The Art of Wealth Preservation: Strategies for Protecting and Growing Your Wealth

Episode Transcript
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(00:50):
Aloha, Inspired Money Maker. Thanks for tuning in. If this is your
first time with us, welcome. If you're returning. Welcome back to the
Inspired Money podcast. I'm your host, Andy Wang.
Whether you're building wealth, planning your legacy, or just looking to
protect what you've worked so hard for, the truth is this:
wealth preservation is not a one and done project. It's a

(01:14):
lifelong strategy. Markets shift, tax laws change,
risks evolve, and the old rules
for staying wealthy, maybe they don't hold up anymore.
This is not your father's retirement or your grandmother's
retirement, right? That's why in this episode of
Inspired Money, we're diving into the Art of Wealth Preservation.

(01:37):
How to grow, protect and future proof your assets through smart
investing, legal safeguards, tax savvy estate
planning, and even philanthropy that pays it forward. If
you want to avoid costly mistakes, keep
your money working for you and make sure it lasts for generations,
you're in the right place. Stay tuned because we've got an

(02:00):
incredible panel of experts here to break it all down. Before
I introduce our guests, a quick thank you to our sponsor.
This episode of Inspired Money is brought to you by Seeking Alpha
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(02:22):
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(02:43):
affiliate link, which means that if you sign up, I may earn a
commission at no extra cost to you. Don't miss out. Seeking
Alpha Premium, your edge in every market. If you subscribe, it
supports the Inspired Money podcast. Let's bring in our
guests. FIRSt up, we have Dana
Anspach, Founder and CEO of Sensible Money. Dana

(03:05):
has dedicated her career to helping people turn their
savings into sustainable retirement income plans. She's
the author of "Control Your Retirement Destiny" and "Social Security Sense." And
she brings a wealth of real world experience to help
people retire with confidence. Dana, welcome back and thank
you for always accepting my invitation so quickly.

(03:28):
Andy, glad to be here and really happy the timing worked
out today. So next we're joined
by Jacqueline Schadeck, a Certified Financial Planner.
She's the host of My Money Mentors on WABE,
an Emmy-nominated and nationwide TV
show empowering young adults with financial literacy.

(03:51):
Through her firm, Golden Wealth Strategies, Jacqueline helps
individuals and families gain financial clarity with
comprehensive planning and insurance solutions. She's been
featured in outlets like CNBC and MarketWatch, honored with the
Financial Planning Association of Georgia's Impact Award,
and is passionate about giving back through education and community

(04:13):
service. Welcome Jacqueline. Thanks
for having me. Excited to talk about my favorite topic, which is Financial Planning.
Right on. We also have Kemberly ""KemCents" Washington
here. She's a tax expert, journalist, and former
IRS agent with over 20 years of experience helping
people make sense of taxes and personal finance.

(04:36):
A regular contributor to Forbes Advisor and national
outlets like Good Morning America and Fox Business, Kem
is also the author of several personal finance books, including "The
Ten Commandments to Financial Healing." Kem,
so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. I really
appreciate it. Yeah, and just a shout out to

(04:58):
the Financial Influencers Network.
Kem, Jacqueline and I are a part of that. That just launched last
month. So excited to have some FIN
representation here. We have a stellar guest panel
today with a diverse set of topics to discuss.
So stick with us with this group. I promise that we will make this

(05:19):
topic of wealth preservation fun and informative.
Let's start with segment one. The traditional 60/40
portfolio once served as a reliable framework. 60%
stocks for growth, 40% bonds for stability. But when
inflation surged and correlations broke down, it exposed a core
flaw. Risk wasn't balanced, just capital. Enter

(05:42):
the all weather strategy pioneered by Ray Dalio.
This approach doesn't rely on forecasts. It prepares for
all outcomes. Risk is allocated across assets
designed to perform during growth, recession, inflation or
deflation. Stocks, bonds, gold, commodities
and Treasury inflation protected securities, also known as TIPs, are

(06:04):
weighted by volatility, not price. Risk Parity replaces
blind allocation. Alternative strategies like the permanent
and golden butterfly portfolios offer simpler or growth
enhanced models while preserving defense. These frameworks
aren't about chasing highs. They're about staying solvent when others
falter in a market where old assumptions no longer hold.

(06:27):
Resilient investing isn't nostalgia, it's evolution. The
future belongs to those who diversify by design, not by
habit.
Dana for years I've seen headlines that the 60/40 portfolio
is debt. What's your take? Have markets

(06:47):
shifted and changed your approach to
portfolio construction? Well, they really haven't
changed our approach, but we weren't, what shall I
say, blind followers of a 60/40 annual
rebalancing process to begin with. So I think of
the 60/40 portfolio the same way I think of as the

(07:09):
4% rule. It's a broad general
guideline. It wasn't meant to be this rule that
you follow to a T, like a stoplight
or like traffic signs. It was meant to be just, you know, these
general guidelines that. That help you gauge your
direction. And so, you know, looking and listening to

(07:33):
the intro. When I think about risk parity strategies, I'm a big
fan of, there's a lot of different strategies. It's very confusing for
the consumer out there to hear, you know, bucketing and risk parity
and 60/40 and all of these things and think that one is better
than. They each have their different purposes.
And we follow a form of risk

(07:55):
management that is designed to protect
the worst case scenario, to essentially raise the bar and
say, when we look over a retiree's lifetime over 30 years, how do we make
sure the worst case scenario is not as worse as it
could be? And that is, in a sense, a form of risk management.
It's a different way of getting there than the risk parity strategy. When I look

