Simply Money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Tonight, you are paying that financial advisor to work with
you and for you, So how do you make sure
you're actually getting your money's worth out of them? You're
listening to simply Money presented by all Worth Financially Memi
Wagner along with Steve Ruby. It's funny that as advisors
were saying, we're going to tell you how to make
sure you get your money money's worth out of us.
But I think that's an important part of trusting someone

(00:29):
and having a relationship with a financial advisor. It is
first of all, to be very clear upfront how you're
paying them, how they're getting paid. But second of all,
what is that relationship supposed to look like? How do
you get your money's worth?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, it's kind of funny because I you know, I've
been here for over two years at this point at
all Worth, and part of the reason why I was
hired on was to help a couple of advisors making
transitions into retirement, Steve Sprovac being one of them. You know,
there's some clients that have been around for a long
time that maybe don't have have full fledged financial plans.
They've been leveraging us for investment management with saying, you know,

(01:04):
I really don't need you to build a financial plan,
but you better believe when I talk to them, I say,
this is something that we can offer. This is something
that you have at your fingertips. It's voluntarily offering to
do more work for the same price. But it also
does enable us as fiduciaries to give the best possible
advice that we can. So it's one of those interesting
situations where you know, I am volunteering that information just

(01:27):
like we are.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah on this.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I had someone in my office earlier this week who
has a pre existing relationship with another financial advisor and
she's single, and she said, you know what, like something
in my gut just told me that something wasn't right.
And I'm just shopping around, I'm talking to you, I'm
talking to someone else. And I was like, great, you
should be And I said, but what was it about
your gut? And she said, well, I reached out to

(01:51):
my advisor three times this year with questions, legitimate questions
about my financial situation, and I never heard back.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
It's terrible, it's absolutely terrible. And I was like, your
gut should be telling you something the wrong. Your head,
your legs. You should be running out of there quickly.
You're paying someone to have access to their knowledge, and yes,
sometimes that's a your check in conversation. But when you
have questioned throughout the course of the year, you should

(02:23):
reach out and they should absolutely respond. Do they need
to respond within ten minutes, No, but a reasonable amount
of time, twenty four hours, something like that. They should
absolutely be getting back to you with well thought out
answers to your questions. That's the whole point of using them.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean making sure that
you actually have access to the person that you're paying
to for financial advice.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
I don't think that's too much to ask.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Oh my gosh, I was angry when I heard no.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I know right.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, let's talk about before you enter a relationship with
an advisor. You know, when you're sitting down you're having
that meeting you said she was meeting with some folks.
Are they pressing you to buy a product immediately? Is
this is this an annuity salesperson, Is this an insurance
sales rep? Or is it a fee only fiduciary financial
planner which is going to explore all of your options
and can talk about some of those other solutions, but

(03:10):
also provide transparency and how they're paid, explaining to you
why a certain product or solution does make sense and
making sure you understand it entirely before you buy it,
or are they just trying to get you to buy
a product.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I think that many of us grew up in situations
where there weren't homes where people were talking openly about money,
and so there's just not this clear understanding. So when
you go into a room with an advisor or an
office with an advisor, there's almost this kind of inherent
shame that I sometimes pick up on from people that's like,
we should know more, but I don't, and it's like, well, no,

(03:43):
that's why you're hiring us. But in that place, it's
almost like I'm amazed by how many people aren't clear
on how they're paying a financial advisor. It is one
thousand percent within your right and what you should be
doing to very clearly ask that person how they're getting paid.
And if someone's trying to sell you a product, you

