Latest / Financial Planner Search / Turning a Big Number Into a Paycheck with Josh Ackerman | Financial Planner Search
Transcript
- Gregory Wilnau: Hey Josh, how are you doing today? Josh Ackerman: Greg, I'm doing great. How are you? Gregory Wilnau: I'm doing awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and taking the time. I've been looking forward to it. Josh Ackerman: I'm excited. I'm looking forward to the conversation. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, me too. to get started, why don't you just take a moment and tell us a little bit about your your practice and and what you specialize in. Josh Ackerman: So we are a financial planning practice in Lexington, Kentucky. And we've been the company's been around since 2000. My father started it and he named it Context Financial. And in the 20 years that I've been involved in the business, I figured out that he was pretty smart. don't tell him I said that. But that's right. but the focus has really always been on what is the context of the question. dad started out selling life insurance and was one of the worst life insurance salespeople I've ever met. because he always wanted to know more about the person he was talking to. And so the lead time to do cases was abnormally long. and that didn't really work in a life insurance sales process, but in financial life planning, it works pretty well. the more we can understand about where we're going, the easier it is to help clients get there. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. Okay. So it sounds like dad was a big inspiration. Josh Ackerman: Dad was a big inspiration. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Josh Ackerman: so I had a series of corporate jobs and was dissatisfied with the job I was doing. Went to lunch with dad on a Friday afternoon. We had a great conversation and we talked about the fact that my father is the exact same person, either at work or at home. He doesn't change. And the corporate environment I was in, there was some pressure to be someone at work that you didn't have to be when you were at home. So we talked about the fact that dad really loved what he does and had maybe the first serious conversation about what that looked like. And I can remember to this day, I came back to the office after lunch with dad, and I was thinking I had two friends getting married that weekend, and I was thinking I could help this couple learn how to talk about money, or I could sell 30,000 low-end inkjet printers to Big Lots. And so I sold the printers because that was my job. And I signed up for the first certified financial planner course. the same day. and decided this is this is where I'm gonna go, this is what I'm gonna do. and so Gregory Wilnau: I love it. Josh Ackerman: here we are. Gregory Wilnau: I love it. Let's dig into I wanna dig into a little bit more about kind of maybe how you approach business, your business and what you do based off of kind of what your dad imparted to you. any thoughts on maybe some of the way that he approached business that have really translated or left the the biggest impression on you and how you operate the firm? Yeah. Josh Ackerman: Definitely. Yeah. So like I said, dad was in the life insurance business for twenty years prior to forming context. And when I came into the business, Dad, or even before I came in, dad was very clear about you are not going to sell product. That is going to become a commodity. You're going to sell advice. And That didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. I understood selling product for commission or for fees, advice. Why would anybody charge for advice? And one of dad's good friends that I went to talk to, one of my mentors, explained that my mother is a CPA, just retired as a CPA. My father was a very good life insurance guy, sales skills notwithstanding. And that I grew up with conversations around the dinner table that other people didn't have. so the mentor, Bob, helped me understand why I needed to be a certified financial planner, the importance of having the technical knowledge behind you that you can then use to help clients solve their problems. And that Once you have the technical knowledge, you're free to ask questions and think more holistically about the situation the client's in because you're not worried about, do I know how to answer this question? I've told clients one of the things being a CFP has helped me do is it's made me much more comfortable saying to the client, I know that there's an IRS. threshold for that number and I'll pull my phone out and we'll look it up. I don't try and memorize things simply because it changes every year. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Josh Ackerman: So Coming to work with dad, I had the advantage of I had someone I could go talk to before a meeting, after a meeting, and he would help me understand you have too many numbers on this document you're gonna show the client. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Josh Ackerman: You need two numbers and a story that connects those two numbers. Gregory Wilnau: Interesting. Josh Ackerman: And if you can get the message down to something that is understandable and digestible and jargon free, then you have something that your client who doesn't speak financial. Right. I think the advantage I have through study and practice is I'm pretty fluent at speaking financial. But again, if I can't com if I can't communicate that lesson to someone in actual English that they understand, the fact that I know what's going on doesn't help. