Wade Murphy | The Pension Geeks

In this exciting new podcast hear how Wade's Murphy's simple mission has not only changed their company name but impacted how they reach and interact with clients and ultimately grown their business. Wade Murphy has over 30 years of experience in the 403b space and has valuable advise on how to differentiate yourself in this niche market. 

Episode Transcript

Ed Dressel (00:09):
Ed Dressel here with another exciting session with
Grow RetireReady Clients. I amwith Wade Murphy. He's out of
Rolling Hills Estates inCalifornia. The rest of us would
call it LA. His broker dealer isGWN Securities. He's got a great
company name that kind ofresonates with me a lot called
The Pension Geeks. I'm excitedto get going because I love

(00:29):
pension plans. I love talkingabout them. Spent a lot of time
researching them. Wade, welcome.
Nice to have you here today.

Wade Murphy (00:36):
Well, I'm glad to be here. I've been a longtime
fan of you and your software. SoI was happy to be invited.

Ed Dressel (00:44):
I don't know how long we go back. I'm going to
almost say 30 years.

Wade Murphy (00:47):
Yeah, I started using TRAK Software in the early
90s--91, 92. Somewhere aroundthere.

Ed Dressel (00:58):
I remember you at the conferences. You were a
tennis player. You still are.
You played tennis and it waslike, that's what we knew you
as--kind of your branding is andstill on the circuit. You're
playing some masters tennis.
Tell us a little bit about yourbusiness in southern California.

Wade Murphy (01:13):
I am really lucky to have my son as a business
partner. He graduated a coupleyears ago with a degree in
finance. He went to school upnear you--Pacific University in
Oregon. And so we trulyspecialize with school employees

(01:33):
and helping them create plansaround their pension. We're
pension first planners. We thinkthat's their biggest retirement
asset for most of them. And sothat's been our business and
it's been my specific businessfor 15 years. Before that I
spent 15 years or so working fora company that designed fixed

(01:55):
annuity products for the 403(b)marketplace. So I've done a lot
of different jobs within the403(b) space.

Ed Dressel (02:04):
When you go out and market your company--finding a
niche--and your company nameabsolutely says I'm working a
niche. Tell me a little bitabout the specifics of how you
differentiate yourself in the403(b) space as a 403(b) expert.
What do you bring into the tablefor school districts that you
work in?

Wade Murphy (02:25):
Well, for the longest time, our main
corporation name is EnvisionFinancial Group. And that was my
first company name going back tothe early 90s. And because I
felt like educators didn't wantprograms just built for
educators. They wanted smartinvestments that would work for

(02:46):
anybody. So sometimes programsthat were built specifically for
educators were maybe a littlebit longer term products, longer
term annuity products,especially in the early years.
And so what we've started doinghere, just in the last three
years or so, is really ignoringall the noise out there in the

(03:06):
market with other advisors,other businesses, and the
advocacy groups that are outthere. And we're just being us.
And so we really go to a lot ofschools. We find the schools
that want us there--there's someschools that don't--and we're
delivering food, we will domeetings for them if they want.

(03:28):
We do zoom meetings, and othertype of marketing programs where
we're really showing who we are.
And I think that was the biggestchange is that when we go to a
school site or our marketing,it's a lot more video showing
who we are and why we'repassionate about the 403(b)
marketplace and what our overallmission is, which is to make

(03:49):
sure that every school employeegets every penny they're due
from their pension.

Ed Dressel (03:58):
How do you differentiate yourself from an
advisor that they seem a littlebit flat in the engagement
model? What are you doing to sayno, there's really something
note about pension plans and Ican help you out?

Wade Murphy (04:11):
Well, we think that that is the best part of our
job. We get a headstart.
Educators have this head startwhen it comes to their
retirement that smallbusinesses, in other
individuals, sometimes peoplethat work in companies that have
no retirement plan at all, andthey they're just looking at
social security. And so we leadwith that pension first and say

(04:35):
this is what makes our jobs sofun. Because if you spend 30
minutes on a zoom call with us,and we provide a pension
analysis for you, the light atthe end of the tunnel gets
bright. And the funnest part ofour job is to show people this
and they look and they go "Oh mygosh, I couldn't really retire

