November 18, 2024 • 51 mins
Joel, who works for a company called Eqrp, shared his personal journey and how he joined the company. He explained that Eqrp provides enhanced qualified retirement plans, which can help individuals achieve financial freedom and fulfill their goals in the areas of faith, family, fitness, finances, and freedom. Joel also mentioned that he is moving to Montana with his family and that this move represents a component of freedom for him.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hey guys, welcome back. This is five F Conversations. We're
just rebranding. Still getting used to the title here.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Quick quick recap. You know, the fore F Forum, we
talked about faith, family, fitness, and finances. We've done a
bunch of episode episodes over the last few years, took
a little break. We're rebranding, We're adding five F. The
fifth F is all about freedom. So a lot of
these conversations, you know, we're still going to talk about
the four FS, but we're going to kind of try
(00:45):
to bring it back together and you know, in the
theme of freedom. So today we got a guest on.
Joel works for a company that helps with self directing
your retirement accounts, and I'll let him explain it much
more or in depth. But I've been working with them
for five six years now and they've helped, you know,
(01:05):
tens and I don't know if we've done a hundred cases,
but we've done We've done over tens and tens of
cases where I've sent them to you guys, and you guys,
you know, have continuously been refining your process to help
make it more smooth, help clients you know that have
old four one ks or iras or just you know,
new accounts they want to set up like business accounts
(01:27):
and whatnot, but to have a lot more options with
what to do with the money. So give them a
little introduction about yourself, how long you've been with the company,
maybe some personal info whatever you like to share, and
then we'll dive a little deeper into kind of the
freedom that the q RP and the self directed accounts.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Provide for sure. Thank you so much, Dan, and thank
you all for listening. Like Dan mentioned, my name is
Joel Landon. I worked for a company called e q RP,
and you know Damien, the owner of this company. EQRP
rebranded a few years back. The company used to be
(02:06):
called Total Control Financial because that really was the mission.
And Dan, I bet that's how you actually remember the
company when you first started doing business with us. But
we did rebrand to EQRP. Just stands for Enhanced Qualified
Retirement Plan and that's ultimately what we provide our clients
is a qualified retirement plan that is enhanced. And we'll
(02:28):
dive into the weeds and dig into the details and
really how it ties into freedom here in just a bit.
But I just want to give everybody who's listening an
opportunity to hear a little bit about myself. So I
currently live in Birmingham, Alabama with my family. I joined
EQRP three years ago and so I'm going on my
(02:51):
fourth year now. And I come from an industry, from
the banking industry, and ultimately cut my teeth in the
community banks in my early twenties and just really learned
how to connect with humans, how to connect with individuals
and understand what their financial goals look like like their
(03:11):
day to day just you know, normal financial goals that
people are trying to accomplish. And it did open my
eyes a lot to what people need. And over time,
as I grew in my role in the banking system,
I recognized quickly that the institutional banking system doesn't solve
(03:35):
for everybody's needs. You know, Dan, you talk about the
five fs and I love that, and honestly, people are
truly trying to fulfill those five s. Those are their goals.
They want to fill each one of those cups. And
being in the banking system, I felt like I was
able to do some of that, but not fill it
all the way. And so I grew in my role
(03:56):
in the banking system, and I spent fifteen years in
banking and moved into more roles where I was able
to actually develop services and products for the company that
ultimately gave support to the individuals and the businesses. And
that's actually where I met Damien Lupo, who was the
founder and CEO of EQRP, the company that I work
(04:20):
for today. And Damien was ultimately one of my clients
with the last bank that I was doing business with,
and he had super high expectations of me. He knew
that he needed to deliver on the promises that he
made to his clients at EQRP, and so he had
(04:42):
really high expectations because we gave a lot of support
to those clients that rubbed off on me. I recognized
right away that Damien believes in financial freedom, like the
true meaning of financial freedom and how it does tie
into all of the five f's that you're talking about, Dan,
And when I ultimately realized that what he offers is
(05:06):
a solution, a really big solution to people's financial goals,
I wanted to be a part of it, and so
I started three years ago on that journey. It's been
a ton of fun because I've been able to assimilate
into this culture that EQRP offers not just for the
team member, but also for the client. And it's been
(05:27):
so much fun, Dan, I've worked with people that you've
connected us with, and I can't tell you how passionate
we are here in the office with creating and delivering
an exceptional service for your people and for others. We
have two thousand clients that we service in. Our ultimate
goal isn't always about growth, like let's grind and let's grow.
(05:50):
It's like, Okay, let's grow organically and through our partners
and through our members, but let's be sure to put
like our current members at the forefront of what we
do every single day. And so we're also on a
mission of supporting you, Dan, and the people in your
corner by accomplishing those five f's that you're talking about.
(06:14):
We've sat in this office and we have actually talked
about those five f's as well, because we understand that's
what an individual needs to feel like they've fulfilled the
measure of their existence. And if we could be a
part of that, oh, we are all about it. So
I'm looking forward to talking about freedom. I'm a huge
(06:34):
personal proponent of freedom. You know, my family and I
were actually moving out west here in about four weeks,
and we're excited about that. Yeah, I'm taking a trip
here in three days to Montana to live in the
back country for two weeks, just myself, my brother in law.
(06:55):
We're going to be in a tent. We're going to
pack in all of our stuff. And to me, that's
one component of freedom. You know, as humans, I think
we're constantly looking for that feeling that we can go
and we can do what we're actually here on earth
to do, which is again fulfill the measure of our existence.
So I'm honored to be a part of this podcast,
(07:18):
this episode, and a part of your read branding and
looking forward to some of the conversations.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah. Well, as you're talking, I feel like I have
a limited scope of maybe all the benefits that your
company could offer. So let's start with that, and that
might lead me into some more detailed questions. But like,
I really use you guys when I find money sitting
(07:44):
in an old retirement account and I'm like, cool, you've
got options. You can roll it to a different account,
you can leave it where it's at, or hey, maybe
we could talk about self directing it and you can
get into more. And a lot of people come to
me because of the alternative and alternative investments, especially real estate, right,
so you know, I live in that world quite a bit.
You know, I'm also in the financial professional space. So
(08:05):
they kind of like, oh cool, Yeah, if I got
an old retirement account, I can move it to this account.
But let's talk, you know, maybe to give an overview
of all of kind of what's your bread and butter
as far as like, because I don't know if I've
ever set up a self directed account with you guys,
like for a small business that wants to contribute to
(08:27):
the plan, I know that's an option or you know, iras,
we haven't done a lot of self directed iras. We
do a lot more of the self directed four oh
one case. So I'm just going to be quiet for
a few minutes, kind of give an overview of your
bread and butter, and then maybe we can because I want,
I want the clients and whoever's listening to this to
(08:47):
you know, to go oh, because everybody changes jobs, everybody
wants to save money, Like is this for everyone or
is this for a very niche population. That's kind of
what I want them to walk away by the end
and go, hey, I could utilize that.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Plan, right for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, maybe give an overview of kind of you what's
your bread and butter?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
If you would, I will, yeah, you know, I'll start
from the end and kind of work my way back. Ultimately,
what we want every one of our members we like
to call our clients members, we want them to walk
away with the ability to choose what they want to
invest in. And ultimately that means, you know, if they're
(09:26):
able to choose and have the freedom to choose what
they want to invest in, they're going to have more
control of the outcome. I can understand that maybe they
might the investor of the individual member may not be
the investment sponsor or like the decision maker of the investment.
They might just be kind of a limited partner or
(09:48):
somebody who doesn't have decision making powers, but they do
have skin in the game or stake in the game.
We understand that. But ultimately, they still have the ability
to choose the asset class that they prefer. And there's
a lot of information out there right now that is
so accessible to individuals where they can follow the opportunity
(10:11):
and if you're not given the chance to actually take
what you have and invest in those opportunities that might
be either trending or they just make sense because maybe
they align with the economic conditions and they're looking for
a better way to get ahead based on those economic conditions.
(10:32):
If you don't have access to that, you're not going
to be able to take advantage of the opportunity. And
most individuals, especially those that are listening right now, they
fall into a bucket, which is the mass market, the
W two four to oh one K or retirement plan
contributor or participant. It's a big pool. It's a big
(10:56):
community pool, but it's very limited. It's like swimming in
a pool that's four feet deep and it's like infinite.
It doesn't it doesn't go down in depth and you know,
offer opportunity for you to explore and like do things
that are different.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's just like that four feet deep.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
If you've ever been in an apartment complex pool or
like a hotel pool where it's just four feet deep,
like you can't dive into it, you can't do canniballs
as an adult, you know, so you really are limited
to access. That's what it's like right now. For the
majority of the population, the mass market. They're participating in
a retirement plan that is designed to invest in a
(11:37):
variety of asset classes. But unfortunately, the way that companies
design their plan, they limit it. They put kind of
a belt around it and they say no, no, no, no, no,
you can only invest in one asset class, which is
the capital markets. And they may advertise that you have
the ability to choose what you want to invest in,
but it's still limited to particular index funds or mutual funds.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So the end goal again is to open up people's
eyes and show them that we'll use the exact same
type of retirement plan that these big corporations are using using,
but will untie that belt. We'll open up that opportunity
for people to go now and choose across all varieties
(12:23):
of asset classes what they want to invest in. So
that's like the end goal, right, and we can do
that for the individual. We can also do that for
the small business because we understand that there are small
business owners out there that want to invest in those
alternative assets, but they don't want to go buy the
off the shelf plan that limits them. As like the
(12:44):
business owner who really wants to invest in asset classes
like real estate, but it also limits their employees, right,
so they opt for the self directed option, which we
can we can offer, like we give that to our clients.
