Latest / Money In Motion with Klaas Financial / The Fiduciary Promise

Transcript

The Fiduciary Promise · Money In Motion with Klaas Financial

0:00
Speaker 1: And you know that jam. It means the phone lines
0:02
Speaker 1: are open six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
0:05
Speaker 1: That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. If
0:08
Speaker 1: you have questions for our retirement planning professionals from Class
0:11
Speaker 1: Financial love to have you join us this morning. Any
0:14
Speaker 1: type of retirement related question. Uh, CJ and Eric are
0:18
Speaker 1: here for you and they'd love to chat with You'd
0:20
Speaker 1: love to answer your question again. All you gotta do
0:22
Speaker 1: is call in six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
0:24
Speaker 1: That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. Get
0:27
Speaker 1: you right on the air with CJ. Closs and Eric
0:29
Speaker 1: Schwartz a COLSS Financial don't forget as well. You can
0:31
Speaker 1: learn more about COSS Financial on their website Coss Financial
0:35
Speaker 1: dot com. That's coss k l aa S Financial dot com.
0:38
Speaker 1: Not only can you listen back to this podcast get
0:41
Speaker 1: to know the team at COSS Financial learn about their
0:43
Speaker 1: separate divisions, you can also schedule a complementary conversation right
0:47
Speaker 1: online Cossfinancial dot com. Or you can call the office
0:50
Speaker 1: right here in Madison at six oh eight four four
0:52
Speaker 1: two five six three seven. No charge for that initial
0:55
Speaker 1: get to know your appointment at Loss Financial. It will
0:57
Speaker 1: be complementary to you as much. You're joining us this
1:00
Speaker 1: morning our CJ. Clawson, Eric Schwartz, c J. How you
1:03
Speaker 1: doing this week?
1:04
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Sean. How are you?
1:06
Speaker 1: I'm doing fantastic, great to chat with you, Eric. How
1:08
Speaker 1: have you been? Not too bad? Sean?
1:11
Speaker 3: It's warming up out there, so I.
1:14
Speaker 1: Was, I was. I just got back in with the dog,
1:17
Speaker 1: the Chihuahua, took him for a little walk yesterday, and
1:19
Speaker 1: I said, Homer, I think we are looking up when
1:22
Speaker 1: it comes to summer, because he is not a fan
1:25
Speaker 1: of the cold temperatures, and I don't think he likes
1:27
Speaker 1: snow either.
1:28
Speaker 2: So yeah, did you just say that your dog's name
1:30
Speaker 2: is Homer?
1:31
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, it's a great I'll have to tell you
1:33
Speaker 1: one of these weeks about about how that all happened.
1:37
Speaker 1: It's very sweet. And also I'm gonna just a little tip. Uh.
1:41
Speaker 1: My wife is a very very smart woman. She gamed
1:45
Speaker 1: me on that one. And there's a yeah, it's it's
1:47
Speaker 1: a good story. There there is there is old time.
1:50
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that. Speaking of great stories and in
1:52
Speaker 1: great understanding that the history of coloss Financial a fantastic
1:56
Speaker 1: and amazing story. And we're going to talk with c
1:59
Speaker 1: Jan Eric this week about the fiduciary promise and really
2:02
Speaker 1: understanding words like trust and other things what that means.
2:05
Speaker 1: And of course we'll talk about Class Financial as well.
2:08
Speaker 1: Speaking of the folks at Costs Financial, I mentioned the
2:11
Speaker 1: website colssfinancial dot com. That's coss Klaas Financial dot com
2:15
Speaker 1: and they're telephon number six so eight four four two
2:17
Speaker 1: five six three seven. I haven't mentioned yet that this
2:20
Speaker 1: week another week with a chance to win a fantastic
2:22
Speaker 1: prize with the class Quiz question Leak. Our friends from
2:24
Speaker 1: Class Financial have provided a twenty five dollars gift card
2:27
Speaker 1: to the Olive Garden. We'll tell you a little bit
2:29
Speaker 1: later on in the program how you can win that
2:31
Speaker 1: gift card. A little tip Paycal's attention to the show
2:33
Speaker 1: because just about every week the question and answer to
2:35
Speaker 1: the Class Quiz question Leak comes up during the program.
