November 24, 2025 • 50 mins
Jennifer Killilea, Financial Advisor with Johnson Brunetti, discusses her focus on the unique needs of women.
Jen has 20+ years specializing in retirement planning. She is dedicated to delivering personalized and comprehensive advice to clients. She takes pride in understanding each individual’s unique needs and creating customized retirement plans to achieve their goals.
Jen presents at the firm’s Women-only Workshops where she creates a space specifically for women’s financial education.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
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Jen has 20+ years specializing in retirement planning. She is dedicated to delivering personalized and comprehensive advice to clients. She takes pride in understanding each individual’s unique needs and creating customized retirement plans to achieve their goals.
Jen presents at the firm’s Women-only Workshops where she creates a space specifically for women’s financial education.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Winning Business Radio Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/winning-business-radio--3075598/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements radio show programs, services, or
products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability
explicitor implies shall be extended to W four cy Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:20):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies
to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and
now your host, Kevin helen N.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I'm Kevin Hallanan
and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on
W four cy dot com. And of course we're streaming
live on Talk for TV. That's the number four tv
dot com. And we're streaming live on Facebook and that's
at Winning Business Radio. And of course we're available in
podcast form after the live show on any platform where
(01:15):
you get your podcast content, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, and
the list goes on the mission of winning business radio
and TV. As regular viewers and listeners know, is to
offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes
of others, right to learn best practices. Those are the
how tos, the what to's, the what not tos, and
(01:38):
well hold on a second, and to get advice and
to get encouragement from others. But you know, as you
hear me say every week, virtually every successful person that
I've ever talked to has had some form of failure
in their lives and careers. So I always say, we
all have to get our knee skin once in a while.
(02:00):
I driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery.
Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it.
I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses
to grow from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies
all the way up to the fortune fifty. I've seen
some of those companies win and thrive and to varyingnguries.
I've seen some fail as well, and I've had the
(02:20):
opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing
people around and with some people who probably should have
found other proficient professions. Wow, challenging to speak today, Jen.
In my own businesses, I've had lots of success, but
some failures too. I like to think I've learned a
lot from those experiences. So yeah, you're going to hear
a little for me, but mostly you're going to hear
from guests. Today's guest is an expert. She's a financial consultant.
(02:43):
Her name is Jennifer Kilia of Johnson Brunetti and she
has a focus on the unique needs of women with
regard to their finance. Here is her bio. Jennifer Killia
is a financial advisor with more than twenty years in
the industry, specializing in retire planning. Jen is dedicated to
deliver to delivering personalized and comprehensive financial advice to clients.
(03:07):
Holding the Series sixty five license, She takes pride in
understanding each individual's unique needs and creating customized retirement plans
to help them achieve their goals. Jen presents at the
firm's women only workshops, where she creates a space specifically
for women's financial education. She holds a bachelor's degree from
Andsel College in Manchester, New Hampshire, sharing her husband, Frank,
(03:29):
reside in North Andover, mass and her parents to three daughters,
and they enjoy family ski trips together. She's an active
board member of one hundred Women who Care Boston North
as well as life goes on after TBI, Jen, Welcome
to Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Thanks for having me, Kevin, appreciate the opportunity to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, it's all my pleasure. I know how busy you are,
so let's jump right in. Tell us about Frank and
your three daughters, and then I'll ask you about skiing.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Yeah. Well, Frank and I have been married thirty years.
We just celebrated our thirty year wedding anniversary. I have
three daughters. My oldest is twenty seven and she's a
medical school third year, trying to decide what she wants
to focus on in rotation. My middle daughter, twenty five,
(04:16):
is just moved back from Chicago, so she's been on
home for a while. But it's really difficult for these
kids to want independently. We had the hard conversation and
she made the decision to come home and save her
money and try to buy something. So we'll see how
that works out for her. And my youngest just graduated
from USF out in California and moved to New York
(04:39):
City and so she's just starting her career month two actual.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
See, Yeah, so where do you like to ski?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Well, partial to sugar Bush just because we go there,
but we've had the opportunity to ski quite a bit
all over New England. At one part of my career,
I represented the largest owner of ski resorts. So at
one point in my career we were doing the equity
raiser at work for an investment company that raised equity
(05:10):
for our ski resort. So it was super fun when
the kids were younger to get to visit those fees
and work with investors, et cetera. So that was that
was sort of a fun point. But sugar Bush Sunday
River is another favorite, and Luna Course is super close.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
So yeah, that's where I go most of the time.
Is lun screwed up there a couple hours from me.
I'm in Rosindale, so uh another half hour from you.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, they've done a great opened up that whole second
half of the mountain and so it's pretty impressive and
that industry has evolved over time as well to you know,
they really figured out how to make it profitable.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And I love the Quad eighty just moves people along.
It's awesome. I understand you grew up in Westwood. I
grew up in Midfield. As a matter of fact, so
were the listeners and viewers who aren't familiar with Massachusetts.
Tell us about west Wood and what it was like
to grow up there.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Well, Westwood it continues to be, i'd say, a very
desirable suburb, and the real estate values have continued to
do terrific. It's not far from Boston, maybe a half hour,
as you know, from Medfield getting on did you say
Millister Medfield, Midfield, Medfield, Yeah, right off one O nine.
(06:27):
It's just a tough commute on that side road. Once
you get to the highway, you're all set. But Grant
community about thirty I would say, about thirty thousand people
or so. I went to public education, in public high school.
Have five I went to five kids, and yeah, great memories.
And some of my best friends who I actually just
saw this weekend are from the road. I grew up
(06:47):
on strong, strong friendships.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, so we like to get kind of a flavor
of somebody's background, So did both your parents work?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
What did they do if they did?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah? So in my background, I talk about it in
my women's workshops. Is my mother file for divorce when
I was in second grade?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
She had five kids in six and a half years.
And my father was nine years older than my mother,
and he was an acoustic engineer with Raytheon, so he
was further along in his career. And as most divorces go,
at least back then, it was stretched out. And it
just worked out that my mom was married over ten years,
(07:29):
which is a big deal as you start to think
about social Security and spousal benefits. But she was an
only child younger obviously, and I didn't even really appreciate
what it was like to raise five kids till I
had three of my own, perfectly spaced out twenty twenty
eight months apart, not plan, I guess, but if they were,
(07:50):
and I think to myself, Wow, five kids six and
a half years, that's a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I mean, I have four and they're spaced out almost
twenty four months apart. So it's I've a thirty five,
thirty three, thirty one in twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Okay, yeah, so big difference, right, Yeah, so that's good.
Congratulations on That is fun, It's super fun.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I can share the struggles of you know, getting out.
We have wanted that went into the Marine Corps is
now Boston firefighter, figured out that was the way to go.
One that went to well as on as way to
his bachelor's, got an associates in business and decided he
didn't want to be in an office and got a
certificate a year in HVAC schools. Doing a really great
(08:36):
married with I mean I especially he's one of my
favorites because he gave me two grandkids so far. No,
they they know that's not true, but it's it's fun
to say. And then our twenty nine, thirty one year
old lives in Tennessee, just moves from Florida with her
husband and they're they're doing fine, probably looking to start
a family soon.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
And the twenty nine year old is still here.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Oh, you know, great job at BC, but you know
she wants to she's saving, you know, for something better too,
so recognizing that she needs that financial support. All right,
So Saint Ansel st Ansel great school. Why did you
choose that school? And to major? What was your major?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Well, Saint Anselom is a liberal arts school. So I
went in there initially with the intention that I thought, well, gee,
maybe it'd be interesting to have a criminal justice degree.
I just was leaning more towards law criminal justice. After
one semester, I felt depressed. I was like, there's no
(09:39):
answer here. I'm a person where the glasses half full,
and it was tough stuff. I felt overwhelmed, and I'm like, wow,
I don't think I'm cut out. I mean, I look
back and my interviewed to that school. It's just the
funniest thing because I said I wanted to be a
prison warden. And the reason for that was in high school,
(09:59):
we went and visited Walpole Prison and that was one
of our high school trips. And at the time, we
met a really nice guy that came and talked to
the kids, and he talked about how he was reformed,
but yet he's in here for his entire life. He
seemed like really great guy that deserved a second chance,
and here, you know, being super naive. And then we
(10:20):
get back on the bus and the teacher says, who's
going to let him out? Who thinks he served his
time and deserves a second chance, And of course hands
goes up. Well, it turns out that he had this
horrible violent crime, just horrible. He killed this woman. And
it was once you hear the crime, you're like, I
can't judge that. And so initially I was leaning toward
(10:41):
that because I was that was just such an interesting experience.
So the philter in high school, those it kind of
shapes a young mind on what you think you might
want to do, and it's just exposure. But then I
realized after one semester, I'm like, peace out. He can't
do it. It's too hard, you know it just I
just felt like overwhelmed by that. I knew that wasn't
this fot for me. So liberal arts school, liberal arts major.
(11:04):
I ended up having a concentration in business. I always
was really good with math. I did well. When I
had success with statistics, I said, I guess I could
focus on this. So that's how I ended up sort
of in business as to fault, But that wasn't my
you asked the question that was I did.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, Well, there's always a different journey. Everybody has a
different type of journey. Right now, as it turns out,
you went right into financial services, you're on the wholesale side.
