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March 30, 2022 16 mins

Colton Cockerell is a financial advisor based in Friendswood, Texas, who has been in the industry for 15 years. Colton works with Next Financial Group, Inc. 

His passion is working with people and assisting them in reaching their financial goals through fiduciary, prudent investment advisory services and strategies. Since joining the Sharer McKinley team, his role as an investment advisor is focused on the design and implementation of retirement plans for his trusted clients. 

He also works closely with younger families advising on the importance of saving for college through tax-advantaged investments.

Your hosts: Colton Cockerell & Trisha Stetzel
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Colton Cockerell
Trisha Stetzel

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Colton Cockerell (00:04):
Hello and welcome to a another exciting
episode of Bridge the Gap wherewe're balancing life through
health, wealth, business andrelationships.
Alright, hello everyone. My nameis Colton, and welcome to
another episode of Bridge theGap where I am here as always
with my co host, Miss TrishaStetzal Trisha, how are you

(00:26):
doing this lovely day?

Trisha Stetzel (00:28):
Hey Colton. I'm Good. Hey, to all of our amazing
listeners. As you mightremember, we are really focused
on financial wellness for themonth of March, and we have a
special guest today, so calledand I am really looking forward
to chatting with you today aboutan area that you happen to be an

(00:51):
expert in. And I think we'regonna have a little bit of fun.

Colton Cockerell (00:54):
Yeah, eight years, nine years now. So it's
been a while. But before I startjumping into questions, I gotta
give a shout out to our sponsortoday. Share McKinley group, I
am ready to be interrogated.
Bring

Trisha Stetzel (01:05):
it Okay, I hope you are because I've got some
really hard questions for you.
Why don't we open with this?
What is what's the marketoutlook right now? Talk to us.

Colton Cockerell (01:14):
Oh, yeah. So it's, that's actually a really
good question right now. So it'sbeginning of March, march 2,
right now I'm recording this Iwant to make sure I do is
timestamp. It's veryinteresting. There's so many
things that are going on and alot of noise. Some of it
actually was some of it wassilence day, which was nice.
Ukraine is a huge thing going onpeople are so they just don't

(01:36):
know what to expect. Wheneverthere's like just uncertainty in
the world markets, they just goout of control. Right, we saw,
you know, a dip 10-12%. The DowThe Dow is actually it's kind of
come back the past three days.
But that aside, the other bigthing was talking about interest
rates. So Powell actually cameout today. And he said that they
aren't he actually gave anumber, which, you know, you

(01:57):
don't really hear, he said thatinterest rates are actually
going to rise by only a quarterof a percent in March, people
are expecting a whole lothigher. So what that did is that
took some pressure off the stockmarket, because what happens
whenever interest rates go upsignificantly, people are gonna
start taking money out of thestock market, because they find
safer places such as bonds, CDs,things like that, where they

(02:17):
have a you know, it's a saferinvestment. Not as volatile as
stocks are so so yeah, a lot ofa lot of good news on that
front. As far as Russia andUkraine goes, Man, I don't think
anybody think Vladimer Putinknows, like, what's going to
happen next. So we're stillgoing to have a lot of
fluctuation. Again, you know, mythoughts and prayers definitely
go out to the Ukrainians, andeven the Russians, I feel

(02:38):
horrible about the wholesituation. So that's kind of
where we're at. Now, we'll sayif everything in Ukraine and
Russia kind of gets undercontrol, and once the midterms
hit, you know, I think we mightsee some stability. Some
economists are still thinkingthere might be more of a sell
off in the stock market.
However, and I'm not making apolitical statement here. You

(03:01):
know, it looks like, again, froma lot of polls, that Republicans
are going to take both the Houseand the Senate. Right, I'm not
not saying it's a good thing.
That's thing, it's a bad thing.
But what that does is thatbrings some stability. And what
I mean by that is there's reallynothing that Biden can do when
you have the Republican Houseand Senate, so really have a
lame duck presidency. Andreally, there's really, there's

(03:23):
nothing crazy that's going tohappen in America. Now. Granted,
there can be stuff happeningoutside so the market likes when
things are somewhat predictable.
They like that because themarket can then do its thing
people can invest confidently soyou know, we'll see what happens
but in the short term until youknow really till January till
actually the the electorate's gointo office, I You just don't
know what's what's crazy, andpeople are telling you two

(03:48):
different things. So it's like,you don't know who to believe
and who not to believe so. Butyeah, but the positive side is
interest rates look like they'regoing to slowly go up is going
to be a big spike. So that isone one. Good, positive.