2:38
Speaker 1: And before we get into understanding and navigating the ethics,
2:42
Speaker 1: regulations and standards when it comes to modern retirement planning,
2:45
Speaker 1: let's actually look back at last week's show and get
2:47
Speaker 1: the class quiz question and answer there as well.
2:50
Speaker 3: Eric, absolutely John. So last week we were talking more
2:55
Speaker 3: about the psychology of investing in financial planning, and the
2:59
Speaker 3: importance of remaining level headed around those topics. So our
3:02
Speaker 3: question was true or false? The belief that current market
3:06
Speaker 3: trends will persist permanently is called recency bias, and the
3:10
Speaker 3: answer to that was true.
3:12
Speaker 1: A great show there as well, and if you missed
3:14
Speaker 1: any of it, you can always listen back at cossfinancial
3:17
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Coss k LaaS Financial dot com podcast
3:21
Speaker 1: is up there more information about COLSS Financial. Also an
3:23
Speaker 1: opportunity to schedule that complementary conversation right at cossfinancial dot com. So,
3:28
Speaker 1: as mentioned today, we're going to be talking about the
3:30
Speaker 1: fiduciary promise, navigating the ethics, regulations and standards of modern
3:35
Speaker 1: retirement planning and CJ. We hear that we're trust a
3:38
Speaker 1: lot in commercials. Let's talk then kind of as we
3:41
Speaker 1: look at where we are right now in twenty twenty six.
3:44
Speaker 1: Trust it's one of those things that's really easy to
3:47
Speaker 1: say a little more difficult to prove. How would you,
3:50
Speaker 1: SEJ define trust?
3:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is a big deal. I mean, in
3:55
Speaker 2: our line of work, in legal work and accounting work,
3:58
Speaker 2: anything dealing with people's finances, trust is kind of the
4:02
Speaker 2: cornerstone of the relationship that you're building. So at Class
4:05
Speaker 2: Financial we look at trust through the lens of our history.
4:08
Speaker 2: So we are founded in nineteen seventy six, which means
4:11
Speaker 2: we're fifty years old. We've seen every market cycle since
4:15
Speaker 2: the Ford administration, and while the technology and the tax
4:18
Speaker 2: laws change year after year, the fiduciary standard remains our bedrock.
4:24
Speaker 2: It's not just a bud buzzword for us. It's a
4:26
Speaker 2: legal obligation to put the client's interest above our own
4:30
Speaker 2: one hundred percent of the time. And to be clear
4:33
Speaker 2: for the listeners, all registered investment advisors are legally bound
4:37
Speaker 2: by that fiduciary duty to act in the best interests
4:39
Speaker 2: of their clients. However, there is a massive legal difference
4:43
Speaker 2: between a broker and an investment advisor. A broker often
4:48
Speaker 2: works under a suitability standard, meaning they can sell you
4:51
Speaker 2: a product that's just okay for you, even if it
4:54
Speaker 2: pays them a higher commission. And as a fiduciary advisory firm,
4:59
Speaker 2: we operate under something called the duty of care and
5:01
Speaker 2: the duty of loyalty. That means we must seek the
5:04
Speaker 2: best path, not just an okay one. It's about integrity,
5:08
Speaker 2: doing what's right, even when it's a more challenging path
5:13
Speaker 2: for our firm. So listen, I want to be clear
5:16
Speaker 2: as we talk about this topic today. I don't want
5:19
Speaker 2: people to walk away with a sense that broker's bad,
5:22
Speaker 2: investment advisor's good.
5:24
Speaker 1: That's actually not true.
5:26
Speaker 2: I've met plenty of brokers who sell things and earn commissions,
5:30
Speaker 2: who are unbelievably loyal, high quality people. And I've met
5:36
Speaker 2: investment advisors who operate under a duty of care and
5:39
Speaker 2: a duty of loyalty who I wouldn't want to hang
5:41
Speaker 2: out with it like ever, who might.
5:44
Speaker 1: Stab me in the back.
5:45
Speaker 2: So certainly, just because you have a standard to abide
5:49
Speaker 2: by doesn't make you good or bad.
5:52
Speaker 1: However, it does reduce.