(04:57):
at 60?" And we say "Well, yeah,look at the numbers and look at
the job that you've done on yourside funds" and different things
like that. And so I think that'swhat differentiates ourselves is
that we go in not looking togather assets. We load massive
value up front. We're applyingfor the job as your financial
advisor or your retirementplanner. And so our whole goal

(05:19):
is, let us show you this goodnews first. Let us give you a
glimpse into your future and howwonderful it is. And teachers
have a tough job. And dependingon the school districts that you
work at, some of them don't getpaid a lot. But all of them have
this amazing retirement that'swaiting for them. And so we go

(05:42):
in with that excitement, thatpassion, saying, let us show you
this and provide you thisroadmap. And then at some point
in the future, if you're lookingfor somebody to manage your
403(b) assets, or some netassets that are held outside of
that plan, like old IRAs or old401(k)s--we're applying for that
job.

Ed Dressel (06:05):
So tell us some stories. What happened when you
showed somebody? Yep, here'swhat your pensions can provide.
What difference did it make tothem? And how did that meeting
go?

Wade Murphy (06:17):
Well, we just had one recently, where a client had
a much older husband, and she'slike, hey, I'm retiring early.
We want to go and enjoy ourlives and do some traveling and
do all these things. And, andshe was like, look, I'm I'm out.
I want to retire at 58. Myhusband will be 72 right then.
And so that gives us this littlebit of window. And so we ran the

(06:42):
pension analysis for her and weused obviously, we use TRAK
Software and TRAK has a newmodule, that I don't know how
long it's been out. But we'vebeen using it for a while now.
And it shows the total payoutfor them from their retirement
age through their lifeexpectancy. And so we showed her

(07:02):
along with a lot of other thingsinside the software. But we
showed her that if you retiredat 59 instead of 58, it's worth
about $500,000 more in yourretirement than if you retired
at 58. And then we showed thatif you retired at 60, well, it's
only goes up another 100,000 orso. So your sweet spot is really

(07:26):
59. And so the light came on,and she was like, okay, yeah, I
can I can go to 59. And then wetalked about how we can build a
supplemental plan around thatand do some Roth 403(b)
planning, because the Roth403(b), I think is a
misunderstood program within theschools. And so that was really

(07:47):
fun for us, because then theywere able to see, okay, here's
our plan. Now we can startbuilding our lives around us
retiring at 59. And doing thetraveling and things like that.

Ed Dressel (07:56):
That's a brand new feature this year we've added.
We're going to be extending tothat but I don't like to make
promises on the phone aboutdelivery dates, because I could
get in trouble. Like, hey, wedidn't make the delivery date,
it was more complicated. Butwe're excited to add to it. I'll
tell you a fun story I saw. Iwas working at a conference and
a business officer stopped byshe's 28, not making a lot of
money, but going to stay to age60. And she found out that her

(08:20):
total distributions--making$5,000 today--that her total
distributions starting at age60, over life expectancy was
going to be $3.9 million. Shehad tears in her eyes. I thought
she was gonna hug me. I had tostep back. And then she said

what was key (08:36):
I'm never leaving my job. And when you can bring
that to a school district thatI'm going to help your employees
understand the value of yourpension--what you're doing right
up front--it can really helpthem stay with their job. The
school district likes having youin there because you're helping
them keep their employeesaround. But you're also on the
other end, helping them valuetheir position. And so it's a

(08:57):
win-win for an advisor. You geta good relationship with the
business staff and the employeesas well. So have you had any of
that? Have you worked with thebusiness officers to help them
understand the value you'rebringing in by showing them the
pension plan?

Wade Murphy (09:11):
Yeah, we just have an opportunity right now. One of
our longtime clients is the HRdirector for a local school
district. And we were talking tohim about doing some
presentation, some zoom meetingsfor him. And he's like, okay,
you know, I brought it to oursuperintendent, and they're
considering it. And so we talkeda little bit about this

(09:33):
particular idea that what wewant to show them is the value
of their pension over theirlifetime. And what a wonderful
benefit this is that the schooldistrict is supplying to them.
And so that really kind ofchanged the conversation of us
going in there and advertisingwho we are and we're The Pension
Geeks and we want to manage yourmoney and 403(b) plans. Instead

(09:57):
we shifted it completely to letus help you show the value of
the benefit that you'reproviding to your employees. And
so it's changing thatconversation. And so anytime we
can get in front of a group ofeducators, talking to them, and
educating them about one portionof their investments, or their
overall retirement plan, itopens us up to be able to

(10:20):
provide other services to themwithout even asking for that
other business.

