Haven Financial Group Radio - 12/21/25

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You worked hard for your money, but do you know
how to make it work hard for you. You need
a team with experience, vigilance, and a strategy to help
you live the retirement you deserve. Find your financial safe
haven with Haven Financial Group. Today, you're listening to the
new and improved Haven Financial Group Radio Show, where we
bring you comprehensive weekly financial wisdom from the professionals. It's

(00:23):
all about helping you solve retirement problems so you can
make your nest egg last. Your tune to the Haven
Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kolbig and
Kim Karrigan your guides to weekly retirement confidence. If you're
interested in protecting and growing what you have, let us
be your financial safe haven. The full nines are always

(00:43):
open at six point two, five oh four eighty four hundred.
Now get your financial questions ready because the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show starts now.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Good morning and welcome to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.
I'm Larry kolvigphone and CEO of the Haven Financial Group.
Thanks for listening. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you.
Kyle Thomas is on with us today, certified financial planner
on the Haven of investment team. And if you're listening
and we're talking about something, or if you have questions, worries,
concerns about your situation, retirement, or any of these retirement

(01:18):
topics which we've talked about for years, feel free to
give us a call at six one two five zero
four eighty four hundred, visit us online at Hanfinanciergroup dot com,
come to our classes, or shoot us an email info
at Hanfinancialgroup dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Our job description is.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Really to answer questions, and oftentimes people have questions for
years and they don't ask them. Why not get those
questions answered. It's as simple as that.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Kyle and Larry, it's so great to be with the
two of you again this week. And the subject that
we're going to talk about is one that I think
a lot of people over this holiday season are probably
talking about with their spouses and with their children. This
is the time of year when a lot of kids

(02:05):
seniors in high school are either applying or finding out
early about.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
The college destination.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
And I don't know about you, Larry, although I feel
like I probably do. Kyle doesn't know this yet, but
your house is certainly one of your big.

Speaker 5 (02:19):
Expenses in your life.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
If you are so lucky that you can send your
children to college, that has become an expense in this
day and age that is, let's just say, much greater
than what our parents face.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
That is for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Oh my, you said that very eloquently. Of course, you
know that.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
My wife and Rachelle and I have four daughters, Paris
who's in med school in North Carolina in the thick
of it, and identical twins.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
I just turned twenty three here last week.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
They both graduated from private colleges and one is going
to go off to med school, and a nineteen year
old that's living her best life at the University of Kansas.
So you could say, I know, we know college expenses
extremely well, Kyle not so much with two little ones.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Anybody should be planning with him and knowing him.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
He is planning so that it is start early because
it gets here much quicker than we think it does,
and it's super expensive.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Mind it is it is. We can only hope for
Kyle that by the time his children are ready to
go to college, maybe it circled back and started to
come down a little bit more.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
Because you and I, Larry, we got hit right in
the prime of high.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Tuition that is for certain sure, let's talk a little
bit about this because this impacts young people like Kyle
right now, who are planning for his retirement, but he's
also college planning. It impacts people who are getting ready
to send their kids away to college and maybe did
not plan the way they had.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Hoped to or wanted to. And certainly a lot of
times impacts people who are.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
In their retirement years and they're trying to help out
maybe grandchildren, or maybe they're still trying to pay off
those college debts. So let's talk just a little bit
about all of that. Will begin with college planning situations today,
we're going to talk about rules and strategies for the
five twenty nine. We'll also talk about universal life insurance

(04:24):
for college and other expenses, which is something that's really
sort of new to me anyway and kind of a
cool option. And then finally, wealth stability in family finance.
Let's get started. It's never if you're married, Larry, I
would say that you're going to say it's never too
soon to start planning for college.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Twitch it never is. It's never.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Just like we say, it's never too early to start planning.
Putting money away for retirement, you know. But the question is,
I mean, how much money disposable income do you have
to do all this? But it is important because the
power of compound over time can really add up to
at least help with the college cost. Now, nobody said
parents have to pay for all of college. My wife

(05:08):
and I over the years have had a great debate
when it comes to this, because you know, my parents
made me have skin in the game, and I'm the believer.
I'm of the belief that skin in the game is
important because it keeps the kids involved in what they're doing.
It's not a free lunch out there, and they take
it a little more seriously. But yeah, the sooner you