5:54
Speaker 2: Conflicts of interest. So this is kind of what we're
5:56
Speaker 2: going to talk about as we move forward here. A
5:59
Speaker 2: standard that you must have buy it doesn't make you
6:01
Speaker 2: good or bad, but it does reduce the potential for
6:05
Speaker 2: conflicts and it can align your interest. So that's a
6:09
Speaker 2: big part of what our show is going to be
6:10
Speaker 2: about today.
6:11
Speaker 1: It's going to be a fantastic program. As we talked
6:13
Speaker 1: this morning with CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz, our retirement
6:16
Speaker 1: planning professionals from Class Financial. There's going to be a
6:18
Speaker 1: lot of great information. Don't forget if you miss any
6:20
Speaker 1: part of the program, you can listen back to the
6:21
Speaker 1: podcast right at Colassfinancial dot com. That's Class k l
6:25
Speaker 1: a A S Financial dot com. And one of the
6:27
Speaker 1: things I've loved is, you know, over the years of
6:30
Speaker 1: doing this show, not only I've I learned a lot,
6:32
Speaker 1: I've got a chance to see COSS Financial grow and
6:35
Speaker 1: I know you guys have grown quite a bit since
6:37
Speaker 1: the radio show began. Now the website shows just heading
6:40
Speaker 1: over to Colassfinancial dot com that you're now managing over
6:43
Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifteen million dollars in assets for about
6:47
Speaker 1: eleven hundred households. How then, do you kind of maintain
6:51
Speaker 1: that small firm ethical feel at such a scale.
6:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, Sean, because you
6:59
Speaker 3: know listeners here at CJ and I on here with
7:02
Speaker 3: our young, spry voices, but we are part of a
7:05
Speaker 3: firm that has a fifty year history here and we've
7:08
Speaker 3: especially in recent years, grown quite a bit. So for
7:12
Speaker 3: us maintaining kind of that small firm ethical feel, it
7:16
Speaker 3: really comes down to our service models, So when we're
7:18
Speaker 3: talking about how we work with individuals, we have two
7:23
Speaker 3: main programs that we offer two individuals, So that would
7:27
Speaker 3: be our KIP or our Class Investment Portfolios division, and
7:31
Speaker 3: then what we call Class three sixty. So we distinguish
7:34
Speaker 3: between what we call quarterbacking where we're managing client assets,
7:39
Speaker 3: and then coaching, which is our advice only track. Okay,
7:43
Speaker 3: So for us, our Class Investment Portfolios Division would be
7:46
Speaker 3: that quarterbacking where we're acting as a financial planner and
7:51
Speaker 3: as an investment manager for our clients. And then Class
7:54
Speaker 3: three sixty, which is our advice only offering, where we're
7:57
Speaker 3: providing advice but we're not actually transacting or kind of
8:01
Speaker 3: taking over that role for clients. And for us, offering
8:05
Speaker 3: Class three sixty it's actually an ethical choice. For us,
8:08
Speaker 3: it ensures that clients who might not need full asset
8:12
Speaker 3: management still have access to professional, high level guidance. Okay,
8:16
Speaker 3: So we're not just trying to gather assets. We're trying
8:19
Speaker 3: to provide the right level of service for the specific
8:23
Speaker 3: human beings sitting across from us. Because what we've learned
8:26
Speaker 3: over time is that you know, especially at different points
8:29
Speaker 3: in our lives, people have different needs. And the thing
8:34
Speaker 3: that isn't different though, is that they need advice at
8:36
Speaker 3: almost all stages of life, so we want to have
8:39
Speaker 3: a way to offer that at a large scale. Now,
8:45
Speaker 3: we also take that responsibility to our local business owners
8:49
Speaker 3: really seriously, and we do that through our COSS for
8:53
Speaker 3: one K division. So being a fiduciary isn't just for individuals.
8:57
Speaker 3: It's also for the employers we work with here in
9:00
Speaker 3: the Midwest, and we help them meet a Department of
9:03
Speaker 3: Labor requirements and more importantly, we help them protect their
9:06
Speaker 3: employees' futures. We take the kind of the legal ease
9:10
Speaker 3: of those those regulations and we turn it into a
9:13
Speaker 3: retirement plan that actually works and that their employees actually
9:17
Speaker 3: appreciate and want to use.