(04:04):
should ask the question. If I buy company, be compensated,
and then shut up, be quiet, look at them directly
if they are swarming in their seat, if they are
uncomfortable if they are making excuses or talking over your head,
get out the door.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, absolutely, that that's a fun question to ask in
my opinion, Yes.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
But people shy away from it, and you shouldn't shy
away from that question.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's also great in archair. I don't have to shy
away from it.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
No, it's if someone doesn't bring it up, I bring
it up for them.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I mean that's part of being a fiduciary is fee transparency,
helping people understand what they're paying, why they're paying it,
when they're paying it, because at the end of the day,
we know that we're bringing value.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
That that justifies the fee. Yeh.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
A fiduciary financial planner should should have that feeling, or
else they're not at the right place. I mean, it's
the truth. The truth of the matter here is that
you know, with not just investments, but with a tax
planning tax alpha that we can bring it certainly justifies
the fee. So so hiding behind it is not something
that a good financial advisor should be doing.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
You're listening to simply money percented by all Worth Financial.
I mean, you Wagner, along with de Ruby, how do
you make sure if you're paying for a financial advisor,
that you're actually getting your money's worth. And I think
when someone's coming into a new relationship, especially with us,
it's time intensive. The first thing that we do is
we build a financial plan for you and that becomes

(05:35):
the foundation for everything. And as you're coming up on retirement,
as you are into retirement, we're constantly updating that plan. Oh,
you need to buy a car next year, an unexpected
trip came up, whatever that is, let's put that into
your plan. That's rework the financial numbers. I had a
client who came on just a few months ago who
reached out and it's going through a divorce now, you know.
And so I reran the plan and said, we need

(05:57):
to jump on a call. We need to look at
how this is working. And I'm so glad that she's
working with an advisor because the conversation that I just
had one with three yesterday, she would be doing things
very differently if she didn't have the advice of someone
in her corner. And I said to her, I'm your
advocate now, and I want you to understand if you
make this decision, here's the long term impact this will have.

(06:19):
On your financial plan. This is the value of someone
who's a fiduciary in working with them.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, and her reaching out to you and having that
open conversation and looking for that advice is a big
part of what you should be doing. If you have
an advisor and you're going through some kind of a
life change, take advantage of the services that are at
your fingertips. If those services aren't at your fingertips, and
maybe it's time to explore finding a new advisor.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Tax planning is a big part of this too, right so,
and I think many people who've already worked with an advisor,
if they end up in my office, what you are
comfortable with talking about to that advisor about is your investments,
because I think that's what a lot of advice only
focus on. All, Right, well you got x percent, this
is what your return was this year. This is how
we've got you invested, have a great year, we'll talk

(07:06):
to you next year. And it is a completely different
experience here, and I certainly hope that if you're working
with the fiduciary, that's the experience that you're getting. Yes,
your investments are part of it, but that whole plan
is not only how to make your money grow, but
to protect it. You talk all the time about poking
Uncle Sam in the eye with a stick. How do
you keep as much of that money that you have

(07:27):
worked hard for and you've earned in your own pocket.
If you don't have strategies at your fingertips that can
help you, you could miss out.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
A good example of that in tax planning and working
with the fiduciary is you know, there's donor advice funds.
It's stuff that I've talked about before, We've talked about
on the show. That's where you have an account that
you can make a contribution to. Usually when I recommend this,
it's with highly appreciated stock, some kind of stockumen sitting
on for many, many years with a very low cost
basis that if you were to sell it, there would

(07:57):
be a big tax hit for you. So you put
that into a donor advice fund, and with the help
of an accountant, you can, depending on the size of
the contribution into the donor advice fund that's in your
own name, you can itemize your taxes that year, lower
your tax burden, and essentially you're planning for donations for
X number of years moving forwards, and it will blow

(08:19):
people's mind because like, all right, well, we have this
old stock that we're sitting on. We're just going to
give that away, and that that is literally leaving the firm.
I'm recommending that we move that money out of investment
management for us to put it into your own donor
advice fund and you know, we'll just leave it sitting
there and then you can sell it and make donations
grants to different charities of your choice. So that's an

(08:40):
example of a fiduciary, because you know, nobody's breathing down
my neck to say, hey, Steve, you better keep that
money in house. No, no, I'm a fiduciary. This is
what makes most sense for my clients. So this is
what I'm going to recommend.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
And for those of you who have been diyres for years,
right and you're thinking like, okay, you guys are trying
to sell services here or whatever, and I can do
this myself, and you need to look at my four
oh one k balance and you'll see I've got this
all figured out. Good for you. When people get closer
to retirement, what I find and I've had several several
people land in my office recently who have been diires

