that's going to add about
another almost $5 trillion toour national debt.
(30:08):
Our national debt is going togrow at $2 trillion per year for
the next decade, not includingthe potential Trump tax
extensions.
But it's not just the debt.
It's also the interest on thedebt.
It's also Medicare, Medicaid,and Social Security.
Ed Beemiller (30:25):
Have interest rates gone up or down here in
the last couple of years?
So what does that mean for thedebt?
Ryan Fleming (30:31):
We have $200 trillion unfunded obligations
between Social Security,Medicare, and Medicaid.
So your statement aboutbringing in more revenue, the
tax train's coming.
So one of the things we focuson are what are strategies, what
are places that we can park ourclients' money so that at the
end, if you're pulling money outof Roth IRAs, Roth 401ks, I
(30:55):
mean, Shucks, if theseextensions happen Roth
conversions are justunprecedented.
Life insurance, retirementplans, all of these vehicles
have tax-free implications atthe end.
And if you've got four, five,six different streams of income
that don't show up on the IRS'sradar, then, you know, zero
(31:15):
times, if taxes double, zerotimes two is still zero.
So again, we will get into someof these.
There's six or seven tax-freestrategies out there to help
people.
I think it's the right messageat the right time in history.
But we do focus quite a lot onthat.
And a lot of people are veryanxious to learn about this
because they want to pay theirfair share, but they don't
(31:37):
really fully understand the
Brian Minier (31:38):
scope of what's coming down the line.
Well, and we talk to people,here's why we're in the
situation that we're in.
People get a job they invest ina 401k because you get a match,
right?
So they're like, great, I'mgoing to invest, I'm going to
get a match.
Well, with so many people thatwe work with, the only option
that they had at the time was apre-tax 401k.
And when we were all incollege, what were we taught?
(32:00):
You will eventually retire, youwill have all your debt paid,
and you will be in a lower taxbracket, which means you're
going to pay lower taxes.
Without any conversation of,hey, those tax brackets may
change, By the time that youretire.
Ed Beemiller (32:15):
And you're going to spend 50% of your
pre-retirement spending inretirement.
Which we know is not true.
I
Brian Minier (32:22):
always ask this question at my classes.
I put this bullet point up andsay, you're going to be at 80%
to 100% of your pre-retirementincome in retirement.
And people are like, kind oflook at me.
And then some get it.
And I'm like, because what doyou have in retirement that you
don't have while you're working?
You've got a little bit of timeon your hands, right?
Yeah, exactly.
That's right.
What does that time usuallyequate to?
Ryan Fleming (32:40):
Yeah.
Ed Beemiller (32:40):
Travel, visiting, taking vacations, visiting
family.
That's
Ryan Fleming (32:45):
right.
Somebody told me this story onetime to kind of get the point
across.
They were saying, okay, let'ssay you needed $10,000 and I was
willing to lend it to you.
And I'm going to cut you acheck for $10,000.
And I always ask the client,what would be two questions
you'd ask me when I give youthis check?
And they always say, well, howmuch interest are you going to
(33:07):
charge me?
And how long do I have to payyou back?
And I would say, those arefantastic questions.
Thank you for asking.
I like you.
You're my friend.
I don't need the money rightnow.
And I probably will need themoney in about 15 to 20 years.
And at that time, what I'll dois I'll sit down at my table in
15, 20 years, and then I'll justfigure out how much interest I
want to charge you.
Would you like to cash mycheck?
(33:29):
And they laugh, and they'relike...
Heck no, right?
No.
And I'm saying, well...
I know we're laughing, but thatis the exact relationship.
That's the exact partnershipthat you're in when you put your
money into a pre-tax retirementplan like a 401k.
The government's not sayingthat you, you know, they're just
letting you postpone it, right?
You're in a big partnershipwith Uncle Sam, and they're
(33:50):
like, well, I don't like that,right?
And so that opens up a littlebit of a conversation.
Ed Beemiller (33:53):
Once again, any financial planner and what we
work on is trying to mitigate oreliminate risk, right?
And, you know, one of the othervery significant risks that we
try to address with each of ourclients, especially as they're
getting closer to, you know,mid-age and beyond, and Brian, I
(34:16):
know you talk a lot about this,so what is that risk there as
you get close to retirement?
What happens to people whenthey get old?
Brian Minier (34:27):
Maybe running out of money?
Is that what you're getting at?
Ed Beemiller (34:29):
Well, running out of money, that's the longevity
risk.
Oh, you're talking
Brian Minier (34:33):
about health.