9:19
Speaker 1: It's really it's really insightful to kind of get a
9:21
Speaker 1: peek at all the great things offered by Coss Financial.
9:23
Speaker 1: And I mentioned each week when you go to class
9:25
Speaker 1: financial dot com, I always say, learn about the separate
9:28
Speaker 1: divisions at Coss Financial. Truly, they are there to help you.
9:31
Speaker 1: If you are an employer looking for some great options
9:34
Speaker 1: as well, the Coss Financial has something for you great data.
9:37
Speaker 1: Start that conversation, head on over to Cossfinancial dot com.
9:40
Speaker 1: You can schedule a complementary chat right from the website
9:43
Speaker 1: or give them a call six oh eight four four
9:45
Speaker 1: two five six three seven. No charge for that initial
9:48
Speaker 1: get to know you appointment at Coss Financial. It will
9:50
Speaker 1: be complementary to you again. Their number six oh eight
9:52
Speaker 1: four four two five six three seven looks into our
9:55
Speaker 1: conversation with c Jen Eric. We'll talk about AI and transparency,
10:00
Speaker 1: also talk about some of the other things when it
10:02
Speaker 1: comes to family engagement as well as audits. It's always
10:06
Speaker 1: a fun term. We'll find out us from cjn Eric
10:08
Speaker 1: all about that and take your call. Next has money
10:10
Speaker 1: in Motion with Coss Financial continues right here on thirteen ten.
10:13
Speaker 1: W youb our phone lines. They are open for you
10:16
Speaker 1: right now at six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
10:18
Speaker 1: That's six h eight three two one thirteen ten. If
10:21
Speaker 1: you have questions for our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial,
10:24
Speaker 1: CJ Coss and Eric Schwartz gives call up to get
10:27
Speaker 1: you on the air. You can learn more about Loss
10:28
Speaker 1: Financial as well on their website Coss Financial dot com.
10:32
Speaker 1: That's Coss Klaas Financial dot com and they're telephon number six,
10:36
Speaker 1: SOH eight four four two, five, six three seven no
10:39
Speaker 1: charge for that initial get to know your appointment tech
10:41
Speaker 1: loss Financial. It will be complementary to you talking this
10:44
Speaker 1: week about the fiduciary promise of things like ethics, regulations,
10:49
Speaker 1: standards of modern retirement planning. We're getting into all of
10:51
Speaker 1: those areas and CJ, as you started this conversation off
10:55
Speaker 1: this week, kind of laid the groundwork for this topic.
10:57
Speaker 1: One of the things that was mentioned, of course, is
10:59
Speaker 1: is some of the changing technology and changing tools. Let's
11:03
Speaker 1: kind of look to this year twenty twenty six, and
11:05
Speaker 1: of course the SEC they've been very active lately regarding
11:10
Speaker 1: AI and transparency. Let's kind of apply that then to
11:13
Speaker 1: COSS financial. How is class Financial handling these new regulations? CJ.
11:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, good question, Sean. So we approach new technology with
11:21
Speaker 2: a mix of curiosity and caution. We use technology to
11:25
Speaker 2: enhance our financial planning, to run better projections and what
11:29
Speaker 2: if scenarios, but we never let it replace the human touch.
11:33
Speaker 2: An algorithm can't cannot feel empathy when a client loses
11:37
Speaker 2: a spouse. We use the technology to be more efficient,
11:42
Speaker 2: but really we're doing that so that we have more
11:44
Speaker 2: time to be human in the meeting. Now, regarding what
11:48
Speaker 2: we were talking about before and transparency, we encourage everyone
11:51
Speaker 2: to take a look at two documents for US and
11:54
Speaker 2: every other financial advisory firm you might engage. Those two
11:58
Speaker 2: documents are Form ADV and Form CRS. These are mandatory
12:03
Speaker 2: public filings for investment advisors and broker dealers. Said another way,
12:08
Speaker 2: if you were meeting with somebody who calls themselves financial planner,
12:11
Speaker 2: wealth manager, financial advisor, under kind of the rules that
12:18
Speaker 2: operate here in the United States, they would need to
12:20
Speaker 2: have a Form ADV in a Form CRS. So if
12:24
Speaker 2: you want to know if your current advisor has disclosable
12:27
Speaker 2: events or hidden conflicts of interest, those forms will often
12:31
Speaker 2: tell you we keep ours front and center because we
12:34
Speaker 2: really have nothing to hide. So I can't tell everybody
12:37
Speaker 2: enough if you've never done this for your current financial advisor.