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. I love the inspiration and the the role model that your dad the role that your dad played and and how he taught you. And I love that two numbers and a story to connect them. That way they can you know the the the the person can process and interpret the meaning behind those numbers in a way that doesn't, like you said, speak financial for someone who doesn't speak financial, right? Let's talk a little bit about about your clients. So I really love the story and and how you guys got started in the mission. I wanna talk a little bit more about about your clients and the people you've served. So maybe you could take a moment to kind of describe the type of person who who comes to you. what's what's their situation? Could you lay that lay that down for me? Josh Ackerman: Yeah. So the client who comes to us is relatively successful in something obviously that doesn't involve learning how to speak financial. They recognize that while they could, if they chose to go out and learn the things they need to know, they would rather delegate that process to someone else. So they're willing to listen to advice. Doesn't mean they always have to do what I recommend, but they're willing to listen, willing to ask questions and have a dialogue about it. And then through the corporate life and this business, I've had some pretty good sales training. I will tell you, I can't sell anything to anyone who isn't ready to buy. And so the phrase that we use is that the switch is flipped. And that means that the client, the prospective client, realizes that retirement's going to happen to them. And that's real. And they'd like to get their act together and find someone to help them translate the pile of numbers, the multiple accounts that they've opened during their previous life and put together something like a plan. So the client reaches out to us once the switch flips and says, Hey, I think I might need some help with this whole retirement question. And that switch happens for different people at different times. We have people reach out to us that are legitimately five to seven years from retirement. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Josh Ackerman: But that's when it got serious for them and we have people that reach out much, much closer to the line or perhaps slightly over the line of I'm no longer working, what's it look like now? Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. It kind of hits them all at once, right? Josh Ackerman: Yeah. Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: What let's I'd like to you mentioned they have you know they have questions, so maybe we could unpack that for a little bit. What are some of the questions that your prospective clients typically ask when they meet with you for the first time? What's what's keeping them up at night? Josh Ackerman: So keeping them up at night is kind of exactly it. So there's going to be something that gets them to the urgent treatment center model, right? They're they're going to come in with an issue that is bothering them. And that issue could be I have money in a bunch of different places. I'd like to make sure that all of my money is invested in a similar way and cha and go in the right direction. it might be I would like to stop working. My wife is going to work for a couple more years. How do we balance taking money out of investment assets until she's also retired and then we can both go on social security. So The situations are very individual, but everybody comes in with something. and then my role, and it's referred to by some friends of mine as a righteous trick. My role is to help the prospective client one first address the problem. There's something that is causing enough pain that they'll come talk to a financial advisor. Let's make sure we fix that. Gregory Wilnau: Mm. Josh Ackerman: Then help the clients understand that there's not a tremendous amount of value in just fixing the one problem. We're better off if we can have a broader conversation about goals and dreams and fears and all of those things. And then put together a single plan that aligns money and time an attention towards the same goal. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. I love that. I wanna get into more about how you work with your clients in a second. But first, I'm gonna take a step back and you mentioned that situations are individual and I think that's defin definitely true. but what are some of the most common? is there one situation that stands or event that that stands out to you that people Yeah, anything stand out? Josh Ackerman: I think, yeah, I think I think the most common is and there's a a rabbit hole available about the research behind this, but a client will come in and with let's say a million dollars in investable assets and say, How do I turn this into a paycheck? I want I want a repeatable amount of money deposited into my checking account so I can go to the grocery store and pay my light bill. But I don't know how to turn a great big number in the the investment statement into a much smaller monthly number effectively. and that Conversation happens with almost everyone about how do we take the number that I'm convinced our brains just aren't haven't evolved to understand intuitively, and bring that number down to a number that is going to look a lot like your paycheck when you were employed. Gregory Wilnau: Interesting. Josh Ackerman: And is and is therefore a number that is understandable and relatable. Gregory Wilnau: Right. Which something that you shared earlier is a big value that your dad taught you is, you know, show the number but create a story behind it so they can understand, right? Josh Ackerman: Yep. And show the number in a way that is understandable. If I can show you a number that is A little above, a little below the num the check that you've been receiving from work, that Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Josh Ackerman: is immediately understandable because your brain's been doing that math for you know 10, 15 years. If I Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. Josh Ackerman: if I show you a number that is all of your investment assets aggregated and a a balance sheet number, that number doesn't mean anything. Gregory Wilnau: Right. Josh Ackerman: To us as humans. so it's the question of how do I turn this into a number that I can spend? And that's the part of the process where the CFP education, the experience comes in, and being able to answer that question with some confidence. and some knowledge to say this is how much we should start with. Gregory Wilnau: love that. I love how you make it really clear, translating the numbers into and the paycheck after retirement and making that make sense. That's something that people are familiar with that there could be a lot of fear around. so I love that you kind of guide them around that and give them a story and a mental framework for how to think about it and explain things in a way that's easy to understand. I I really Josh Ackerman: Well, and there's definitely fear around it purely because, like we said, they're in yeah. Gregory Wilnau: Well, there's uncertainty, you it's something they're not used to, yeah. Josh Ackerman: And they're in a country where they can't read the street signs. Right? They they to speaking of of financial language as a language, when they start thinking about their retirement and they pull all the statements together, a big box of things with dollar signs on it. And they start looking through it, and they realize I don't speak this language. I'm not quite sure that I've looked at everything I'm supposed to look at. And that's one of the big reasons that our clients come to us is because they have often been in a profession where they were the authority, but they know that they're not the authority here. And they don't really have any interest in learning it. right. The the really smart retiree who has a ton of interest in learning how to do this, they don't ever call me because they're perfectly happy doing it themselves. but the person who wants some help is looking for you speak the language, you tell me where to go. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, so they they they trust you. They're looking they're looking for that that type of relationship. strategic collaboration. Yeah, Josh Ackerman: Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: I love. where do you typically find your clients? Where do they come from? How do they f hind how do they find you rather? Josh Ackerman: So we've we've started with kind of what people we know, people that I know, people that you know one step removed so that someone else knows. and that was probably the first five years of the business. And since then it's been referrals. It's been someone says I'd like, you know, I'm I'm getting ready to look at retirement. I need to find somebody I can talk to who can speak English. And one of our clients will say, You should call Josh. He might be the guy. Gregory Wilnau: speak English, I like that. So yeah, and when friends or family refer, you know, their friends when people when your clients refer a friend or family to you, there's no higher compliment, right? Send them your way. Yeah. Josh Ackerman: None. No, no. There's there no. It's it's wonderful. Gregory Wilnau: So go ahead. Josh Ackerman: Well, I was just gonna say that there is some level of I now know things about this client's friend or or cousin that the client probably doesn't know. Gregory Wilnau: Don't tell This is a joke and joking board. I I mean I love that. What I wanna do I wanna I wanna switch gears really quick and I wanna ask you about where you see things going, right? you know, we're not static, you know, this is very dynamic, things are changing. Picture, you know, one let's say two to three years from now and and your your practice. What's what's your vision? are there any goals you're working on? Josh Ackerman: Yeah. we're at about sixty households right now. I'd like to be at closer to a hundred. and the vision to that is a hundred clients barring emergencies, barring, you know, trips to the urgent treatment center to solve a emerging problem. I'm talking to two clients a week. on average. and one of the great pleasures, benefits of this job is I don't talk to people I don't like. no, no, that's fair. That's fair. Gregory Wilnau: Makes it easier. Sorry, I d it's not necessarily funny. It just struck me as funny because it's it's so in line with your some of the values I think that maybe were translated to your dad. Not that he ever said, I don't talk to people I don't like, but he doesn't try to sell something to somebody that just, you know, for the sake of it, right? There's a gotta be a conviction there. Josh Ackerman: Right. And I have I have successfully through a referral, I've worked with one couple in my career that we did not communicate well. And I'll take fifty-one percent of the blame for that. But we just did not connect. And I think through my endeavors to get them the answer in a way that they could understand it, I think I'd probably work for a dollar thirty five an hour on that. engagement. and so I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that the way that I do financial planning, the way that I approach this issue is slightly different than some other people. Perfectly fair. I'm looking for the people who see the world the same way I see the world and are interested in the same questions. And if that's not the way that you see it, that's just fine. No harm done. Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. So you're at you're at sixty households, you want to get to to a hundred. What anything Josh Ackerman: Where it's yeah. Gregory Wilnau: any anything specific standing in your way? Any any any current challenges? Josh Ackerman: I don't think there are any real current real challenges other than first first and foremost, I think it is a matter of doing an exceptional job with the clients that we already have. Like we talked about, most of the newer clients have come through referral. So the way that that happens is by creating a good experience for the clients that we currently have. and then it's Being open to talk to people and being open to having a conversation about what are some of the challenges or goals that you see and see if we're the right fit. Gregory Wilnau: I love it. Love how you're exploring those things. and you're just you're focusing on doing providing great service and having great conversations. I think that's that's that's awesome. So what I want to move into, if you're cool with this, is I'd like to talk more about I'd like to learn more, rather. I'd like to learn more about I'd like to learn more about how you work with your client. So maybe you could walk us through your actual process. So when somebody becomes a client, let's say somebody becomes a client today. what does onboarding look like? What happens the first couple of weeks? What does it look like to work with you over the course of a calendar year? Maybe we could start with the first couple of weeks first. Josh Ackerman: Yeah. So the first the first step is the fit meeting. It's a conversation where we're trying to find out if we like each other. And so in the course of that conversation, we're going to talk about the presenting problem. What's what's the issue that got you in here? And then we're going to talk about. What are some of your broader goals and dreams to kind of start that conversation? Then we're going to have a second meeting. The second meeting is going to be more about numbers. So, what are the assets? What are the liabilities? Math stuff. And then further conversation on Where are the goals? Where are we trying to go? And the third meeting would be the initial plan, the initial here's how I see the money being invested. Here are some of the questions around savings rates, spending rates, those kinds of things. And if at that point, this whole process feels like it's a good fit, then