(08:17):
at risk parity, it's a little bit more focused on volatility
year by year versus looking at volatility and outcomes over
a portfolio's lifetime. And so they are both
risk management strategies. There's a lot of risk management strategies.
60/40 with annual rebalancing would be a
risk management strategy. And I think it all comes down to being really

(08:39):
clear on how you define risk. What is
the risk metric you're measuring? Is it outcomes over a lifetime? Is it
outcomes quarter by quarter? Is it outcomes over, you know, an annual
volatility metric? Depending on how you define that, that's going to lead
to different portfolio strategies that best protect against
that risk. Jacqueline, what's your take? Do you include

(09:01):
alternatives or annuities in your client portfolios?
Dana makes some really great points that we have alluded to here
at Golden Wealth Strategies. So one of the things that I think we need to
do is we need to zoom out and look at this big picture first. Okay?
So first, for the average listener, you need to identify where
you are in your investing journey. Okay? Because if we take the

(09:23):
history and the reason why the 60/40
portfolio has been that gold standard for so long,
this. The history of this is there was a gentleman,
William Bengen. He came up with the 60/40 portfolio.
And so his research was done to figure out,
as Dana said, what that 4% rule is. Okay? And

(09:45):
for those who are new to this, the 4% rule is just how much can
you safely withdraw from your portfolio every
year without running out of money? And so if we
are in the retirement phase of life, which most of our clients are,
and we're wanting to start pulling from our portfolio,
we need to figure out how should that portfolio be

(10:08):
allocated so that I don't run out of money one day.
And so the way that we do it at Golden Wealth Strategies is we've
taken Mr. Bengen's research and history and the
studies, we've taken all of that information and I would say that we've
added to it. Okay. And so in our process, once a client
gets to the point where they're ready to start actually withdrawing money out

(10:30):
of their portfolio, this is where we take a close look
at. Okay, does the 60/40 portfolio work for
you or should you be in some other sort of
allocation? And so depending on where our clients
are in their investing journey or will dictate how the
portfolio is designed. And so for those who are

(10:51):
maybe a little bit younger or maybe a little bit more
risk averse, maybe we have some alternatives in the
portfolio, but it just depends on where the investor is in their
investing journey. Thank you for that. Yeah,
I think relating to the segment video,
just speaking really quickly for myself and my clients,

(11:14):
I think that things have evolved a little bit because there are more
choices when it comes to different Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and
different investment strategies. So whereas historically
at Runnymede Capital Management, we might have had a 60/40
portfolio, but then we'll tilt, right? It's
not 60/40 and just set it and forget it. It would be 60/40, but

(11:37):
kind of plus or minus 10% on the stock side.
So at certain times of the economic cycle,
you're getting more aggressive, other times you're getting more defensive. And
when you do that, in a taxable portfolio, you could have
taxable event where you have to pay capital gains tax. These
days there are tactical investment strategies. If

(12:00):
it's inside an ETF wrapper, may not have.
Well, it may have tax advantages where you're actually not
triggering capital gains. So I'll go to Kem,
who is the CPA among us. How do you bring tax
strategy into the conversation when discussing asset
allocation or diversification?

(12:40):
As a CPA,
I work with financial planners, CFPs and other, of
course, financial advisors when it comes to building out the
portfolio. And on our side, as a CPA, we want to make certain that what's
being done is tax efficient. So looking at whether or not it's in a taxable
account or not, whether or not. There could be some tax strategies at

(13:02):
the end of the year, like tax loss harvesting, where an investor
may sell off certain type of assets at the end of the year, underperforming
assets just to kind of offset any capital gains.
So looking at all of those different things before, typically at the end of the
year, that's really helpful when it comes to determining what tax strategies
that we can work along with the financial advisor or CFP in this

(13:24):
case. So just being really instrumental with those different tax strategies.
How do you advise clients on diversifying without triggering
unnecessary tax events? It really does
depend and actually the ball goes back into the CFP and to the financial
advisors court because our responsibility is just to
review, to work along with the financial advisor and to see whether or not

(13:47):
what we're doing on our side will work for them. So let me give an
example. It's not wise for us to say, okay, maybe you shouldn't have this type
of investment or not, because it depends on their risk on so many
different factors, the long term goals. So that ball really does depend
on the CFP, the financial advisor making a portfolio and us
working with them to make certain that we are keeping taxes in mind

(14:09):
as they build those portfolios out. And
I, I was thinking about, I don't want to leave like this open
loop. I'll ask all our panelists.
Do you guys, are you familiar with this Permanent Portfolio or
the Golden Butterfly Portfolio? I will confess that
I've been at this for 26 years. I didn't know.

(14:38):
No, I mean we're golden wealth strategies, but we don't
implement the Golden Butterfly portfolio. Our
portfolios actually are typically called all weather
portfolios. Okay, so
yeah, maybe not that well known. The
permanent portfolio created by Harry Brown,

(14:58):
an investor advice investment advisor and author, introduced
this in the 1980s. And it's designed to
preserve and grow, grow wealth with minimum volatility.
Some say that it's a little overly conservative, but his allocation
is 25% stocks. That's for growth, 25%
bonds to protect against deflation and recessions,

(15:21):
25% in cash or short term treasuries,
and 25% in gold for inflation or
currency crises. And then the Golden
Butterfly portfolio, which sounds very cool,
popularized by the financial blogger Tyler at
Portfolio Charts. It's slightly more aggressive and growth oriented

(15:43):
compared to the permanent portfolio. And that allocation is 20%
total stock market, 20% small cap value stocks,
20% long term bonds, 20% short term bonds or
cash, and 20% gold. So together.
We've all learned something today.