Some individuals, on the other hand, they prefer the self
directed IRA. So now we're starting to go into a
(13:07):
little bit of the differences between the plans. They all
accomplish the same Goaldan. They all give the participant or
the beneficiary of those retirement funds the opportunity to invest
and all of those opportunities like land, private equity. We'll
talk more about some of those asset classes and some
of those case studies. Maybe individuals want to do some
(13:29):
private money lending. So there's a product, if you will,
that aligns with everyone's specific needs, whether again a plan
that's designed for the one person, right, like just the
one individual who's a W two person, or the IRA
person or even the small business owner. So we've kind
(13:50):
of worked out the kinks and flushed out what it
takes to get to that point for every eligible person
so that they don't have to and again we can
go on and on, but those are essentially again the
tools that people need to get into this space, and
we haven't even really pulled back the curtains of all
(14:11):
of the other resources that help just like boost up
those those plans that allow people to invest.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, I'm just kind of taking a few notes here
as we go along. So I think, I think because
I explained this to some people, but I think as humans,
especially if you get into a job, if you've got
a decent chunk in your four to one k it
don't take this the wrong way, but you've almost numbed
yourself to the possibility because now you're forty fifty years old,
(14:40):
you got you know, you've got a few hundred thousand
or more in your account, and you anything sounds like
a scam, right, So they meet with me, they might
be referred in, and I'm like, dude, you can we
can roll that to a self directed account and you
can do real estate with me, or real estate with
your buddy or really And I think for them, they're going,
that's got to be a scam. That's weird, right, that's scherry.
(15:04):
What's the liability component when you say they can self
direct and get into other assets, like maybe make it
I try to make it like simple and safe for them, right,
it's like you don't have to become an investment expert.
I don't expect you to be right. You still got
your W two job, you're working, you're contributing. But this
old money, you can get it out of jail and
(15:26):
we can start doing some other stuff. I don't know.
Just just speak to that a little bit and back
to the freedom component, like you literally can get you
can you know, you don't have to like go so farward.
It's the wild West, because you know, it's not like
you're going to pay taxes and get penalized on the money.
You're just going to allow you're going to move it
to an account, like taking it from like you know,
(15:49):
confinement in jail to basically like probation so to speak.
You still are playing in the rules right of the government,
the federal government. You still regulate all that stuff. But
now you can go take old money that's locked away.
And I know you kind of already said that, but
speak as plainly as you can for people like, well,
(16:11):
you quit your job or you change jobs, and now
we can move that old four to oh one K.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, you bring up a valid point, and let's do that.
Let's just like walk on that first level, step by step,
make it as simple as possible, because in reality it's
very simple. All we do for an individual that wants
to play this game, they want to take retirement funds
and invest in real estate, and they start asking themselves,
(16:40):
is the CYS scam.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I've never heard of this before.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
The reason they haven't heard about it is because it's
not advertised the system. Like again, we call it the system,
but it's just the retirement system that's designed to just
make people think there's one way, which is Wall Street.
It's not true. So what we do is we take
the exact same four to oh one K plan that
(17:04):
Home Depot offers so to speak, or Wells Fargo offers
their employees, so to speak, and we allow within that
plan document for the participant which is the employee, to
invest in all eligible assets, Whereas let's just say Home
Depots four oh one K and Wells Fargo's four oh
one K. In the document it says you're only allowed
(17:27):
to invest in one asset class, which is Wall Street
or the capital markets. They do that because it's just
easier to manage. There is a company on the back
end of Wells Fargo's four to.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh one K plan.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
That is managing everybody's money that's in it, and that
costs a lot of money. If you can imagine to
make it easier and cheaper. They just want their people,
their participants, to invest in one asset class, which is
the capital market. So that's why they don't open it
up to every single asset. That would be a headache
(18:05):
for the two hundred and fifty thousand employees of Wells
Fargo to manage all those assets. However, it is possible
to take that same plan design and to just ride
into it that you can invest in alternative assets. So
that's what we did. We went to the IRS and
we said we'd like to be a plan provider. So
they said, great, EQRP, you are now a plan provider.
(18:28):
You can write four oh one K plans for individuals.
That's exactly what we do. We take the same blueprint,
but we just make sure the investment opportunities aren't limited
to Wall Street. It's it's not limited. It's open to
all eligible assets, gold and silver, land, real estate, et cetera.
(18:50):
So we take that plan now and you Dan as
a client, we give you that plan and we say
we listed you as the person that puts money in
as the participate, and we list you as the person
who can make the decisions of what you want to
invest in. Those are two of the biggest components that
again going back to the Wells Fargo example, those employees
(19:13):
do not have both of those powers. They have one,
which is I just put money in as an employee.
We give you dan as the EQERP client. Both go
ahead and take your old four to h one K
money and put it into that plan, or make contributions
to it with your self employed active income, and go
ahead and choose what you want to invest in. So
(19:36):
you've got both of those powers. Now, it's eliminating all
of this institutional way of thinking. It's eliminating the third
party that's working on the back end that you have
to pay to manage it. We step in to help
in this process to guide you along the way. It's
a self directed plan, which means you need to self direct.
You need to ultimately make the decision with that power
(19:59):
that you have to invest in the asset that you want.
You are right that you're not going to have total
control of the outcome of the investment, but all investments
in reality, if you bundle it all under one are speculative.
Everything that you're investing in your W two four one
K in the capital markets totally speculative. We've seen that historically,
(20:23):
same thing with real estate, the home that we buy
personally and that we all live in. We speculate that
that asset will either retain or grow in value. We
have seen values of people's own primary home drop over time.
So everything that we're investing in is speculative. So I
don't want anybody to think about coming into this that shoot,
(20:45):
am I putting myself in big danger by investing in
all of these alternative assets. I would argue that you're
actually improving your chances because now you're reaching a variety
of asset classes, you can start picking and choosing.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I'm saying, well, I just wanted to throw in too
as you're listening, because I definitely want to blast this
out to everybody that has a plan with you guys,
so this can further, you know, maybe give them some comfort.
But a couple things like maybe they're going self directed, Dan,
I don't know what to invest in. That's a lot
of liability and risk on me. You're going to get
support from me obviously that's how you're hearing about this.
(21:22):
If you're my client, you're going to get tremendous You
guys have done a really good job, I would say
in the last three four years of your support of
walking them through, not giving investment advice that's not what
you're paid to do, but plan support to make sure
they feel comfy with Hey, this is legal, this is
not a scam, this is legit all that stuff. So
(21:44):
you're going to get the support to get it set
up properly and to use the funds properly. And then
if you're working with me or Riley or whoever, we
can help direct those assets. So it's not like you
got to take on a second job and learn how
to asset manage, right that we keep that pretty simple,
I would say. Secondly, you touched on diversification. I think
(22:08):
a lot of people in their guts right now are
going great. The markets at an all time high. We're
also heading into possible civil war with the elections. Totally,
I feel in my gut that the market's going to
have a pullback. Okay, Well, if they're the Wells Fargo
managed accounts, they either pull out of the markets and
move it to a money market and give up all
(22:29):
possibility of gains. But they're never going to do that,
and their advisors are never going to tell them to
do that because it's going to cut their fees, right,
So they're just told to what, ride it out. It
always comes back. Ride it out. Well, if you're fifty
and above, cool, that all sounds good in theory, but
you don't want to wait twenty years to ride it
(22:50):
back out, right.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
You make some games good points. Yeah, I would say
the people that are listening that are tied to you, Dan,
are in a very fortunate situation. Because it's one thing
to have your own self directed retirement plan that you
can invest in alternative assets with. It's even more powerful
when you have somebody like yourself, Dan, who's giving you
(23:15):
the support and the advice to maximize the plan. There's
only so much, like you said, that we could do
or that somebody can learn about. But when you have
somebody who is an expert in their industry helping them
access the variety that we've talked about in the alternative
assets space, and maybe why, like what economic conditions are
(23:37):
you know, encouraging you or prompting you to recommend a
particular asset class, right now, that's invaluable. So when you
do start to partner up something like this, this specific
investment vehicle with you know, other experts in their industry. Heck,
let's even throw in a tax strategist. You know, if
you've got somebody that does tex strategy, you know, you're
(24:02):
just now maximizing that plan's value even more because we
haven't even really touched on the fact that this is
a tax deferred account. This is a tax deferred vehicle,
which ultimately, if I could just paint a quick picture
and then you can maybe validate this DAN, you can
(24:22):
invest qualified funds, which are just retirement funds in a
self directed plan in alternative assets and grow that plan
value over time. Right that's assume there's a few assets
within it, like some private equity, maybe some precious metals,
maybe some you know, some stocks, and then also some
real estate over time. We would hope with that type
(24:44):
of variety that it grows.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Now when you go.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
To distribute that retirement, you're fifty nine and a half,
you're ready to go. You've spent the last fifteen years
really growing that value over time. You're now eligible to
distribute well, you can distribute in bulk or you can
distribute in pieces, right, just based on your specific living
conditions and your needs. Now your tax at ordinary income
(25:10):
versus taking funds, investing those funds, having a big capital
gain event. And now if you're in a situation where
you do have to use that money today, that's going
to be taxed very differently than it would be at retirement.