we'll sign paperwork and off we go. go ahead, please. Gregory Wilnau: Well I gonna okay, so I was gonna transition to once you start, I mean what is it what does it look like to w work with you over the course of a course over Josh Ackerman: Of a year? Gregory Wilnau: of a year, yeah. Josh Ackerman: So in the in the early stages, we'll talk about how often and how you'd like to be contacted. we still do a surprising number of meetings in person. but we also have clients in other states. So we have clients that we talk to via Zoom. some people really like a phone call. You know, we'll do what do this however works. if it were up to me. We would be talking at least twice a year on a fairly intentional basis, to kind of review this is what's changed in our life since the last time we talked. That obviously leaves room for the client to pick up the phone and call and say, A common intro to that would be the client's getting ready to go on vacation. They need more money out of the investments this month than the systematized deposit. They'll call and say, Gregory Wilnau: Sure. Josh Ackerman: hey, Josh, I need money. I'm going to Alaska. And that leads to that's right. And that leads to a conversation about their upcoming trip to Alaska. And in the course of that conversation, more often than not, some another question appears. it could be the spouse from slightly off camera who says, ask him about this. And there's some issue that they've been kind of holding on to that they'd like some advice or some clarification on. What we got this in the mail, what's it mean? and I love those conversations because, and this is not original to me, but The value of the plan is in the planning. The value of That's right. That's right. Gregory Wilnau: Mike Tyson has a good quote for that. Everything everybody loves a plan, do you get punched in the mouth. Right. Josh Ackerman: Exactly. Exactly. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Josh Ackerman: The the plan works best when we start talking about what kind of changes we need to make. And so the more often that we can have a shorter or a longer conversation about, hey, we got some questions we'd like to put this together. I've got a client couple that literally have one of the big post it notes on their refrigerator. And they take turns writing things on the refrigerator. On the post-it note, to talk to Josh about. And the husband will call me and say, Hey, the post it note's full. We need to come in. Gregory Wilnau: I like that. That might be a good strategy for you to teach some of your other clients to do. I like that. Josh Ackerman: That's right. so I would say that there's there's probably two meetings that are sort of on my calendar. I've kind of put them together and it's gonna be roughly six months apart. and that's really just to review the plan and make sure that nothing's changed that I didn't know about. And then, like I said, there's always room for the phone call, the email. whatever to say, yeah. To say, Hey, Gregory Wilnau: So ad hoc as things come up. Yeah. Josh Ackerman: help me with this. Gregory Wilnau: So you've got a minimum of two meetings per year to check in on the plan, see how things are going, make any adjustments, and of course you're available in case they have any questions, in case anything's up anything comes up. Do Josh Ackerman: Right. Exactly. Gregory Wilnau: you any of your clients prefer to meet with you more frequently or is it pretty standard with with once every six months? Josh Ackerman: No, it's I have clients that definitely like and it's a question of their comfort level with where they are. in other words, I've had clients that start out wanting to talk four or five times a year. And and as we do that for a year or two, they drop It drops off and all of a sudden they're perfectly happy with twice a year and a phone call in between. Gregory Wilnau: That makes sense, I think. As they s as they continue to work with you, things might settle in and they get feel more comfortable. Yeah. Josh Ackerman: Yeah, things things settle in and they and I think they start to realize that the plan is actually working. Right, that that the thing that happened that got them nervous is not something that is completely gonna derail the plan and the whole thing's gonna fall apart. It's something that we can adjust for. our time frame with with clients when they come in is thirty years from now. And so in the course of a 30-year timeline, one investment that didn't go quite as expected, one bad day in the market, one kitchen renovation that got slightly out of hand and cost more than expected, that's not gonna change. Yeah, that's Gregory Wilnau: Tends to happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Josh Ackerman: that's what we're planning for. so In that sense, it's it's good to get the phone call. It's good to have to have clients who have the awareness of, hey, you know, we said this was going to cost fifty and it's probably gonna be seventy-five. I welcome that phone call because I think that if we're aware of that event, then we're less likely to get ourselves into trouble. Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. Josh Ackerman: But ninety nine percent of the time I'm in the position of saying, Okay, you know, more often than not, yeah, when what when I did the forecasting, I jacked the the cost of that project up a little bit anyway, because nothing ever happens on budget or on time. That's right. Gregory Wilnau: Just in case. Yeah. And like you said, you know, the value of planning is the process oftentimes itself. Josh Ackerman: Yeah. Exactly. Gregory Wilnau: I love it. I love the structure. I love that you're available. I love the proactive approach. so I th I can see why your clients would find that that to be really something that was that's really valuable. all right, Josh, let's land this plane. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your sharing your your values and your thoughts with us and how you work with your clients. for someone listening who's interested in getting in touch and possibly learning about how they might work with you, what should they do next? Where should they go? Josh Ackerman: They should go to the website, contextfinancial dot com, C-O-N-T-E-X-T Financial, and there's buttons to click to schedule a call. There's a contact us form. There's several different ways to get a hold of us. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. Well thank you so much, Josh. I appreciate you coming on. Josh Ackerman: Thank you.