(16:04):
There's also a Golden Ratio Portfolio that is
a risk parity strategy put together, I believe, by Frank
Vasquez of Risk Parity Radio. And
so there's all kinds of these golden portfolios that I didn't know much about
before today. I love it. We're all learning together.
Let's go to segment two. Estate taxes can take

(16:27):
up to 40% of wealth above the federal exemption unless you
plan ahead. The current federal estate and gift tax
exemption is $13.99 million per person
in 2024 and set to rise to $15 million
per person in 2026, indexed for inflation.
That's still high by historical standards, but Congress can change it

(16:48):
anytime. And state estate taxes often kick in at much
lower thresholds. Strategic trusts remain essential
tools for preserving family wealth. Spousal Lifetime
Access Trust, also known as SLATs, move assets out of
your taxable estate while allowing indirect spousal access. Grantor
Retained Annuity Trusts GRATs transfer future asset

(17:11):
appreciation to heIRS at little or no gift tax cost. Ideal
for assets likely to grow rapidly. An Irrevocable
Life Insurance Trust, or ILIT, keep life insurance
proceeds outside the estate so the policy delivers full benefit
to heIRS tax free. Dynasty Trusts protect wealth
across generations, avoiding estate and generation skipping

(17:33):
transfer taxes. When structured properly, Charitable Remainder
Trusts combine tax deductions, lifetime income and philanthropic
impact. Each trust is a legal IRS recognized
strategy, not a loophole. Done right, they preserve value,
maintain control and honor your intent with exemptions
still generous but politically vulnerable. Timing and precision matter

(17:55):
for modern legacy planning. Kem,
with your background as an IRS agent and tax journalist, are
there specific things people need to know about the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act that was passed this year?
So a lot of big things when it comes to the Big beautiful Bill when

(18:17):
it comes to the state of course that the amounts are a little bit higher
this year. So that's something to keep in mind. A second thing to keep in
mind is determining how your assets of course are title upon death.
That's something also to keep in mind and I think a big thing when it
comes to tax planning. If you think that a state made taxes may
of course impact you, you want to not only look at your portfolio, your

(18:38):
investments, your different type of assets, but you also want to see how your tax
also on a state level too as well. Some states also have
different type of taxes. Estate taxes are and also inheritance taxes
and may impact you. And last but certainly not least, you want to think about
step up basis and things of that nature that could really impact capital
gains this year as well. Elaborate a little more on

(18:59):
the titling of accounts. Is that beneficiaries or something
more? It definitely depends and also depends on the
state too as well. And it's actually more of a legal type of situation versus
a CPA. But it's a good idea to meet with an attorney
and look at your different assets and see how they are titled, especially if you
are in a community property state, whether or not it qualifies a step up basis

(19:22):
upon debt and things of that nature. So that's very important that you sit down
with an attorney to see how it is titled because of course, especially
if you're in a property in the state rented as community property driven,
you may be of course responsible for different type of rules and you want to
just make sure that you're aware of those things at that. Jacqueline, what
should people consider when using life

(19:44):
insurance inside estate planning today?
Yes, Ms. Kemberly was touching on some really good points there
that stepped up basis. I just want to highlight that because that is really
key when it comes to your estate planning. We kind of zoom out and
look at estate planning as a whole. My fear is that
everyone who is listening to this is part of the 70% of

(20:07):
Americans that don't actually have any estate documents in place.
You don't have a will, you don't have a trust, you don't have powers of
attorney. So we need to get those blanket baseline
documents done first. Okay. But when we're looking at using
life insurance inside of your estate plan, there's a lot
of different things that we can look at. FIRStly, we want to look at what

(20:28):
your end goal is. Okay. So I'm asking my clients,
what are you trying to leave behind as a legacy?
That's the first place that we're going to go to to get checked as
a box when it comes to life insurance needs and filling that
into your estate plan. Okay. So beyond that, there
are other ways that you can use life insurance inside of your

(20:51):
financial or retirement plan to help achieve your financial
goals. And the good thing about working with someone like anybody on this
panel is that we can help you identify and and really flesh out
what those goals are. Because when it comes to life
insurance, there is so much information on the Internet.
We know that recently that Index Universal Life or that IUL

(21:13):
policy got really, really popular and I was getting a lot
of calls and a lot of questions about it. Now it's a great
tool, but it's not for everybody. And one of the things
that we can do is look at the index universal life policy a little bit
closer. Okay. What it does is it allows your family to get
that tax free benefit after you pass. Right. That's how life

(21:35):
insurance works generally. But as we look at this as a hybrid
policy, it's something that you can also use while you're living. So when
it comes to your estate plan and your legacy plan, I
ask clients, do you want to be a burden
on your family? Do you want your family to be able to
facilitate care or provide care? Those are two different things.