(09:14):
for years, and one of them was saying, Hey, I
was just like sitting in work the other day. She
works in a hospital, and she was like, and I
could hear people around me talking about different things, different
strategies that they were doing with their advisor, with their assets,
and I started to get nervous because I felt like
I might be missing out on things that I can
be doing. I don't fully understand these things. I don't

(09:35):
know if they make sense for me or not. And
so I decided, rather than just kind of being up
at night wondering if I'm missing out, I should come
in and have a conversation with you. For every one
person like that, I've had several recently who are just
coming up on retirement and realizing that it's really not
just about the investments. It's not just about growing those assets.
It's when you get to retirement and that paycheck is

(09:57):
no longer coming in, where did the distribution make the
most sense? Should you be looking at wroth conversions when
that paycheck is no longer coming in if you're in
a lower tax bracket, right, These are conversations that not
that there's great value in you know, and when you're
looking at the fee for an advisor, it's like, doesn't
even matter. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but understand

(10:19):
you're paying that fee and you're getting a benefit well
beyond that if you're doing things correctly, if your advisor
is doing things correctly.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, you're paying for knowledge about the realization in this
situation that you don't know what you don't know. Yeah,
and you pay somebody for advice then, and they are
a fiduciary financial planner that does holistic financial planning, then
you're going to find out and they're going to help
create a situation where there's a plan in motion that
provides peace of mind so that you don't have to

(10:49):
think about this stuff all the time. You know, self
directed investors very good, you know process for their investments,
but you set yourself investments are just a little piece
of the puzzle. Investments are the building blocks to your
financial plan, which is the blueprint. But the blueprint doesn't
just look at investments. It looks at protecting your assets
with insurance, whether it's long term care or life insurance,
or disability if you're still working. It's looking at retirement

(11:12):
planning and distribution planning, social security, pension decisions. It's looking
at a state planning what happens when you're gone. There's
a lot of bases to cover here and self directed investors,
you know, it can be things can fall.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Through the cracks.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
And I'm going to throw out another question that if
you're going to work with an advisor I think is
important to understand, and that is what is your succession plan?
You know, it's funny when people come on now, they
start to ask them like, how old are you? How
long are you sticking around? You know, and you and
I are kind of younger in this space. I know, yes,

(11:47):
you are even younger. One of us is younger, one
is younger than the other. But I'm even starting to
have a conversation of my daughter's in college and she's
a finance major and at some point she might step
in here, because you know, it's when you're working with
someone and you have been for a long time and
you trust them and you've got a plan together. You know,
you want to make sure that, okay, if they're going
to leave at some point, if they're going to retire,

(12:08):
that they have a plan for what that looks like.
You know, here, we're very intentional about that. You're going
to sit down with the advisor you've been working with
for years. You're going to sit down with them and
the new advisor. They're going to learn about you from
the person you've been working with, and then kind of
the baton has passed on. Have that conversation as well
when you're trying to figure out who's the best fit
for you to work with moving forward. Here's the all

(12:30):
Worth advice the relationship with your financial advisor. It can
evolve over time. Make sure you're periodically taking stock to
ensure the relationship endoors and yes, that you're also getting
a good value out of it. Coming up next, workers
trying to get their osians back. We've got a fitness
groomer who went from making millions to delivering food and
how to fight against making impulse purchases this holiday season.

(12:53):
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
Here in fifty five KRC the talk station. You're listening
to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial. I mean
mean Wagnerre along with Steve Ruby. If you can't listen
to our show every night, you don't have to miss
the thing. We've got a daily podcast for you. They're
simply money. It's on the iHeart app or wherever you

(13:14):
get your podcasts. Coming up at six forty three. You've
got questions and as always, we've got lots of answers.
We're going to ask the advisor that's coming up.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Boeing workers turns out aren't very happy. In fact, they
want their pensions back.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean, I don't blame them. Pensions are a
beautiful thing. Machinists at Boeing. They've actually been on strike
for a month earlier. This week, workers actually rejected a
deal that would have brought a thirty five percent paymump
over the next four years, along with other benefits. But
the sticking point was the company's refusal to reinstate that
pension that was froze back in twenty fourteen in favor