So tell the audiences, both the viewers and listening audiences,
what it is to be on the financial excuse me
on the wholesale side.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Yeah. So, initially from college one of those college fairs,
I was recruited to John Hancock, So I did retail.
When we talk about wholesale and retail, i'll break it down.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So I had a couple of years with retail John
Hancock talking about retirement planning. They have lots of great products.
You work for a company, and it's not a surprise
if I sat down and talked about retirement planning with
you that it might include a John Hancock product, whether
it be long term care insurance, whether it be life insurance.
They have mutual funds, great local Boston company, and over
(12:12):
time that was great. You know, my personal network is
where they have you start, and as a recent college graduate,
that's quite difficult to go to your friends' parents and
start talking about planning and retirement planning there.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And so remember me, missus, whatever I'm going, I got
in trouble with your daughter, remember.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
So you know so so, but it was a really
nice introduction to that industry, and what I realized is
I liked working with older people and I that industry.
When you work for an insurance company, they give you leads.
They call them orphans, people that no longer have an advisor.
There was a lot of nighttime work and you drive
in the middle of nowhere, and I was working right
(12:55):
in New Hampshire. Has recruited off the campus. When I
worked out of the Manchester office and I was driving
all over Manchester into trailer parks, I'm like, who are
these people like? These leads? And I realized I'd rather
focus on daytime work. Number one and number two they
had a really great long term care product. So I
(13:15):
just worked that demographic and enjoyed it and it was
fun and I really felt like I was helping people
because it was in need. It was the generation their
parents at the time who I was speaking with. The
family would take care of them. That's pretty common. A
couple of generations have had of us. It was typically
family would take care of family. That was my mother's situation.
(13:37):
She got divorced and my grandmother had a rhumatory arthritis,
and back in those days the drugs weren't as strong,
so she was crippled in a wheelchair. My mom goes
off to work and Nana's in charge, and she took
care of her mom. And my mom wanted a lot
of kids so someone would be there to take care
of her, and so I was drawn to this long
(13:59):
term care. So I'm like, I got to break the pattern. Here.
There's this great product that you can get and you
don't have to rely on your kids. So I just
gravitated to that and I enjoyed it and so over time,
so it was doing that, and then I got an
opportunity to work in the wholesale. When I decided insurance
(14:22):
was okay, and where is another opportunity? I ended up,
through connections and so forth, getting an opportunity to interview
for a position for an investment company, which was quite different.
It was out of Boston. It was called the American
Finance Group. And what they did is they raised money
(14:42):
through private investments to buy airplanes. They had all sorts
of equipment, large equipment, and I thought that was interesting.
It was the first position you would be hired at
is what they call an internal position, and then you
work with somebody that goes around extern only to raise
the money. So that's when we talk wholesaling. That's that's
(15:04):
that's what it is. So you're raising equity. You're still
within the financial services industry, but they're private placements for
the most parts. So it was private placements is the
way we raised mine. And for me, it was interesting
how that came about because the interview process is you
started with the president of the company and they were
pretty well established and at the time, you know, I'm
(15:25):
in my mid twenties and he says, no, don't get
offence to this. I ask every single person the same question.
I had no idea what he was going to say.
He said, let's pretend you're going on a fly fishing
trip and you work at the store. So you're the
person that works at the store. I'm coming in because
I'm I'm on vacation, I'm fly fishing, and we're going
(15:45):
to have a conversation. Okay, go, And it was like
a role play. I knew nothing about fly I didn't
even know what fly fishing was. I was like, what
is fly fishing? I didn't understand it. So we role played,
and that was the interview and he stood up and
he said, you're hired, and I'm thinking to myself, I
am like, I was really surprised, but because you ask
(16:05):
a lot of questions, because I didn't know what it was,
So I just asked lots of questions to understand fly fishing.
How often it's just you know, how you would normally
have a conversation. And anyway, that was the start of
my career. As silly as that question was.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's good. He gauged your listening and communicating skills right.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
And that's what it was. The breaks in life come
at really interesting points. So to answer your question, what's
the difference between resale and.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Well, do me a favor. Hold that question. We're going
to take our first commercial. We'll come back and just
about one minute, everybody will be back with Jen Kilole
of Johnson Brunetti in one minute.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Okay, you're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenett
on W four CY Radio. That's W four C. Why
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Speaker 2 (17:35):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helene.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Welcome back with Jen Kilola, Financial advisor with Johnson Brunetti
okay o versus now Wholesale.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yeah, wholesale role is working with very established financial advisors
in working with their high net worth clients. And I
would represent an investment company and I would work with
the financial advisor mainly education, helping them understand how this
would potentially fit in their client's portfolio of this particular
(18:22):
type of investment, and maybe sitting down and working with
the financial advisor getting them up to speed and understanding
typical questions how the investment worked, because sometimes there's some
nuance that's a little bit different with k ones in
tax consequences, etc. So that's the wholesale side of the business.
(18:43):
Retail is what I do. Right now, retail is working
directly with the clients. So I've always been in the
financial services industry working with financial advisors or being a
financial advisor working with retirees. What're you doing?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
One last question about American find and that side. What
was a key lesson you learned during that time?
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Well, read the perspectus. I read the perspectives. I am
the type of person that knows everything and I but
most people don't read perspectuses. But I think it's important
to understand what you're buying. And we had some fantastic,
fantastic full cycle opportunities. But I would say for me personally,
(19:28):
the lesson is I was always the only woman in
that industry, which just kind of worked out to be
how it worked out for me. And so for me personally,
I would say, really understand the character of the people
you worked with. And I was super fortunate to work
with great people and that was really key. I think
it's relationships at the end of the day matter.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
That's really good.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
All right, then a couple others TCC securities want to
tell us just a minute about that.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah, this is text tainer, That's what it stood for.
So if you're ever on the high way and you
see those big boxes on the back of cars. They
has tex in the corner. They're container shipping, so they'll
go back with a container ship to a truck to
a railroad car. And before the industry went to institutional
(20:17):
money like pension funds, we would raise money. As that company,
tex Stainer, based out of San Francisco, is getting started,
they raised money through private placements. And so here I
am about to do a luncheon in New York City
with a client, and I get a phone call and
then come back to Boston, you know, because that's where
I lived, and you don't need to go do that lunch,
(20:37):
and I'm like, we're all set. And what they ended
up it was really a great opportunity for the company
because they because it's a little bit cheaper financing to
go direct through you just can have access to bigger
dollars quicker. But they didn't need their retail arm of
the business, which was so I was unemployed right at
that point. You know, I don't have a job anymore.
(20:58):
The entire syndicate arm was.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
But the most important part was you missed launch. You
didn't have a job and lunch.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, I know. But but the good news was for
the investors it worked out fabulous. It just was a
good opportunity and it just was a sustainable business. And
as you know, because I've seen the kind of content
you have on the show, when you get when you're
starting off, there's lots of different ways you can go
to get equity to raise money, and that just happened
(21:26):
to be one one arm. It's a difficult arm to
get to get launched in. But if you can get
successful in that arm of raising equity to get to
the business model where okay, other people are taking notice,
you scale it to a point where it's successful. You
have continuity, you have track records, so you know. So
that position ended. The two positions I did both ended
(21:50):
in the same fashion, with it with it getting launched
to institutional money versus retail. So at that point I said, okay,
time to go to retail. And so that's how I
decided to go. I initially went back to Putnam. So
I went to Putnam and got some great experience on
(22:11):
mutual funds and then made the transition to an advisor.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So a lot of people in New England would know
the name Putnam because they advertised a lot or they're
a big, big sponsor slash advertiser with the Patriots, so
you know, you see their name at the stadium. So
tell us about that company and your role there. Well
a little bit about the company, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Mutual Funds, and again it was back in a wholesale
capacity talking with advisors. So it's still wholesale, but the
product was different. Wasn't like Putnam was going to say, hey,
we're going institutional. It's different. So it gave me the
expertise and experience to really understand the retail side of
the business. So here we go wholesale retail.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
It really is an advisor.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
You would bring in a wholesale product if you felt
it benefited your client.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
You can learn about it because because as financial advisors
you have you're constantly polishing your craft, you're learning, you're
trying to educate yourself not only on the product, but
on the business. And that's that was my role.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Oh you're also you're also a fiduciary, So tell people
what that means.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Yeah. So at Johnson BRENETI I love, love love this
role here because I can focus on what I'm really
good at. I don't have. My role is not managing
the money piece here. We have excellent resources that do that.
I work one on one with either pre retirees or retirees.
(23:41):
So you ask what a fiduciary is, It's just our
licensing holds us to a higher industry standard where we
must give advice in clients' best interests. That's what the
licensing requires. It's a whole separate conversation. I think the
whole industry should be fiduciaries. But it doesn't mean if
you work with a fiduciary you're not getting good advice.