12:40
Speaker 2: And and by the way, many many advisors are great.
12:42
Speaker 2: I mean, you're going to go and you're going to
12:44
Speaker 2: find limited disclosure events are very few of them. So
12:47
Speaker 2: I'm not telling you this because you're going to find
12:49
Speaker 2: skeletons in the clause that I hope, but go to
12:51
Speaker 2: You know, FENRA has this thing called a broker check.
12:53
Speaker 2: If you're to go to Google or AI right now
12:55
Speaker 2: and put in broker check immediately of bring that up,
12:58
Speaker 2: you could put in your advisor's name, find them and
13:00
Speaker 2: look at a needy to any what are called disclosable
13:03
Speaker 2: events or think of that as like lawsuits from other clients.
13:07
Speaker 2: And to that point about transparency, you can review our
13:11
Speaker 2: form adv and form crs, which are actually available on
13:14
Speaker 2: our website upon requests so to understand our business practices,
13:18
Speaker 2: potential conflicts of interests, our services associated costs. You can
13:23
Speaker 2: go right to our website and actually it's under our
13:26
Speaker 2: downloads page is where we have our adv and form
13:29
Speaker 2: crs available right there online.
13:31
Speaker 1: Real easy to reallease it access really important forms as well.
13:36
Speaker 1: To understand as we talked this morning, we ce Jan
13:38
Speaker 1: Eric about the fiduciary promise and when we kind of
13:41
Speaker 1: put this stuff out there and obviously new tools and
13:45
Speaker 1: importance of transparency, let's look into some real world examples
13:48
Speaker 1: or a real world example of an ethical dilemma that
13:51
Speaker 1: you might face. Eric, Yeah, I.
13:54
Speaker 3: Think this will be helpful for folks just to kind
13:57
Speaker 3: of understand, you know, when we're talking about these kind
14:00
Speaker 3: of general guidelines and concerns that we're facing. Just to
14:05
Speaker 3: see an example and understand what we're getting at here.
14:08
Speaker 3: And I'll admit this is not necessarily an ideal outcome,
14:15
Speaker 3: it does illustrate, you know, the way that we engage
14:17
Speaker 3: with our clients from a position of empathy and understanding.
14:21
Speaker 3: So this one is from a few years ago, working
14:25
Speaker 3: with a seventy five year old who we would call
14:28
Speaker 3: high net worth client. We'll call her Carol. In this example,
14:32
Speaker 3: she was recently widowed and she had requested two successive
14:38
Speaker 3: unusually large distributions from her investment account that we managed
14:42
Speaker 3: for her. So, as part of our kind of standard
14:45
Speaker 3: security protocol, will always verify a client's identity verbally and
14:50
Speaker 3: we will then document the reason for a large one
14:53
Speaker 3: time withdrawal. And Carol was a little bit evasive. She
14:57
Speaker 3: kind of refused to disclose why she needed the funds,
15:00
Speaker 3: So our team became suspicious. As we followed up with
15:04
Speaker 3: Carol to dig a little deeper into the situation, it
15:07
Speaker 3: unfortunately came to light that she was the victim of
15:09
Speaker 3: what we would call a vishing scam. So someone had
15:12
Speaker 3: convinced her that she had won the lottery but insisted
15:15
Speaker 3: that she had to pay some upfront fees to release
15:18
Speaker 3: the winnings from a vault in Chicago. Okay, So in
15:23
Speaker 3: this case, our intervention included three immediate steps. So the
15:28
Speaker 3: first we called direct confrontation, so we initiated a three
15:32
Speaker 3: way call with Carol and the scammer. The individual refused
15:36
Speaker 3: to speak with us and quickly hung up. The next
15:40
Speaker 3: would be family engagement, so with Carol's permission, we contacted
15:43
Speaker 3: her son and her financial power of attorney to alert
15:47
Speaker 3: them to the fraud. And then, finally, the third would
15:49
Speaker 3: be reporting, so we contacted a local elder abuse hotline
15:53
Speaker 3: to report the financial exploitation. Now, unfortunately, despite our efforts
15:59
Speaker 3: here and our are pleas to her family or from
16:02
Speaker 3: her family, I'm sorry, Carol refused to acknowledge the scam.