(21:58):
And so maybe we utilize that indexed universal life insurance
because it allows you to use it while you're living. Right. For
certain reasons. Retirement or what they call living
benefits inside. So critical illness, chronic illness, terminal
illness, there's certain reasons. We've got to read the fine print on that policy,
but maybe that's something that you want to implement inside of your estate

(22:20):
plan. Okay. So there is no one size fits all. But I
think the biggest thing I want you to take away from this is to actually
get your documents down on paper. On the PBS
show, we actually highlighted estate planning and we
sat down with an attorney based in Georgia, and he talked us through
all of the pitfalls and the particular

(22:42):
clients that we had on the show, the mentees, they had young,
minor children. And so we talked through the process of not
having those documents on file. So I would say that's the very first
step that you need to take is getting these documents actually in place.
Dana, what are your thoughts? Wow, I couldn't say it any
better. I don't even know what to add to that. But I love

(23:06):
what Jacqueline said about getting those basic documents in order.
I also second what Kemberly said about the titling
of accounts. And so, you know, some specific examples of that.
We see retirees who want to add an adult
child to the title of their home, not realizing
that by doing so that would perhaps prohibit that

(23:29):
adult child from receiving what is called that step up in cost
basis. And so there can be mistakes. I have a
classic case that I talk about where, you know,
a client, second marriage, she was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer. They went to an attorney, they got a trust set up, but
her primary Asset was a 401k plan. And they never changed

(23:51):
the beneficiary on that 401k plan. Everything was supposed to be
allocated, you know, 30% or 1/3
each to her husband and her two children from the previous marriage.
Well, the 401k plan defaulted to spouse. There was
no way to change it. She passed away. The husband did the right
thing, distributed the assets, but he had to pay tax at a much

(24:13):
higher rate. And you know, those are just some small examples
of, of things that can happen when you don't carefully go through
and make sure that the titling and the beneficiaries actually align
with your goals. There's one other example that
recently that came to mind. We had an 84 year old
client, she went into a nursing home, she owned a condo,

(24:36):
savvy adult children that we were able to work with who realized that,
you know, they had to pay a pretty substantial buy
in for the care facility that she went into. And rather than liquidate
assets, which would have caused a lot of capital
gains taxes, that they borrowed against the portfolio to do
that. And that allowed them. She, she also,

(24:59):
in an odd turn of events, had pancreatic cancer. And so when she
passed, they were able to get that step up in cost basis on those
assets. So the borrowing cost was about 70,000. The tax
savings that resulted was about 250,000. And
those are examples of how working with people like
qualified professionals on this call can save real money.

(25:22):
When someone can help you navigate those.
Yes, planning can make a significant difference. Anybody else want to
add to the conversation? I was going to say we were talking a
little bit about what kinds of trusts you can use
and those advanced trusts. I will say that a lot of
my clients are starting with what's called the donor advised funds.

(25:45):
And so what the donor advised fund is, is this is
an account that you can open at a brokerage.
And the money that you actually contribute into that
don advised account can give you that tax deduction
and you can actually carry that forward five years. Correct me if I'm wrong,
really, but you can go ahead and make that donation to that

(26:07):
donor advised fund. So a lot of my clients who are at the required
minimum distribution age, okay. And trust me, I know all of
us, we think we won't get there, we won't get to 72, 73,
75. And then once you get there, you're like, oh, wow,
I have a bigger tax bill than I was expecting. And this is one of
those ways that you can fill that gap is using that donor advice fund. And

(26:29):
so you can actually contribute that money to that donor advised fund
again, take that tax deduction. Now what you are doing is you
are giving away that money. So while you have the rights to know where
that money is going to go, you get to dictate that you
no longer have access to that so you can't send that money back to
you. So it is something that is irreversible. But it's another

(26:51):
strategy that you may want to look at if you really don't want to pay
those required minimum distributions and you are giving
at this stage in your life. Thank you for that.
Let's move on to segment three. Wealth without
structure is a liability. LLCs create legal separation
between you and the assets you control, turning potential personal

(27:13):
losses into isolated incidents. Unlike sole
proprietorships, which leave all assets exposed, a well formed
LLC shields against both inside and outside liability.
One rental property, one LLC. Add a holding company,
preferably in Wyoming, and the structure becomes resistant to aggressive
lawsuits. Creditors face only charging orders, a weak

(27:35):
legal claim on future distributions. Risk is
compartmentalized. Assets are insulated, but protection
isn't permanent by default. Fail to follow formalities.
Commingle funds ignore corporate structure and the court can
pierce the veil. The structure crumbles. Done right though,
LLCs, holding companies, and series wrappers act as a

(27:56):
firewall not to hide assets, but to preserve them. This is
not complexity for complexity's sake. It's operational security for
anyone serious about wealth preservation.
Jacqueline, when working with entrepreneurs or investors, how do you
explain the importance of separating those personal and business

(28:18):
assets? It's very important not to,
as the IRS calls it, commingle funds. I don't want to steal
the shine from Ms. Kemberly today because typically I will refer them
to one of our CPAs and say, hey, we want to make sure
everything you have is in order, but it's important that you are not,
of course, joining those funds together. But one of the

(28:41):
having a legal structure in place for clients is really key as we're
going through all of their retirement planning. So whether that means
we need to implement some sort of corporate structure or
entity or if we need to implement a trust for you,
a donor advised fund, all of this helps you manage your
taxes not only today but in the future because we're all planning for

(29:04):
the long term. Okay, let's turn to Kem then.
Kem, how do tax benefits change when moving assets
into something like an LLC or holding company?
So first I'll say this is that a lot of people don't realize that
just having an LLC doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be
taxed different. So let me give you an example. You may be a sole proprietor