So it's such a strategic tool that individuals can use
(25:31):
to build up the retirement and ultimately take advantage of
all of those tax advantages out there. So I can't
tell you how many times people have used this specifically
for tax strategy, especially small business owners. The ability to
take current active self employed income and funnel it into
(25:53):
a qualified plan like this and then invest it over
time is gold. There's so many small business owners out
there that they see their friends and family using their
W two's four when K Plan two differ some taxes
and grow their retirement. They're saying, hey, I want to
take advantage of something like that too. Well, fortunately, there
is something like that that we can offer. And now
(26:15):
it's even better than your friends W two's four O
win K because you're investing in the variety that we've
talked about.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So a couple things I want to talk This is
a little bit this isn't perfectly aligned with what you
were talking about, but fees, I want to I want
to touch on fees. I had that as one of
the things. Typical four oh one K plans, you're going
to pay what one point five to two percent of
the asset balance roughly. So let's say got one hundred
thousand dollars and people go, oh, my fees are only
(26:45):
point six Those are the fees they report, but the
true you know, fees Like Tony Robbins did a big
study when he wrote his book a few years back
to try to find the true fees of the four
to one ks and he's like, it's amazed that won't
be solved, but he estimates it's one point five to
two percent of the asset value is the average fees.
(27:08):
So with that, just so if you're listening every year,
let's say you got one hundred thousand bucks in your
four to one K, they're taking two thousand bucks out right,
and then you know they're they're going to say, oh,
you did eight percent in your retirement account. Well that
that all factors in and we don't have to get
into average returns and all how bs they all are
and they don't really mean anything but fees for you guys,
(27:32):
especially if you're working through me like you're going to,
you're gonna you're going to get a flat fee and
it's going to be significantly less. And let's say you
grow this account to a quarter million and a half
a million, talk about that, the fees are almost wiped out,
whereas they just keep going higher and higher and higher
(27:52):
and higher in the four to one K or the
typically four to one K.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
You're spot on, and you painted a really good picture.
At times when people do connect with us. Sometimes it's
a hard pill to swallow when they realize, oh, I
have to pay like a up front to do business
with EQERP. They understand that we're for profit and they're
going to pay something, but you know, when they do
hear that it's going to cost a few thousand dollars,
(28:17):
they think, oh, my gosh, is this really worth it?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
This is quite a lot of money. You're totally right down.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
We have seen incredible high fees in people's plans, like
existing plans before they come to us. Unfathomable amounts that
are pulled from you start looking at plans that might
have a million dollars or more. They're not seeing all
of the fees that are being taken. They do see
the games over time, and it does grow over time
(28:46):
because the stock market is pretty steady, but it's a
lot easier for those fees to get lost in those plans.
We do charge significantly less than what somebody would anticipate
in a traditional plan. And like you said, Dan, you know,
we've been you know, connected with you for a long time,
so your people watching this do actually receive a very
(29:08):
favorable rate and we want them to know that, like
we want them to know because of your relationship with us,
we you know, we want to make that accessible to
as many people as possible. So yes, upfront, they do
pay three thousand dollars to make that happen. It does
require us to do some heavy lifting initially to set
(29:28):
up the plan and move the funds for you into
the plan.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
So well, and not sorry to interrupt, but no, it's
a pain in the butt to move funds out of
an old retirement account, Yes, into a different account, like, yes,
it's literally probably they probably have more coaching on how
to not let people get their money than they actually
do on how to manage the money. So a fee
(29:53):
you charge is well worth it. When I found out
you guys will do that for me, like as the
as the advisor helping the clients, I'm like great, Like
just yeah, and then to see you guys get better
and better at it, I mean, well worth it. Right,
the setup fee, well worth it. Super grateful for that
from my end, but like we just had a client
(30:13):
I just referred to you. I think I think it
took a week, and I was like, dude, if I
was doing that, i'd take like two months because every
time they always have another reason that they can't release
the money. And so anyway, I'm just that's just a
little plug, like the fact that you guys take that on,
connect with the old provider, help transfer the money, make
sure it's in the new account, all set up, and
then give them the green light, Hey, your funds are
(30:35):
ready to roll. Like that's that's well worth it. And
then the ongoing fee is negligible if you got a
decent amount in the account.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So for sure, I'm so glad you brought that up
because think of it this way, we employ full time
experts at that process to get the job done. Could
you imagine an individual who already has their full time
personal gig plus their personal lifestyle trying to incorporate now
that startup of moving funds into a plan. So let
(31:05):
us take care of it so that it's done right,
and well, you know, we'll be able to fight with
these companies to make it happen and to make sure
that it's done correctly. The last thing you'd ever want
is a taxable event that you weren't you know, prepared for.
So I'm really glad that you hit that on the head,
(31:25):
but that we're go ahead.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, no, no, I just want to jump into a
couple of our things. So I got a client who's
got about fifteen full time employees and about thirty part
time employees in a food industry. And she came to
me and she's like, Hey, this whole secure two point
oh thingy where we have to provide some type of
four O one K. I'm not super familiar with that.
I'm sure you are more familiar. Could you speak on
(31:50):
what that means for small business owners? And then what
you know? I was thinking, Oh, I should refer you
guys over to a QRP and see if they can
help with that, Like what could you guys do for
someone like that? And keep in mind the employee er
is my friend and client. She's kind of already got
the mindset that we have as far as unlocking assets
and and kind of not partnering with the government on
(32:12):
everything in Wall Street. And now she's going, well, how
how can I satisfy this secure two point oh and
possibly provide a better benefit for my employees? So talk
about that if you.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Would, for sure.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
So again going back to that comment that most w
two or most companies, most corporations, they don't want to
provide a plan that's complex. They want something that's totally simplified.
And so it's easy for me to say that it
is possible for a small business owner to offer to
(32:47):
their employees and also take advantage for themselves the option
of having a a retirement plan for the whole team
and be the ability to go out and now invest
in alternative assets. It's just a matter of finding the
right company that would be willing to design something like
that for you and manage it. So we do offer
(33:07):
something like that, and we do have to bring in
a couple of parties that are just a part of
the system. When you include employees into the mix, it
does get a little bit tricky, and you can see
that there are laws that are being passed more and
more to protect the employees and to almost force employers
to give this to their employees, not the self directed option,
(33:32):
but just the ability to participate in a retirement plan.
But again, I just want to go back to the
fact it's plain and simple. We do offer what we're
talking about today with self directing funds and investing retirement
funds in the alternative asset space to companies, companies that
have the owner that really wants to advocate for self
(33:53):
directing and secondly for their employees. So you're the person
that you're talking about who has those employees, those that
are eligible, they have to have a plan. Fortunately, if
it's something that they want, we can design it for them.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Okay, So yeah, we'll we'll talk more about that. I'd
like to get your pick your brain on something that
could work for that that client. So I want to
spend a little time too, and we're kind of coming
up on our time talk about your guys's philosophy when
it comes to like wroth conversions or just wroth from
(34:29):
get go. And maybe this is maybe a two part question.
Like take me for example, Yeah, you know, I don't
technically have any employees, even though I have about, you know,
a bunch of ten ninety nine people, but I know
I probably should get set up on like the payroll
and stuff. And let's say I wanted to start a
(34:49):
self direct you know, contributions instead of just the typical
rolling over and then having access to the funds, which
is great, what about like contributing from the get go
and then talk about setting that up a little bit
with you. I think you already covered. But then also,
how do you promote and utilize like the raw option.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Okay, we'll use you your example as a perfect case study.
So let's assume you approached me. We would set you
up with your own self directed plan right off the bat,
knowing that you want to make contributions. And in your case,
you have ten ninety nine employees, which means you, as
an employer so to speak, you're not forced to actually
(35:28):
provide a plan to those ten ninety nine contract employees.
That's you can google that, and that's just common knowledge.
So you're kind of in a really unique situation because
maybe you yourself just want to participate in this process.
Great will set you up with a self directed plan.
Maybe you have fifty thousand dollars from an old IRA
that you want to roll into it to kick things off.
Awesome even better because we'll take the startup fees from
(35:52):
that rollover to kick things off. Now, in theory, you're
walking into this nothing out of your actual bank account pocket.
It's just coming directly from your rollover. Now at this point,
you want to make contributions. Two things. First, make sure
that you loop in your tax advisor, because your CPA
is looking at everything related to your financials in theory,
(36:13):
so they're going to have insights, and they're also going
to have an idea of what the future might look
for you and maybe some of the tax deductions, maybe
some of the tax incentives that you and your company
want to leverage for the tax year. And maybe you
know you're somebody who has always tried to show as
little net income as possible, but maybe you want to
change that because now you want to start giving yourself
(36:37):
a profit sharing contribution because you could do that with
these plans, you can make a forty six thousand dollars
annual profit sharing contribution from your business based off of
the net income of the business. So that's why we
like to say, loop in your tax strategics or your
CPA if that's who it is, and start analyzing and
(36:57):
figuring out what net income do I really want want
to show so that I can provide my own self
a profit sharing contribution, which is a deduction for your business.
And now you have the option of either making that
profit sharing contribution a pretax or a WROTH contribution. Obviously
our theory. You asked me kind of what's our process
(37:20):
or like, what's our take on ROTH. We love the
idea of ROTH because that just signifies that at distribution,
any of the gains based on your ROTH capital, that's
all going to be tax reat distribution. We would love
for people to grow their money tax free if that's
at all possible, and we have a lot of members
that do. But now you're at the point where you've
(37:42):
contemplated profit sharing contribution from contributions from your business. Now
you're starting to look at okay, well, now what can
I contribute as a small business owner from my personal income.
Obviously you've got to now take a W two wage
in order to do that. Maybe that's a little different.
Maybe you're not set up as ANES corpor in order
to do that, so you have to make some changes
if you are ready to do that. Awesome, Now, for
(38:05):
twenty twenty four, I can make a twenty three thousand
dollars personal employee contribution to my plan. And how do
I want to set that up? Do I want to
defer some of my taxes so I have a lower
tax burden this year?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Great?