Ed Dressel (10:25):
So you changed your company name. You became The
Pension Geeks. What are some ofthe changes you've made that
service your clientseffectively?

Wade Murphy (10:33):
One of the most positive things that I did for
my business was I cancelledevery social media connection I
had. I got completely off ofTwitter, or X. And any other
kind of affiliation on Facebookor anything like that, that
dealt with 403(b), 403(b)advocacy, other advisors. My
social media is more about myhobbies, and my friends and

(10:55):
things like that, and no longeranything from work. I feel like
the first part of my career, Iwas doing my job looking over my
shoulder, comparing myself towhat other advisors and other
opportunities, and that's justnot the case. Our businesses--we
criss cross each other atconferences and things like that

(11:15):
and you're hearing a commercialfrom these other advisors about
how many referrals they get, andall of these things. And that
was just noise that was takingour eye off the ball. And so
we're now just focusing on beingus. We're a father, son team.
And we really have a lot of fun.
That is our goal. We want tobring people into the mission

(11:35):
that we have, which is to helpthem get every penny from their
pension that they can and makesmart investment choices for
their 403(b) and their Roth403(b). And so that along with a
one thing that that my son Seanhas brought to us is the
technology. We've really becomemuch more systematic, in all of
our processes. Just from workingwith marketing companies that

(11:59):
help us with sending out ournewsletters on a systematic
basis, economic reports on asystematic basis, and all of
those things have been a realpositive change for us because
we're able to reach out to ourcustomers with our personality,
but do it in a systematic way.
And that has really, I think,changed the relationship that we

(12:23):
have with our clients. They cometo us now more expecting good
information, but also having agood time with us. We take the
job seriously. But we don't takeourselves seriously. I think the
the one other change if I canjust add one other thing is that
we've really embraced beinginvestment fiduciaries. And

(12:43):
we've built a lot of processesaround proving that we don't
just call ourselves fiduciaries.
If somebody walked into ouroffice and said, "Hey, you're a
fiduciary tell me what thatmeans and how you're providing
fiduciary reviews." And so thatis a process that we've put into
place where every quarter wehave meetings as an office, and
then every six months, we havemeetings with a local fun family

(13:07):
Capital Group, everybody knowswho Capital Group is. And we
meet with their CFAs. We haveportfolio reviews. We don't just
use American funds, we use otherfund families. And so we put all
of that process, we record it,we put it in writing, we put it
in a file so that our clientsand any regulators that come in,

(13:27):
understand that we are reallyfocused on making the best
investment decisions for ourclients. And that doesn't mean
we put them in a portfolio andlook at it 10 years later.

Ed Dressel (13:42):
There's a number of things that are pretty key in
what you said there that couldbe pulled apart. And I cannot
imagine you telling people Icancelled social media snd we're
growing our business. Thatsounds so different than
everything I've ever heard. It'sattractive. I'd love to get out
of social media. I mean, howcould you make that initial

(14:05):
leap?

Wade Murphy (14:06):
Well, let me clarify. We're on LinkedIn, for
example. And my son is 25.
Right? He's all about digitalmarketing and things like that.
But we know that when we get infront of people, and we're
talking to them, and they seeour personalities, and we're
making jokes, and we're having agood time, but then we're also

(14:26):
giving them with really goodvalue and really good
information. That's what createsreferrals. That's what brings
them into a Zoom meeting or, orsometimes we were just at a
school site and and we weretalking to the receptionist out
front, and the principal comesout and he's like, "What's going
on out here?" And we're laughingand we're talking about stuff.
And then another lady comes outof her office and says "What do

(14:47):
you do?" And we were like we wetried to get you every penny
you're due from the pension.
"Oh, yeah. Well, that soundsgreat." And so I don't think
that that can come across, insome sort of Instagram message,
or Facebook or LinkedIn messagethat we send out to anybody.

(15:09):
It's part of the process. And sowe do LinkedIn advertising. And
we do have a sales funnel wherepeople come to our website, but
our websites going throughchanges. We're taking most of
the words off our website, it'sonly going to be doodle videos
and videos of us talking aboutwhat we're passionate about and
what we're doing. And so I don'tthink social media advertising

(15:33):
works, especially for schoolemployees. I think they're
suspicious by nature, and theyinvest in the people and not the
products.