(29:27):
and you may create an LLC. Well, if you're a sole proprietor,
typically the default, you'll still file the Schedule C as a sole proprietor
Whether or not you had the LLC or not, whether changes comes in, is that
you make an election as a sole proprietor and say, hey, IRS, I like to
be taxed as an S corporation. So I'll complete these forms submitted to the
IRS and that sole proprietor now is taxed as an S

(29:48):
corporation. So that's why it's a good idea to say, okay, I'm an LLC,
but how should I be taxed? You know, sit down with a CPA and see
what works best and what would actually reduce and minimize the taxes. The
second thing I'm going to piggyback off of Jackie, just as she mentioned, is that
it is very important to not only make certain that you're keeping the
personal assets separate from the business, but from IRA

(30:11):
standpoint too, is that one of the rules is that if you are
commingling, let's say you have a personal bank account and you're
under audit and you have some co mingled funds, the IRS
now has the right. They can look at the business account and a personal account.
So now your personal account just got messy because now they're looking there
because they want to see if any business income has been deposited. So if you

(30:33):
just keep that separate, that can help you a great deal, because of course, it
can kind of limit where the IRS auditor will look at. And so I think
that's the biggest takeaway is that make certain that you are separating those assets,
but also making certain that if you do have an LLC, LLC is more of
a legal structure or protection, but you do want to sit down with a tax
planner and say, hey, how should it be taxed? That's a whole other

(30:56):
story. Great to sit down with a tax advisor before having problems.
That way you can do things optimally. Dana, what do you
look for when evaluating whether a client's legal structure
supports their retirement goals? You know, it's
interesting because we don't work with a lot of business owners. The
typical client that we work with is someone coming out of corporate America

(31:19):
who has accumulated money in their retirement accounts
or they used to have a business and have since sold it or began working
with us right around the time they sold it. And so we don't deal a
lot with entities. But I can tell you from a personal standpoint,
I have an entity. I have several entities, actually.
And definitely we worked with our CPA to set up the structure.

(31:42):
We are an LLC taxes and S Corp. And from an
asset protection standpoint, I went through a lawsuit that began in
2012. A bizarre situation had nothing to do with the client.
And it really woke me up as to, you meet the wrong
person at the wrong time and you never know what's going to
happen. And so I had gone down a path of working with an attorney

(32:05):
and really looking at asset protection strategies. Now those can be
relevant for high risk people who are entrepreneurs that
are at risk of being sued, people in the medical profession.
And those are things I think people do want to look at. And it could
be simple things like fully funding IRAs.
I got in a conversation with a colleague the other day about non

(32:26):
deductible IRAs, and they were like, why would you do that? Why would you
put something where now it's going to be taxed as ordinary income instead if you
put it in a brokerage account, it'd be taxed as capital gains. And I said,
asset protection. I want to put every dollar possible into
those accounts that are offering creditor protection. And
then there can be things like annuities and life insurance that are have

(32:47):
certain creditor protections depending on the state. You have to always work with an
attorney and understand your state laws, and then you can move up to
things like limited liability, limited partnerships. So I
had gone and worked with my attorney to set up one of those. Now
they involve a lot of complexity and how you fund them and how you
structure them properly. And in hindsight, I don't know

(33:10):
that all that complexity is worth it for simpler situations. I
think there may be simpler ways to get asset protection in place without
the additional complexity. But this is a case of each person
working with their advisor, you know, understanding you hear this over from
all of us, understanding their individual circumstances, their individual
risk factors, and then figuring out the strategies that make

(33:32):
sense for them. Kem, any record keeping, best
practices that you can share to help people to preserve
asset protection and avoid IRS
issues?
Okay. One thing that I often tell small business owners particularly is

(33:56):
that if you're keeping your books by yourself, sometimes we really
just see that, right? At the very least, I tell everybody, at the very
least, this is so helpful. Set up one bank account for your
business only. Use it for everything for your business. So, meaning that
even if you're just starting out and you don't have enough money to
take care of certain expenses, always transfer money in and use that

(34:18):
one account. And that means that even at the end of the year, even if
you didn't do a good job of bookkeeping, a good job of tracking your
accounting and expenses, you can always go to that one bank account. And
the great thing about that, just like as what I alluded to earlier, if
everything is that one account and IRS does audit you, they will not go
into any other account because you had this one business account, all income

(34:41):
has been reported there. You made certain that everything was deposited. Make sure everything
was deducted or expenses were taken out this account. That's
another safeguarding. Just one easy way to put everything in one place. Even
if you don't do any record keeping throughout the year.
Keep it simple. K.I.S. Yes.

(35:02):
Okay, so let's go to the Next segment. Segment 4.
Traditional giving separates wealth creation from doing good. The modern
approach merges them. ESG investing filters for companies that
actively manage risks tied to environmental harm, poor labor
practices and weak governance risks that can lead to lawsuits,
regulation or collapse. Impact investing goes further.

(35:24):
It channels capital into solutions. Clean energy,
microfinance, sustainable infrastructure designed to generate
financial returns and measurable outcomes. These aren't donations.
They are targeted growth strategies. ESG aligned funds have
shown stronger performance during downturns and reduced volatility.
Impact capital often enters high demand, underserved markets with

(35:47):
upside potential. This isn't values versus returns,
it's forward thinking allocation. The global transition to
sustainable systems is underway. Ignoring this shift is ignoring
future opportunity. The modern portfolio aims not just to grow,
but to endure and influence. Done right, it becomes a
double return. Profit and purpose, resilience and relevance.