(13:54):
of the four oh one K.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
I don't mean to sound heartless here, but like I'm
playing a tiny violin right now for these Boeing machinists.
They're offering you a thirty five percent pay raise and
you want your pension. I want a pension too, sure,
don't we all they're they're kind of a thing of
the past. I mean, when I am working with someone

(14:18):
now has a pension, I'm like, you're so lucky. We
run your financial plan and I mean you could throw
it against the wall, you could have a tornado come
through those those financial plans are just impenetrable. But many
of us don't have them anymore. And Boeing machinist workers,
I'm sorry, but the same thing applies to you that
applies to most of us, and that is that your

(14:39):
retirement is on you. But also thirty five percent pay
increase will certainly go a long way toward helping you
fund that borro And kay, I don't.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Love you right now, do you?

Speaker 1 (14:50):
I mean, do you feel differently? Like correct me if
I'm wrong.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
I mean, doesn't hurt to ask, but taking it to
this point, just taking it this far, Yeah, when you've
already been offered so.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Much, I mean, yeah, also read the room.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Boeing, the company is struggling. It lost six billion last quarter.
It's more than forty billion dollars in debt. I doubt
that they have the ability to even reinstate the pension.
And keeping in mind that ten percent of private sector
workers is actually the amount that have pensions right now.
That's down forty percent from the nineteen seventies. So there's

(15:29):
very few people that actually have pensions. And the reasons
because it's very costly.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Crimea river bowing machinists. I'm sorry, take the thirty five
percent pay increase and run. Also, don't blow up my
social media if you're listening.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah right, really sorry.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
If you were around in the nineteen nineties, Steve Ruby
doesn't remember this, I do.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
I was around in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
You were, but you may not remember. You maybe weren't
exercising or jazzer sizing or during aerobics. But there was
a fitness guru during that time. She had short blunde hair,
lots of energy, Susan powder, and she was always known
for her fitness program. She would always scream like stop
the insanity. She was quite the commodity in the fitness industry.

(16:11):
In fact, she was raking in money. She had audio cassettes,
she had recipes, she had a thousand different things for
anyone looking to lose weight, get in shape, be healthier,
and she was raking it into the tune about fifty
million dollars annually. It worked out well until it didn't.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yes, so all the money that she had coming in
was actually being mismanaged. We talked about this with the
al Pacino Yeah, yeah, with him storyline here, We talked
about something that happened with al Pacino that was similar.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Al Pacino should come on our show and talk to
us about that, Yeah, we should. But he also lost
a bunch of money to someone who was managing his
money and sort of mismanaging. It ended up being a
Ponzi scheme. Now, this woman who was super popular and
had made all this money can very much relate.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Unfortunately, she wound up declaring bankruptcy, telling her story to
People magazine about where she is now, which is sixty
six years old, and turning to delivering food for grub
Hub and Uber Eats to make ends meet.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Can you imagine like going to your door and like,
you know, she's standing there and you're like, aren't you
do people ever tell you? They look like yeah, and
she's like nope, yeah, and then al Pacino brings breakfast
the next morning. Crazy. But you know, I think there
is a larger takeaway from all of this, and this

(17:33):
is pay attention, Pay attention, you know, when I first
came here to all words simply money. At the time,
I had just covered a Ponzi scheme and it was
very smart. People became victims because they just trusted someone.
And when I met the perpetrator, it was like, oh,
I can see there's like people. You want to believe them,
you want to like them. You know, you feel terrible

(17:55):
on the other end of it because it's like, how
did I fall into this? But you can very easily
see how it happens.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, it's an unfortunate reality that we need to be
careful with who we're working with and who we're putting
our trust into, because it can happen to anyone.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
It's on this holiday shopping season. Have you started shopping?