16:07
Speaker 3: She continued to demand distributions while pretty much withholding any information.
16:12
Speaker 1: As to why.
16:13
Speaker 3: Now. Ultimately, we were forced to resign managing your portfolio.
16:17
Speaker 3: You know, if we don't have a clear understanding of
16:19
Speaker 3: her goals or a reliable timeline for her funds, we
16:22
Speaker 3: can no longer manage her investments and her risk tolerance effectively.
16:27
Speaker 3: You know, in that case, we are not actually serving
16:30
Speaker 3: her needs because we don't know, you know, what her
16:33
Speaker 3: goals are for those funds. And while we don't know
16:36
Speaker 3: if she eventually emptied the account, we do know she
16:39
Speaker 3: depleted half of her life savings, you know, within about
16:43
Speaker 3: a six month period. Now, this situation presents a gut
16:48
Speaker 3: wrenching ethical conflict between respecting Carol's personal autonomy and our
16:53
Speaker 3: fiduciary duty to protect her her savings from a clear threat. Now,
16:57
Speaker 3: despite our aggressive intervention and coordinat with their family, we
17:01
Speaker 3: were forced to witness the scammer eroad years of established trust,
17:05
Speaker 3: replacing our professional guidance with what we would consider a
17:09
Speaker 3: psychological manipulation. This situation ultimately became a choice between being
17:15
Speaker 3: complicit in her financial downfall or resigning from the account,
17:20
Speaker 3: a decision that felt like a personal necessity but also
17:23
Speaker 3: feels like a personal loss right. We worked with folks
17:25
Speaker 3: for a long time, and to have to end a
17:28
Speaker 3: relationship is always really difficult. And this really remains a
17:31
Speaker 3: sobering reminder that while we can manage a portfolio's risk,
17:35
Speaker 3: we can't always protect a client from a threat that
17:38
Speaker 3: they can't or refuse to see.
17:41
Speaker 1: As we're talking this week with Eric, Schwartz and CJ.
17:44
Speaker 1: Closs of COSS Financial highlighting there, you know, talk about
17:48
Speaker 1: the history of Class Financial and these relationships that have
17:51
Speaker 1: developed over decades. And that's such a sad situation to
17:55
Speaker 1: hear about and very unfortunate. And one of those things
17:59
Speaker 1: too is we talk with with our friends from Class Financial.
18:02
Speaker 1: There is a lot of great information this week's program
18:05
Speaker 1: also really good to share with your friends and family
18:07
Speaker 1: as well. That podcast give them those those tips and
18:10
Speaker 1: some of that great information to understand what exactly they
18:14
Speaker 1: should be looking for when they are looking for looking
18:16
Speaker 1: for fiduciaries and other things. And again, of course you
18:20
Speaker 1: can do that right from class financial dot Com. That's
18:22
Speaker 1: Coss k l a as Financial dot com. You can
18:25
Speaker 1: download the podcast there, share it as well again Class
18:28
Speaker 1: financial dot Com. We'll wrap up, we'll get to our
18:30
Speaker 1: Money and Motion listener question corner. We'll also talk about
18:34
Speaker 1: some action steps for you. We will do that next
18:36
Speaker 1: as Money in Motion with Coss Financial continues right here
18:39
Speaker 1: on thirteen ten dough Will you ib I get some
18:41
Speaker 1: great information this week from our retirement planning professionals CJ.
18:45
Speaker 1: Closs and Eric Schwartz. Don't forget can learn more about
18:47
Speaker 1: class financial on the website cossfinancial dot com. You can
18:50
Speaker 1: also schedule a complimentary conversation right at cossfinancial dot com.
18:54
Speaker 1: That's Coss k l a A S Financial dot com.