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Maybe for twenty twenty five, I want to do it
a little different, and I want to make some ROTH contributions.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I'll pay the.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Taxes now because I have a phenomenal investment idea or
opportunity coming up in twenty twenty five, and I want
to make sure that my commitment is with WROTH money
because I know that this thing is going to five
x whatever. So again, strategy is something that we will
support you with. But ultimately it's your CPA or the
(38:43):
real tax advisor who's going to be maybe the last
say or like the last.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Piece of advice that you want before you made that commitment.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
On the other side, let's say that you rolled into
this plan, or you've made contributions over time that are pretax,
and you're in a position now where you can go
in and you can invest and these are all pre
tax investments. Maybe now you want to convert those assets
in kind, which you can do to WROTH. It's going
to create a taxable burden for you. Everybody's going to
(39:15):
know that when you go from pretax convert it to
taxable event. But that's okay because maybe when those assets
are valued, they're valued at a favorable value. You know,
maybe that valuation comes back and it's like, oh, dang,
it's valued at.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Just that amount.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
I'm for sure going to convert those assets then now
because I know it's going to skyrocket in the next
few years. So a lot of people are actually doing that.
They are investing in these assets in prior to a
big capital gain. They go get it valued, and those
valuations come back, you know, favorable to the investor, and
(39:54):
so they just make they do the conversion then. And
now those assets before that big capital gain event are
now in WROTH form, which means all of those capital
gains are in theory in reality tax free.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Got it okay? Kind of wrapping up here bringing it
back to freedom. Like what you've been with this company
three years, You've been in the financial industry for many,
many years. What how does EQRP like create freedom in
people's finances? Very very generic, but want to see where
(40:29):
you go with it.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
What it does is it actually helps pull back the
curtain or pull back that veil. I can't tell you
how often I interacted with people in the traditional banking system,
and now looking back, they had a veil pulled over
their eyes or a sheet kind of pulled over their eyes,
and they were limited to what they knew and it
was such a small subset of opportunities that were limited
(40:57):
looking back now almost pitiful to be hones us with you.
But now that this sheet has been pulled back and
our members specifically myself and others that we talk to
on a daily basis, they're recognizing that there is so
much more beyond that veil or that sheet, And I
think that's that freedom that people are searching for. Right
(41:18):
People don't whether it's their finances, whether it's their faith,
maybe it's their family values or even their fitness. People
don't want to live behind that sheet. If there's somebody
that wants to achieve like physical fitness greatness, they don't
want to be limited to what's in front of them.
They're going to go and they're going to do the
(41:39):
research and they're going to find the programs, the eating
programs or the physical fitness programs that help them push
beyond that sheet. They no longer want to live in
this facade that they have to live and live with
what they have. There's nothing better than what I had
McDonald's and sitting on my phone on TikTok all day.
(42:02):
They may be told that that's all that they have
in front of them, or that's all they can afford,
but in reality, if they pull back the curtains, there's
so much more. They don't have to go get a
gym membership, They can go to the sports park and
they can actually do all of their fitness there, you know.
So I think that's what people truly look for in
this life. They do want freedom, and they're being slowly
(42:26):
kind of confined and pushed into a box that's designed
by people who don't have us, you know, top of
mind or in their heart. And it's unfortunate that it's
that way. But there are people that are trailblazing like yourself,
like Damien Lupo, founder of EQRP, that are trying to
just pull back those sheets and show people that there's
(42:46):
freedom beyond what they're actually living in.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah. Yeah, And I always tell people just on that
term unlocking the asset, like the four to one K,
the equity in your house. Those are where a lot
of people have equi but they feel broke right because
they can't touch it, they can't use it, you know.
The four one K transfer to a self directed with
(43:12):
the QRP team unlocks those allows you to invest in things,
allows you to have access to some cap you know,
cash v loans or whatever, and just a lot easier.
Right now, the headaches kind of go away, the access
to the money goes away. One more question on freedom
for sure, what is this company and just this mindset
(43:36):
done for you personally? Like what maybe if there was
an aha moment along the way from the banking world
till now you kind of touched on it. But obviously
you're having lots of conversations with clients and advisors and stuff,
but like personally, like when it comes to freedom, were
there any big Aha moments that you're just like Wow,
I found the company I want to stay with for
a while because of X, Y and Z.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yes, I'm fortunate that first I meant or by Damian Lupo,
who has frankly quite a lot of experience, good and bad.
I'm also exposed to some very high net worth individuals
that are our members all the way down to the
everyday investor. But they're all participating and unlocking this freedom
that we all yearn for. So the one thing, if
(44:18):
I could sum it up, or maybe pick from the
top of what I've learned over time, it is it
has to do with time itself and how I can
gain more time back to be with the people that
I love the most. And I heard that throughout my life,
and I realize it so much more now that there
(44:41):
are ways to gain back more of your time to
spend with your loved ones. And that includes really all
the five f's that you talk about. If you have
your finances set up in the right way, you don't
even have to be rich. If you have your faith
set up the right way, you don't even and have
to be a hardcore, devout faith person that goes to
(45:04):
church and so on and so forth. All you have
to do is just put forth the energy and the
commitment towards those five us that you talk about, and
it will slowly give you back more time that you
can then reap and share with your with your loved ones.
That's the biggest thing that I've learned.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
In this in this space.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah yeah, and the cool part and not to give
myself a plug, but taking your strategy bring it into
a client's life. We can measure that time and dollars
right like you can take assets that are I mean,
let's be honest right now, I got a client that's
got over a million bucks in the retirement accounts. They're
(45:45):
retiring and they're just like every day scared that they're
going to run on money because they feel and they've
got the market's going to pull back. It's like you know,
and then when you kind of show them, hey, at
a minimum, you're paying fifteen to twenty thousand a year
in fees and you don't even see that you can
recover most of that fee money. You can move it
to assets. You don't have to worry about them going down,
(46:05):
like I don't know, just a lot of freedom from that,
and you can measure that in time because a thirty
percent pullback that's three hundred grm. That might be seven
years of their planned income and retirement. That's time and
that's stress. Right. So anyway, last question, Sure, what does
(46:26):
the honey badger mean? And why did you guys pick that?
Speaker 2 (46:30):
For sure? Yeah, I love that you brought that out.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
That is our company mascot, if you will, and the
idea behind.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
That is first.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Damian Lupo, founder of QRP, is a believer in mascots.
That you know, each company or each organization kind of
lives with is represented, so to speak, by by something special.
And we represent ourselves with the badger. With the badger,
we're decisive, we're determined, we're aggressive. We we go out
(47:02):
and we we get what we want in a good way. Right,
we go and we crying, just like a badger, and
we're out there, you know, doing whatever it takes to
achieve whatever greatness we're looking for. And so you know,
if there's any animal out there that can stand up
against a bear or a lion or you know, a cobra,
(47:24):
it's a badger. Like they are totally fearless. They will
go and get in it if they have to. And
they'll fight till the bitter end. So that's kind of
like what we call ourselves.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Yeah, I love it. Well, my kids always try to
steal this out of my office, but it's it's made
it since you sent it, So I appreciate that gift.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Well, i'll have to send you how many kids do
you have? We'll make sure you haven't.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Oh, you're ready for this?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Eight?
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Awesome. That is awesome. Holy cow, that's way more than
I thought. But that'll that'll be a package for sure.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
That's awesome. Yeah, and I got your T shirts too,
so I appreciate that. Well, I'm hoping we can last
this out. I'm hoping it was helpful. If you're listening
and you're like, cool, you got my you piqued my interest,
We're not. This is not a crash course on all
the things. We can always set up a call with
the QRP Company if you feel that you could be
a fit or want to be a fit for this. Obviously,
(48:17):
if you're going through my financial process and I see
the opportunity, I always bring it up to self direct
your funds. I mean, my mom's got an account. I'm
probably you know, I didn't. I never was with the
company a long time to roll over a big amount.
I've always kind of been put my money where I
have access to it from the get go. But you know,
I'm I would like to learn it for myself personally,
(48:38):
I probably should switch back to an escort. I had
it set up, I dropped it off, you know, all
the all that. So myself personally big believer in it.
A lot of my clients have had it. I don't
know how many accounts I have, but it's got to
be thirty or forty accounts I've referred in and the company,
the clients that you have utilized this for a while now,
(48:59):
they they it's fun having follow up meetings with them
and them realizing, you know, wow, I've been like stable
at ten to twenty percent on returns. They kind of
forget that we don't have to be scared waiting for
the market to crash, you know. So that is just
one aspect of it. But you know, it is funny
(49:21):
though you still get the complaints of I gotta pay
this fee. It's like, sure, yeah, but they didn't pull
out two percent.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
We're just more transparent.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
That you never see. So anyway, not to get back
into the fees, but fees are dropped, returns and asset options, diversification,
lots of reasons to consider it. And here's one thing
I wanted to say earlier. Even if you love how
Ed Jones is managing your money, you love it. You
like everything they pick is rocks out. I love all
(49:51):
of it. You can roll it over and pick the
exact same assets, but just drop out the one percent
two percent fees, right like.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
And maybe when you do cross an alternative asset that
you want, now you're set up to go do it exactly.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
So that's the whole crazy part. I know it's a
little complex for someone that's new to this, but you
you don't have to go crazy off the deep end
into the alternative world. You can. You can continue to
look up that target twenty twenty structure that everybody picks
in there, you know, twenty thirty or twenty forty whatever
in their four oh one K, and pick the exact
(50:30):
same mutual funds inside of your QRP and drop out
the fees. So anyway, I didn't mean to jump back
into that, but let's know, well said, yeah, let's wrap
this back. When wrap this up and uh yeah, We'll
get this distributed out and hopefully it peaks some interest
for some people.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Thank you, Dan, appreciate it coming on, appreciate being a
part of this and hope to connect with more of
your community.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Absolutely, thank you, sir
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Man
Hey guys, welcome back. This is five F Conversations. We're
just rebranding. Still getting used to the title here.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Quick quick recap. You know, the fore F Forum, we
talked about faith, family, fitness, and finances. We've done a
bunch of episode episodes over the last few years, took
a little break. We're rebranding, We're adding five F. The
fifth F is all about freedom. So a lot of
these conversations, you know, we're still going to talk about
the four FS, but we're going to kind of try
(00:45):
to bring it back together and you know, in the
theme of freedom. So today we got a guest on.