(05:29):
can start putting moneies away for those little ones five
twenty nine plans whatever those either or rots, there's a
variety of ways you can do it, UTMAH or UGMA
type of accounts. The sooner the better, you know. I
just was reading that the average college tuition has increased

(05:49):
almost two hundred percent since nineteen sixty three.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Almost two hundred percent. That's a really steep number.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
You know, I did my four You're at Bethel College
here in the Twin Cities, and I remember it was
twelve thousand a year. Well, one of my daughters just
graduated from there and it was sixty five thousand dollars
a year. My goodness, I can't stress enough the power
of putting away whatever you can, if that's important. Now,

(06:21):
I will also say that nobody says you have to
go to college, and there's a great debate out there
that says, you know, is it worth all that money
because student loan debt.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
You know, I'm well.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Aware of folks that come out of college with a
whole bunch of student loan debt and they can't find
a job.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
So again, everybody is different.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
You know.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I'm still big into the education piece. I'm still big
into the grades. I think there's merit to that, there's
value in it. I know my daughter says that her
counselor at college says, well, nobody looks at your grades. Well,
I beg to differ a little bit on that. I
think maybe she was just trying to sell me a
bill of goods there. But at the end of the day,

(07:02):
I value education. I think it gives you a better opportunity,
a better chance. Certainly, studies show higher income potential, but again,
at what cost.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
That's what you really got away.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Absolutely, I've known a lot of people through the years
who have decided that they would get their undergraduate It
may be a local college and then maybe get a
you know, a graduate degree at a college with a
bigger name, because of those undergraduate degrees so frequently equal.
You know, no matter where you go, you're still getting

(07:36):
those those basics. But wow, it has gotten crazy. And
as I said off the top, and you just said
it as well, Larry, you know, it's not the same
cost that it used to be. So how do you
go about starting to save and thinking about what it
might be for you know, children who right now maybe

(07:56):
are in middle school. What what is that that cost
it's going to be. So let's talk to you a
little bit about this, Kyle, because you've got little ones.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
Where are you guys going about it? What are you
thinking about?

Speaker 6 (08:07):
Yeah, well, I mean right now, I got a two
and a half year old and a son who just
turned to one, So it's definitely on our minds, even
though we're a good sixteen years away minimum from that.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
So but you have to start early.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
You know, one of the one of the biggest things
you can do is to start early because now you
have that compounding interest of whatever you're saving and it
has more time to grow in the market to help,
you know, ease that burden of college. And you know,
like Larry said it, you know, you don't have to
pay for all of college, right you can. You can

(08:45):
help your children out or grandchildren out, and hopefully they
get some grants and other things like that that can
make those payments easier, or you know, they could they
could chip into you know, so they can have some
skin in the game. But you know, the the tuitions
have gone up dramatically, and that two hundred percent increase

(09:06):
that Larry had mentioned, that's also an inflation adjusted number.
So that means, you know, if we equalize the time
periods here, that means, if you paid ten thousand dollars
in nineteen sixty three for college, you're paying you're actually
paying thirty thousand dollars for that same degree in nineteen
sixty three for college. So that's not including any inflation numbers.

(09:30):
That is excluding you know, the inflation aspect there. So
that's just an absurd amount for tuitions to increase, and
we would expect that it would continue that trend. Going forward,
So we need to really put our planning hats on
here and make sure that you know, we can plan

(09:50):
for these tuition costs and that we don't put ourselves
in a hole when our children get to eighteen years
old and they have to start paying these large tuition costs.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
So absolutely, well, a good plan can certainly open some doors,
but you want to make sure that that good plan
does not deplete your retirement and your future as well,
which is something I think happens to a lot of
people on an effort.

Speaker 5 (10:21):
To help their kids.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
So when we come back, we're going to start by
talking about five twenty nine plans.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
I'm sure that many people.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Listening have heard of them, maybe they have already invested
in them, but we're going to sort of walk through
what they are and what some of the rules are.
Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero.
That is how you reach the books six one two, five.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
Zero four eighty four hundred. And you are listening to
the Haven Financial Ladiership.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and retirements.
The Haven Financial Group Radio Show will be right back.
Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tuned
to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host
Larry Kulvig and Kim Karrigan. Now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Welcome back listeners.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
My name is Larry Kolvig, Founder and CEO of the
Haven Financier Group. And if you're just tuning in, you're
listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show where we
discuss crucial retirement and financial topics every single week that
can truly make the difference between surviving retirement and thriving
through these goal in years retirement puzzle pieces I call them.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Do you have all the puzzle pieces?