Ed Dressel (15:43):
And you really focus in everything you said there.
You talk about really focusingon your mission, and vision,
you've got a we're going toengage people on a personal
level, even though you're in LA,which is just really sweet to
me. I'm from small town America.
And that's where we're at. Butbut I'm hearing you say from LA.
How does engaging people on arelational level and being there

(16:03):
in the room with them differentthan what you see other advisors
bringing to the table?

Wade Murphy (16:09):
Yeah, and that was one of the things that I was
excited about this podcast,because a lot of the people that
you have on these podcasts arereally successful advisors, and
they have huge agencies andlarge books of business. And we
don't. There's just two of us.
Well, you know, we, we've gotenough, but we don't, I go to
conferences, sometimes I see,you know, there's 10, guys, and

(16:32):
they're all wearing matchingpolos and things like that. But
you know, we're here in LA,where I'm competing with third
party administrators who havetheir own sales force, and
they're exchanging free TPAservice for access--access that
I don't have. Then, obviously,union controlled school
districts and products, and theyhave access that I don't have.

(16:55):
And so we really have to provideas much massive value and
passion about what we're doing.
And that's why the vast majorityof our clients come from
referrals, because people cansee, oh, these guys have a
proven repeatable process andthey're interesting to be

(17:16):
around. And that's how we setour selves apart. If we get a
connection at a schooldistrict--like that school
district that we went to in theprincipal came out--we make sure
that we provide as much value tothem as possible. Can we help
with your Christmas party? Canwe provide you with quick tips
for a newsletter that you'regoing to be sending out or

(17:38):
something like that. So however,we can create that personal
relationship, that's what we'redoing. And we feel like, there's
kind of a shift back to that,because people are tired of
going on their social mediapages and just seeing all of
these ads and all of this stuffthat seems a little bit like
trickery to them. So if we canbe there in front of them,

(18:02):
that's where we're going to makethe most impact.

Ed Dressel (18:06):
When you sit down with a client and you want to
maximize the experience thatthey have, what are you doing to
help them out?

Wade Murphy (18:13):
The first thing that we do is let them know that
we are providing as muchinformation to them about the
current programs they're in, andtheir pension. And we expect
nothing in return, but a littlebit of their attention. And many

(18:33):
times we have told people,you're doing great. There are
programs with some of theschools for those do it
yourselfer teachers that arepretty good. And so we just had
a lady in our office, and she'slike, "Yeah, I've been doing
this all myself, I was referredto you guys." And we're like,
you know, this looks awesome tous. You don't need us. Let us

(18:57):
help you do some pension work soyou can kind of decide whether
age 61 or 62 is going to be thesweet spot for you. And we're
happy to do it. You know, tellyour friends about us that we
will help them with that. Well,you know, she came back a month
later and said, "I'd like tomove some of this stuff over to
you guys because I'm tired ofwatching it." And so I guess

(19:19):
that is the thing that we try todo the most is say look, we want
to partner with you, but not ina way that is a big cash grab as
far as gathering all of yourassets. Let us just help you
explain where you're at and someof the programs and I have a big
background in annuities. I workfor a company that design them

(19:39):
so I can help explain some ofthe annuity products, especially
some of those older indexannuities that maybe are upside
down for some of the client. Butthe last decade I spent telling
people not to move their moneybecause they were in products
that had a guarantee of 3 or 4%.
And now that we're going back tosome of those people saying you
know you can get a higherguaranteed rate, you know, for
three or five years. They'relistening, because we set the

(20:03):
standard up front.

Ed Dressel (20:08):
And it's scary for a lot of advisors to say, I don't
need to make money on everyperson I sit in front of, or I
don't need to push the sale. Ican just assist people. And in
the long run that'll pay off.
You've been successful insouthern California you're
helping with in a verycompetitive world. How did you
get to the position where I'mreally going to help people, and
I'm going to do the right thing.

(20:30):
And I'm going to play the longgame rather than the short game?