It just means you should know that because there's excellent
(24:04):
people out there that might not be fiduciaries. That doesn't
mean they're not doing a good job for you. But
we just happen to be fraduciaries here at Johnson Brenetti,
and we we're specialists. All we do is talk to
people leading up to retirement or in retirement.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
All right, you mentioned licensure. You have the series sixty three,
so tell us what that is.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Sixty five sixty excuse me.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, that just allows us to give advice, that's what
that is. It's a little yeah, So it's not a
transactional commission type roles. You know you paid for advice. Yeah,
so as we sit down with people were agnostic to
whatever the recommendations.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
That's what I want to get as.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, there's no incentive one way or another based on
our recommendations. We're making recommendations in our clients.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Festive, there you go, perfect, perfect now.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Johnson Brenetti is a regional firm from what from Atlanta
to Boston to Hampshire.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Boss.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
We have an office in a we're also Connecticut and Massachusetts, correct,
and for I'm located in Massachusetts, so we toggle between
we're need them is our hub here for bass but
we're also in Wouburn, Franklin, Norwell, so we kind of
do metro Boston and we're looking at Danvers as our
(25:19):
next location for twenty six and it's important because of
the demographic of our client. We're not putting them on
what twenty eight or the mass Pike, so they don't
have to get on highways to find us, so we'll
come to them in those locations, which is somewhat unique.
Of course, we do zoom. We're licensed in fifty states.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
But yeah, yeah, that was a question too good. You've
decided to focus on women's needs. Tell us what got
you there, and then kind of flush out what some
of those specific unique needs are.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Yeah, well, as it relates to women, I just gravitated
there because we decided to do a workshop and see
if there's an interest, and the amount of interest was
a bit overwhelming. And there's no sort of stereotype of
the typical person that would show up in this workshop.
It's what's surprising, and I shouldn't be so surprised, but
(26:17):
it about it. We have very high level executives that
just like the opportunity to sit with women. We have
people thinking about divorced or people that have been divorced
and have done a much better job, as I was
joking about my mom starting out after her divorce. But
it tends to be a safe space and people. I've
(26:40):
never seen anything like it before, where people change phone numbers,
become friends. Women just like the support of other women,
And it's just organically. I noticed there's a need for it.
They like the idea of working with women, and so
I just tapped into that and I enjoy it.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
What drew you to Johnson Brunetti.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Again, we talk about relationships, so I've known this firm
for a very long time, and I had they called
me when they opened up the Wubern office, so you know,
I've known the people here and it is the continuity
and I take that philosophy to what I do here
with clients, because at the end of the day, you
(27:24):
could go anywhere for advice. And I think what makes
the Johnson Bernetti model unique is it is a relationship
business and it's also a team approach. Everything we do
is team driven. So we have CPA specialists, we have
accounting well I should say accounting CPA, our CFOs, CPA,
(27:46):
medicare planning expertise, so collective group. Yes, there's over eighty
people at the firm, so we're a large type firm.
But we do an excellent job and we keep things simple.
No one has ever said, Jennifer, can you please make
this more complicated? You don't ask for that. So we
(28:08):
try to take complex topics and make it understandable to
some degree, and we talk about a balanced approach to
retirement planning. The number one mistake we see is people
think the strategy that got them there is the same
strategy that's going to get them into retirement. And if
(28:30):
they're willing to consider something different, because we don't believe
everybody's money should be in the market, and the market's
been super generous. There's no other group of folks that
have had a better launch to retirement than the people
that are starting to enter retirement. Now. We've had back
to back decades of fantastic returns in the market, a
(28:52):
couple of down years, certainly some volatility, but it's been terrific.
And that's the message. It's hard to, you know, get
people to think about things differently, and when you say it,
people understand it, and and they get it. They get nervous,
They come in nervous.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So I saw a quote in your press kit. I'll
give you one question. We'll go to the second break,
and then I wait to answer that. Then we'll go
to the second break. Okay, I saw a quote in
your press kit. I got to kick out of it.
Said women will inherit the earth and all its assets.
And I think it speaks to longevity.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Correct, Correct, women live longer than men and they and
they tend to be more disciplined as investors as well. Interesting, Yeah, yeah,
so just statistically they live longer and women tend to
be the caregivers, and their assets tend to be less
comparatively because they take time out of their careers to
(29:53):
maybe have child care or maybe there's a health issue
with a parent, so they have more responsibilities that they
try to toggle the balance of work life and for
different reasons, and they were let's start with the basics,
they earn less. You know, today it's eighty six cents
(30:14):
on the dollar, but back in the nineteen nineties it
was sixty cents on the dollars, so it's not even
equal from a pay I think this generation of younger
why generation, they're starting to see much more equality as
it relates to pay. But for those reasons less, you know,
less to begin with, and career interruptions get them off
(30:38):
the track. You know, we talk about the mommy track
career wise, where in your kids cafeteria, people are with
their MBAs, are volunteering, and that's reality, and it's it's
hard to get back on the career track. So for
those different reasons, they need more money, yet they have less.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
All right, we're going to come back to that. We'll
be back in one more minute with Jenkillery. Best in
wealth management is family owned for two generations. They take
pride in thoughtful financial planning and wealth management with a
family feel for your closely held family business. Best in
Wealth Management focuses on deep planning, integrating your business planning
(31:21):
with personal They will help put your money to work
and your mind at ease. Go to Best Inwealthmanagement dot
com for more information.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Advisory services offered through.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Commonwealth Financial Network a registered investment advisor. Join the best
in Family and let our family advise your family. That's
Best Inwealthmanagement dot com for your complementary initial consultation.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
All right, is it also true?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I think I saw something that women have a completely
different investment profile than men do.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Talk about that.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Well, in terms of a different profile. If I was
going to paint with a wide brush, they tend to
be a little bit more conservative. They tend to be
a little bit more but also more disciplined. And so
what I mean by that is if they were managing
the money themselves before we met them, they tend to
(32:19):
stay the course and not be as reactive to the market.
And again this is with a broad brush, but they're
not looking for excess returns above the market. They just
want to keep pace with inflation, and that would probably
be the biggest observation, not everybody, but just in general.
(32:44):
So you really have to it's important to listen. I
can't emphasize that enough. Our role is not to have
them take more risks they're not comfortable with that. It's
to really listen to what their goals are and come
up with a plan to let them know if they're
going to meet their goals, and if they're not, then
you have a little bit harder a conversation. How what
(33:06):
do we need to do? Do we revamp the goal?
Do you take more risk understanding what that means? But
a balanced approach where all your money is not in
the market works. Some of your money's in income driven
whether it's dividend producing stocks, some of your money's in safety.
Our def definition of safety is you can't lose money.
It's pretty good definition, and that just gives you the
(33:29):
breathing space to invest long term inequities which will perform
over time and keep pace with inflation. So it's not
a one or not. You know, if we need folks
that never want anything to do with equities again and
they have more than enough saved, and it's not our
role to put them into into equities. We want our
(33:50):
clients to sleep. But it's understanding because most people don't
understand what inflation does over time to what their savings
look like.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
You do a number of workshops again, particularly for women.
Can you talk about maybe some of the titles.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Well, tariffs seem to be a big conversation lately. Well,
people are worried. The election was a big, big.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Area like what's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
At the end of the day. Regardless of what our
topic is, it all boils down to am I going
to be okay? Because at the end of the day
they can listen to the news and know what's going on.
And the news is been to scare people, you know,
to get adspace and and they do a good job
with that. And so whatever the title is, and that's
(34:42):
what the title, because they're concerned about that. But we
try to educate folks if they just have a balanced
approach to their retirement planning and have a plan, not
got my plan isn't I'm going to retire next year.
My plan is written down and in a good plan
is reviewed at a minimum a couple of times a year.
(35:06):
Are we on track? What does that look like has
anything come up because the plan, a financial plan always
has room for improvement because oh we've needed a new roof,
Well that's going to adjust things a little bit. Any
big money coming out, but that's factored in that we
build that into the plan. We have healthcare expenses built
into the plan, whether or not insurance is going to
(35:27):
be the answer to that, just because the cost of insurance,
like I talked about that long term care policy, those
aren't out there anymore, and so most of our clients
self ensure that risk, but they need a plan to
make that happen. It's not necessary insurance.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
What are some of the building blocks or rudiments of
a good plan? And I know we're not giving financial advice.
These are general statements, right, but you know what should
people be thinking about?
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Well, as we start to meet folks, we take a
look at what they have, and for some people they forget,
meaning it might be an old four to oh one case.
The first step is really consolidate and simplify. Just identify
what you have because just because you have eight different
(36:12):
accounts all over the place, they might all be doing
the same thing. So that's not diversification. Just because you
have different custodians. So initially we talk about consolidating and
simplifying and really understand and the other key component is
understanding how much you need. And that's different for everybody.
And I have girlfriends that come up to me all
(36:33):
the time and say, Chen, how much money do I
need to retire? And my next question to them always
is how much do you spend? And those two questions
go hand in hand because for us to build a
good plan, it starts with a budget, knowing how much
you're spending.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Yeah, what lifestyle do you want? Right?
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Yeah, and we'll assume initially it's going to be the
same lifestyle you have. That's always our starting point. The
idea of retiring isn't to go on a budget ideally, right,
And we start with what you're spending, and we put
inflation on that over time, and we take a look
at what your income looks like. Of course, social Security
is a piece of it. Maybe you're lucky enough to
(37:16):
have a pension, but whatever that gap is between what
you're getting for income, we look to your portfolio, We
look to your investments and how are we going to
how are we going to fill that gap? And we
do that through a tax lens, because I talked about
the number. Probably the biggest mistake people make, as I
talked about earlier, is too much risk thinking that they're
(37:39):
all in the market as they because they just can't
withhold withstand a big dip. Because when you're pulling from
these accounts that are down in value because you need
to because you're no longer working, you know, that's the
worst thing to do. So we like a balanced approach.