Joel works for a company that helps with self directing
your retirement accounts, and I'll let him explain it much
more or in depth. But I've been working with them
for five six years now and they've helped, you know,
(01:05):
tens and I don't know if we've done a hundred cases,
but we've done We've done over tens and tens of
cases where I've sent them to you guys, and you guys,
you know, have continuously been refining your process to help
make it more smooth, help clients you know that have
old four one ks or iras or just you know,
new accounts they want to set up like business accounts
(01:27):
and whatnot, but to have a lot more options with
what to do with the money. So give them a
little introduction about yourself, how long you've been with the company,
maybe some personal info whatever you like to share, and
then we'll dive a little deeper into kind of the
freedom that the q RP and the self directed accounts.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Provide for sure. Thank you so much, Dan, and thank
you all for listening. Like Dan mentioned, my name is
Joel Landon. I worked for a company called e q RP,
and you know Damien, the owner of this company. EQRP
rebranded a few years back. The company used to be
(02:06):
called Total Control Financial because that really was the mission.
And Dan, I bet that's how you actually remember the
company when you first started doing business with us. But
we did rebrand to EQRP. Just stands for Enhanced Qualified
Retirement Plan and that's ultimately what we provide our clients
is a qualified retirement plan that is enhanced. And we'll
(02:28):
dive into the weeds and dig into the details and
really how it ties into freedom here in just a bit.
But I just want to give everybody who's listening an
opportunity to hear a little bit about myself. So I
currently live in Birmingham, Alabama with my family. I joined
EQRP three years ago and so I'm going on my
(02:51):
fourth year now. And I come from an industry, from
the banking industry, and ultimately cut my teeth in the
community banks in my early twenties and just really learned
how to connect with humans, how to connect with individuals
and understand what their financial goals look like like their
(03:11):
day to day just you know, normal financial goals that
people are trying to accomplish. And it did open my
eyes a lot to what people need. And over time,
as I grew in my role in the banking system,
I recognized quickly that the institutional banking system doesn't solve
(03:35):
for everybody's needs. You know, Dan, you talk about the
five fs and I love that, and honestly, people are
truly trying to fulfill those five s. Those are their goals.
They want to fill each one of those cups. And
being in the banking system, I felt like I was
able to do some of that, but not fill it
all the way. And so I grew in my role
(03:56):
in the banking system, and I spent fifteen years in
banking and moved into more roles where I was able
to actually develop services and products for the company that
ultimately gave support to the individuals and the businesses. And
that's actually where I met Damien Lupo, who was the
founder and CEO of EQRP, the company that I work
(04:20):
for today. And Damien was ultimately one of my clients
with the last bank that I was doing business with,
and he had super high expectations of me. He knew
that he needed to deliver on the promises that he
made to his clients at EQRP, and so he had
(04:42):
really high expectations because we gave a lot of support
to those clients that rubbed off on me. I recognized
right away that Damien believes in financial freedom, like the
true meaning of financial freedom and how it does tie
into all of the five f's that you're talking about, Dan,
And when I ultimately realized that what he offers is
(05:06):
a solution, a really big solution to people's financial goals,
I wanted to be a part of it, and so
I started three years ago on that journey. It's been
a ton of fun because I've been able to assimilate
into this culture that EQRP offers not just for the
team member, but also for the client. And it's been
(05:27):
so much fun, Dan, I've worked with people that you've
connected us with, and I can't tell you how passionate
we are here in the office with creating and delivering
an exceptional service for your people and for others. We
have two thousand clients that we service in. Our ultimate
goal isn't always about growth, like let's grind and let's grow.
(05:50):
It's like, Okay, let's grow organically and through our partners
and through our members, but let's be sure to put
like our current members at the forefront of what we
do every single day. And so we're also on a
mission of supporting you, Dan, and the people in your
corner by accomplishing those five f's that you're talking about.
(06:14):
We've sat in this office and we have actually talked
about those five f's as well, because we understand that's
what an individual needs to feel like they've fulfilled the
measure of their existence. And if we could be a
part of that, oh, we are all about it. So
I'm looking forward to talking about freedom. I'm a huge
(06:34):
personal proponent of freedom. You know, my family and I
were actually moving out west here in about four weeks,
and we're excited about that. Yeah, I'm taking a trip
here in three days to Montana to live in the
back country for two weeks, just myself, my brother in law.
(06:55):
We're going to be in a tent. We're going to
pack in all of our stuff. And to me, that's
one component of freedom. You know, as humans, I think
we're constantly looking for that feeling that we can go
and we can do what we're actually here on earth
to do, which is again fulfill the measure of our existence.
So I'm honored to be a part of this podcast,
(07:18):
this episode, and a part of your read branding and
looking forward to some of the conversations.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah. Well, as you're talking, I feel like I have
a limited scope of maybe all the benefits that your
company could offer. So let's start with that, and that
might lead me into some more detailed questions. But like,
I really use you guys when I find money sitting
(07:44):
in an old retirement account and I'm like, cool, you've
got options. You can roll it to a different account,
you can leave it where it's at, or hey, maybe
we could talk about self directing it and you can
get into more. And a lot of people come to
me because of the alternative and alternative investments, especially real estate, right,
so you know, I live in that world quite a bit.
You know, I'm also in the financial professional space. So
(08:05):
they kind of like, oh cool, Yeah, if I got
an old retirement account, I can move it to this account.
But let's talk, you know, maybe to give an overview
of all of kind of what's your bread and butter
as far as like, because I don't know if I've
ever set up a self directed account with you guys,
like for a small business that wants to contribute to
(08:27):
the plan, I know that's an option or you know, iras,
we haven't done a lot of self directed iras. We
do a lot more of the self directed four oh
one case. So I'm just going to be quiet for
a few minutes, kind of give an overview of your
bread and butter, and then maybe we can because I want,
I want the clients and whoever's listening to this to
(08:47):
you know, to go oh, because everybody changes jobs, everybody
wants to save money, Like is this for everyone or
is this for a very niche population. That's kind of
what I want them to walk away by the end
and go, hey, I could utilize that.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Plan, right for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, maybe give an overview of kind of you what's
your bread and butter?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
If you would, I will, yeah, you know, I'll start
from the end and kind of work my way back. Ultimately,
what we want every one of our members we like
to call our clients members, we want them to walk
away with the ability to choose what they want to
invest in. And ultimately that means, you know, if they're
(09:26):
able to choose and have the freedom to choose what
they want to invest in, they're going to have more
control of the outcome. I can understand that maybe they
might the investor of the individual member may not be
the investment sponsor or like the decision maker of the investment.
They might just be kind of a limited partner or
(09:48):
somebody who doesn't have decision making powers, but they do
have skin in the game or stake in the game.
We understand that. But ultimately, they still have the ability
to choose the asset class that they prefer. And there's
a lot of information out there right now that is
so accessible to individuals where they can follow the opportunity
(10:11):
and if you're not given the chance to actually take
what you have and invest in those opportunities that might
be either trending or they just make sense because maybe
they align with the economic conditions and they're looking for
a better way to get ahead based on those economic conditions.
(10:32):
If you don't have access to that, you're not going
to be able to take advantage of the opportunity. And
most individuals, especially those that are listening right now, they
fall into a bucket, which is the mass market, the
W two four to oh one K or retirement plan
contributor or participant. It's a big pool. It's a big
(10:56):
community pool, but it's very limited. It's like swimming in
a pool that's four feet deep and it's like infinite.
It doesn't it doesn't go down in depth and you know,
offer opportunity for you to explore and like do things
that are different.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's just like that four feet deep.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
If you've ever been in an apartment complex pool or
like a hotel pool where it's just four feet deep,
like you can't dive into it, you can't do canniballs
as an adult, you know, so you really are limited
to access. That's what it's like right now. For the
majority of the population, the mass market. They're participating in
a retirement plan that is designed to invest in a
(11:37):
variety of asset classes. But unfortunately, the way that companies
design their plan, they limit it. They put kind of
a belt around it and they say no, no, no, no, no,
you can only invest in one asset class, which is
the capital markets. And they may advertise that you have
the ability to choose what you want to invest in,
but it's still limited to particular index funds or mutual funds.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So the end goal again is to open up people's
eyes and show them that we'll use the exact same
type of retirement plan that these big corporations are using using,
but will untie that belt. We'll open up that opportunity
for people to go now and choose across all varieties
(12:23):
of asset classes what they want to invest in. So
that's like the end goal, right, and we can do
that for the individual. We can also do that for
the small business because we understand that there are small
business owners out there that want to invest in those
alternative assets, but they don't want to go buy the
off the shelf plan that limits them. As like the
(12:44):
business owner who really wants to invest in asset classes
like real estate, but it also limits their employees, right,
so they opt for the self directed option, which we
can we can offer, like we give that to our clients.