Speaker 3 (18:12):
What do you think You've talked about this before?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Oh, I shop better under pressure when there is deadlines
that need.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
To be met.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, what we know is that for those who maybe
wait into the last minute or just get to the
holiday season, you are likely buying an impulse purchase and
spending more than you had planned. And so I think
this is when you you're at the beginning of the
holiday shopping the very beginning of the holiday shopping season.
I bought one thing, one thing so far. But I
have a plan. I have a list for everyone. I

(18:44):
check it twice and I don't. Oh, this is a
great deal. This is cheaper than I thought. I'm just
going to throw this into the cart too.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
That sounds like a lot of work lists.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, I mean you could just wait until I don't know,
two days before go out there and on the stuff that. Yeah,
but it always falls into place. Just fine, try it
this year. Tell me how goes all?

Speaker 4 (19:04):
Right?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, bank Great is saying the same thing that I'm saying,
which is plan ahead, get your budget, make your list,
don't Steve Ruby this that doesn't work out.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
You may call this a financial mistake, but when you're
good at it, when you.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Have perfected the art of waiting until the last minute
and doing your holiday shopping exactly.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
For those who have not, I actually thought of something
that I want to get, I just haven't done it yet.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
For my wife, well yeah, well December twenty fourth is
still a ways away.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, I have time.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
How do you know when it's time to take over
the signing of legal documents for someone you love? This
can be incredibly stressful. We're going to talk about that
with our state planning expert. Next, you're listening to Simply
Money presented by all Worth Financial. Here on fifty five
krs the talk station. You're listening to Simply Money presented

(19:51):
by all Worth Financial. I me Me Wagner along with
Steve Ruby. You know, one of the things I love
about what we do as financial advisors as we often
partner with people and we have long term relationships with them,
and I very much enjoy, you know, watching people transition
into retirement and spending time with their grandchildren. But sometimes
it gets to the point where then you start to

(20:12):
realize that that person that you've been working with no
longer can make the calls about their financial or legal situations.
And joining us tonight is Mark Reckman from the Estate
Planning our estate planning expert from the law firm of
Wood and Lamping talking about what the capacity standards are
for signing legal documents. This sounds like a lot of

(20:34):
legal eese.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
Mark, but I also want to bring up this is
a really high emotion time when you start to figure
out that either your spouse or your parents or someone
you care about may no longer have the capacity to.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Do this.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
Absolutely right and what you find out is that different
documents have different capacity tests, and that's of course, just
makes it more complicated. Also, what you doubt is that
the circumstances dictate a lot of this. If you're talking
about a parent who's signing a power of attorney to

(21:10):
their child, and if there's a healthy relationship and a
child who's responsible and trustworthy, then we have a very
different situation than if it's my next door neighbor who's
coming over to the house to help me out a
little bit. These things that while the capacity standards are
the same in these cases, the truth is the circumstances

(21:30):
are different and we approach them a little differently.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
So what about for a full guardianship, because this is
going to give you a lot of control over the
person that you're supporting. What kind of test are are
we looking at to ensure that somebody can serve as
a guardian?

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, that's right. A guardianship is a formal court proceeding
and it's controlled by via Ohio statute or Kentucky or Indiana.
This is all written right into the laws. There is
a process and in each state there is a test.
And it will surprise you when I read when I
tell you what that test is in Ohio, is considered

(22:10):
to be incompetent if they can no longer manage his
or her own affairs or the affairs of a dependent.
That's it. And of course I'm sure your reaction is, well,
that couldn't be more vague.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I was going to say, who the heck to
charge that? How do you determine it?

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, well, that's exactly. And of course it's determined by
the probate court, the probate judge or the probate magistrate
in the county where the person lives. And so what
the legislature is basically trying to do here is to
use a flexible test and allow the court to make
individual judgments. So what happens in a guardianship is that

(22:51):
you go into the to a hearing, You submit a
testimony about what the circumstances are. You give examples of
areas in which the person has not been able to
act on their own behalf or to protect their own interest.
Almost always there's expert testimony from a psychologist or a
doctor or a medical professional to support that, and so

(23:13):
there's a lot of evidentiary steps. So while the test
itself sounds very vague, and implementation is done actually with
great care.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
How often do you even get to the point in
a situation where you have a family espouse, someone coming
to you and the person is just in denial about
where it is, and it has to get to this
point of actually going to a court and having them
decide whether they can sign one of these documents.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
Well, denile is a powerful thing, and we have regularly. Fortunately,
there are less intrusive alternatives to a guardianship. There are
ways that I can acquire authority to act on my
wife's behalf or my mother's behalf without going through a
formal guardianship, and these are used the vast majority of time.