But after we get past all that, it becomes a
tax strategy. There's nobody that doesn't want to save money
in taxes, and we see very common mistakes where people
(38:01):
start to pull from wrong accounts and in knowing the
goal of the money is huge, which the.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Goli meaning some of those are going to be taxable
and some of them were already for yeah, and.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Most people like to spend from their taxable accounts till
they don't have anything left and they just you know,
just close their eyes on what they have over here
in this tax deferred world, which is fine, but at
some point was that the best was that the best
plan for you? Usually if somebody retires at age sixty
five and they don't have to take their required minimum
(38:34):
distribution until seventy five or maybe seventy three or seventy five,
depending on when they were born. There's a window of
planning that can be done that may work really lovely
for them, and they might want to convert some of
that money in their tax deferred world like their iras
or four oh one case over to their WROTH accounts,
(38:55):
and that's that's the window to do it before they're
forced to take money out of those accounts.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Are you still seeing sixty fives at younger? Is it
older in terms of retirement age?
Speaker 4 (39:05):
It's funny you asked that. I have clients that love, love,
love what they do, and they're forced to take their
r and ds and they're still contributing to their plans.
And so is that the majority of people? Maybe not,
maybe that's just our demographic, but certainly a good amount
(39:26):
enjoy working or maybe work part time. What I see
more now is people giving up the stressful jobs and
trying to build that gap until seven when they they're
fully retired. That's what I see more. Whatever that gap is,
they might not need to earn the six figure job anymore,
but they can't afford to retire either. So we talk
(39:49):
about well, what do you enjoy doing and you know,
can you make a living fill that gap in your
income till you get there?
Speaker 5 (40:01):
That's common, that's good. I like that if we had a.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
Review climb on a call here. Yes, yeah, And he's
wanting to figure out what he wants to do. He's like,
they just got new software. I don't want to learn
the software. Uh. He he does mortgage underwriting, and he's like,
(40:27):
and they have good income, they have good savings, but
he's just bored. He wants something different. And he's handy.
He's like, my dream was always working at home. He
doesn't need benefits. Most people struggle because they need health insurance.
But his wife has great benefits. She retired from the
state and so it works for them. But he's still
(40:47):
trying to figure that. And it's it's a fun convation
because this next chapter is different for everybody.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
All Right, is there a typical and this is kind
of an unfair question, but I'll ask it anyway.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
Is there a typical client? It like, what does what
does a typical? Again? And maybe unfair for this tell me.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Well, we try to do a really good job of
weeding out the clients that would not be a good
fit for us. So that's the beauty of what I
do is we can decide who's a good fit for
our model, and if we're if we're sitting down talking
to somebody that wants to talk about cryptocurrency and having
you know, returns much greater and beating the market, we're
(41:33):
going to say, hey, we're not the right fit for you,
because we look for clients that are looking for a
reasonable that are looking if most people that we meet
with their goal, because they're good savers, is to keep
what they have and have some growth. They don't want
to lose what they have because they know they are
not going to be contributing anymore, and they tend to
(41:54):
be good savers and they're not greedy. So we all
and for us here at Johnson Brenetti of People's Life Savings,
that's a huge responsibility. So we're not taking that added
risk to beat the market. And where we shine, although
we don't see it that often is when the market
drops because they don't drop as far. And that's really
where the beauty. It doesn't matter when the market drops
(42:17):
and you're working, because it's called dolo cost averaging. You're
putting money in on those low points. But when you're
no longer working and the market drops, you're not adding
money to those accounts, so you don't want to drop
as far. And I think that's where we shine is
sort of a balanced approach, and we have the flexibility
of still giving them income from other buckets. And we
(42:38):
gave the equities alone.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
All right, So there's tax planning. What about enough state plan.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
Huge, huge, huge part. I'm not an attorney. I always
say I'm not an attorney, but we start off with
the conversation of how important it is, and we joke
because we say, all right, who you know. People think
just because they have a will, they're all set in
their house will go to their kids, and it will,
but there's a probate. You still go through probate, and
(43:06):
it is public information. Some people are super private. Just
simple trust planning helps with that. It protects. In Massachusetts,
everybody has a two million dollar exemption. And so that
just means simply when you add up all your savings,
all your investable assets, in addition to everything you own,
(43:27):
including your real estate. With how fortunate everybody's been with
real estate, it's not that hard to get over that
two million dollar hurdle. Everything above that is taxed, and
if it's a married couple, it can go to each other.
But without proper planning on the front end, what dies
with that first spouse? Is there two million dollar exemption?
(43:48):
I know Connecticut has different rules, much more generous to
where the federal limit is at around fourteen thousand or so,
but it'll over fourteen. But for mass ju says we're
the third worst state to die in according to Forbes magazine.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
So get to New Hampshire.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
Yeah, yeah, so, but you know what, the other key
point is here we have strongest school systems, which helps
our real estate, and we also have one of the
strongest states for.
Speaker 5 (44:19):
Medical Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
So there's reasons why people love and people want to
live with their within their communities and their families where
that is very few. People might talk a big game
about moving out of state, but at the end of
the day, if they can afford to be here, they
want to be here.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah, it's family for sure, that's what That's what another
show for another time. I was going to get into
a rabbit hole, but yeah, I look, I just looked
at the clock. I know that giving back is an
important part of the Johnson Bernetti culture, and it seems
that you've done some of that too. What's your pitch
to people that should be doing more, not even financially,
(44:57):
but talk us, talk about what Johnson Bernetti does, what
you do well.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
I think Johnson Brenetti doesn't make this part of their
client story, but we just so. Joel Johnson, who's our founder,
his parents were missionaries and it's just built into his
culture to give back. And he has said to us
number one, we talk to everybody that wants a conversation
(45:23):
because regardless of what you have for assets, he says
to all the advisors, we can give advice to help anybody.
So it's worth it to have a conversation with us
to see if we can add value to anybody's situation.
But as it relates to five oh one, C three's
and different organizations, all employees once a quarter will take
(45:46):
an afternoon and go volunteer and there's different charities. Yeah,
and the one Wish Project is one that we've adopted
here at Johnson Brenetti. I actually brought it to the firm.
It was in It's kind of a cool story. They
help celebrate birthdays in shelters and all the leads come
(46:09):
from social workers. So as a representative of volunteering for that,
you would bake a cake if you're a baker. That's
how I got involved. My daughter was into baking, so
I found that, Oh, here's something cool, and you deliver
birthday presents. Oftentimes you do it behind the scene and
you drop it off at a shelter, or if the
(46:31):
mom's still in the picture or the parents, you give
it to the parents and let them celebrate the birthday
with the toys for the kids. And it's just so beautiful.
We take that for granted, we do it with our
own family, but it's just a really nice, nice way
to get back and our clients are getting more involved
with it too.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
I love it all right.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Last question, who in the viewing and listening audiences should
reach out to you and why?
Speaker 5 (46:55):
And we've got your how right.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
People have seen the craws here if they're listening on radio,
we'll give a shout out to that information too, But
who should reach out and why?
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Yeah, I think it's important as you start thinking about retirement.
Within ten years of retirement, that's about the window we
want to start talking with you. Because there's things you
can do on the front end you don't. You can call.
We certainly get a lot of people that say I'm
retiring next week or I just retired. But the more
(47:30):
planning you can get in advance, the better off you are.
Even within your four to roh one case, as long
as you're fifty nine and a half, you can take
the bulk of your assets and move it into an
IRA to start getting some good planning advice around that.
So I'd say within ten years at a minimum, or
you know that's the long window. Five to ten years
(47:51):
is the window leading up to retirement or if you're
in retirement. That's the demographic of the folks we help.
You've got maybe one or two times you're making these decisions.
Why not consult with an expert that helps with pension
decisions or tax planning and have a conversation with us
and get a sense of how we tackle that. So
(48:12):
what we provide everybody a money map, which we're known
for our one page plan, and we provide an income
plan for anyone that we speak with, and if you
decide to hire us, great, we'll help you implement that plan.