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Do they all go to the same puzzle or do
you get to the end and you're missing a couple?
And when I say retirement puzzle pieces, the tax planning piece,
tax preparation, a state planning, wealth management, investments, insurance, long
term care, life insurance, medicare, healthcare. And it may sound overwhelming,

(11:56):
but these are all the things we do with Haven
Financier Group, with all the things we can do to
be a resource for you. If you're listening, and it
only takes a phone call six one two five four
eighty four hundred a visit to come on in with us.
No cost, visit for any consultations, all education, and from

(12:16):
there you make an educated decision. While these guys at
Haven are pretty cool or man, their cookies are so good,
I'm just going to come back for cookies and coffee
because we're coffee is not whatever it may be. We're
here ten years in the making, and we'd love to
sit down and visit with you.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
Well, I think that if you're listening and you love
a good cookie, then it's certainly worth the trip. Six
two five zero four eighty four hundred. Let's talk a
little bit more about college planning and what the ways
many families put money away is in five twenty nine plans, Kel,
I'm going to ask you to walk through. People have
heard of these before, but if you're not directly involved,

(12:55):
maybe you don't know all that much about it. It's
still in your future, or maybe it's something you didn't
get involved in in the beginning. Walk everyone through what
these plans are.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
Yeah, So, a five to two nine plan is a
college savings account where it allows for you know, tax
preferential treatment. And what that treatment is is you get
a tax deduction for contributions in the state of Minnesota
up to three thousand dollars per year, So that's a

(13:31):
that's a benefit right there. Now, all of these contributions
can be invested in different types of portfolios, different ratios
of stocks to bonds, so you can pick the risk
profile that works for you. And then once you get
to that age of where you're going to start taking
those funds out for whoever the beneficiary is. As long

(13:52):
as you're using it for qualified education expenses, it's tax free.
All of the growth in there, it's all tax free.
So that's a really powerful tool. If you're contributing for
a number of years and letting it grow for eighteen years,
you know, you could really rack up a sizable account there.

(14:12):
You know, I will mention we also have tools that
can calculate how much you need to save on an
annual basis UH to get to a desired amount if
you if you want to get to say fifty thousand
dollars by the time a child turns eighteen, we can
back into that number and see what you know annual
amount you should be saving for that.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
So and you know, like I.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
Said, the tax benefit for three thousand dollars of a
tax deduction, there's also you know a benefit that grandparents
have for the beneficiaries if they were to do five
two nine. So there is there is a slight benefit
for FAFSA purposes for grandparents to own five two nines

(14:57):
rather than parents and each each you know, parent and
grandparent can get that tax deduction as well. So you know,
if we you know, play the cards right, we could
have a couple different five two nines going on, and
the grandparent one, you know, helps the FAFS a little
better than the parent one does.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
So let's walk.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Through what that money can be used for and what
happens if you don't use that money for college?

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, great question.

Speaker 6 (15:25):
So you can use five to nine money not only
for college, but you can use it for K through
twelve tuition, so kindergarten all the way through high school
if you're at a private school, right, obviously public school
you don't you know, pay for tuition, but up to
ten thousand dollars per year you can use kindergarten through

(15:45):
twelfth grade. You can also use it for student loan repayment,
so you can use up to ten thousand dollars per
beneficiary to pay off student loans. You can also switch
the beneficiaries on these five two nines. So if you
have a five to two nine that's built up, you
use the funds to pay for qualified education expenses for

(16:06):
one beneficiary, and there's still some leftover, you can switch
that beneficiary to whoever you'd like. You could even name
yourself if you wanted to go to culinary school. Right,
that's some fun you could do in retirement. So anything
that's kind of like a further education, you can use it. Right,
but what if we don't have any further education for

(16:26):
any type of person, what do we do with the money.
Then if we have some leftover, well, you could roll
over to a roth ira. So you can choose to
roll five to nine money over to a roth IRA
for the beneficiary that's listed on the account. There are
some caveats to that. You're limited to a lifetime maximum

(16:48):
of thirty five thousand dollars and you're also limited to
the annual contribution limits, so for this year, for example,
seven thousand dollars. So there are ways that you can
use those funds, and that's a completely tax free rollover
to roth If we do not use these funds for