Trisha Stetzel (04:01):
Yeah, that's excellent. Well, and you know,
all of that said, and even whenwe get to the the back end of
our discussion today, you know,really thinking about having
somebody like you in yourcorner, because you're looking
at it constantly, right? And theindividual who's got the money
invested, really needs somebodylooking out for their best

(04:22):
interests. So I'd like to diveinto the definition of fiduciary
because you talk about that alot. And before I met you, I had
no idea. I know, y'all don'tmake fun of me. But I didn't
even know there was such athing. Right? So let's talk
about that and why you shouldseek out someone who carries
that tag, if you will, alongsideof them.

Colton Cockerell (04:47):
So I have a designation Certified Financial
fiduciary. And this actuallyties really well into the
previous question you justasked. So with everything going
on with the markets being theway that they are, you know,
it's not just me it's not justthe other advisors in the
office, we have an economist wehave, you know, we have a team
looking at the market, right? Wework with companies, and we have

(05:10):
people that we hire to make surethat we're, you know, doing
what's best for the client. It'simportant to so being a
fiduciary, basically what thatis, that means that I have to
have my clients best interestsin mind at all times. And I got
to make sure that my interestsare second to that, right. So
the best example I like to give,you know, if there's an advisor

(05:31):
showing two different mutualfunds, right, hey, here's mutual
fund a mutual fund and be youknow, they, if they're not
acting as a fiduciary, then theyreally just have to make sure
they're doing what's suitablefor you. And what that means is,
I gotta take it to a risktolerance, figure out what your
time horizon is, based on thatboth of these mutual funds, hey,
they're suitable for you, I can,I can tell you whichever one to

(05:52):
choose. However, as fiduciary,on top of that, I also have to
tell you how I get paid in eachone, you know, which one I think
is going to be in their bestinterest and why that is, you
know, still give them an option.
But really break everythingdown. I got to let them know how
I get paid, how I'm compensatedall of that stuff. So working
with the fiduciary, you're goingto know everything up front,
because there's a legalobligation. I mean, with my
designation, you know, we'vealways kind of done this even

(06:15):
before I had the designation,but I mean, you you are liable
to have I mean, how do you go tocourt and say, Hey, how's this
in their best interest? Youknow, like, that's the very hard
thing to fight. And that's whywe got it, you know, we always
always bet our clients, but alsoat the same time making sure
that we're doing what's best bywhat we think is best for the
client. Yeah,

Trisha Stetzel (06:35):
absolutely. All right. So I bet there's quite a
few people out there that wonderhow does someone who's in your
industry get compensated? How doyou get paid.

Colton Cockerell (06:46):
So a lot of a lot of the way that the market
is going right now, the way thatpeople are wanting to invest
called fee based business andfee based planning, there's just
basically a fee, right, you paya fee for assets under
management. So let's say that,you know, someone comes in with
$500,000, they could charge oneand a half percent. Now the cool
thing with fee based planning inbusiness and investing in why I

(07:07):
like it, and why most advisorsshould do it is because
literally, you're on the sameside of the table with with your
client, because the way that Imake more money is for my
clients to make more money.
That's the way the fee basedrelationship works. So it really
makes sense, because it's a winwin, when you're sitting right
next to the client. And theythey understand that the other

(07:27):
way that a lot of eyes get paidis what's called a commission
base where they just push aproduct they push, they push a
mutual fund and annuities,something like that, and they
get paid a commission, you know,that's in commissions, up to
five 5.75%. And again, at theend of the day, like when you're
pushing commission products,you're always question in the
back of your head was thatreally was that really best for
me, especially if you push acommission product, you have an

(07:50):
advisor who five years down theroad, you're not getting the
service, you were at thebeginning, because they already
got paid off of what you'redoing. So like they're probably
not necessarily going to betaken care of you like, again, a
fee based relationship with so Ithink fee base is the way to go.

Trisha Stetzel (08:05):
Would you suggest that an individual when
they're seeking out someone towork with they interview?