But how do you decide when you don't don't understand
our approach. So we actually take a look at what
folks are doing, ask them all the right questions and
(48:36):
put an income plan together. And that's really a tool
for us as advisors just to make sure they do
have enough. But that that that's a really good opportunity
I think, to get to sit down for an hour
or so to talk to the or somebody on the
team here good good usage.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
So the website is Johnson Brunetti which is Johnson b
R U N E T t I dot com. They
can text the word retire to eight hundred seven five
seven zero four three six. Jen, thank you so much
for being here. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
Thanks Kevin, appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (49:10):
You bet, and thanks everybody for watching and listening. As
you know, this is a show about business and business challenges. Often,
if you've got concerns, perhaps about well your finances, retault
to Jen. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness
of your company effectiveness, whether your sales team is you
or small or large, feel free to reach out to
me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio, or
(49:33):
drop me a note kevinat Winning Businessradio dot com. We
are Winning Incorporated, part of Sandler Training. We develop sales
teams into high achievers and sales leaders into truoe coaches
and mentors.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
We're not right for everybody, but maybe we should have
a conversation if you've got some of those challenges.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
Thank you again to one.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
Every week I say thank you one for producer and
engineer for another job well done. Be sure to join
us again next Monday, December first, we'll do it all
over again. Until then, this is Kevin Haleanan.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
You have been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,
Kevin Helenan. If you missed any part of this episode,
the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at four pm
Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on
(50:28):
W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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(00:20):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies
to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and
now your host, Kevin helen N.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I'm Kevin Hallanan
and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on
W four cy dot com. And of course we're streaming
live on Talk for TV. That's the number four tv
dot com. And we're streaming live on Facebook and that's
at Winning Business Radio. And of course we're available in
podcast form after the live show on any platform where
(01:15):
you get your podcast content, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, and
the list goes on the mission of winning business radio
and TV. As regular viewers and listeners know, is to
offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes
of others, right to learn best practices. Those are the
how tos, the what to's, the what not tos, and
(01:38):
well hold on a second, and to get advice and
to get encouragement from others. But you know, as you
hear me say every week, virtually every successful person that
I've ever talked to has had some form of failure
in their lives and careers. So I always say, we
all have to get our knee skin once in a while.
(02:00):
I driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery.
Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it.
I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses
to grow from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies
all the way up to the fortune fifty. I've seen
some of those companies win and thrive and to varyingnguries.
I've seen some fail as well, and I've had the
(02:20):
opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing
people around and with some people who probably should have
found other proficient professions. Wow, challenging to speak today, Jen.
In my own businesses, I've had lots of success, but
some failures too. I like to think I've learned a
lot from those experiences. So yeah, you're going to hear
a little for me, but mostly you're going to hear
from guests. Today's guest is an expert. She's a financial consultant.
(02:43):
Her name is Jennifer Kilia of Johnson Brunetti and she
has a focus on the unique needs of women with
regard to their finance. Here is her bio. Jennifer Killia
is a financial advisor with more than twenty years in
the industry, specializing in retire planning. Jen is dedicated to
deliver to delivering personalized and comprehensive financial advice to clients.
(03:07):
Holding the Series sixty five license, She takes pride in
understanding each individual's unique needs and creating customized retirement plans
to help them achieve their goals. Jen presents at the
firm's women only workshops, where she creates a space specifically
for women's financial education. She holds a bachelor's degree from
Andsel College in Manchester, New Hampshire, sharing her husband, Frank,
(03:29):
reside in North Andover, mass and her parents to three daughters,
and they enjoy family ski trips together. She's an active
board member of one hundred Women who Care Boston North
as well as life goes on after TBI, Jen, Welcome
to Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Thanks for having me, Kevin, appreciate the opportunity to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, it's all my pleasure. I know how busy you are,
so let's jump right in. Tell us about Frank and
your three daughters, and then I'll ask you about skiing.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Yeah. Well, Frank and I have been married thirty years.
We just celebrated our thirty year wedding anniversary. I have
three daughters. My oldest is twenty seven and she's a
medical school third year, trying to decide what she wants
to focus on in rotation. My middle daughter, twenty five,
(04:16):
is just moved back from Chicago, so she's been on
home for a while. But it's really difficult for these
kids to want independently. We had the hard conversation and
she made the decision to come home and save her
money and try to buy something. So we'll see how
that works out for her. And my youngest just graduated
from USF out in California and moved to New York
(04:39):
City and so she's just starting her career month two actual.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
See, Yeah, so where do you like to ski?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Well, partial to sugar Bush just because we go there,
but we've had the opportunity to ski quite a bit
all over New England. At one part of my career,
I represented the largest owner of ski resorts. So at
one point in my career we were doing the equity
raiser at work for an investment company that raised equity
(05:10):
for our ski resort. So it was super fun when
the kids were younger to get to visit those fees
and work with investors, et cetera. So that was that
was sort of a fun point. But sugar Bush Sunday
River is another favorite, and Luna Course is super close.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
So yeah, that's where I go most of the time.
Is lun screwed up there a couple hours from me.
I'm in Rosindale, so uh another half hour from you.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, they've done a great opened up that whole second
half of the mountain and so it's pretty impressive and
that industry has evolved over time as well to you know,
they really figured out how to make it profitable.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And I love the Quad eighty just moves people along.
It's awesome. I understand you grew up in Westwood. I
grew up in Midfield. As a matter of fact, so
were the listeners and viewers who aren't familiar with Massachusetts.
Tell us about west Wood and what it was like
to grow up there.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Well, Westwood it continues to be, i'd say, a very
desirable suburb, and the real estate values have continued to
do terrific. It's not far from Boston, maybe a half hour,
as you know, from Medfield getting on did you say
Millister Medfield, Midfield, Medfield, Yeah, right off one O nine.
(06:27):
It's just a tough commute on that side road. Once
you get to the highway, you're all set. But Grant
community about thirty I would say, about thirty thousand people
or so. I went to public education, in public high school.
Have five I went to five kids, and yeah, great memories.
And some of my best friends who I actually just
saw this weekend are from the road. I grew up
(06:47):
on strong, strong friendships.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, so we like to get kind of a flavor
of somebody's background, So did both your parents work?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
What did they do if they did?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah? So in my background, I talk about it in
my women's workshops. Is my mother file for divorce when
I was in second grade?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
She had five kids in six and a half years.
And my father was nine years older than my mother,
and he was an acoustic engineer with Raytheon, so he
was further along in his career. And as most divorces go,
at least back then, it was stretched out. And it
just worked out that my mom was married over ten years,
(07:29):
which is a big deal as you start to think
about social Security and spousal benefits. But she was an
only child younger obviously, and I didn't even really appreciate
what it was like to raise five kids till I
had three of my own, perfectly spaced out twenty twenty
eight months apart, not plan, I guess, but if they were,
(07:50):
and I think to myself, Wow, five kids six and
a half years, that's a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I mean, I have four and they're spaced out almost
twenty four months apart. So it's I've a thirty five,
thirty three, thirty one in twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Okay, yeah, so big difference, right, Yeah, so that's good.
Congratulations on That is fun, It's super fun.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I can share the struggles of you know, getting out.
We have wanted that went into the Marine Corps is
now Boston firefighter, figured out that was the way to go.
One that went to well as on as way to
his bachelor's, got an associates in business and decided he
didn't want to be in an office and got a
certificate a year in HVAC schools. Doing a really great
(08:36):
married with I mean I especially he's one of my
favorites because he gave me two grandkids so far. No,
they they know that's not true, but it's it's fun
to say. And then our twenty nine, thirty one year
old lives in Tennessee, just moves from Florida with her
husband and they're they're doing fine, probably looking to start
a family soon.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
And the twenty nine year old is still here.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Oh, you know, great job at BC, but you know
she wants to she's saving, you know, for something better too,
so recognizing that she needs that financial support. All right,
So Saint Ansel st Ansel great school. Why did you
choose that school? And to major? What was your major?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Well, Saint Anselom is a liberal arts school. So I
went in there initially with the intention that I thought, well, gee,
maybe it'd be interesting to have a criminal justice degree.
I just was leaning more towards law criminal justice. After
one semester, I felt depressed. I was like, there's no
(09:39):
answer here. I'm a person where the glasses half full,
and it was tough stuff. I felt overwhelmed, and I'm like, wow,
I don't think I'm cut out. I mean, I look
back and my interviewed to that school. It's just the
funniest thing because I said I wanted to be a
prison warden. And the reason for that was in high school,
(09:59):
we went and visited Walpole Prison and that was one
of our high school trips. And at the time, we
met a really nice guy that came and talked to
the kids, and he talked about how he was reformed,
but yet he's in here for his entire life. He
seemed like really great guy that deserved a second chance,
and here, you know, being super naive. And then we
(10:20):
get back on the bus and the teacher says, who's
going to let him out? Who thinks he served his
time and deserves a second chance, And of course hands
goes up. Well, it turns out that he had this
horrible violent crime, just horrible. He killed this woman. And
it was once you hear the crime, you're like, I
can't judge that. And so initially I was leaning toward
(10:41):
that because I was that was just such an interesting experience.
So the philter in high school, those it kind of
shapes a young mind on what you think you might
want to do, and it's just exposure. But then I
realized after one semester, I'm like, peace out. He can't
do it. It's too hard, you know it just I
just felt like overwhelmed by that. I knew that wasn't
this fot for me. So liberal arts school, liberal arts major.
(11:04):
I ended up having a concentration in business. I always
was really good with math. I did well. When I
had success with statistics, I said, I guess I could
focus on this. So that's how I ended up sort
of in business as to fault, But that wasn't my
you asked the question that was I did.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, Well, there's always a different journey. Everybody has a
different type of journey. Right now, as it turns out,
you went right into financial services, you're on the wholesale side.
So tell the audiences, both the viewers and listening audiences,
what it is to be on the financial excuse me
on the wholesale side.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Yeah. So, initially from college one of those college fairs,
I was recruited to John Hancock, So I did retail.