(24:05):
So the guardianship process is usually preserved for situations where
we have a very uncooperative ward or in situations where
we don't have a relationship, so that if, for example,
I find myself in a position where I had to
help my neighbor but I'm not a member of her family,
a guardianship is inappropriate mechanism because with the supervision of

(24:29):
the private court, my job is reviewed by an objective
third party.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
So I don't know where I remember this from, but
wasn't this an ongoing battle. It was definitely public between
Britney Spears and her father, the whole guardianship thing, it was.

Speaker 4 (24:46):
And there was a lot of a lot of drama
there and a lot of accusations that the father was
taking financial advantage of her. But there were also outocations
of poor judgment on her part, examples that I read
about in the legal journals that we get. We're rather
striking Steve's She's not a normal person, got it.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
I mean, obviously it's very important to have these tests
in place so that somebody has not financially taken advantage of,
but at the same time to be able to protect
them from themselves if needed. To kind of add to
what you just said, now, obviously there's going to be
different tests for different kinds of documents, different alternatives beyond
just guardianship, you know, for let's say, for signing a will.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
What are we looking at there?

Speaker 4 (25:35):
So the test for signing a will is very different
than a test for a guardianship. We call this testamentary capacity.
That means do I have the capacity to sign the will?
And here in Ohio, the test requires the person to
be signing of the will to feed number one free
of delusion. Number two to understand the nature of his property.

(25:59):
Number threeunderstand the relationship that person has. So the person
named in the power of retry, in other words, this
is my daughter, this is son in law, this is
my neighbor, this is my mother, whatever it might be,
you have to be able to understand the relationships. Number four.
The will has to lead the assets in a manner

(26:24):
that's consistent with the relationships I just described. And finally,
that's but not least, the person's sign in the will
must be absent of undue influence.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
I just want to say from a practical standpoint, right,
So say this is me and you know it's my dad, right,
and all of a sudden, I have some concerns about,
you know, whether he has the capacity and maybe he's
doing some work around his house, right, or there's some
kind of a contract that he wanted to do that
he wanted to execute, and I have concerns about whether

(26:57):
that's in his best interest. Right. What one of the
steps that I go through and able to go through
this process, do I bring him to an attorney such
as yourself, Like, how does this work?

Speaker 4 (27:10):
Well, that's right, lawyers are almost always to some degree
involved in making this assessment, and obviously the probate court
is the only legal entity that can make a binding assessment.
Lawyers are simply making a judgment call. And in many cases,
like the example you've given here, Amy, we're talking about

(27:31):
a contract. There are there is a test here in
Ohio to judge whether or not someone has the capacity
to sign a contract. Lawyers, if they're involved, they have
to make an assessment along these lines, although as you
can well imagine, the vast vast majority of contracts are
signed without the benefit of the lawyer. The capacity to

(27:51):
sign contract has four elements to it. Number one, the
person signing must be aware. They must comprehend what is
going on on the transaction. Number two, the terms of
the contract must be reasonable, and that is a very
very broad concept. Number three, the person's signing must understand
the nature and quality of the consequences of what the

(28:14):
agreement requires. And then number four, the person signing must
be free of any undue influence. Here you'll hear that
theme in every test we talk about today.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
A lot of think through and I know it's an
emotional time and also a legal thing, right you want
to make sure that your loved ones or this person
that you care about is fully protected. Great expertise from
Mark Grekman, are state planning expert for the law firm
of Wood and Lamping. You're listening to Simply Money presented
by all Worth Financial here in fifty five krs the
talk station. You're listening to Simply Money presented by all

(28:50):
Worth Financial. I mean you wag you're along with Steve Ruby.
I think most of us would say I've got a
financial question, something that's either been in the back of
your mind for a long time, or you and your
spouse are never on the same page about it. It's
keeping you up at night. Well, there's a red button
you can click on while you're listening to the show.
It's right there on the iHeart app. Just record your question.
It's coming straight to us. We'll help you figure it out.