(17:09):
a rollover or for qualified education expenses there are some penalties,
so there's going to be taxes that'll be due on
the gains and there's also going to be a ten
percent penalty on those gains as well. So we really
want to try and use these funds for qualified expenses

(17:30):
or roll it over to ROTH because we're going to
really get hit hard on our gains there if we don't.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Absolutely, Yeah, And Kim l I add frequent listeners to
the show.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Just recently, they listened to the show frequently.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
They decided to come on in and take advantage of
our process and got the privilege of visiting with them,
and they had their kids were not cut out for college,
it didn't work out that way, and they had five
twenty nine plans and we're actively right now helping them
convert that to a ROTH iray just like Kyle mentioned.
So it can be done. But do you have a

(18:07):
partner that you can lean on that will actually help
you do this and walk you through it. That's the
big question mark, and a lot of folks listening they
don't have that partner. We've always said that retirement planning
is more than a meeting once or twice a year
for forty five minutes to an hour. There's just a
variety of things that go into retirement planning. So again,

(18:29):
you deserve the attention you're paying for it. And by
the way, if you don't know what you're paying, you
should know. And again you should be getting the attention
you deserve, and most people are not.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
And Larry, can I come into Haven Financial Group and
you guys can set me up in a five to twenty.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Nine Yeah, we don't.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
We're not doing a whole bunch of five twenty nine's,
but we're helping people with five twenty nine plans.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
We absolutely are.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
So again that if you have questions on that are
questions on anything we're talking about. That's why we're here.
That's why we offer no cost consul to. We'll walk
you through our process. We'll kind of identify what your
goals and objectives, have a discovery meeting and then come
up with a strategy. From there, we'll come up with
some suggestions and recommendations and then if you decide, wow,

(19:13):
that makes perfect sense, it'll be the implement implementation phase.
From then it's just not set in stone and leave it.
It's oh my, we need to make some adjustment life happens.
How many of you know that life doesn't always cooperate
with our calendar. Most of us do know that. So
it's monitoring, it's adjusting it and making changes. And as

(19:33):
life happens, there's going to be changes, good and bad.
But we're here to make those changes and help you
hold your hand and help you navigate through retirement.

Speaker 5 (19:44):
Kyle, can I.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
Ask you you've talked about some of the real positive
things associated with five twenty nine.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
Are there downsides?

Speaker 3 (19:53):
You know?

Speaker 6 (19:54):
The downsides would just be the limited use, right, so
it has to be qualif fight education expenses, and if
you don't have qualified education expenses, then you may have
to get access to the money with the penalties and
the taxes do right, So you know, it.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Is a great tool.

Speaker 6 (20:16):
They have tried to create flexibility with ways that you
can use it, you know, such as changing the beneficiaries. Right,
you can also change ownership, but it's best to just
use it once it's in there. But the only downside
would just be the lack of flexibility, although it does
have quite a bit of flexibility with recent changes to it.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
Absolutely all right, So five twenty nines, that's what we've
talked about. When it comes to saving for college and
cal sort of walk through the.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
Great things about it.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
There may be some downside, but it's not the only
tool out there for saving for college. So when we
come back, we're going to talk more about some other
ways that you might be able to see for your
children's education or your grandchildren's education. Some of these may
surprise you, maybe they don't, but we want to talk

(21:09):
about some of those six one two five zero forty
four hundred. That's how you get a hold of the
folks a Haven Financial Group. This is the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Ready to find your financial safe haven. Your dream retirement
is in reach. Don't go away, The Haven Financial Group
Radio Show will be right back. Are you worried that
your financial strategy might be missing something, Well, you're in
the right place. Larry Kolvig is back and ready to
help you find your financial safe haven.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Good morning once again, and welcome to the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
If you're looking for more information, if we're bringing up
ideas or questions on any of these key retirement topics
that really can transform your financial future, uh, feel free
to give us a call. Six one two five four
eighty four hundred haveanfinancialgroup dot com. Check out our website.
We've got a great community website. We've got clients that

(22:06):
share this month recipes their favorite two recipes in their life,
and it's just really good interactive website.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
And then of course all our classes.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Of course, we have our new education center that we
have at our office. Check out all the classes we teach.
We're big into education. It's how we learn. Because I
always ask over the years, how many of you remember
growing up all the classes that taught you how to
make all the perfect retirement decisions. And I never get