Wade Murphy (20:34):
I think spending 15 years as a wholesaler, and I was
the wholesaler for the westernUnited States, and then I was
lucky enough to get promoted tothe national sales manager for a
large company. And I got so muchfrom that, not just the way
products are designed, but alsoI met with every 403(b) producer

(20:58):
worth their salt in 90s andearly 2000s. And I saw the guys
that were successful in the waythat I wanted to be successful.
Some of the people who ran theirbusinesses the way I felt like
if I was going to start my ownbusiness. There were many there,
they had 15 agents, and theysold whatever they could sell

(21:19):
and, and that was fine. That wastheir business model. And it
certainly worked for us aswholesalers because we wanted
their production. But I reallyhad the benefit of seeing how
really successful guys who puttheir clients first, how they
ran their business and how overtime--the tortoise and the hare
type of thing--over time, theybuilt this book of business that

(21:42):
was really stable, and with astrong clientele. And so I
didn't reinvent anything. Istole as many good ideas from
those advisors throughout theUnited States. We were in 44
states and some some states,some places back on the East
Coast and things like that, theyhave connections. They could go

(22:03):
into the school and be in thelunch room and give meetings and
stuff like that, that advisorsout here in California can't do.
But that was kind of the processfor me and how I knew that if we
ran our business this way thatultimately, we were going to be

Ed Dressel (22:20):
Tell me a little bit about working with your son.
successful.
It's a unique opportunity. Iknow you two get along great.
There's also probably stressesat it as well. I have my son
working for me and I have bothsides of the coin--some great
things. I love working with myson, I love seeing them in the
coffee room. How is that workingwith your son? And how do you
guys work together?

Wade Murphy (22:40):
Well, overall, it's amazing. I am just filled with
gratitude that I have a businessthat I can pass on to him
someday. He's always been veryinterested in money. He had a
small business that he startedwhen he was in college getting
his finance degree. And so he'salways been that type of kid.

(23:02):
Always fascinated with themarkets and his e-trade
accounts. And he's learned hislessons with Bitcoin and NFT's
and all of those things. So hewent through all of that. We
also have the benefit of heplayed grew up playing tennis,
and he played tennis up incollege. And we compete
nationally in father/son tennistournaments. We fly all over the

(23:27):
country. We leave tomorrow for atournament down in San Diego,
the National Hard Courts. And sowe kind of went through that
whole father/son arguing on thetennis court--you know--who
knows better about this or that.
And so I think we did so much ofthat through tennis, especially
when he was a teenager, that nowwe are just solid. We are a good

(23:50):
team. And we know that ifstressful situations come up,
deadlines come up, and thingslike that, that we can stand
back to back and kind of fightoff this business. So it's been
great. I also reached out again,because of the history I have, I
reached out to an agency, a manwho brought his two sons on and

(24:10):
I asked him, you know, what washis process and things like
that. Ideally, I wanted Sean togo work someplace else for a
couple years so that somebodyelse could train him. I don't
have a training program where itwas okay, week one, we're gonna
do this. But as he startedinterviewing with some of those
other companies, you know,they're like, "Hey, give us a

(24:32):
list of all your friends andfamily" and alarm bells were
going off. I'm like, look, Ithink it's much better if you
just come work with me, help meservice my clients while you
study for your exams--he'sstarting his CFP--and kind of be
a sales assistant type and justlearn on the job. And it's been
fantastic. This last year wasour best year by far, for my

(24:55):
company by far. We doubled everyproduction number that we had.
We've become much morestreamlined, you know, DocuSign,
and all those things that Irefuse to get involved with. The
Laser App--I don't have anypatience for that. And so that
stuff has been really helpful.
And I think he's learning fromme. He's normally--he's not on

(25:15):
this call, but he's normally onevery call. And every meeting,
he's with me every time. Ourclients get two reps instead of
one. And so that's just howwe're doing it. And he's funny.
And so we're just having thebest time.

Ed Dressel (25:32):
This is fun. I'm enjoying it. I love that. You've
been in the 403(b) business fora long time. What have you
learned about it that has stuckout that's different than maybe
a 401(k) Plan Advisor? What'sthe distinctive that brings
value to the table? Not only inyour sector, but for other
advisors as well? What wouldhelp advisors do well in this

(25:54):
industry?