18:57
Speaker 1: They're telephone number six O eight for four two five
19:00
Speaker 1: six three seven. Before we get to the Money and
19:03
Speaker 1: Motion listener question corner, CEJ, let's kind of wrap up
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Speaker 1: this week's conversation. And I know one of the things
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Speaker 1: that that you're you're very invested in our action steps.
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Speaker 1: What can you do? And for folks that have had
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Speaker 1: a chance to kind of digest this week's program, let's
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Speaker 1: kind of get a Monday morning action step for the folks.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds good, Sean, I do want to, you know,
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Speaker 2: kind of just reflect for a moment. On Eric's segment there,
19:29
Speaker 2: that story that we give to you is is a
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Speaker 2: real story. Carol is not her name, by the way,
19:34
Speaker 2: that was a fictitious name, but gut wrenching. I was
19:38
Speaker 2: part and parcel to that process that had to play
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Speaker 2: out and super tough, but as Eric said, it kind
19:44
Speaker 2: of shows it almost gives you an inside look on
19:47
Speaker 2: the steps we take to do everything in our power
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Speaker 2: to help clients kind of better themselves and better their future.
19:56
Speaker 2: Story with Carol was a tough one. So yes, to
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Speaker 2: your point, what are some steps that people can take
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Speaker 2: because it relates to this kind of fiduciary standard and
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Speaker 2: how advisors operate and understanding any conflicts of interest things
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Speaker 2: like that. So we want people to be unbiased and educated,
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Speaker 2: and that starts with what we would call a fiduciary audit.
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Speaker 2: So here's your what we'll call three point checklist for
20:18
Speaker 2: any financial partner you currently have in your corner. Number one,
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Speaker 2: ask for a written fiduciary oath or a fiduciary standard,
20:27
Speaker 2: like what fiduciary standard you know, GYM or XYZ corporation
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Speaker 2: do you abide to buy? Number two would be Verify
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Speaker 2: SEC registration, so make sure there's actually registration there. And
20:40
Speaker 2: then number three ensure a legacy of service. You want
20:44
Speaker 2: a firm that survived decades of market ups and downs. Now, listen,
20:49
Speaker 2: I understand that these in some circumstances, these things sound
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Speaker 2: like utopian values, right, like, oh not every firm is
20:56
Speaker 2: fifty years old, CJ. And sounds like you're couching these
20:59
Speaker 2: things in a such a way to make your firm
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Speaker 2: look great. That's really not my intent here. I understand
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Speaker 2: you might work with a company that's been around ten
21:06
Speaker 2: to fifteen years, but you just want to make sure
21:08
Speaker 2: that there's no clear conflicts between you and them, that
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Speaker 2: they are registered and in business to function and operate,
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Speaker 2: and that probably they're more than a few years old
21:19
Speaker 2: or at least have some experience inside of the industry
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Speaker 2: for a period of time.
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Speaker 1: And so you get the idea.
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Speaker 2: These are these are some things you can do to
21:27
Speaker 2: make sure that the advisory firm that you're working with
21:29
Speaker 2: right now is your best partner. So if you're ready
21:33
Speaker 2: for what we call a retirement readiness conversation by all
21:36
Speaker 2: the means, speak to your financial advisory firm first. If
21:39
Speaker 2: you don't have one, then you give you can give
21:41
Speaker 2: our team a call or visit us online at class
21:44
Speaker 2: financial dot.
21:45
Speaker 1: Com mentioned that website as well. Class financial dot Com
21:48
Speaker 1: really easy to schedule a conversation right online or a
21:51
Speaker 1: CJ mentioned of course, can always give them a call.
21:53
Speaker 1: They'd love to chat. Tell forh number six so eight
21:55
Speaker 1: four four two five, six three seven. Another way to
21:58
Speaker 1: reach the program is via class financial dot Com and
22:01
Speaker 1: email with our Money and Motion listener Question Corner Today
22:05
Speaker 1: we're going to be asking or getting a question from
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Speaker 1: Tom who writes and he says, I'm seeing a lot
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Speaker 1: of ads for free financial plans online. If the plan
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Speaker 1: is free, am I still getting fiduciary advice? And that
22:18
Speaker 1: letter from Tom and Eric? Well, what you have at
22:21
Speaker 1: this one?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question, Tom, and we and I
22:26
Speaker 3: will will both tell you as people who work in
22:28
Speaker 3: the industry, we see a lot of advertising for things like, oh,
22:33
Speaker 3: it was a you know, free dinner and just come
22:36
Speaker 3: learn about our you know, how we help people, or
22:38
Speaker 3: whatever it might be. And as the saying goes, if
22:41
Speaker 3: you're not paying for the product, you probably are the product. Okay.