When we talk about wholesale and retail, i'll break it down.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So I had a couple of years with retail John
Hancock talking about retirement planning. They have lots of great products.
You work for a company, and it's not a surprise
if I sat down and talked about retirement planning with
you that it might include a John Hancock product, whether
it be long term care insurance, whether it be life insurance.
They have mutual funds, great local Boston company, and over
(12:12):
time that was great. You know, my personal network is
where they have you start, and as a recent college graduate,
that's quite difficult to go to your friends' parents and
start talking about planning and retirement planning there.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And so remember me, missus, whatever I'm going, I got
in trouble with your daughter, remember.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
So you know so so, but it was a really
nice introduction to that industry, and what I realized is
I liked working with older people and I that industry.
When you work for an insurance company, they give you leads.
They call them orphans, people that no longer have an advisor.
There was a lot of nighttime work and you drive
in the middle of nowhere, and I was working right
(12:55):
in New Hampshire. Has recruited off the campus. When I
worked out of the Manchester office and I was driving
all over Manchester into trailer parks, I'm like, who are
these people like? These leads? And I realized I'd rather
focus on daytime work. Number one and number two they
had a really great long term care product. So I
(13:15):
just worked that demographic and enjoyed it and it was
fun and I really felt like I was helping people
because it was in need. It was the generation their
parents at the time who I was speaking with. The
family would take care of them. That's pretty common. A
couple of generations have had of us. It was typically
family would take care of family. That was my mother's situation.
(13:37):
She got divorced and my grandmother had a rhumatory arthritis,
and back in those days the drugs weren't as strong,
so she was crippled in a wheelchair. My mom goes
off to work and Nana's in charge, and she took
care of her mom. And my mom wanted a lot
of kids so someone would be there to take care
of her, and so I was drawn to this long
(13:59):
term care. So I'm like, I got to break the pattern. Here.
There's this great product that you can get and you
don't have to rely on your kids. So I just
gravitated to that and I enjoyed it and so over time,
so it was doing that, and then I got an
opportunity to work in the wholesale. When I decided insurance
(14:22):
was okay, and where is another opportunity? I ended up,
through connections and so forth, getting an opportunity to interview
for a position for an investment company, which was quite different.
It was out of Boston. It was called the American
Finance Group. And what they did is they raised money
(14:42):
through private investments to buy airplanes. They had all sorts
of equipment, large equipment, and I thought that was interesting.
It was the first position you would be hired at
is what they call an internal position, and then you
work with somebody that goes around extern only to raise
the money. So that's when we talk wholesaling. That's that's
(15:04):
that's what it is. So you're raising equity. You're still
within the financial services industry, but they're private placements for
the most parts. So it was private placements is the
way we raised mine. And for me, it was interesting
how that came about because the interview process is you
started with the president of the company and they were
pretty well established and at the time, you know, I'm
(15:25):
in my mid twenties and he says, no, don't get
offence to this. I ask every single person the same question.
I had no idea what he was going to say.
He said, let's pretend you're going on a fly fishing
trip and you work at the store. So you're the
person that works at the store. I'm coming in because
I'm I'm on vacation, I'm fly fishing, and we're going
(15:45):
to have a conversation. Okay, go, And it was like
a role play. I knew nothing about fly I didn't
even know what fly fishing was. I was like, what
is fly fishing? I didn't understand it. So we role played,
and that was the interview and he stood up and
he said, you're hired, and I'm thinking to myself, I
am like, I was really surprised, but because you ask
(16:05):
a lot of questions, because I didn't know what it was,
So I just asked lots of questions to understand fly fishing.
How often it's just you know, how you would normally
have a conversation. And anyway, that was the start of
my career. As silly as that question was.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's good. He gauged your listening and communicating skills right.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
And that's what it was. The breaks in life come
at really interesting points. So to answer your question, what's
the difference between resale and.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Well, do me a favor. Hold that question. We're going
to take our first commercial. We'll come back and just
about one minute, everybody will be back with Jen Kilole
of Johnson Brunetti in one minute.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Okay, you're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenett
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And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
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Speaker 3 (17:55):
Welcome back with Jen Kilola, Financial advisor with Johnson Brunetti
okay o versus now Wholesale.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yeah, wholesale role is working with very established financial advisors
in working with their high net worth clients. And I
would represent an investment company and I would work with
the financial advisor mainly education, helping them understand how this
would potentially fit in their client's portfolio of this particular
(18:22):
type of investment, and maybe sitting down and working with
the financial advisor getting them up to speed and understanding
typical questions how the investment worked, because sometimes there's some
nuance that's a little bit different with k ones in
tax consequences, etc. So that's the wholesale side of the business.
(18:43):
Retail is what I do. Right now, retail is working
directly with the clients. So I've always been in the
financial services industry working with financial advisors or being a
financial advisor working with retirees. What're you doing?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
One last question about American find and that side. What
was a key lesson you learned during that time?
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Well, read the perspectus. I read the perspectives. I am
the type of person that knows everything and I but
most people don't read perspectuses. But I think it's important
to understand what you're buying. And we had some fantastic,
fantastic full cycle opportunities. But I would say for me personally,
(19:28):
the lesson is I was always the only woman in
that industry, which just kind of worked out to be
how it worked out for me. And so for me personally,
I would say, really understand the character of the people
you worked with. And I was super fortunate to work
with great people and that was really key. I think
it's relationships at the end of the day matter.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
That's really good.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
All right, then a couple others TCC securities want to
tell us just a minute about that.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah, this is text tainer, That's what it stood for.
So if you're ever on the high way and you
see those big boxes on the back of cars. They
has tex in the corner. They're container shipping, so they'll
go back with a container ship to a truck to
a railroad car. And before the industry went to institutional
(20:17):
money like pension funds, we would raise money. As that company,
tex Stainer, based out of San Francisco, is getting started,
they raised money through private placements. And so here I
am about to do a luncheon in New York City
with a client, and I get a phone call and
then come back to Boston, you know, because that's where
I lived, and you don't need to go do that lunch,
(20:37):
and I'm like, we're all set. And what they ended
up it was really a great opportunity for the company
because they because it's a little bit cheaper financing to
go direct through you just can have access to bigger
dollars quicker. But they didn't need their retail arm of
the business, which was so I was unemployed right at
that point. You know, I don't have a job anymore.
(20:58):
The entire syndicate arm was.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
But the most important part was you missed launch. You
didn't have a job and lunch.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, I know. But but the good news was for
the investors it worked out fabulous. It just was a
good opportunity and it just was a sustainable business. And
as you know, because I've seen the kind of content
you have on the show, when you get when you're
starting off, there's lots of different ways you can go
to get equity to raise money, and that just happened
(21:26):
to be one one arm. It's a difficult arm to
get to get launched in. But if you can get
successful in that arm of raising equity to get to
the business model where okay, other people are taking notice,
you scale it to a point where it's successful. You
have continuity, you have track records, so you know. So
that position ended. The two positions I did both ended
(21:50):
in the same fashion, with it with it getting launched
to institutional money versus retail. So at that point I said, okay,
time to go to retail. And so that's how I
decided to go. I initially went back to Putnam. So
I went to Putnam and got some great experience on
(22:11):
mutual funds and then made the transition to an advisor.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
So a lot of people in New England would know
the name Putnam because they advertised a lot or they're
a big, big sponsor slash advertiser with the Patriots, so
you know, you see their name at the stadium. So
tell us about that company and your role there. Well
a little bit about the company, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Mutual Funds, and again it was back in a wholesale
capacity talking with advisors. So it's still wholesale, but the
product was different. Wasn't like Putnam was going to say, hey,
we're going institutional. It's different. So it gave me the
expertise and experience to really understand the retail side of
the business. So here we go wholesale retail.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
It really is an advisor.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
You would bring in a wholesale product if you felt
it benefited your client.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
You can learn about it because because as financial advisors
you have you're constantly polishing your craft, you're learning, you're
trying to educate yourself not only on the product, but
on the business. And that's that was my role.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Oh you're also you're also a fiduciary, So tell people
what that means.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Yeah. So at Johnson BRENETI I love, love love this
role here because I can focus on what I'm really
good at. I don't have. My role is not managing
the money piece here. We have excellent resources that do that.
I work one on one with either pre retirees or retirees.
(23:41):
So you ask what a fiduciary is, It's just our
licensing holds us to a higher industry standard where we
must give advice in clients' best interests. That's what the
licensing requires. It's a whole separate conversation. I think the
whole industry should be fiduciaries. But it doesn't mean if
you work with a fiduciary you're not getting good advice.