Colton Cockerell (08:14):
Oh, I think that's, that's, that's
absolutely important. And that'snot that's not too uncommon. And
that granted, if you if you geta referral, usually they're just
gonna go off for you based onyou know, what the refer said
about you. But it definitely isimportant. And some questions
you do need to ask an advisor.
First, you need to understandtheir philosophy, how do they
invest? And why do they invest,need to understand how long
they've been in business,there's a great tool out there

(08:35):
called broker check, it's put onby FINRA, who's a regulator of
financial advisors past present,I guess, not future because
that's not really possible. Butwith broker check, you type you
type in the advisors name, andit'll show you how long they've
been in business, all theircertifications, what states
their license in, mostimportantly, it'll show you
disclosures and what that is, isany really negative things about

(08:56):
them, whether it's a complaint,whether it's a bankruptcy,
anything like that. Sodefinitely start there when
you're kind of starting theprocess of who should I work
with and go that that route,because that really will give
you kind of a head start andunderstand who these people are
before you sit down in front ofthem. When you're sitting down?
How do you get paid? And what'syour investment philosophy? And,
you know, is that's just I'm aguy of systems. Trisha says, you

(09:21):
know, so really, what is thesystem but some people don't?
Don't actually Well,

Trisha Stetzel (09:26):
and, you know, I, I would think that this is
also very personal to people,right? So it's about sharing
values and having the samebeliefs, right, the same type of
belief systems otherwise, do wereally get along I mean, if I'm
gonna, you know, put my put mymoney or my eggs in a basket,
right for someone to take careof for me, I think that I would
want to have a good relationshipwith them. Cool. So I am I know

(09:52):
you know this about me and someof our past listeners from
seasons before but I'm half acentury old this year and I get
to be that two more days thisweek. And I think about
retirement, right? So what, whatnumbers? Are you looking at?
Like, how much do I really needto be able to retire?

Colton Cockerell (10:12):
And that, you know, people ask that all the
time, you know, people think,hey, I need a million dollars,
right? Well, that might be waytoo much, or way too little. It
really, and that's, that's,again, part of our system. And I
think this is also crucial. Whenyou're working with an advisor,
you got to have a financialplan, you have to put one

(10:32):
together, because that is goingto tell you, what is the future
outlook? How much money do Ineed to have, based on your
goals? Based on your time,horizon is when you're gonna
retire based on the assets thatyou have? I mean, I think you
cannot, again, as a fiduciaryhere, I don't think you can do
best by your client, unless youhave a plan, because that is how
you're actually going. That'swhat you're going to use to

(10:53):
justify how you invest. So I'm abig financial plan guy, I think
that is so crucial. So there'sreally no number all comes down
to what are your spending habitsgonna be? And what's the income
that you have coming in? Do youneed to make adjustments?
Obviously, I mean, you got toknow you just can't get to a
million say it ready to retiredoesn't work. Like it doesn't

Trisha Stetzel (11:11):
work like that, like I don't understand. Well,
and speaking my language, ofcourse, right? You can't do
anything without a plan. If youdon't have a plan. How do you
know when you've actuallysucceeded or get to that end
result? So how do I know if I'mgetting the most out of my
Social Security? Oh, we're goingoh, my Wait, I'm not. I know. So

(11:32):
wait, I'm not that old yet. ButI have friends that are. I have
friends that are I'm asking fora friend.

Colton Cockerell (11:40):
They like two days. So yeah, no, um, that's a
good question. Social security,that's I'm glad you asked that.
I'm really I think there's a lotof there's a lot of uneducation
surrounding social security. Imean, how when to take it,
survivor benefits, spousalbenefits, you know, all these
different things, there's,there's, I don't think people

(12:01):
understand they just go aheadand start whenever they want.
But honestly, if you look at allthe mortality tables, people are
living longer. So if it makessense, you know, people
retiring, you know, 60 to 65,usually about Medicare age. So
why not wait till 70? Right, thehusband, the parent, whoever has
the higher security than waittill 70, then the spouse they

(12:22):
claim at their full retirementage, because what people don't
understand what Social Securityis that? Yes, you get it, you
both you and your spouse bothget it, but once one of them
passes away, typically, thebreadwinner is going to pass
away, because, again, usuallythe man of the house, not
always, but usually the man,they are the ones that are the
breadwinners, and they also areusually older. And also men's