(29:12):
Let's get to the questions tonight. First one's from Kelly
and Batavia.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Just wondering what your thoughts are on life insurance as
an investment.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'm sixty, about to retire and my term policy is
about to lapse. I like the fact that Kelly asked
about insurance as an investment, because I think that's an
important distinction to make. Most of the time, it shouldn't
necessarily be an investment. It's a way to protect your investments,
to protect your family. If something's happening. You said you're

(29:40):
sixty and about to retire. If you've done everything right, Kelly,
hopefully you've saved assets and retirement accounts, so you no
longer need to protect that income if it's not going
to come in. So if you ask yourself the question,
if something were to happen to me tomorrow, is there
someone who would be harmed in some way by that
paycheck no longer coming in. If the answer is no,
then so and that term policy is done. You can

(30:02):
let that term policy lapse. You're not going to need
any life insurance anymore.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
There are some situations where a wealthy individual has capped
every single tax efficient bucket that they have available. They
already have like a municipal bond portfolio or a separately
managed to count with direct index saying, and they're like,
all right, where should I put some more money? There
is some merit behind, like an overfunded whole life policy.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
To be fair, how often do you come across people
in the situation.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Four or five times probably.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Ever, it's not something that you know, we honestly more
than that, but it's not something that I push and
talk about with much passion because usually you're able to
get it done with the investments rather than some kind
of unique laddering strategy with whole life policies to guarantee
some tax free income later on.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
But it is possible, it's just not for most.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
And keep in mind too that there's like commission on
that product, right, there's the ways that you can get there,
likely without paying that commission. Let's get to Carlos's question
are from Warren County.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
I started taking Social Security a few months ago when
I turned sixty two, but now I'm regretting taking it
so early.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Am I stuck with this decision?

Speaker 4 (31:11):
No?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
No, you're not so unless you've restarted it once in
your life. Because you only get one redo. It's called
a full withdrawal. That's the terminology here, and you're able
to do it within twelve months of collecting. But you
do have to pay back the bat boks that you've received.
You have to pay them back.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
If you don't do that, one hundred percent of what
you've received from Social Security has to go right back
to that program.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, if you don't do that, then then it's it's
not happening, so that there could be some challenges there.
But you know, collecting too early can be a major
problem for some folks as far as guaranteeing the longevity
of your assets. This is something that you want to
sit down and talk with a financial planner to see
if you should take that full withdrawal or if we
can make it work with where things are currently.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
A common situation where we see this as someone has retired,
they started collecting Social Security at sixty two, and then
within a few months they're bored, they're miserable, they want
more money, They go back to work, and then they realize, okay,
wait a second, now that paycheck is going to impact
how much I can get from Social Security. And in
that case, they can pay that money back work until

(32:19):
full retirement age, and then it's not going to matter.
If they're still working, they can still then get that
full full benefit. Next question comes from sm in Kenton County.

Speaker 6 (32:28):
Can I only start saving in a roth IRA after
I hit my four oh one K limit?

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Is this true?

Speaker 6 (32:35):
Because there's no way I'll be hitting that limit this year,
but I still want to save a little in a WROTH.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
This is why I love the factor fiction segments that
we do. You know, I just think there's so there's
so much information and also so much misinformation out there.
No you can start saving in a Roth IRA at
any point. There's two different kinds of accounts that you
can save for strictly for retirement, right, one of those
being the four O one K. One of those also
being an IRA. One doesn't have an impact on the other.

(33:05):
Now you can't. You can't max out a four one
K and a WROTH four one K. You can't max
out a traditional IRA and a Wroth IRA. You can't
do those things. But within the different buckets a four
to one K and IRA one has nothing to do
with the other. Let's get to George in Newport.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
What's up, Amy and Steve? I just found out that
Medicare doesn't cover dental work? What am I supposed to do? Hey?

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Surprise, don't don't need none to work? Surprise, never need
dental work? Problem solved?

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Right?