Ed Beemiller (34:34):
Yeah, what happens if the health diminishes?
Brian Minier (34:37):
Maybe potential long-term care.
Ed Beemiller (34:38):
Yep, yep.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat.
This is an
Brian Minier (34:41):
area where it's unexpected, and I would bet $99
out of 100 people, maybe that'spretty close to that.
Do not plan for long-term carebecause it's not something that
you want to think about.
And then you hear people saythings like, well, if I'm not in
a right state of mind, justroll me out into the woods
(35:02):
somewhere and let me walk off acliff.
And leave me.
That's never going to happen.
And so the thing aboutlong-term care is, of course,
there's different strategies anddifferent products that we can
offer and help.
But the number one thing that Iwould say is you just have to
have a plan.
(35:22):
What would happen to you?
What would happen to your lovedones, your spouse, your kids?
if you had to go into afacility because you couldn't
take care of yourself?
What would that mean for youfinancially?
And what would that mean foreven the level of care and who
would deliver that care
Ryan Fleming (35:41):
to you?
100%.
I mean, I think the statisticsare there's a 70% chance one of
the existing living spouses isgoing to experience a long-term
care event.
I had this happen recently withmy grandmother who, she passed
away recently, but was in anassisted living, then a little
bit more care needed after that.
It's an insidious risk that canhave devastating impacts on
(36:03):
people's estates and lifelongsavings habits.
And this amazing lifestyle thatthe spouse thought that they
were going to live, their spousegets sick, they drain their
account, and they're left withthis subsistence of living.
And it's a real thing.
It's not fun to talk about.
But again, relative to thisidea of what do we focus on at
Keystone, we talk about thisquite a
Brian Minier (36:23):
lot.
Ryan Fleming (36:24):
Yeah.
You've
Brian Minier (36:24):
got to have a plan for it.
And not only do you have tohave a plan for it, you need to
understand what theramifications are.
Yeah.
If you spend on your assets, ifyou have Medicaid that comes in
and helps you with that, whatdoes that mean depending on what
state you live in?
What can they do with yourhouse and put a lien on it?
There's just things that youneed to be aware
Ed Beemiller (36:43):
of.
Most people, once they hit 65,well, I have Medicare.
Well, guess what?
Medicare does not cover what?
Long-term care.
Long-term care.
Yeah.
I have a personal experiencewith my mother-in-law being in
independent living and thengoing into assisted care.
And full assisted care can costanywhere from $9,000, $10,000 a
(37:07):
month.
Ryan Fleming (37:08):
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Ed Beemiller (37:09):
And most of that is private pay.
So effectively what the planfor most people is, self-insure.
Brian Minier (37:16):
That's right.
Ed Beemiller (37:16):
But this is a whole other podcast, honestly,
when we're dealing with thelong-term care.
But once again, it just kind ofgoes back to what do we focus
Brian Minier (37:26):
on?
Yeah.
Ed Beemiller (37:26):
you know, what types of things does our company
focus in working with ourindividual clients?
And it's important that we,going back, ask the appropriate
questions of, well, how are theyplanning for this?
Or what is their plan?
Yeah.
Brian Minier (37:41):
I have a client that I've been working with, a
married couple, been workingwith them for a number of years
now.
And we talked about long-termcare.
Well, guess what?
We didn't provide or sell anylong-term care products, but
they have a plan for it.
And that plan, I think, is agood plan.
And And it doesn't mean we haveto implement, here's your
long-term care coverage, butthey have a plan.
(38:02):
They know what they're going todo.
And I think that's what we takea lot of pride in is creating
those personalized services anddoing that at different phases
of each person's life.
Agreed.
So anything you want to add tothis discussion as we get ready
to wrap this up?
Ed Beemiller (38:19):
No, I think, you know, we really just try to
touch upon each of the...
areas that every individualwill face and how we try to
spend time understanding andlistening and then developing a
full holistic plan to help them.
Ryan Fleming (38:33):
Yeah, I would say tune back in for more
information about individualstrategies and things that we
talked about.
But if you guys are likingthis, please share this
information with your lovedones, your coworkers.
We want to not only educateyou, but we want to educate
people that we don't even knowyet.
So we appreciate you guys.
Appreciate you all tuning in.
(38:54):
And look forward to talking toyou guys on the next episode.
Great words, guys.
Thank you, everybody.
We'll see you next time.
Brian Minier (39:01):
Take care.
Announcer (39:03):
Take care.
Bye-bye.
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