(22:36):
any hands up. So you can either do it yourself.
You can ask you know, you can. You can find
anything you want on the internet, whether it's true or
not true, or you can come to classes that teach.
And we've been teaching a long time and we will
continue to teach because there's value in getting the education
from there. It's whatever you do with it. I heard
somebody say education is the potential for power. It's what

(22:58):
you do with it that really matter.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
We've been talking this morning about saving for college, whether
you're saving for your children's college education, maybe it's.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
Your grandchildren's college education.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
We've talked a little bit about the expense of college
and how it just continues to go up, and moments
ago we talked about five twenty nine, and there are
other ways to save for college, even though a five
twenty nine plan is certainly a good one to look into.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
Cal Thomas is with us.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
He's a certified financial planner there and Haven Financial, and
we wouldn't talk about universal life insurance for college and
then also other expenses because this can be used for
a number of things. Now, this is something when I
was saving, you know, my husband and I were saving
for our kids. This was not something that was ever
brought to our attention. So let's talk a little bit

(23:49):
about it. You know, is this something new that people
can do now and save in a life insurance policy
for college.

Speaker 6 (23:57):
Yeah, well, a universal life insurance policies they've been around
for a really long time, but the strategy of using
this for college savings is kind of a newer thing
and it's grabbing a lot of attention. And the way
it works. It works like a universal life policy, so

(24:18):
you have flexible premiums and there's a cash value component
and you can earn interest at a fixed rate and
the death benefit can adjust over time. But there's also
another type of policy that's called an indexed universal life
insurance policy, and this links the cash value to a

(24:39):
growth market index, you know, like the S and P
five hundred for example, rather than an interest rate like
the regular universal life So why would you do this, Well,
it offers a potential higher return, so you could have
a higher amount that would build up inside of that policy.
And it also protects against market protects against market losses, right,

(25:02):
so you can't lose anything in it. Your your floor
is zero even if the index that you're linked to
is minus twenty for the year. So that's that's a
benefit right there for you.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
You know.

Speaker 6 (25:14):
Some of the other benefits of these policies is the
withdrawal piece, right, So similar to a five two nine,
you know, if you're using it for the college expenses,
these loans are withdrawals from the policy themselves are are
tax free, right, So that's a really flexible, you know
option for college right there. Vice versa with the with

(25:38):
the five two nine on non uh you know education
expenses and withdrawals. Uh five two nine's like we stated,
you have to pay penalties and taxes for non qualified
expenses Index Universal Life policies and UH Universal Life policies,
there is there is no you know, penalty for doing so.

(25:59):
You can use it for other expenses as well. There's
no discrimination on that part. Another piece, you know, we
mentioned that five two nines show up on the FAFSA
and there is benefits for grandparents owning it for for FAFSA,
but Index Universal Life and Universal Life it does not
show up on the FAFSA. So if you have one

(26:23):
hundred thousand dollars in a universal life policy and you're
using this for expenses for college, that is completely off
the record for for in terms of you know, your
FAFSA application. So there is you know a few more
benefits to this, and it is an insurance policy as well.

(26:46):
But you know the fact that there is a death
benefit associated to it means that you're getting a return
of principle, right or or a return of some sort
right there. We don't want to just you know, put
something into a policy that there is UH it's like
a user or lose it.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
I don't like that.

Speaker 6 (27:04):
I want something that we can actually get something out of.
And as long as we're planning for a use of
some sort with that policy.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
It's it's a nice tool.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
Sure, is there a minimum amount that you can pay
for this or you can put in at one given time?

Speaker 6 (27:18):
Yeah, And it depends on the policy because it is
an insurance policy, so you're you're solving for a certain
amount of funding essentially, right, So then your premium would
be based off of that. However, this is a universal
life policy, so your your premiums are flexible. You can
adjust those to you know, however you want them to be.

(27:38):
It's just the amount of benefit that you receive from
them changes based on what your premiums are. And one
downside you know for those premiums is over time to
keep the policy funded, those premiums could increase to keep
it funded to that specific amount. Right if you wanted
one hundred thousand of your death benefit in there. To

(27:59):
keep it funded at one hundred thousand, those premiums could
increase over time. But you have the choice and flexibility
to choose what your premiums are, which is, you know,
something that can really be impactful because you know, what
if one year the income in the household is a
little lower than previous years and you can't afford the
same kind of premium that you paid last year, well,

(28:21):
you can just lower it for that one year and
then the policy will adjust, you know, properly accordingly to
what your premiums are.