It just means you should know that because there's excellent
(24:04):
people out there that might not be fiduciaries. That doesn't
mean they're not doing a good job for you. But
we just happen to be fraduciaries here at Johnson Brenetti,
and we we're specialists. All we do is talk to
people leading up to retirement or in retirement.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
All right, you mentioned licensure. You have the series sixty three,
so tell us what that is.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Sixty five sixty excuse me.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, that just allows us to give advice, that's what
that is. It's a little yeah, So it's not a
transactional commission type roles. You know you paid for advice. Yeah,
so as we sit down with people were agnostic to
whatever the recommendations.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
That's what I want to get as.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, there's no incentive one way or another based on
our recommendations. We're making recommendations in our clients.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Festive, there you go, perfect, perfect now.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Johnson Brenetti is a regional firm from what from Atlanta
to Boston to Hampshire.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Boss.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
We have an office in a we're also Connecticut and Massachusetts, correct,
and for I'm located in Massachusetts, so we toggle between
we're need them is our hub here for bass but
we're also in Wouburn, Franklin, Norwell, so we kind of
do metro Boston and we're looking at Danvers as our
(25:19):
next location for twenty six and it's important because of
the demographic of our client. We're not putting them on
what twenty eight or the mass Pike, so they don't
have to get on highways to find us, so we'll
come to them in those locations, which is somewhat unique.
Of course, we do zoom. We're licensed in fifty states.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
But yeah, yeah, that was a question too good. You've
decided to focus on women's needs. Tell us what got
you there, and then kind of flush out what some
of those specific unique needs are.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Yeah, well, as it relates to women, I just gravitated
there because we decided to do a workshop and see
if there's an interest, and the amount of interest was
a bit overwhelming. And there's no sort of stereotype of
the typical person that would show up in this workshop.
It's what's surprising, and I shouldn't be so surprised, but
(26:17):
it about it. We have very high level executives that
just like the opportunity to sit with women. We have
people thinking about divorced or people that have been divorced
and have done a much better job, as I was
joking about my mom starting out after her divorce. But
it tends to be a safe space and people. I've
(26:40):
never seen anything like it before, where people change phone numbers,
become friends. Women just like the support of other women,
And it's just organically. I noticed there's a need for it.
They like the idea of working with women, and so
I just tapped into that and I enjoy it.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
What drew you to Johnson Brunetti.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Again, we talk about relationships, so I've known this firm
for a very long time, and I had they called
me when they opened up the Wubern office, so you know,
I've known the people here and it is the continuity
and I take that philosophy to what I do here
with clients, because at the end of the day, you
(27:24):
could go anywhere for advice. And I think what makes
the Johnson Bernetti model unique is it is a relationship
business and it's also a team approach. Everything we do
is team driven. So we have CPA specialists, we have
accounting well I should say accounting CPA, our CFOs, CPA,
(27:46):
medicare planning expertise, so collective group. Yes, there's over eighty
people at the firm, so we're a large type firm.
But we do an excellent job and we keep things simple.
No one has ever said, Jennifer, can you please make
this more complicated? You don't ask for that. So we
(28:08):
try to take complex topics and make it understandable to
some degree, and we talk about a balanced approach to
retirement planning. The number one mistake we see is people
think the strategy that got them there is the same
strategy that's going to get them into retirement. And if
(28:30):
they're willing to consider something different, because we don't believe
everybody's money should be in the market, and the market's
been super generous. There's no other group of folks that
have had a better launch to retirement than the people
that are starting to enter retirement. Now. We've had back
to back decades of fantastic returns in the market, a
(28:52):
couple of down years, certainly some volatility, but it's been terrific.
And that's the message. It's hard to, you know, get
people to think about things differently, and when you say it,
people understand it, and and they get it. They get nervous,
They come in nervous.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So I saw a quote in your press kit. I'll
give you one question. We'll go to the second break,
and then I wait to answer that. Then we'll go
to the second break. Okay, I saw a quote in
your press kit. I got to kick out of it.
Said women will inherit the earth and all its assets.
And I think it speaks to longevity.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Correct, Correct, women live longer than men and they and
they tend to be more disciplined as investors as well. Interesting, Yeah, yeah,
so just statistically they live longer and women tend to
be the caregivers, and their assets tend to be less
comparatively because they take time out of their careers to
(29:53):
maybe have child care or maybe there's a health issue
with a parent, so they have more responsibilities that they
try to toggle the balance of work life and for
different reasons, and they were let's start with the basics,
they earn less. You know, today it's eighty six cents
(30:14):
on the dollar, but back in the nineteen nineties it
was sixty cents on the dollars, so it's not even
equal from a pay I think this generation of younger
why generation, they're starting to see much more equality as
it relates to pay. But for those reasons less, you know,
less to begin with, and career interruptions get them off
(30:38):
the track. You know, we talk about the mommy track
career wise, where in your kids cafeteria, people are with
their MBAs, are volunteering, and that's reality, and it's it's
hard to get back on the career track. So for
those different reasons, they need more money, yet they have less.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
All right, we're going to come back to that. We'll
be back in one more minute with Jenkillery. Best in
wealth management is family owned for two generations. They take
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Wealth Management focuses on deep planning, integrating your business planning
(31:21):
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Speaker 5 (31:29):
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Speaker 5 (31:46):
All right, is it also true?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I think I saw something that women have a completely
different investment profile than men do.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Talk about that.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Well, in terms of a different profile. If I was
going to paint with a wide brush, they tend to
be a little bit more conservative. They tend to be
a little bit more but also more disciplined. And so
what I mean by that is if they were managing
the money themselves before we met them, they tend to
(32:19):
stay the course and not be as reactive to the market.
And again this is with a broad brush, but they're
not looking for excess returns above the market. They just
want to keep pace with inflation, and that would probably
be the biggest observation, not everybody, but just in general.
(32:44):
So you really have to it's important to listen. I
can't emphasize that enough. Our role is not to have
them take more risks they're not comfortable with that. It's
to really listen to what their goals are and come
up with a plan to let them know if they're
going to meet their goals, and if they're not, then
you have a little bit harder a conversation. How what
(33:06):
do we need to do? Do we revamp the goal?
Do you take more risk understanding what that means? But
a balanced approach where all your money is not in
the market works. Some of your money's in income driven
whether it's dividend producing stocks, some of your money's in safety.
Our def definition of safety is you can't lose money.
It's pretty good definition, and that just gives you the
(33:29):
breathing space to invest long term inequities which will perform
over time and keep pace with inflation. So it's not
a one or not. You know, if we need folks
that never want anything to do with equities again and
they have more than enough saved, and it's not our
role to put them into into equities. We want our
(33:50):
clients to sleep. But it's understanding because most people don't
understand what inflation does over time to what their savings
look like.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
You do a number of workshops again, particularly for women.
Can you talk about maybe some of the titles.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Well, tariffs seem to be a big conversation lately. Well,
people are worried. The election was a big, big.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Area like what's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
At the end of the day. Regardless of what our
topic is, it all boils down to am I going
to be okay? Because at the end of the day
they can listen to the news and know what's going on.
And the news is been to scare people, you know,
to get adspace and and they do a good job
with that. And so whatever the title is, and that's
(34:42):
what the title, because they're concerned about that. But we
try to educate folks if they just have a balanced
approach to their retirement planning and have a plan, not
got my plan isn't I'm going to retire next year.
My plan is written down and in a good plan
is reviewed at a minimum a couple of times a year.
(35:06):
Are we on track? What does that look like has
anything come up because the plan, a financial plan always
has room for improvement because oh we've needed a new roof,
Well that's going to adjust things a little bit. Any
big money coming out, but that's factored in that we
build that into the plan. We have healthcare expenses built
into the plan, whether or not insurance is going to
(35:27):
be the answer to that, just because the cost of insurance,
like I talked about that long term care policy, those
aren't out there anymore, and so most of our clients
self ensure that risk, but they need a plan to
make that happen. It's not necessary insurance.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
What are some of the building blocks or rudiments of
a good plan? And I know we're not giving financial advice.
These are general statements, right, but you know what should
people be thinking about?
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Well, as we start to meet folks, we take a
look at what they have, and for some people they forget,
meaning it might be an old four to oh one case.
The first step is really consolidate and simplify. Just identify
what you have because just because you have eight different
(36:12):
accounts all over the place, they might all be doing
the same thing. So that's not diversification. Just because you
have different custodians. So initially we talk about consolidating and
simplifying and really understand and the other key component is
understanding how much you need. And that's different for everybody.
And I have girlfriends that come up to me all
(36:33):
the time and say, Chen, how much money do I
need to retire? And my next question to them always
is how much do you spend? And those two questions
go hand in hand because for us to build a
good plan, it starts with a budget, knowing how much
you're spending.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Yeah, what lifestyle do you want? Right?
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Yeah, and we'll assume initially it's going to be the
same lifestyle you have. That's always our starting point. The
idea of retiring isn't to go on a budget ideally, right,
And we start with what you're spending, and we put
inflation on that over time, and we take a look
at what your income looks like. Of course, social Security
is a piece of it. Maybe you're lucky enough to
(37:16):
have a pension, but whatever that gap is between what
you're getting for income, we look to your portfolio, We
look to your investments and how are we going to
how are we going to fill that gap? And we
do that through a tax lens, because I talked about
the number. Probably the biggest mistake people make, as I
talked about earlier, is too much risk thinking that they're
(37:39):
all in the market as they because they just can't
withhold withstand a big dip. Because when you're pulling from
these accounts that are down in value because you need
to because you're no longer working, you know, that's the
worst thing to do. So we like a balanced approach.