(12:44):
mortality rate is so much lowerthan women are higher than women
that are going to pass away mostlikely before they're their
spouse. So whenever you'relooking at that, if you claim
Social Security, if the if thethe person that has the most
security benefit claims early,well, whenever they pass away,
that's what the spouse is goingto receive. Whereas if you wait

(13:04):
till 70, you get that benefitplus the step up three years
past age 67 66, whenever yourfull retirement is, oh, my gosh,
whenever you pass away, yourspouse will be able to claim
100% of your benefit, they'lllose theirs. But your benefit
most likely is higher. No, theywill still have that benefit
going forward. This is what's socrucial, again, about planning,

(13:25):
because what people don'tunderstand is that whenever a
spouse passes away, what happensespecially social security
included, income goes downbecause you're losing a Social
Security stream, right? Buttaxes go up because you're no
longer a joint filer, you're nowa single filer, people don't
look at it that way. So there'sa huge planning need there when
it comes to social security. Andreally making sure that your

(13:46):
spouse is taken care of once youare gone. And that's what we're
passionate about. So yeah, sosecurity, you got to do
planning. You can't just say,hey, for travel needs done, I'm
going to do it because peopleare living longer.

Trisha Stetzel (13:58):
Alright, so I want to clarify one thing. I'm
the breadwinner, and my husbandwants to carry my bags. I'm just
saying that's what he said.
That's what he that's what hewants his retirement job to be.
Hey, so bad. Bags.

Colton Cockerell (14:12):
Yeah. You payment 70. And then he'll
payments for time and age,

Trisha Stetzel (14:17):
right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I hear
plan, plan, plan, you need aplan. You gotta have a plan.
What? What about people who areout there that just they don't
have they don't feel like theyhave enough money and savings to
really approach someone in yourindustry and say, help me figure

(14:38):
out a plan. What if I don't haveany money in savings or anywhere
else for that matter?

Colton Cockerell (14:43):
No, of course.
And and that's, you know, I'llkind of give you a roadmap. I
just want to say when it comesto social security when it comes
to retirement planning all thatstuff. This is not I'm not
giving anyone specific advice.
This is just generalinformation. So for example, if
you're looking for a time if youdon't have a lot of money build
templates here. 20 25 You know,and you're you're wanting to
invest. First things first, I donot think you should be

(15:06):
investing, unless you have aadequate savings account, you
gotta protect yourself withsavings. So that's the number
you got to figure out three, sixmonths a year worth of savings.
Once you get to that point, hey,do you have an Do you have an
option for a Roth or a 401k? Ifyou do well, hey, do you have a
Do you have a Roth 401k option.
If you do jump in that Roth401k, put up to the match in
that, you know, do that. Andthen the next step, look at

(15:29):
opening up a Roth IRA, thedifference, the reason why you
want to put to the match in theRoth 401k, we're actually coming
up on our time here, just Roth401k Roth IRA, and then open up.
At that point, if you want totalk to him advice for what's
the next step is, but that'sreally the way to go. And if you
don't have an option, your Roth401k take just the traditional
401k, because you're getting100% If you're putting up to the

(15:50):
match, because they're gonnamatch exactly what you put in,
why would you not do that noadvisor can ever beat it. So
that's my last minute, say,

Trisha Stetzel (15:58):
like Todd, 9000 miles a minute. Thank you so
much, Colton, for bringing yourinsight here today. And for us
to talk about it.

Colton Cockerell (16:08):
I'm looking forward to next week for sure.
Because we're going to talk allabout business. And it's gonna
it's gonna be great. So makesure people tune in as we have a
special guest. And we are goingto just dive into the business
world and give you some tips andtricks and just fun things to
understand be looking out forthe prelude as well on Friday
because I will tell you all ofour lineup, so we're looking
forward to seeing everybodythen.

Trisha Stetzel (16:28):
Absolutely. So tune in next week for another
exciting episode of Bridge theGap.

Colton Cockerell (16:33):
Thanks again for tuning into this week's
podcast. Don't forget tosubscribe and share this podcast
with the most important peoplein your life. Colton Cockerell
with Sharer McKinley Group, LLCis located at 820 South
Friendswood Drive Suite 207Friendswood, Texas 77546 phone
number to 281-992-5698.
Securities and investmentadvisory services offered
through NEXT Financial Group,Inc. member FINRA/SIPC Sharer
McKinley Group is not anaffiliate of NEXT Financial

(16:53):
Group, Inc.
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