Wade Murphy (25:55):
Wow, that's a that's a tricky question. I
think I, I'm afraid I'll berepeating myself a lot. But I
think that when it comes to the403(b), and other processes, of
course, providing as muchservice upfront as possible. I

(26:15):
wrote a book and in that book,one of the things that I talk
about is the good advisors willlet you leave. You know, we
don't do anything, our averagesales process is at least two
meetings before we get to wherewe're saying, okay, here's the
portfolio that we suggest thatyou look at, and let's go over

(26:36):
it. And so the first meeting isnormally data gathering for the
pension. The second meeting isgoing over that pension, that
the end of that second meetingwe talked about now. If you
wanted to partner with us, andhave us manage the investments
that you told us that you haveso that we could do a retirement
analysis for you, this is whatwe would do. And if they are

(26:57):
interested in that, well, thenthat starts a whole nother
process where we talk abouttheir feelings of risk, and all
of those other things. So allduring that time, there's a
chance that the client willghost us and leave, something
will happen, "Oh, I've got acousin that works for Thrivent.
And he told me he could help orwhatever." And so we just take

(27:19):
that risk, because we want goodclients with good relationships.
We're not going to try to sellyou the first minute we see, you
slam you into something and thenfix it afterward with trying to
build a relationship for you. SoI think that that builds a
better business. And this is apartnership. They have

(27:39):
responsibilities when they'rewith us. And so we're not afraid
to go back to a client and say,hey, we don't think that we're a
good fit because we really counton you communicating back with
us. We get an agreement withthem as part of our fiduciary
review. Are we going to meetquarterly, semi annually,
annually? You know, most ofthem, if they're really young,

(27:59):
annually works great, but we saywe have to meet. There's none of
this thing, when we send you anemail every four months saying,
hey, it's time for us to have aquick conversation, it can just
be a phone call. But you can'tignore that phone call. Because
this is the process that we'veset up. So if we have a
situation where we're doing somework for a client, and they're

(28:21):
wishy washy, then and you know,we don't deal with large
clients. You know, we're nottalking about every client, we
have having $500,000 of assetsunder management. Most of our
clients are educators. They'reputting in $500 a month. Maybe
they've got 30, 40 50,000stashed someplace that we may be
able to get to or not dependingon what was done to them

(28:43):
previously. And so it's not ahuge loss for us if we tell
somebody or if if somebodydecides to get all this
information from us, and thennever talk to us again. It's not
like, oh, there goes the half ayear's worth of income.

Ed Dressel (29:01):
So you mentioned your book, Schooled
Planning for Educators. Whatmade you write it? How do you
use it as a tool? Tell me alittle bit about your book.

Wade Murphy (29:11):
Yeah, this is a great topic, because I want to
tell all your listeners that thebook did not do what I was
hoping it was going to do. Soit's nice to have it. It's nice
to hand out to clients like thatprinciple that came out of his
office. Luckily, we had books,and we gave them one but people
don't really read books all thatmuch. And especially that type

(29:33):
of a book. A teacher spendingtheir free time reading a book
about investing for teachers?
But I spend a lot of time onstage. I'm an improv performer.
I used to do a lot of speakingfor my previous job and it's a
skill that I have. And so Iwould go to schools and I would
give this talk. And it's more ofa lecture kind of say, hey,

(29:53):
look, teachers kind of can makebad clients if everyone's not
doing it right. And here's whatyou got to do. And so it was
very honest and very open. Andso I had a lot of success doing
it that way. But then I ran intoissues with the teachers union
dump schools, I'd get referredsaying, "Hey, you got to see

(30:14):
this guy's presentation. It'swonderful." And I would go to
that school. And they say,"Well, who do you represent?"
And I would say, "Well, I'mindependent," and they go, "Oh,
well, you have to represent oneof these three companies, or
we're not going to let you in."And like, those are captive
companies that can't. And so andthen COVID, and all of these
other issues came up. And so Iwrote the book. And I took that
presentation that I gave, withall the funny stories that I

(30:37):
would give, and things likethat. And I put it in book form.
And I submitted it to my brokerdealer who took half of it, and
you know, chopped it up, becausethey didn't quite get the sense
of humor. And one of the thingsthat I talked about on giving a
presentation is hey, I did kindof a non-scientific study. But
I'm realizing that old peoplelike nice things. I've never

(30:59):
really--I thought that when yougot to 60, put me in a rocking
chair, put a blanket over my lapand set me out on the porch, and
I'll be fine. And that's justnot the case. My mother-in-law
just was going on a cruise. Shewanted to be on the concierge
floor. You're 70! Why do youneed that? And so it kind
of--the point of that story iswhen you get older, your wants