22:45
Speaker 3: So those those free plans are often lead generation tools.
22:49
Speaker 3: They're designed to sell you a specific insurance or a
22:52
Speaker 3: securities product that may include a commission, not always, but
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Speaker 3: a true fiduciary plan is usually going to all a clear,
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Speaker 3: transparent fee for service. Okay. You want to pay for advice,
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Speaker 3: not just be sold a solution that someone else thinks
23:07
Speaker 3: will will work for you. So for us at Class Financial,
23:11
Speaker 3: we simplify this for the public so people can choose
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Speaker 3: between having us be their coach for guidance or their
23:19
Speaker 3: quarterback to actually manage the play. So I mentioned this
23:23
Speaker 3: briefly earlier, but our two offerings for individuals are number
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Speaker 3: one are our Class three sixty. This is our advice
23:30
Speaker 3: only division. This is where we are acting as a coach,
23:33
Speaker 3: so clients pay a transparent fee for professional coaching to
23:38
Speaker 3: build their financial plan and we generally start this with
23:42
Speaker 3: a few meetings and then there is the option for
23:45
Speaker 3: ongoing monthly support. But we are not acting as that
23:48
Speaker 3: quarterback who is actually processing transactions and managing investments. That
23:53
Speaker 3: happens in our Class Investment Portfolios division, or we call
23:57
Speaker 3: it KIP for short. In this case, you'll get a
24:00
Speaker 3: quarterback who provides financial planning guidance and managers your investments
24:05
Speaker 3: for a fee that's based on the assets that we
24:08
Speaker 3: oversee for clients. So again we are not the only
24:11
Speaker 3: solution in this space. We obviously think we have a
24:14
Speaker 3: great offering, but b leery of people offering things for free.
24:19
Speaker 3: There is there is no free lunch in this world.
24:22
Speaker 1: Literally, Doc's learning with CJ. Class and Eric Schwartz, our
24:26
Speaker 1: retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, the website Class financial
24:30
Speaker 1: dot com. That's clas k l aas Financial dot Com.
24:33
Speaker 1: There telp number six oh eight four four two five
24:36
Speaker 1: six three seven. Now charge for the initial get to
24:38
Speaker 1: know you appointment at Class Financial. It will be complimentary
24:41
Speaker 1: to you. You want to hold on to that telephl
24:42
Speaker 1: number as well, because it's time now for the Class
24:44
Speaker 1: quiz Question of the week. Works like this, just a moment,
24:47
Speaker 1: I'll ask you the class quiz question leak. You will
24:49
Speaker 1: then have thirty minutes from the end today's program to
24:51
Speaker 1: call the Class Financial Office right here in Madison at
24:53
Speaker 1: six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
24:56
Speaker 1: If you are the first caller with correct answer, you
24:58
Speaker 1: win this week's prize, which is a twenty five five
25:00
Speaker 1: dollars gift card to Olive Garden. This week's closs quiz
25:03
Speaker 1: question the week Is this true or false? Form ad
25:07
Speaker 1: V and Form crs R mandatory public filings for investment
25:12
Speaker 1: advisors and broker dealers registered with the sec or state
25:16
Speaker 1: securities authorities. Is that true or is that false? Telephone
25:21
Speaker 1: number six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
25:24
Speaker 1: First cat correct answer wing that twenty five dollars gift
25:26
Speaker 1: card to the Olive Garden. No forgot as well, that's
25:28
Speaker 1: Loss Financial Office right here in Madison again their number
25:31
Speaker 1: six oh eight four four two, five, six three seven.
25:34
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for the great work you do.
25:36
Speaker 1: Enjoy this beautiful day and we'll talk real soon. Thanks Sean,
25:39
Speaker 1: Thanks Sean, Take care, guys. News comes you way next
25:41
Speaker 1: right here on thirteen ten doll w u ib a