Speaker 5 (28:27):
Are there limits?

Speaker 6 (28:29):
There are no limits on this, so you can put
you know, as much in there as you as you'd
like and or you know, and you can also use
these for retirement savings if there is some leftover as well,
So there is planning beyond just the education piece. You

(28:49):
could keep this policy going after college and intier sixties
and seventies and use it for retirement planning as well.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Cam takeaway from this segment I think would be, you know,
most people don't think of life insurance as a tool
for college planning, but when structured right, it can be
one of the most flexible and tax efficient strategies available.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
So, whether you're.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Looking to fund education, as we're talking about, protect your
family interests, if you pass or build some supplemental retirement income,
you can use the life insurance index, Universal Life or
Universal Life or really any life insurance. Is it appropriate
for you, I don't know. Can it be valuable information? Yes,

(29:31):
but I'll take it a step further. Glenn raymi At
our office. He's been on our show quite a few times.
He would be the one to talk to in this
area to see if it's the right thing. In addition
to that, we're really going to stress in twenty twenty
six the importance of folks that we sit down with clients, listeners,
if you so choose to do a life insurance review.

(29:53):
You know, a lot of times people have had life
insurance policies for a long period of time. They haven't
really paid attention the policies on the shelf, they haven't
reviewed it. The one that sold it to you got
paid a commission twenty years ago, and you don't even
talk to them anymore. A life insurance review is so
important because oftentimes some of those policies, by the way,

(30:14):
they're not.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
All created equal.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Do you have a universal life index, universal life, variable,
life insurance, whole life insurance, And if you don't know,
you should know they don't all work the same. Sometimes
these policies eat themselves up, they cannibalize, and all of
a sudden, now wait a minute, this life insurance plan
that I thought I had didn't do anything that I

(30:37):
thought it would do. And that's why we're really going
to stress life insurance reviews beginnings next year to make
sure you don't fall into fall into the position that
we see over the we see every year. Oh my goodness,
I've been paying on this and now it's going to lapse,
and now it's not going to do what it's supposed
to do, and that is not a good feeling.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
So let's have that discussion.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Now, be proactive, because not reactive probably is not going
to work.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
No, right, that's throwing money down a rabbit hole and
that you definitely do not want to do. Six one's
two five zero four eight four zero zero. It's six
one two five zero four eight zero zero. If you're
thinking about, you know, how you're going to start to
save for college, or maybe you're a grandparent who would
really like to save and help your kids pay for

(31:27):
their kids college education. That's what we're talking about in
a number of other things. But maybe you need some
question to answer, give them a call here at Hayden
Financial Group. It's six one two five zero four eight
four zero zero. Or if you're somebody who has a
life insurance policy and.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
Has not looked at that for years, give them a call.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
Bring that in as Larry said, it's gonna be one
of their big goals in the next year is to
make sure that life insurance reviews take place on a
regular basis.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
All right, when we come back, wealth Stability and family Finances.
This is the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and
retirement plays govin the Haven Financial Group Radio Show. We'll
be right back. Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers.
Your tune to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with
your host Larry Kulvig and Kim Karragan. Now back to
the show.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Good morning, and welcome once again to the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Kolvig, Founder and CEO of
the Haven Financial Group.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Feel free to give us a call six one two
five zero four eighty four hundred. Visit us online Havenfinancialgroup
dot com. We'd love to visit with you. Just catch
up to answer questions. See where you're at in the
retirement planning process. Perhaps you're not getting the attention you
so deserve and you have nothing to lose, and we
start with the education process. Check out the classes on

(32:54):
our site because oftentimes we get one shot at a
successful retire and we want to avoid some of these
pitfalls that so many people make just because they don't know.
What's the old saying, Kim, what you don't know can
hurt you well, and may that hurts you physically, but
it certainly it can hurt your finances and other things

(33:14):
related to retirement.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Absolutely, your generational wealth sometimes in some families doesn't happen,
not because people make really poor decisions. They just make
uninformed decisions and you need somebody to sort of walk
with you.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
So we want to talk about.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
The value of family financial planning to protect your generational wealth.
We've been talking about saving for college, and these are
all so important, and certainly that's protecting your family finances.
But we wanted to to just wrap up today just
talking a little bit more about the value of financial planning,
and that includes not just financial planning for passing your

(33:56):
wealth on, but financial planning for living a really happy, healthy,
and prosperous retirement.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
So where I'm going to start.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
With you, I think when people walk in, the first
thing you're going to say is that we need to
sit down and we need to put together a plan.
But we need to understand what it is you're trying
to achieve.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yeah, what are your goals and objectives?