Some individuals, on the other hand, they prefer the self
directed IRA. So now we're starting to go into a
(13:07):
little bit of the differences between the plans. They all
accomplish the same Goaldan. They all give the participant or
the beneficiary of those retirement funds the opportunity to invest
and all of those opportunities like land, private equity. We'll
talk more about some of those asset classes and some
of those case studies. Maybe individuals want to do some
(13:29):
private money lending. So there's a product, if you will,
that aligns with everyone's specific needs, whether again a plan
that's designed for the one person, right, like just the
one individual who's a W two person, or the IRA
person or even the small business owner. So we've kind
(13:50):
of worked out the kinks and flushed out what it
takes to get to that point for every eligible person
so that they don't have to and again we can
go on and on, but those are essentially again the
tools that people need to get into this space, and
we haven't even really pulled back the curtains of all
(14:11):
of the other resources that help just like boost up
those those plans that allow people to invest.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, I'm just kind of taking a few notes here
as we go along. So I think, I think because
I explained this to some people, but I think as humans,
especially if you get into a job, if you've got
a decent chunk in your four to one k it
don't take this the wrong way, but you've almost numbed
yourself to the possibility because now you're forty fifty years old,
(14:40):
you got you know, you've got a few hundred thousand
or more in your account, and you anything sounds like
a scam, right, So they meet with me, they might
be referred in, and I'm like, dude, you can we
can roll that to a self directed account and you
can do real estate with me, or real estate with
your buddy or really And I think for them, they're going,
that's got to be a scam. That's weird, right, that's scherry.
(15:04):
What's the liability component when you say they can self
direct and get into other assets, like maybe make it
I try to make it like simple and safe for them, right,
it's like you don't have to become an investment expert.
I don't expect you to be right. You still got
your W two job, you're working, you're contributing. But this
old money, you can get it out of jail and
(15:26):
we can start doing some other stuff. I don't know.
Just just speak to that a little bit and back
to the freedom component, like you literally can get you
can you know, you don't have to like go so farward.
It's the wild West, because you know, it's not like
you're going to pay taxes and get penalized on the money.
You're just going to allow you're going to move it
to an account, like taking it from like you know,
(15:49):
confinement in jail to basically like probation so to speak.
You still are playing in the rules right of the government,
the federal government. You still regulate all that stuff. But
now you can go take old money that's locked away.
And I know you kind of already said that, but
speak as plainly as you can for people like, well,
(16:11):
you quit your job or you change jobs, and now
we can move that old four to oh one K.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, you bring up a valid point, and let's do that.
Let's just like walk on that first level, step by step,
make it as simple as possible, because in reality it's
very simple. All we do for an individual that wants
to play this game, they want to take retirement funds
and invest in real estate, and they start asking themselves,
(16:40):
is the CYS scam.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I've never heard of this before.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
The reason they haven't heard about it is because it's
not advertised the system. Like again, we call it the system,
but it's just the retirement system that's designed to just
make people think there's one way, which is Wall Street.
It's not true. So what we do is we take
the exact same four to oh one K plan that
(17:04):
Home Depot offers so to speak, or Wells Fargo offers
their employees, so to speak, and we allow within that
plan document for the participant which is the employee, to
invest in all eligible assets, Whereas let's just say Home
Depots four oh one K and Wells Fargo's four oh
one K. In the document it says you're only allowed
(17:27):
to invest in one asset class, which is Wall Street
or the capital markets. They do that because it's just
easier to manage. There is a company on the back
end of Wells Fargo's four to.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh one K plan.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
That is managing everybody's money that's in it, and that
costs a lot of money. If you can imagine to
make it easier and cheaper. They just want their people,
their participants, to invest in one asset class, which is
the capital market. So that's why they don't open it
up to every single asset. That would be a headache
(18:05):
for the two hundred and fifty thousand employees of Wells
Fargo to manage all those assets. However, it is possible
to take that same plan design and to just ride
into it that you can invest in alternative assets. So
that's what we did. We went to the IRS and
we said we'd like to be a plan provider. So
they said, great, EQRP, you are now a plan provider.
(18:28):
You can write four oh one K plans for individuals.
That's exactly what we do. We take the same blueprint,
but we just make sure the investment opportunities aren't limited
to Wall Street. It's it's not limited. It's open to
all eligible assets, gold and silver, land, real estate, et cetera.
(18:50):
So we take that plan now and you Dan as
a client, we give you that plan and we say
we listed you as the person that puts money in
as the participate, and we list you as the person
who can make the decisions of what you want to
invest in. Those are two of the biggest components that
again going back to the Wells Fargo example, those employees
(19:13):
do not have both of those powers. They have one,
which is I just put money in as an employee.
We give you dan as the EQERP client. Both go
ahead and take your old four to h one K
money and put it into that plan, or make contributions
to it with your self employed active income, and go
ahead and choose what you want to invest in. So
(19:36):
you've got both of those powers. Now, it's eliminating all
of this institutional way of thinking. It's eliminating the third
party that's working on the back end that you have
to pay to manage it. We step in to help
in this process to guide you along the way. It's
a self directed plan, which means you need to self direct.
You need to ultimately make the decision with that power
(19:59):
that you have to invest in the asset that you want.
You are right that you're not going to have total
control of the outcome of the investment, but all investments
in reality, if you bundle it all under one are speculative.
Everything that you're investing in your W two four one
K in the capital markets totally speculative. We've seen that historically,
(20:23):
same thing with real estate, the home that we buy
personally and that we all live in. We speculate that
that asset will either retain or grow in value. We
have seen values of people's own primary home drop over time.
So everything that we're investing in is speculative. So I
don't want anybody to think about coming into this that shoot,
(20:45):
am I putting myself in big danger by investing in
all of these alternative assets. I would argue that you're
actually improving your chances because now you're reaching a variety
of asset classes, you can start picking and choosing.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I'm saying, well, I just wanted to throw in too
as you're listening, because I definitely want to blast this
out to everybody that has a plan with you guys,
so this can further, you know, maybe give them some comfort.
But a couple things like maybe they're going self directed, Dan,
I don't know what to invest in. That's a lot
of liability and risk on me. You're going to get
support from me obviously that's how you're hearing about this.
(21:22):
If you're my client, you're going to get tremendous You
guys have done a really good job, I would say
in the last three four years of your support of
walking them through, not giving investment advice that's not what
you're paid to do, but plan support to make sure
they feel comfy with Hey, this is legal, this is
not a scam, this is legit all that stuff. So
(21:44):
you're going to get the support to get it set
up properly and to use the funds properly. And then
if you're working with me or Riley or whoever, we
can help direct those assets. So it's not like you
got to take on a second job and learn how
to asset manage, right that we keep that pretty simple,
I would say. Secondly, you touched on diversification. I think
(22:08):
a lot of people in their guts right now are
going great. The markets at an all time high. We're
also heading into possible civil war with the elections. Totally,
I feel in my gut that the market's going to
have a pullback. Okay, Well, if they're the Wells Fargo
managed accounts, they either pull out of the markets and
move it to a money market and give up all
(22:29):
possibility of gains. But they're never going to do that,
and their advisors are never going to tell them to
do that because it's going to cut their fees, right,
So they're just told to what, ride it out. It
always comes back. Ride it out. Well, if you're fifty
and above, cool, that all sounds good in theory, but
you don't want to wait twenty years to ride it
(22:50):
back out, right.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
You make some games good points. Yeah, I would say
the people that are listening that are tied to you, Dan,
are in a very fortunate situation. Because it's one thing
to have your own self directed retirement plan that you
can invest in alternative assets with. It's even more powerful
when you have somebody like yourself, Dan, who's giving you
(23:15):
the support and the advice to maximize the plan. There's
only so much, like you said, that we could do
or that somebody can learn about. But when you have
somebody who is an expert in their industry helping them
access the variety that we've talked about in the alternative
assets space, and maybe why, like what economic conditions are
(23:37):
you know, encouraging you or prompting you to recommend a
particular asset class, right now, that's invaluable. So when you
do start to partner up something like this, this specific
investment vehicle with you know, other experts in their industry. Heck,
let's even throw in a tax strategist. You know, if
you've got somebody that does tex strategy, you know, you're
(24:02):
just now maximizing that plan's value even more because we
haven't even really touched on the fact that this is
a tax deferred account. This is a tax deferred vehicle,
which ultimately, if I could just paint a quick picture
and then you can maybe validate this DAN, you can
(24:22):
invest qualified funds, which are just retirement funds in a
self directed plan in alternative assets and grow that plan
value over time. Right that's assume there's a few assets
within it, like some private equity, maybe some precious metals,
maybe some you know, some stocks, and then also some
real estate over time. We would hope with that type
(24:44):
of variety that it grows.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Now when you go.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
To distribute that retirement, you're fifty nine and a half,
you're ready to go. You've spent the last fifteen years
really growing that value over time. You're now eligible to
distribute well, you can distribute in bulk or you can
distribute in pieces, right, just based on your specific living
conditions and your needs. Now your tax at ordinary income
(25:10):
versus taking funds, investing those funds, having a big capital
gain event. And now if you're in a situation where
you do have to use that money today, that's going
to be taxed very differently than it would be at retirement.
So it's such a strategic tool that individuals can use
(25:31):
to build up the retirement and ultimately take advantage of
all of those tax advantages out there. So I can't
tell you how many times people have used this specifically
for tax strategy, especially small business owners. The ability to
take current active self employed income and funnel it into
(25:53):
a qualified plan like this and then invest it over
time is gold. There's so many small business owners out
there that they see their friends and family using their
W two's four when K Plan two differ some taxes
and grow their retirement. They're saying, hey, I want to
take advantage of something like that too. Well, fortunately, there
is something like that that we can offer. And now
(26:15):
it's even better than your friends W two's four O
win K because you're investing in the variety that we've
talked about.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So a couple things I want to talk This is
a little bit this isn't perfectly aligned with what you
were talking about, but fees, I want to I want
to touch on fees. I had that as one of
the things. Typical four oh one K plans, you're going
to pay what one point five to two percent of
the asset balance roughly. So let's say got one hundred
thousand dollars and people go, oh, my fees are only
(26:45):
point six Those are the fees they report, but the
true you know, fees Like Tony Robbins did a big
study when he wrote his book a few years back
to try to find the true fees of the four
to one ks and he's like, it's amazed that won't
be solved, but he estimates it's one point five to
two percent of the asset value is the average fees.