But after we get past all that, it becomes a
tax strategy. There's nobody that doesn't want to save money
in taxes, and we see very common mistakes where people
(38:01):
start to pull from wrong accounts and in knowing the
goal of the money is huge, which the.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Goli meaning some of those are going to be taxable
and some of them were already for yeah, and.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Most people like to spend from their taxable accounts till
they don't have anything left and they just you know,
just close their eyes on what they have over here
in this tax deferred world, which is fine, but at
some point was that the best was that the best
plan for you? Usually if somebody retires at age sixty
five and they don't have to take their required minimum
(38:34):
distribution until seventy five or maybe seventy three or seventy five,
depending on when they were born. There's a window of
planning that can be done that may work really lovely
for them, and they might want to convert some of
that money in their tax deferred world like their iras
or four oh one case over to their WROTH accounts,
(38:55):
and that's that's the window to do it before they're
forced to take money out of those accounts.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Are you still seeing sixty fives at younger? Is it
older in terms of retirement age?
Speaker 4 (39:05):
It's funny you asked that. I have clients that love, love,
love what they do, and they're forced to take their
r and ds and they're still contributing to their plans.
And so is that the majority of people? Maybe not,
maybe that's just our demographic, but certainly a good amount
(39:26):
enjoy working or maybe work part time. What I see
more now is people giving up the stressful jobs and
trying to build that gap until seven when they they're
fully retired. That's what I see more. Whatever that gap is,
they might not need to earn the six figure job anymore,
but they can't afford to retire either. So we talk
(39:49):
about well, what do you enjoy doing and you know,
can you make a living fill that gap in your
income till you get there?
Speaker 5 (40:01):
That's common, that's good. I like that if we had a.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
Review climb on a call here. Yes, yeah, And he's
wanting to figure out what he wants to do. He's like,
they just got new software. I don't want to learn
the software. Uh. He he does mortgage underwriting, and he's like,
(40:27):
and they have good income, they have good savings, but
he's just bored. He wants something different. And he's handy.
He's like, my dream was always working at home. He
doesn't need benefits. Most people struggle because they need health insurance.
But his wife has great benefits. She retired from the
state and so it works for them. But he's still
(40:47):
trying to figure that. And it's it's a fun convation
because this next chapter is different for everybody.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
All Right, is there a typical and this is kind
of an unfair question, but I'll ask it anyway.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
Is there a typical client? It like, what does what
does a typical? Again? And maybe unfair for this tell me.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Well, we try to do a really good job of
weeding out the clients that would not be a good
fit for us. So that's the beauty of what I
do is we can decide who's a good fit for
our model, and if we're if we're sitting down talking
to somebody that wants to talk about cryptocurrency and having
you know, returns much greater and beating the market, we're
(41:33):
going to say, hey, we're not the right fit for you,
because we look for clients that are looking for a
reasonable that are looking if most people that we meet
with their goal, because they're good savers, is to keep
what they have and have some growth. They don't want
to lose what they have because they know they are
not going to be contributing anymore, and they tend to
(41:54):
be good savers and they're not greedy. So we all
and for us here at Johnson Brenetti of People's Life Savings,
that's a huge responsibility. So we're not taking that added
risk to beat the market. And where we shine, although
we don't see it that often is when the market
drops because they don't drop as far. And that's really
where the beauty. It doesn't matter when the market drops
(42:17):
and you're working, because it's called dolo cost averaging. You're
putting money in on those low points. But when you're
no longer working and the market drops, you're not adding
money to those accounts, so you don't want to drop
as far. And I think that's where we shine is
sort of a balanced approach, and we have the flexibility
of still giving them income from other buckets. And we
(42:38):
gave the equities alone.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
All right, So there's tax planning. What about enough state plan.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
Huge, huge, huge part. I'm not an attorney. I always
say I'm not an attorney, but we start off with
the conversation of how important it is, and we joke
because we say, all right, who you know. People think
just because they have a will, they're all set in
their house will go to their kids, and it will,
but there's a probate. You still go through probate, and
(43:06):
it is public information. Some people are super private. Just
simple trust planning helps with that. It protects. In Massachusetts,
everybody has a two million dollar exemption. And so that
just means simply when you add up all your savings,
all your investable assets, in addition to everything you own,
(43:27):
including your real estate. With how fortunate everybody's been with
real estate, it's not that hard to get over that
two million dollar hurdle. Everything above that is taxed, and
if it's a married couple, it can go to each other.
But without proper planning on the front end, what dies
with that first spouse? Is there two million dollar exemption?
(43:48):
I know Connecticut has different rules, much more generous to
where the federal limit is at around fourteen thousand or so,
but it'll over fourteen. But for mass ju says we're
the third worst state to die in according to Forbes magazine.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
So get to New Hampshire.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
Yeah, yeah, so, but you know what, the other key
point is here we have strongest school systems, which helps
our real estate, and we also have one of the
strongest states for.
Speaker 5 (44:19):
Medical Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
So there's reasons why people love and people want to
live with their within their communities and their families where
that is very few. People might talk a big game
about moving out of state, but at the end of
the day, if they can afford to be here, they
want to be here.
Speaker 5 (44:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah, it's family for sure, that's what That's what another
show for another time. I was going to get into
a rabbit hole, but yeah, I look, I just looked
at the clock. I know that giving back is an
important part of the Johnson Bernetti culture, and it seems
that you've done some of that too. What's your pitch
to people that should be doing more, not even financially,
(44:57):
but talk us, talk about what Johnson Bernetti does, what
you do well.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
I think Johnson Brenetti doesn't make this part of their
client story, but we just so. Joel Johnson, who's our founder,
his parents were missionaries and it's just built into his
culture to give back. And he has said to us
number one, we talk to everybody that wants a conversation
(45:23):
because regardless of what you have for assets, he says
to all the advisors, we can give advice to help anybody.
So it's worth it to have a conversation with us
to see if we can add value to anybody's situation.
But as it relates to five oh one, C three's
and different organizations, all employees once a quarter will take
(45:46):
an afternoon and go volunteer and there's different charities. Yeah,
and the one Wish Project is one that we've adopted
here at Johnson Brenetti. I actually brought it to the firm.
It was in It's kind of a cool story. They
help celebrate birthdays in shelters and all the leads come
(46:09):
from social workers. So as a representative of volunteering for that,
you would bake a cake if you're a baker. That's
how I got involved. My daughter was into baking, so
I found that, Oh, here's something cool, and you deliver
birthday presents. Oftentimes you do it behind the scene and
you drop it off at a shelter, or if the
(46:31):
mom's still in the picture or the parents, you give
it to the parents and let them celebrate the birthday
with the toys for the kids. And it's just so beautiful.
We take that for granted, we do it with our
own family, but it's just a really nice, nice way
to get back and our clients are getting more involved
with it too.
Speaker 5 (46:48):
I love it all right.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Last question, who in the viewing and listening audiences should
reach out to you and why?
Speaker 5 (46:55):
And we've got your how right.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
People have seen the craws here if they're listening on radio,
we'll give a shout out to that information too, But
who should reach out and why?
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Yeah, I think it's important as you start thinking about retirement.
Within ten years of retirement, that's about the window we
want to start talking with you. Because there's things you
can do on the front end you don't. You can call.
We certainly get a lot of people that say I'm
retiring next week or I just retired. But the more
(47:30):
planning you can get in advance, the better off you are.
Even within your four to roh one case, as long
as you're fifty nine and a half, you can take
the bulk of your assets and move it into an
IRA to start getting some good planning advice around that.
So I'd say within ten years at a minimum, or
you know that's the long window. Five to ten years
(47:51):
is the window leading up to retirement or if you're
in retirement. That's the demographic of the folks we help.
You've got maybe one or two times you're making these decisions.
Why not consult with an expert that helps with pension
decisions or tax planning and have a conversation with us
and get a sense of how we tackle that. So
(48:12):
what we provide everybody a money map, which we're known
for our one page plan, and we provide an income
plan for anyone that we speak with, and if you
decide to hire us, great, we'll help you implement that plan.
But how do you decide when you don't don't understand
our approach. So we actually take a look at what
folks are doing, ask them all the right questions and
(48:36):
put an income plan together. And that's really a tool
for us as advisors just to make sure they do
have enough. But that that that's a really good opportunity
I think, to get to sit down for an hour
or so to talk to the or somebody on the
team here good good usage.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
So the website is Johnson Brunetti which is Johnson b
R U N E T t I dot com. They
can text the word retire to eight hundred seven five
seven zero four three six. Jen, thank you so much
for being here. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
Thanks Kevin, appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (49:10):
You bet, and thanks everybody for watching and listening. As
you know, this is a show about business and business challenges. Often,
if you've got concerns, perhaps about well your finances, retault
to Jen. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness
of your company effectiveness, whether your sales team is you
or small or large, feel free to reach out to
me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio, or
(49:33):
drop me a note kevinat Winning Businessradio dot com. We
are Winning Incorporated, part of Sandler Training. We develop sales
teams into high achievers and sales leaders into truoe coaches
and mentors.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
We're not right for everybody, but maybe we should have
a conversation if you've got some of those challenges.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
Thank you again to one.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
Every week I say thank you one for producer and
engineer for another job well done. Be sure to join
us again next Monday, December first, we'll do it all
over again. Until then, this is Kevin Haleanan.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
You have been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,
Kevin Helenan. If you missed any part of this episode,
the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at four pm
Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on
(50:28):
W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio
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