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (33:35):
You know Medicare advantage plans. I think looking at grouping
your insurance coverage together to make it more in line
with what you've grown used to pre retirement is the
solution here. You know, original Medicare didn't cover any dental
there are some procedures that are covered, so you know,
talk to the dentist and and kind of map out
that plan. But ultimately, you know, working with an advisor

(33:56):
or even an insurance broker in some situations to help
you make that train transition to the coverage that you
need is going to be.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
The right route.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Next question, Debbie and Mary Mott. My husband and I
are trying to figure out if we should retire at
the same time or if it makes more sense to
space out our retirements. Any thoughts either way? Oh my gosh.
So many people get to this point, and I really
think this is a question of first of all, how
old are you right healthcare coverage, but also you know,

(34:23):
financially are you good? And then do you have a
routine in place where both of you are going to
be okay? Right? If that's not the situation, sometimes it
makes sense for one to retire, get used to retirement,
and then the other one to join them. Coming up next,
specific reasons why you would ever want to sell an
individual stock you're listening to Simply Money presented by all
Worth Financial. Here on fifty five KRC, the talk station.

(34:50):
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I mean you whig, you're along with Steve Ruby. Okay,
so you own some individual stocks and maybe at some
points if if you check those pretty often you're like,
oh it's up. Should I sell? It's down? Should I sell?
We would say, here are some legitimate reasons why it
does make sense to sell that stock.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
So in no particular order, I would say, even though
I say in no particular order, one of the top
reasons that I would hone in.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
On, the number one reason is you have too much of.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Your portfolio invested in one individual stock. If you have
more than five ten percent in that stock, then it's
time to think about a tax efficient way to diversify
some of that risk. We've seen, we've all heard stories,
and we've all known people that have had some kind
of an horror story attached to having too much in
one stock.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
You know, here in town ge a.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Lot of folks had a lot of their stock, a
lot of that stock inside of their four O one ks,
and it got rocked, you know, you don't want to
be not diversified and put too much of your eggs
in one basket.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah. One of the reasons is you need the money,
like you simply need the money, then yeah, sell that's
dooc take the money. That's that's you know what it's
there for. It's not in a retirement account, so you
can access that before fifteen nine and a half. Another reason, though,
I would say, is you just no longer believe in
the company. You know, I think about the companies that
are meme stocks. Right when you see that the long

(36:16):
term business plan is fundamentally flawed. Right, you're invested in
AMC and movie theaters and it's a global pandemic and
it's not safe for people to be in the same room. Okay,
might make sense to sell that stocks.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
I'm not sure that people using Wall Street bets are
looking at the fundamentals of the company definitely to determine
whether or not they should be investing in it.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
But you know, there's way you should do as a
smart long term investor. And if you're looking at a
company that no longer makes sense, think Kodak, think you know, Kmart,
whatever it is, there's a flawed kind of business plan
there and you're starting to see the people are no
longer using that product or shopping at that place. Yes,
that can make a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Tax considerations is another one. Yeah, you know, if you
have if you have a document sitting on for a
long time and it's down, maybe you could harvest some
of those losses to offset capital gains and other parts
of your portfolio, because that is something you certainly can do.
You can also carry forward those losses and use three
thousand dollars a year to offset ordinary income. So there
are legitimate strategies tax planning strategies that you can use

(37:17):
by selling certain stock at certain times.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Another reason you change, right, You change over the course
of what you wanted your goals in life. Your financial
goals are different when you're fifty five than when you
were thirty five. And so if you choose to make
an investment in a single company based on where you
were in life when you were thirty or thirty five,
and now your goals have changed and your investment objectives

(37:42):
have changed, your time horizon has changed. You're trying to
back away from being maybe so aggressive to more conservative.
You know, I think for all of those reasons. It
can make sense. And you know, this is why I
caution sometimes against individual stocks. You're going to experience more volatility.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
You know.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
I know people who own individual stock that are constantly
checking them are they up, are they down? Or if
you're in a basket of stocks, you're not paying as
close attention to that, So, you know, just keep these
things in mind if you do own individual stocks. Thanks
for listening. You've been listening to Simply Morney, presented by
all Worth Financial here in fifty five krs. The talk
station