(27:08):
So with that, just so if you're listening every year,
let's say you got one hundred thousand bucks in your
four to one K, they're taking two thousand bucks out right,
and then you know they're they're going to say, oh,
you did eight percent in your retirement account. Well that
that all factors in and we don't have to get
into average returns and all how bs they all are
and they don't really mean anything but fees for you guys,
(27:32):
especially if you're working through me like you're going to,
you're gonna you're going to get a flat fee and
it's going to be significantly less. And let's say you
grow this account to a quarter million and a half
a million, talk about that, the fees are almost wiped out,
whereas they just keep going higher and higher and higher
(27:52):
and higher in the four to one K or the
typically four to one K.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
You're spot on, and you painted a really good picture.
At times when people do connect with us. Sometimes it's
a hard pill to swallow when they realize, oh, I
have to pay like a up front to do business
with EQERP. They understand that we're for profit and they're
going to pay something, but you know, when they do
hear that it's going to cost a few thousand dollars,
(28:17):
they think, oh, my gosh, is this really worth it?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
This is quite a lot of money. You're totally right down.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
We have seen incredible high fees in people's plans, like
existing plans before they come to us. Unfathomable amounts that
are pulled from you start looking at plans that might
have a million dollars or more. They're not seeing all
of the fees that are being taken. They do see
the games over time, and it does grow over time
(28:46):
because the stock market is pretty steady, but it's a
lot easier for those fees to get lost in those plans.
We do charge significantly less than what somebody would anticipate
in a traditional plan. And like you said, Dan, you know,
we've been you know, connected with you for a long time,
so your people watching this do actually receive a very
(29:08):
favorable rate and we want them to know that, like
we want them to know because of your relationship with us,
we you know, we want to make that accessible to
as many people as possible. So yes, upfront, they do
pay three thousand dollars to make that happen. It does
require us to do some heavy lifting initially to set
(29:28):
up the plan and move the funds for you into
the plan.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
So well, and not sorry to interrupt, but no, it's
a pain in the butt to move funds out of
an old retirement account, Yes, into a different account, like, yes,
it's literally probably they probably have more coaching on how
to not let people get their money than they actually
do on how to manage the money. So a fee
(29:53):
you charge is well worth it. When I found out
you guys will do that for me, like as the
as the advisor helping the clients, I'm like great, Like
just yeah, and then to see you guys get better
and better at it, I mean, well worth it. Right,
the setup fee, well worth it. Super grateful for that
from my end, but like we just had a client
(30:13):
I just referred to you. I think I think it
took a week, and I was like, dude, if I
was doing that, i'd take like two months because every
time they always have another reason that they can't release
the money. And so anyway, I'm just that's just a
little plug, like the fact that you guys take that on,
connect with the old provider, help transfer the money, make
sure it's in the new account, all set up, and
then give them the green light, Hey, your funds are
(30:35):
ready to roll. Like that's that's well worth it. And
then the ongoing fee is negligible if you got a
decent amount in the account.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So for sure, I'm so glad you brought that up
because think of it this way, we employ full time
experts at that process to get the job done. Could
you imagine an individual who already has their full time
personal gig plus their personal lifestyle trying to incorporate now
that startup of moving funds into a plan. So let
(31:05):
us take care of it so that it's done right,
and well, you know, we'll be able to fight with
these companies to make it happen and to make sure
that it's done correctly. The last thing you'd ever want
is a taxable event that you weren't you know, prepared for.
So I'm really glad that you hit that on the head,
(31:25):
but that we're go ahead.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, no, no, I just want to jump into a
couple of our things. So I got a client who's
got about fifteen full time employees and about thirty part
time employees in a food industry. And she came to
me and she's like, Hey, this whole secure two point
oh thingy where we have to provide some type of
four O one K. I'm not super familiar with that.
I'm sure you are more familiar. Could you speak on
(31:50):
what that means for small business owners? And then what
you know? I was thinking, Oh, I should refer you
guys over to a QRP and see if they can
help with that, Like what could you guys do for
someone like that? And keep in mind the employee er
is my friend and client. She's kind of already got
the mindset that we have as far as unlocking assets
and and kind of not partnering with the government on
(32:12):
everything in Wall Street. And now she's going, well, how
how can I satisfy this secure two point oh and
possibly provide a better benefit for my employees? So talk
about that if you.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Would, for sure.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
So again going back to that comment that most w
two or most companies, most corporations, they don't want to
provide a plan that's complex. They want something that's totally simplified.
And so it's easy for me to say that it
is possible for a small business owner to offer to
(32:47):
their employees and also take advantage for themselves the option
of having a a retirement plan for the whole team
and be the ability to go out and now invest
in alternative assets. It's just a matter of finding the
right company that would be willing to design something like
that for you and manage it. So we do offer
(33:07):
something like that, and we do have to bring in
a couple of parties that are just a part of
the system. When you include employees into the mix, it
does get a little bit tricky, and you can see
that there are laws that are being passed more and
more to protect the employees and to almost force employers
to give this to their employees, not the self directed option,
(33:32):
but just the ability to participate in a retirement plan.
But again, I just want to go back to the
fact it's plain and simple. We do offer what we're
talking about today with self directing funds and investing retirement
funds in the alternative asset space to companies, companies that
have the owner that really wants to advocate for self
(33:53):
directing and secondly for their employees. So you're the person
that you're talking about who has those employees, those that
are eligible, they have to have a plan. Fortunately, if
it's something that they want, we can design it for them.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Okay, So yeah, we'll we'll talk more about that. I'd
like to get your pick your brain on something that
could work for that that client. So I want to
spend a little time too, and we're kind of coming
up on our time talk about your guys's philosophy when
it comes to like wroth conversions or just wroth from
(34:29):
get go. And maybe this is maybe a two part question.
Like take me for example, Yeah, you know, I don't
technically have any employees, even though I have about, you know,
a bunch of ten ninety nine people, but I know
I probably should get set up on like the payroll
and stuff. And let's say I wanted to start a
(34:49):
self direct you know, contributions instead of just the typical
rolling over and then having access to the funds, which
is great, what about like contributing from the get go
and then talk about setting that up a little bit
with you. I think you already covered. But then also,
how do you promote and utilize like the raw option.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Okay, we'll use you your example as a perfect case study.
So let's assume you approached me. We would set you
up with your own self directed plan right off the bat,
knowing that you want to make contributions. And in your case,
you have ten ninety nine employees, which means you, as
an employer so to speak, you're not forced to actually
(35:28):
provide a plan to those ten ninety nine contract employees.
That's you can google that, and that's just common knowledge.
So you're kind of in a really unique situation because
maybe you yourself just want to participate in this process.
Great will set you up with a self directed plan.
Maybe you have fifty thousand dollars from an old IRA
that you want to roll into it to kick things off.
Awesome even better because we'll take the startup fees from
(35:52):
that rollover to kick things off. Now, in theory, you're
walking into this nothing out of your actual bank account pocket.
It's just coming directly from your rollover. Now at this point,
you want to make contributions. Two things. First, make sure
that you loop in your tax advisor, because your CPA
is looking at everything related to your financials in theory,
(36:13):
so they're going to have insights, and they're also going
to have an idea of what the future might look
for you and maybe some of the tax deductions, maybe
some of the tax incentives that you and your company
want to leverage for the tax year. And maybe you
know you're somebody who has always tried to show as
little net income as possible, but maybe you want to
change that because now you want to start giving yourself
(36:37):
a profit sharing contribution because you could do that with
these plans, you can make a forty six thousand dollars
annual profit sharing contribution from your business based off of
the net income of the business. So that's why we
like to say, loop in your tax strategics or your
CPA if that's who it is, and start analyzing and
(36:57):
figuring out what net income do I really want want
to show so that I can provide my own self
a profit sharing contribution, which is a deduction for your business.
And now you have the option of either making that
profit sharing contribution a pretax or a WROTH contribution. Obviously
our theory. You asked me kind of what's our process
(37:20):
or like, what's our take on ROTH. We love the
idea of ROTH because that just signifies that at distribution,
any of the gains based on your ROTH capital, that's
all going to be tax reat distribution. We would love
for people to grow their money tax free if that's
at all possible, and we have a lot of members
that do. But now you're at the point where you've
(37:42):
contemplated profit sharing contribution from contributions from your business. Now
you're starting to look at okay, well, now what can
I contribute as a small business owner from my personal income.
Obviously you've got to now take a W two wage
in order to do that. Maybe that's a little different.
Maybe you're not set up as ANES corpor in order
to do that, so you have to make some changes
if you are ready to do that. Awesome, Now, for
(38:05):
twenty twenty four, I can make a twenty three thousand
dollars personal employee contribution to my plan. And how do
I want to set that up? Do I want to
defer some of my taxes so I have a lower
tax burden this year?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Great?