(31:24):
for having comforts in yourlife, they might change a little
bit, but you still want to stayat nicer hotels, you still want
to maybe drive a safe car, youstill want to do these things
that when we're young, we think,you know, 55, I'm done. What do
I need? I'm not going to beplaying tennis at 55. I'll just
sit and relax. And so to acompliance department, they're

(31:46):
like, "What do you mean, you dida research?" Show you're, you
know--I'm like, no, no! Aw! Sothat part was a little bit
frustrating. But that's how thebook came about. And when I
first came out, I had someclients that really promoted it
for me, and I sold a bunch ofcopies at first. And it was
great, but it wasn't, and isn'tthe closer or the lead

(32:09):
generation thing that I thoughtit was. It cost me probably
$15,000 to put it together, Ican't say because I don't really
know if somebody read the book,and nobody's coming to my office
saying I read your book, and Iwant to give you all my money.
That has not happened. So Idon't know that I've made my
money back on the on the book ornot. But it's fun to have. And

(32:31):
it's it's good to, good to handout.

Ed Dressel (32:36):
Anything I've left on the table?

Wade Murphy (32:40):
Financial advisors are in a difficult spot. Biden
just came out the other day andtalked about junk fees, and how,
you know, they're looking atchanging the laws with all of
that stuff. And I know that thelobby is going to come out and
fight anything that he comes upwith. But one of the things that
really struck me when I wasworking for that, that marketing

(33:03):
company that designed annuities,is that we would work with
insurance companies, and ouractuarial staff and their
actuarial staff would work tocreate a product that would fit
within the rules that thegovernment set up to how we
could design annuity products.
Then we would go to each stateand get that product approved.

(33:26):
And I know all the advisorslistening who happen to sell
annuities know that whateverstate you're in, they'll say,
"Hey, we got this great annuity.
It's not approved in your stateyet, but we're going through
that process." Well, I was partof the team that would go
through that process with eachstate. And so it's interesting
that the government could kindof come back to us and say, "How

(33:50):
dare you sell the programs thatwe approved for you to sell?"
And so to me, that just seemsinteresting that when I go to a
school, for example, I don'twork with clients at LA Unified
School District. It is one ofthe largest school districts. If
somebody refers me an LA Unifiedclient, I say, I'm sorry. I
just--there's nothing becausenot only do we offer programs

(34:15):
that are approved by thegovernment within the
government's overall language,and then approved by each
state's Department of Insurance,there's a further approval that
goes on because every schooldistrict in California, and I
know Texas, because I work inboth states, has a list of
approved companies and productsthat you can offer. And so we're

(34:38):
really restricted to that. And99% of those are annuity
programs. And some of them havehigher fees. But the low fee
programs that I'm able to offerin other school districts, for
example, aren't approved at LAUnified, and so we're in a

(34:59):
difficult spot as advisors. Iremember the B-shares. We know
when B-shares were big thing thewholesalers came out, "Hey, we
have B-shares instead ofoffering a load. B-shares,
B-shares!" And so I was new inthe business, everybody's
selling B-shares, hey, theB-shares! And then a couple
years later, they come out andthey go "You were selling
B-shares? How dare you?" Andyou're like, "Well, wait, this

(35:22):
was sold to us as a way to solvethe load issue." So it's an
interesting part of thebusiness.

Ed Dressel (35:29):
Yeah, especially when the long term perspective
you have and that you rememberwhat they said yesterday was a
great product and today, you'rethe devil for selling it. Wade,
I really appreciate your time.
It's been a delight to talk toyou. It's been nice to know you
34 years. You're one of the fewadvisors that have stopped by my
office and we've gotten to knoweach other a little bit more. I
look forward to seeing you atvarious conferences and I

(35:52):
absolutely wish you the best.
Thank you for taking the timetoday.

Wade Murphy (35:56):
Thank you for the opportunity and yeah, it's just
been a joy and just the thefriendship and the relationship
that I have with everybody atRetireReady is just amazing. You
guys make me look so good and sosmart, because here we're The
Pension Geeks, but a lot oftimes we say hey, we'll get back
to you and I pick up the phoneand talk to Brian or somebody
back there and "Say help us out.
We can't figure this out!" Andso it is a very valued

(36:19):
relationship for me and mypractice. Thank you.