(36:15):
Jacqueline, on My Money
Mentors, you speak to younger generations. How do you see
millennials and Gen Z shaping the future of
ESG and impact investing? It's been
exciting to watch this next generation become
investors. Right. We had Robinhood, which came out, it's been

(36:36):
almost 10 years now and has increased in popularity pretty
quickly. And so we've seen a lot of younger people
get really excited about this. For example,
I was speaking at a young
group, they were middle school, high school, it was a girls group. And
one of the girls, she was 16 and she started

(36:58):
asking me very detailed questions about what a Roth account is
and how to use it and how to start investing, which is way
beyond, you know, the typical years for somebody
investing. So it's been exciting to see this next generation. And
one thing that this next generation is very interested in is
this ESG investing. And so with

(37:20):
the sustainable investing options, one of the easiest
things to do is be able to go online and find
these either ETF or mutual funds where they
invest in companies that are focused on sustainable growth.
And, you know, I'm excited to see how this
plays out. You know, this is a relatively new kind of

(37:43):
wrapper, so it's been interesting to watch. I love hearing
that a 15 year old's asking you about Roth Iras. No better time
to contribute than when they have that first earned income
that they can get started. You make a good point about that
because I had a client last week who actually she was a prospective

(38:03):
client. And so we met and she's running through her accounts with me and she
tells me that her six year old son has a custodial Roth.
And they said, oh, that's interesting. He's been working. She's like,
no, he's six. I said, six year olds can
actually work and earn income, but they have to earn income in order to
contribute to that custodial Roth account. So it's very key

(38:26):
that they actually have some form of earned income in order to
actually put money inside of that account.
Dana, I think that you're working with older clients since, you
know, you have this focus on retirement. Do you find that
clients want to incorporate a desire for
philanthropy or values based investing? You know, we

(38:48):
do it a little differently. So rather than
focusing on that within the portfolio, we focus on
that with things like Jacqueline talked about. The donor
advised funds within using what are called qualified
charitable distributions from your IRA, which you can
begin as, as early as age 70 and a half. And

(39:10):
so allowing people to, you know, grow their wealth, in
our case a more traditional way where the portfolio is
specifically designed around
a time horizon, a lifetime time horizon, to make sure
that it can deliver the cash flows that are needed. You know, we, we have
a certain portfolio design that we think works really well for that and then

(39:32):
allowing people to take the gains from that portfolio and
contribute those directly to the causes that matter most from
them. So that's our way of doing it, rather than doing it through the, the
underlying portfolio structure. Yeah, that can make sense too.
Kem, have you seen growing interest in ESG from
faith based or value aligned communities?

(39:55):
I would say more from faith based. And I think just thinking about
it, overall you find more people more and more not only thinking about
just ESG, but given more impactful, maybe to a
church on tithes and different things of that nature. And also I was going
to just add, especially this year, that might be important, more important for
so many people with the changes to the Big Beautiful Bill,

(40:17):
no longer can you get the EV tax credit, which a
lot of people of course was thinking about the environment. We're thinking
about, of course, EVs, but as of September 30th, that's gone away. And a lot
of the credits that's available for home improvements and
things of that nature, clean energy also going away this year. I think a
lot of people are thinking on their minds, what else can I do to support

(40:39):
the environment and to be just a good citizen all around.
Are there tax benefits or incentives that
people really need to know about? I mean, you mentioned some of the EV
incentives and Jackie talked
about donor advised funds, but are there specific benefits or incentives that people

(41:00):
need to think about? I think it really does depend on your
situation, but that's a lot of different incentives that you can look at. Right.
And so number one, of course, determine whether or not that.

(41:35):
It
really does depend on your certain situation. And you do want to
speak with a tax planner just to see whether or not you're able to itemize
how you're able to take these charitable contributions. Maybe you may want to do it
on a higher level here in the state of Louisiana. You also want to look
at the state because we also have something where you can give to certain

(41:58):
organizations that may meet a cause or something that's dear to
your heart. And you don't have to pay the state tax liability. If you do
that, you can do it in place. So not only do you get the deduction
on the state side and then also on the federal side, but then now it
wipes away your state tax liability. There's so many different ways that you can look
at it and that's why it's a good idea just to sit down and say,
okay, these are my goals. What options may be available to me?

(42:22):
Anybody else want to add? I will say I opened a
donor advised fund for the first time this year because of
some of the tax changes in the new tax bill. So
they are eliminating starting next year in
2026. It's a half a percent of AGI. You don't get to
take the deduction for the first half percent of, of your AGI toward

(42:44):
charitable contributions and they're capping the deduction. So
a deduction that would fall into the 37% tax rate will now be
capped at the 35% deduction rate. Kind of
technical, but for high income earners now could be
a great year to front load your charitable contributions.
You won't get as much benefit for the deduction next year.

(43:07):
And so that's something to talk over with your planners and your
CPAs. Well worth mentioning. And one of the benefits of the donor
advice fund, because you can time your contribution
in a year that's advantageous to you.
So let's, let's bring it home and go to the last segment.
Getting rich requires risk. Staying rich requires discipline,

(43:30):
the skills that build wealth. Aggressive growth, high equity
exposure, don't preserve it. At a certain point, the game shifts.
Capital preservation means lowering volatility, reducing
drawdowns, and defending against sequence risk, the silent
threat that can destroy a portfolio during early withdrawals.
Cash, once dismissed, becomes critical. Bonds

(43:52):
offer ballast. Alternatives like gold and market neutral funds
add resilience. The focus shifts from chasing alpha to securing
stability. It's not about beating benchmarks, it's about protecting
purchasing power. Over time, losses hurt more than gains help.
A 50% loss requires 100% recovery. That
math defines the new rules. Asset allocation rebalances,

(44:14):
liquidity increases. Diversification becomes surgical. This
isn't about fear. It's about control. Wealth is no longer built.
It's protected, preserved and positioned for longevity. The
mission? Avoid big mistakes and stay in the game.