Speaker 2 (34:18):
What's the long term plan here in you know, financial
planning or family financial planning, you know, really helps set
clear shared goals across not just you and your spouse,
but generations, your kids, perhaps your grandkids, like what we've
talked about in the show education funding. You know, what's
your home ownership plan, what's your retirement plan? What age

(34:39):
would you like to retire? You know, setting these goals
is so crucial and it really can create some purpose
from where you're going and unity. It can minimize wealth dissipation.
The statistics are staggering without a coordinated plan. Seventy percent
of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation

(34:59):
and ninety percent by the third. Those are staggering without
a plan. And again that's important to know. However, I
don't want listeners to think, oh, this is only for
wealthy people. Wealth can mean different things to different people.
Whether you have a little or you have a lot, or.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Anything in between.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
This applies to you whether you have a complicated situation,
whether you have no kids, a whole bunch of kids,
a co mingled family, whatever it might be, this does
apply to you. So again that plan, it can't be
stressed enough. It also improves financial literacy, you know, open
conversations and structured you know, all those things are important.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
And I'll speak to the couples.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
I have met more widows and widowers this year. Don't
ask me why where one of the spouses handled everything
and the other spouse was not involved, that spouse passed
away unexpectedly, unexpectedly, and that the surviving spouse had no
clue of what was going on. Please, you don't have

(36:06):
to be the expert, but please have some awareness and
understanding and take it a step further. Maybe a relationship
that's already built, so if something does happen, that surviving
spouse isn't left out in the dark going what do
I do?

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Now?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
I can tell you I just had a I think
it was two or three months ago.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
She came in.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
She goes, you know, I lost my husband. He handled everything.
Would you please help me? Glenn helped her with medicare,
Lance helped her with taxes. She goes, Larry, can you
just please help me on the investments because my husband
handled You know, that's not a good spot to leave
your spouse hip. So I say it not to put fear,

(36:46):
not because of a fear factor, because I've seen it
too many times this year.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
Although it does leave a fear factor in whomever is
left behind, it does very scary, very very scary place
to be.

Speaker 5 (36:59):
One of the other reasons to really.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
Take a look and put together a plan when it
comes to family financing would be for tax purposes. Larry
talks about this on a regular basis, but he's the
family member that being Uncle Sam, that we don't want
to be getting hold of our money.

Speaker 6 (37:18):
Yeah, and this this whole you know segment just reminds
me of a family that is clients of ours. And
I'll starts with Eileen. You know, she's ninety years old
and she's working with us, and she also has two
daughters working with us, and she has grandkids working with us,

(37:39):
and that whole family is all open with each other
about what's happening. We know the beneficiaries for every person's account,
we know the goals and you know, wishes for any
charities and all of that, and that creates such a
smooth process for everyone involved because we have the accounts

(38:00):
under our management. So if something happens to anyone, we
know exactly where they need to go. We've been in
coordination with every single person, so we have a relationship
with everyone, and we can get this process done and
completed within probably a couple of weeks, and you know
most cases for that kind of transition, it takes a

(38:22):
really long time. So we also know that everything is
in order. We have all the documents that we needed
right and one of the big things and benefits for
having everyone under one house is the taxes and the
impact that that has because we know what's going to
transfer on to the next generation and who's getting what,
so we can plan accordingly based on the asset values

(38:46):
that each person has, and we can plan accordingly based
on the types of assets that each person has, because
not all assets are treated the same. Some assets get
a step up and basis and can be sold tax free.
Some assets are completely tax free already, and then some
assets have distribution timelines and they're completely taxable, so we

(39:08):
can plan around those and make sure that one we're
transferring the right types of assets to people and the
right types of assets to charities.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
We want.