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Maybe for twenty twenty five, I want to do it
a little different, and I want to make some ROTH contributions.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I'll pay the.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Taxes now because I have a phenomenal investment idea or
opportunity coming up in twenty twenty five, and I want
to make sure that my commitment is with WROTH money
because I know that this thing is going to five
x whatever. So again, strategy is something that we will
support you with. But ultimately it's your CPA or the
(38:43):
real tax advisor who's going to be maybe the last
say or like the last.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Piece of advice that you want before you made that commitment.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
On the other side, let's say that you rolled into
this plan, or you've made contributions over time that are pretax,
and you're in a position now where you can go
in and you can invest and these are all pre
tax investments. Maybe now you want to convert those assets
in kind, which you can do to WROTH. It's going
to create a taxable burden for you. Everybody's going to
(39:15):
know that when you go from pretax convert it to
taxable event. But that's okay because maybe when those assets
are valued, they're valued at a favorable value. You know,
maybe that valuation comes back and it's like, oh, dang,
it's valued at.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Just that amount.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
I'm for sure going to convert those assets then now
because I know it's going to skyrocket in the next
few years. So a lot of people are actually doing that.
They are investing in these assets in prior to a
big capital gain. They go get it valued, and those
valuations come back, you know, favorable to the investor, and
(39:54):
so they just make they do the conversion then. And
now those assets before that big capital gain event are
now in WROTH form, which means all of those capital
gains are in theory in reality tax free.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Got it okay? Kind of wrapping up here bringing it
back to freedom. Like what you've been with this company
three years, You've been in the financial industry for many,
many years. What how does EQRP like create freedom in
people's finances? Very very generic, but want to see where
(40:29):
you go with it.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
What it does is it actually helps pull back the
curtain or pull back that veil. I can't tell you
how often I interacted with people in the traditional banking system,
and now looking back, they had a veil pulled over
their eyes or a sheet kind of pulled over their eyes,
and they were limited to what they knew and it
was such a small subset of opportunities that were limited
(40:57):
looking back now almost pitiful to be hones us with you.
But now that this sheet has been pulled back and
our members specifically myself and others that we talk to
on a daily basis, they're recognizing that there is so
much more beyond that veil or that sheet, And I
think that's that freedom that people are searching for. Right
(41:18):
People don't whether it's their finances, whether it's their faith,
maybe it's their family values or even their fitness. People
don't want to live behind that sheet. If there's somebody
that wants to achieve like physical fitness greatness, they don't
want to be limited to what's in front of them.
They're going to go and they're going to do the
(41:39):
research and they're going to find the programs, the eating
programs or the physical fitness programs that help them push
beyond that sheet. They no longer want to live in
this facade that they have to live and live with
what they have. There's nothing better than what I had
McDonald's and sitting on my phone on TikTok all day.
(42:02):
They may be told that that's all that they have
in front of them, or that's all they can afford,
but in reality, if they pull back the curtains, there's
so much more. They don't have to go get a
gym membership, They can go to the sports park and
they can actually do all of their fitness there, you know.
So I think that's what people truly look for in
this life. They do want freedom, and they're being slowly
(42:26):
kind of confined and pushed into a box that's designed
by people who don't have us, you know, top of
mind or in their heart. And it's unfortunate that it's
that way. But there are people that are trailblazing like yourself,
like Damien Lupo, founder of EQRP, that are trying to
just pull back those sheets and show people that there's
(42:46):
freedom beyond what they're actually living in.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah. Yeah, And I always tell people just on that
term unlocking the asset, like the four to one K,
the equity in your house. Those are where a lot
of people have equi but they feel broke right because
they can't touch it, they can't use it, you know.
The four one K transfer to a self directed with
(43:12):
the QRP team unlocks those allows you to invest in things,
allows you to have access to some cap you know,
cash v loans or whatever, and just a lot easier.
Right now, the headaches kind of go away, the access
to the money goes away. One more question on freedom
for sure, what is this company and just this mindset
(43:36):
done for you personally? Like what maybe if there was
an aha moment along the way from the banking world
till now you kind of touched on it. But obviously
you're having lots of conversations with clients and advisors and stuff,
but like personally, like when it comes to freedom, were
there any big Aha moments that you're just like Wow,
I found the company I want to stay with for
a while because of X, Y and Z.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yes, I'm fortunate that first I meant or by Damian Lupo,
who has frankly quite a lot of experience, good and bad.
I'm also exposed to some very high net worth individuals
that are our members all the way down to the
everyday investor. But they're all participating and unlocking this freedom
that we all yearn for. So the one thing, if
(44:18):
I could sum it up, or maybe pick from the
top of what I've learned over time, it is it
has to do with time itself and how I can
gain more time back to be with the people that
I love the most. And I heard that throughout my life,
and I realize it so much more now that there
(44:41):
are ways to gain back more of your time to
spend with your loved ones. And that includes really all
the five f's that you talk about. If you have
your finances set up in the right way, you don't
even have to be rich. If you have your faith
set up the right way, you don't even and have
to be a hardcore, devout faith person that goes to
(45:04):
church and so on and so forth. All you have
to do is just put forth the energy and the
commitment towards those five us that you talk about, and
it will slowly give you back more time that you
can then reap and share with your with your loved ones.
That's the biggest thing that I've learned.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
In this in this space.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah yeah, and the cool part and not to give
myself a plug, but taking your strategy bring it into
a client's life. We can measure that time and dollars
right like you can take assets that are I mean,
let's be honest right now, I got a client that's
got over a million bucks in the retirement accounts. They're
(45:45):
retiring and they're just like every day scared that they're
going to run on money because they feel and they've
got the market's going to pull back. It's like you know,
and then when you kind of show them, hey, at
a minimum, you're paying fifteen to twenty thousand a year
in fees and you don't even see that you can
recover most of that fee money. You can move it
to assets. You don't have to worry about them going down,
(46:05):
like I don't know, just a lot of freedom from that,
and you can measure that in time because a thirty
percent pullback that's three hundred grm. That might be seven
years of their planned income and retirement. That's time and
that's stress. Right. So anyway, last question, Sure, what does
(46:26):
the honey badger mean? And why did you guys pick that?
Speaker 2 (46:30):
For sure? Yeah, I love that you brought that out.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
That is our company mascot, if you will, and the
idea behind.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
That is first.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Damian Lupo, founder of QRP, is a believer in mascots.
That you know, each company or each organization kind of
lives with is represented, so to speak, by by something special.
And we represent ourselves with the badger. With the badger,
we're decisive, we're determined, we're aggressive. We we go out
(47:02):
and we we get what we want in a good way. Right,
we go and we crying, just like a badger, and
we're out there, you know, doing whatever it takes to
achieve whatever greatness we're looking for. And so you know,
if there's any animal out there that can stand up
against a bear or a lion or you know, a cobra,
(47:24):
it's a badger. Like they are totally fearless. They will
go and get in it if they have to. And
they'll fight till the bitter end. So that's kind of
like what we call ourselves.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Yeah, I love it. Well, my kids always try to
steal this out of my office, but it's it's made
it since you sent it, So I appreciate that gift.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Well, i'll have to send you how many kids do
you have? We'll make sure you haven't.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Oh, you're ready for this?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Eight?
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Awesome. That is awesome. Holy cow, that's way more than
I thought. But that'll that'll be a package for sure.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
That's awesome. Yeah, and I got your T shirts too,
so I appreciate that. Well, I'm hoping we can last
this out. I'm hoping it was helpful. If you're listening
and you're like, cool, you got my you piqued my interest,
We're not. This is not a crash course on all
the things. We can always set up a call with
the QRP Company if you feel that you could be
a fit or want to be a fit for this. Obviously,
(48:17):
if you're going through my financial process and I see
the opportunity, I always bring it up to self direct
your funds. I mean, my mom's got an account. I'm
probably you know, I didn't. I never was with the
company a long time to roll over a big amount.
I've always kind of been put my money where I
have access to it from the get go. But you know,
I'm I would like to learn it for myself personally,
(48:38):
I probably should switch back to an escort. I had
it set up, I dropped it off, you know, all
the all that. So myself personally big believer in it.
A lot of my clients have had it. I don't
know how many accounts I have, but it's got to
be thirty or forty accounts I've referred in and the company,
the clients that you have utilized this for a while now,
(48:59):
they they it's fun having follow up meetings with them
and them realizing, you know, wow, I've been like stable
at ten to twenty percent on returns. They kind of
forget that we don't have to be scared waiting for
the market to crash, you know. So that is just
one aspect of it. But you know, it is funny
(49:21):
though you still get the complaints of I gotta pay
this fee. It's like, sure, yeah, but they didn't pull
out two percent.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
We're just more transparent.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
That you never see. So anyway, not to get back
into the fees, but fees are dropped, returns and asset options, diversification,
lots of reasons to consider it. And here's one thing
I wanted to say earlier. Even if you love how
Ed Jones is managing your money, you love it. You
like everything they pick is rocks out. I love all
(49:51):
of it. You can roll it over and pick the
exact same assets, but just drop out the one percent
two percent fees, right like.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
And maybe when you do cross an alternative asset that
you want, now you're set up to go do it exactly.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
So that's the whole crazy part. I know it's a
little complex for someone that's new to this, but you
you don't have to go crazy off the deep end
into the alternative world. You can. You can continue to
look up that target twenty twenty structure that everybody picks
in there, you know, twenty thirty or twenty forty whatever
in their four oh one K, and pick the exact
(50:30):
same mutual funds inside of your QRP and drop out
the fees. So anyway, I didn't mean to jump back
into that, but let's know, well said, yeah, let's wrap
this back. When wrap this up and uh yeah, We'll
get this distributed out and hopefully it peaks some interest
for some people.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Thank you, Dan, appreciate it coming on, appreciate being a
part of this and hope to connect with more of
your community.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Absolutely, thank you, sir
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Man
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