(44:35):
Kem, what tax strategies do you recommend for minimizing
drawdown impact during retirement? I think
that one thing is that you want to think about the long term game
early on, meaning meeting with the financial planner, meeting with the financial
advisor early on when he's setting up the retirement. So that when you get to
the time that it's now time to start taking those withdrawals, you'll have

(44:57):
a plan in place, how much taxes. And you also want to make sure that
you're doing it timely because if not, of course it could come with a large
tax penalty as well. So that's why it's a good idea to have that
team early on. And then something else that you may want to consider when it
comes to that. You want to determine what type of different type of
assets when it comes to retirement, whether it be taxable, what is non

(45:20):
taxable, how are you going to set up Roth iras and just looking at the
whole game and determining once it comes to that age, how are you going to
start withdrawing and how it does impact your taxes.
Dana, is there a turning point where you tell clients it's time to
focus less on growth and more on preservation?

(45:40):
Yeah, you know, my ideal starting point is you would stay
100% equities until 10 years away from retirement. And then
you would start a very gradual approach of de risking
along with looking at taxes. And so that you're, you're
beginning about 10 years away from retirement to align that
portfolio toward that future tax efficient distribution

(46:02):
strategy. Now, ideally is one thing,
reality is another thing. So we find that most people
come in about five, if we're lucky, maybe three,
sometimes one year before they get serious about retirement. We're always
like, oh, if we just could have tweaked these few things a few years ago.
But you work with what you have, you take steps to make it more

(46:24):
tax efficient. You take steps to align the portfolio to draw
down. At whatever stage, you kind of wake up and go, oh, I really need
to take a look at this. Retirement is upon me.
And Jackie. Jackie, what, what's your number one rule for
clients who want to stay rich, not just get rich?

(46:45):
The video started off by saying that staying rich really requires
discipline. And it requires discipline. It also
requires some strategy. Because my family, the reason why
I'm a financial advisor is because we hired a financial
advisor when we got money and then with
poor financial advice, all that money was gone within about four years.

(47:06):
So it requires some discipline. Absolutely. But you got to have the
right strategy in place. And so when it comes to preserving
your wealth for the long term and helping my clients who are in the pre
retirement and retirement phase, I like what Dana was saying about,
hey, we look 10 years out, start to reduce the risk, risk
off table as we get closer. But I will

(47:29):
say that we do that as well. We do that too. But one of the
things that we're looking at is answering the biggest question that most of our
clients have, which is, is my money going to last
me throughout retirement? And it's an
eye opening day for retirees to know that you're going to
spend a third of your life in retirement. And so we

(47:51):
want to be very concrete about what we're doing here when you
decide to tell your job, hey, I'm not coming back anymore. And
so we want to make sure that we're answering that question
of how we're going to preserve your wealth and how your
account should be allocated, how all of your assets. We want to look at everything
from real estate to your portfolios, whether they're taxable or

(48:14):
tax deferred, and then figuring out how you can make Your
entire portfolio1, give you the income that you need for the long
term. But to be really tax efficient.
I'm going to just go around the panel really quickly. I'll start With Kem,
if you could give one piece of advice to someone maybe
five years from retirement, what would that be?

(48:37):
Oh, I would say someone five years from retirement, I would really just
say review your portfolio. And the reason why I say that is because I've
seen many times, and again, this is a financial planner
issue, is that many people, portfolios may be too
heavy in equities, as Dana mentioned early on, and it's
kind of like a fix it and forget it. And of course, if something happened

(48:58):
five years to retirement, they may lose it all. And
so I would say definitely, definitely sit down, meet with the financial planner advisor
and then look at your entire team too, as far as beneficiaries
updating that information in case, of course, something would happen during that
period of time, especially if you set up those accounts early on.
Thank you. How about you, Dana? You know, the

(49:21):
fIrstt thing that comes to my mind is really to be open minded about working
with professionals. I've seen so many posts
around almost shaming people that they're not doing it
themselves, or you're shaming them because they don't know more
about portfolio design or tax planning or that you can do it all
yourself. And I don't quite understand. We don't shame people for the

(49:42):
kind of car they buy or the kind of house they want to live in,
or, you know, for hiring a house cleaner or maybe for hiring a personal
trainer. So know yourself, if you love this stuff and you
love doing spreadsheets and research, you know, you may be well
suited to doing it yourself. But a lot of people are not. And it
is perfectly okay to seek professional help. It is worth paying

(50:04):
for. It does offer a tremendous amount of value. And the closer
you get to retirement, the more value that can offer in terms of just
your, your mental health, your peace of mind, the, the sense of
calm that you feel as you enter this new phase of life.
And Jaclyn, there's a couple things to look at.
Firstly, 70% of millionaires in the US use

(50:28):
a financial advisor. So I think some of the proof is in the pudding.
But the way that we put it is I like to think of it as
your own personal investing Mount Everest. Okay? So think about your
entire life and some of your financial journey like this, okay? At
the top of your personal Mount Everest is a little flag.
And that flag says retirement. And so you have worked all of