Speaker 6 (39:17):
We want the taxable things to go to charities because
they're not going to pay tax anyways. Let's send the
tax free types of assets to other people. And then
let's also keep in mind the amount of money that
we're transferring, because then we can try to avoid any
estate taxes as well. So a lot of tax that's involved.
It's not just the tax on the estate, but it's

(39:38):
also tax on specific types of accounts.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
Sure, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
And again the benefit of having it all under one
roof right where that right hand can talk to the
left hand, which is so important. I know that we
talked about taxes, we talked about, you know, the benefits
of minimizing some of these things, making sure that you
have a plan. Gentlemen, let me just just throw it
back to you one more time. This is not just

(40:05):
for the uber wealthy, because it certainly sounds that way,
I think to a lot of people who are listening.
So explain why this kind of family financial planning is
important to everybody.

Speaker 6 (40:20):
Well, it's important to everyone because you know, the irs
and the state of Minnesota are going to be involved
in all of this, and I personally want to keep
as much money in the family's pocket as possible, and
there needs to be planning involved around all these different pieces,
because there is going to be some that has to

(40:43):
be paid, and there's there could be some that you
have to pay through unnecessary costs of going to probate.
And we just want to make sure that we can
transfer assets efficiently and we can transfer assets as tax
free as possible, so we can keep the legacy going
for the family and keep you know, the values of

(41:06):
the family and mind and what's important to them, and
you know, then we can potentially create that generational wealth
that can just trickle on down and not be completely
gone by that third generation.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
But those assets, regardless of how how small or how large,
they're all still going to face the same kinds of
issues for the from the state of Minnesota, and they
need to be protected regardless.

Speaker 5 (41:32):
Right.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah, failure to plan is a plan to fail, and
none of us want to Whatever you have, small, medium,
or large is going to go somewhere. Would you not
rather have a go where you want it to go
rather than the state determined where it's going to go
through probate or who knows where. Now, granted you may
not be here to see it, but it could make
create headaches for the family. That's why a state planning

(41:55):
is so important, and all these retirement topics are important.
You know, financial planning shifts the focus from spending wealth
to you know, building a legacy. And again, legacy can
mean a variety of different things. It could mean money,
it could be philanthropic, it be charities or whatever.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
What's important to you, identifying.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Your goals and objectives, what do you want to accomplish,
And it starts with having somebody that you can lean on,
a partner that you can talk to. You know, sometimes
I feel we're counselors, and we kind of are counselors,
counseling people how to avoid a lot of the pitfalls
that we've seen over many, many years of being working
in this business, things that mistakes that people have made,

(42:34):
learning from other people's mistakes so we don't have to
do it again. But if you're not having these conversations,
or you don't have somebody that you can lean on,
that is a real problem. And I would encourage folks
as we come to the end of this year and
again Marry Christmin, Happy holidays to all the listeners. You know,
what do you want to accomplish in twenty twenty six?

(42:57):
Don't wait till December of twenty twenty six, why not
really get it started in January of twenty twenty six. Fix,
let's fix some of these problems or issues that you
may not even know you have, or maybe you do
know that you have.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
You know, I get a kick out of folks.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Just this past week, I asked a couple, do you
have any will or anything in place?

Speaker 3 (43:16):
No, what we've been thinking about it? Oh?

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah, how long you've been thinking about it? Thirty five years?

Speaker 3 (43:21):
And really that's a long time to be thinking about it.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
There's something to say about peace of mind, to know
that you've done the best you can, that you have
a plan intact. Oh and by the way, if you
have questions, you can reach out to us and.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Get the answers.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
We try to have a twenty four hour response time
because service I find in our industry isn't what it
should be, and we want to maintain the highest level
of service and we're very proud of it.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
If you're looking for a partner, folks, give the experts that.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
Even financial group a call at number six one two
five zero four eight four zero zero. Great way to
start the new year. Six one two five zero zero
four eighty four hundred. Hell, thank you so much for
being a part of the show today. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Kim good to be with you. Enjoy family time. It's
good to have all four of our daughters. So I'm
really looking forward to this time of the year.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
You bet you enjoy it, and I hope all of
our listeners do as well.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (44:22):
Investment Advisory service is offered through Guardian Well Strategies LLC.
Haven Financial Group and Guardian Well Strategies LLC are not
affiliated companies, and investments involve risk, and, unless otherwise stated,
are not guaranteed.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Please consult with the qualified financial advisor and or tax
professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein and comments regarding
it safe and secure.

Speaker 6 (44:43):
Investments and guaranteed income streams only refer to fixed insurance products.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
They do not refer in any way to securities or
investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are
subject to the claims paying ability of the