(50:50):
your life to get up the hill to get to this retirement flag. You've been
in the accumulation phase. You've said no to all the fancy
dinners, you've said, you know, the kids can't have everything that they
want because you've been putting that money away or you've been
investing that time and you've been collect, you will now
collect a pension down the line, right? So the goal is to get to the

(51:12):
retirement flat. Now, if you think about Mount Everest,
you actually need a Sherpa to help you get up and
down Mount Everest. Why? Because more people pass
away going down the mountain than actually going up the mountain.
So once we get to that retirement phase and we grab that flag and we
want to go down the mountain, we want to make sure that we get down

(51:33):
safely, not that we trip, fall, you know, and have some
hiccups that happen with our finances prematurely. So you really want to
make sure that you have a guide and you have support and somebody
there that can help you so that you're not paying too
much in taxes. Right. You're not losing
sight of your portfolio. Because if we go back to that

(51:55):
60/40 portfolio with William Bengen, his research
shows that if you are to retire in the down
market year with that 60/40 portfolio, you have a lower
chance of success. And we want you to have a successful retirement.
So it's really key that you have support there, somebody that
can help you during that tumultuous time.

(52:17):
Dana, I just wanted to see if you had anything to add because
before we went live, you were sharing that you're more of a mountain person than
an ocean person, but you have real world experience when it comes
to hiking the mountains. I, I was, before
we started, I was talking to Andy about a Mont Blanc hike
we did. So it's 100 mile circuit of Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps this

(52:39):
summer. And so, yes, I am a mountain person. And that's why I
love this Mount Everest analogy. It's beautiful.
It's so appropriate. So I ha my hats off to you.
I love that analogy. It's great. And
I just wanted to remind everybody that William Bengan was
a guest on Inspired Money. I, I was trying to

(53:01):
look up what episode number and I can't get that on the
fly. But yeah, if you Google, what's
that? Yeah, I saw his name come up on your list of people you interviewed.
So I haven't seen it yet, but I'll go back and watch it for sure.
He was great. So. Yeah, go ahead. He has a new book. If you
haven't read it, I just finished it last week. I'm talking to him this

(53:23):
Friday and I'M going to be doing an article on it, but it's really
interesting. It's technical, but it's, you know, there's the new
safe withdrawal right now, which is a little higher than the old safe withdrawal rate.
And he tells the history of how it came about. It's good stuff. It's good
to have that data driven evidence. So thank you everybody for
joining us today. This has been a really powerful and I

(53:45):
think value packed conversation. One of my
favorite takeaways is that wealth preservation is not about
doing everything all at once. It's about taking the next right
step to protect what you've built. Whether it's revisiting your
portfolio allocation, setting up a trust, or exploring
impact investments, it all starts with intentional planning.

(54:08):
So here's my challenge to you this week. Choose one area
of your finances that feels exposed and commit to
addressing it. Maybe that means calling your financial planner.
Maybe it's researching asset protection strategies. Or maybe
it's just finally scheduling that estate planning meeting that you've been putting
off. Small, consistent actions beat waiting for

(54:30):
the perfect time every time. So your future
self will thank you, your family will thank you. And
if you found value in today's discussion, please share this episode with a friend,
leave us a review and subscribe so that you never miss a
conversation that can help you become a
wealthier and better investor.

(54:52):
A few more things before you leave. I want to make sure that
we connect on LinkedIn. Find me by searching Advisor
Andy. I think I'm approaching 20,000 followers
there, so I hope that you're among them. If you are. Thank you so much.
Inspired Money is created and produced by me and Bradley Jon
Eaglefeather. Bradley's behind the scenes during the live stream and he

(55:14):
edited the segments. Chad Lawrence does our graphics, animations
and editing. And last and certainly not least, I
want to give a big shout out to our amazing guests. Go
follow their work and keep learning from the best. Dana
Anspa, CFP RMA. You can find
her@siblemoney.com and check out her book Control youl

(55:36):
for Retirement Destiny. It's a must read for anyone mapping out
a reliable retirement plan. Jacqueline
Shadick, CFP AWMA. You can learn
more@goldenws.com I hope I got that website
correct. You can. Or make sure that you watch
her show My Money Mentors. And that's her Emmy

(55:58):
nominated show Empowering Young Adults with Financial Literacy.
Kemberly Chemsense, Washington, CPA. I think she had to hop
off for her next meeting, but head over to
Kemberly.com and look for her book the Ten Commandments to Financial
Healing for practical money wisdom. Does
anyone have anything that they want to plug or share?

(56:22):
No, you plugged it all. I appreciate you. Glad I could be here and
wishing everybody the best of luck on your financial journey.
Thank you for that. Thank you. Yeah, I was just saying.
Yeah, I second that. I just thank you so much for having me. And one
thing I would say, I'm starting a new site. It's called Tax News to Go.
So all things tax is made simple. Tax News to Go. All

(56:45):
right. Well, thank you to our panelists for sharing the
insights and their wisdom today. And thank you, Inspired Money
Maker, for joining us. Inspired Money returns
next week, Wednesday. I think that's going to be October
1st, 1pm I'm juggling topics right now
to see who's available. I think the topic is going to be investing in yourself,

(57:08):
personal development for financial and personal growth. Whatever
the topic is, it's going to be a good one. Look forward to seeing you
then. Until next time, do something that scares you because that's where
the magic happens. Thanks, everyone.

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