Latest / Better Planner / #6 - A Plan on One Page | Goals, Cash Flow & Client Conversations
Transcript
- Taylor Stewart: Welcome back, another episode of the Better Planner Podcast. I'm Taylor Stewart. I got Colin Page with me. Colin, how are you? Colin: Good Taylor, how are you? Taylor Stewart: pretty awesome actually. Having fun. What's up with you? Colin: Ooh, just crazy travel over Memorial Day weekend, went up to have my niece's first birthday party and then two of my nephews got baptized, were the the godparents for both. So it was a two for one two for one deal. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Nice. Colin: yeah, so a lot of time in the car with with our two boys and how many do I have? Taylor Stewart: How many godchildren do you have? How many you know, how many do you are those your only two? Colin: no, I ha I I I have another nephew who's who's the godfather for as well. Taylor Stewart: So isn't that like in theory like supposed to be like you would take care of them if the parents the how much of the parents? Colin: I I mean certainly that's historically the role of the Godfather. I mean, I think there's also a spiritual element to it, or you're a mentorship and whatnot, but Taylor Stewart: Yeah, yeah. No, I just wanna like sometimes like how many of you do you know what all you've committed to? Colin: I know, right? Well and actually all of my nieces and nephews, my wife and I are the you know, the guardians for i if Taylor Stewart: Mm. Colin: it named in their their estate plans. So I Taylor Stewart: Does that hold up in court, do you think? Just being c named a godparent? No? You gotta have to I was joking. I was joking, but now I'm actually kinda curious. Colin: ts well maybe, I don't know. It certainly doesn't hurt if if if it became contentious. Taylor Stewart: Like if you attend to baptism, is that like a binding sprinkle they gave that baby? Like you're on the hook now. You better hope there's not a car Colin: Yeah, that's true. Taylor Stewart: accident on the way home with their parents, but I should that's more of a draw. Colin: Yeah. Ooh. yeah, hopefully they got their estate documents in line. I mean I send I we we did a big push last year, was it last year at Christmas or something? Maybe the year before, I'd signed up for one of those DIY platforms that you know advisors can Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: pay the the licensing for and then send clients or anyone really a link and they can create their own estate documents. There's a bunch of them out there like that now, but so I I send it all my my in laws and like if you don't have a plan you need to you need to get one in place now. they all have Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: young kids and and lo and behold, maybe that was the reason they named me as their as my wife and I as the guardian. 'cause we're the ones, I guess, that Taylor Stewart: Nice. Colin: had our shit together. Taylor Stewart: Nice. Well, that's exciting. Congrats. And you're growing God family. Colin: Yeah. May it yeah, may it may it never come to pass that so What's up what's up with you? Taylor Stewart: Yeah, I hope not. Well cool man. surviving. yeah, summer is here. shifting school schedules, all the fun that comes with that. Gotta reorganize our therapy calendar. I'm trying to keep track of all that. So I don't know. Just just that's on the personal side and then just continuing to try to solve problems on the software side. But actually, I don't know what it is, but on the advisor side, kinda like I I feel like inbound leads kind of come in waves sometimes and there's no real explanation Colin: Mm. Taylor Stewart: for it. I mean there sometimes there is, but just in the last I thought like May was supposed to be super busy with like school getting out and all this, but like I d I don't know. Been a lot more just a little uptick here lately and a little more a lot more intro meetings and talking to people and just hearing the questions that are out there and it's just there's still people have questions, man. There's a lot of a lot of need for guidance and whatever form that comes from. That's been the other thing is I I I we talked about this in other episodes, but I always ask like what kind of help are looking for? Like do you have you thought about it? Like you may not know, you know, hourly, ongoing in b somewhere in between. And it's been a total mix. There's been a total Colin: Mm. Taylor Stewart: mix. It's not just been all I want this, I want that. It's been just a varying range of needs. And so yeah, just always fun to hear what's going on in people's minds. yeah, beep just sometimes we can all be like, no, AI is going to replace all of But it's like, man, there's a lot of need right now. So Colin: Yeah, That is true. Yeah, I the client inbounds definitely come in waves too. I mean, I had a a huge wave after New Year's, you know, everybody with their resolutions, you know, we have to get our ducks in a row and we're gonna finally reach out to that advisor who's been sending us emails for months. and and I've had a big, big wave of of intro calls and and pre consultations the last month too. So I don't know, maybe there's something about May as well. prompts, you know, finally reaching out. There you go. Taylor Stewart: Spring cleaning of your finances, maybe. Yeah. well, it's kind of related to what we want to talk about. We were talking before here, Hand, about one page plans and Colin: Mm. Taylor Stewart: the role and value of them. And you mentioned kind of a prospect process that you used a one page plan in Cordora, and we wanted to talk about kind of think how what what yours looks like, how you use it, the information in there. So what's on your mind with one page plans? Colin: Yeah, I mean it's something I've been attracted to and used since you know, basically since I started working with clients 'cause I just I I like You know, first of all I read Carl Richard's book, the the one page plan. There you go. Yep, it's over here somewhere too. I've got I got two copies. Taylor Stewart: Right over my shoulder, the orange one right there. Nice, okay. Colin: there you go. I've I've lent it to people. but yeah, I I mean I love the the framework of it that like if you Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: can't I mean, first of all starting with what's actually important, you know, Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: to you to the client, to you to you as a person, you know, that statement of financial purpose, what actually matters in your life. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: and and then those specific goals that flow from that that purpose. You know, I've had so many prospect meetings where like, you know, that's kind of the goal of that initial meeting for me anyway, is is to help the client put down on paper those goals and objectives and Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: the number of times like the client has turned around and and and said like that's not necessarily what we expected out of this meeting, but it was so Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: refreshing and good to and so clarifying for us to talk these things through. so you know, I I've just I found it's an incredible tool for for you know, especially early in the client relationship, when you're just trying to figure figure this person out, figure this family out, what's important to them and what matters. but then I've also used it with, you know come back to it year after year. you know, y w whether it's a spring meeting when we're kind of refreshing the the list of goals or or evaluating how we've done, or sending it out, you know, just as as kind of a recap after after each Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: each meeting, like along with their changes to be made or their tasks, just as a way of like grounding everything. So big fan. Taylor Stewart: I I I think real quick I think okay, a couple of thoughts I have. Like first of all, yeah, hat tip to Carl Richards for kinda causing this shift in the industry, like let's get away from the big fifty page binder, however long. but one page plan is conceptual. It doesn't have be literal. A one page plan can it's it's just concise is really the key. And I think Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: like whether it's one, one and a half, a half page, whatever. I I think there's a couple of like may like really what makes it work, and especially the way you just described it, is you're distilling it down to what actually matters and the client needs to know. Then I think having that repeatable framework that you return to is super valuable. Something like once clients Get familiar with it, it becomes that dashboard in a sense, like something that it's a gauge. Like, you know, you like once you get once you drive your car, you know where to look for how fast you're going. You kind of get familiar, you get oriented on that. And so, like, you've distilled it down to what really matters, and then they know how to reference it and kind of get familiar with it. I think that's where like just the the connection clients have with the plan, like. can really increase. It's like, okay, they distill it down to what matters and that they understand and they know how to return to it. I think that's just awesome. So I yeah, the Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: the whole concept of you know, I I I love the concept, obviously. I think again, it doesn't have to be so literal. You could have a couple of one page plans for different conversations. But yeah, I think that's great. Colin: Yeah, I don't know. I I I think maybe the th thing to do next is just share my screen and show, you know, a sample Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Colin: client that that is based on a client I met with or a new client actually. She was a she was a prospect. and she became a client, you know, the day after I we we met and and I, you know, we put together this one page plan for her. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: so, you know, changed the names to protect the innocent, but basically I can show you exactly what what we put together Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: in that in that one hour meeting. Taylor Stewart: Sure. And this is using Cordora, the guides feature inside of Cordora, if you're not familiar, it's it it's a a A deliverable generator in a sense. It's a very it's basically a canvas. We've got a whole bunch of components that you can drag and drop and resize and reorder and filter and kind of make your own. And the thinking was exactly what I said that like not everybody needs the same formatted report. You want to be able to distill it the way that I say the way that the advisor wants to communicate, but most importantly the way each client needs to be communicated with. And so a couple of things we did, you can easily create multiple versions of the same thing or for different conversations and show to different clients, you can turn them off and on. So it's really lets you build and communicate the way you and your client need to be communicated with. so yeah, let's love to see it. Colin: Yeah, let me share share my screen. How's that? Taylor Stewart: Can see it. Very good. Colin: Cool. so yeah, like you said, it's within the guides feature and I've created kind my own templates for this that Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: that I can use across different clients and and you can vary them for the individual client if there's certain you know something they want to see on their one page plan that another client doesn't need to. But this is just my standard kind of template that I I work through with clients, you know, starting with that initial consultation. And so you know, just as a process standpoint, I've I've asked clients for their financial documents ahead of time. before that meeting. I talked about that in our episode on the prospecting process. But so when I when they walk into that meeting, I've I've essentially already got a very high level understanding of of where they are. and so Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: this part of the one page plan is largely filled out and and So for those Taylor Stewart: That's nice. Colin: that are that don't have video, you know, I've got the Where's My Income Going section, which is, you know, top line income. Then the four buckets that that everybody's income has to go into. They're the only four places it can go: savings, debt, burn, and taxes. and then I've got a breakdown of where their money is, you know, basically a balance sheet. In this case, it's broken out by purpose. So what are their liquid funds, what's their retirement funds, how much is an education, home equity, other, and then a a summary of how they're invested. So the the pie chart of you what's in US stocks versus non-US bonds, cash, and then a tax allocation. You know, how much is in tax-deferred accounts, tax-free, taxable? So that's the like financial portion of the the one-page plan, which is largely filled out when they walk in for that prospect meeting. because they've given me already their tax returns so I can get their income. They've given me their pay stubs so I know how much is going to their 401k. They've given me, you know, account statements, so I know you know various balances. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: and so, you know, this this is all pretty easy to pull out from those documents. Either pull it out manually or have the have Dora the the AI extractor pull it out and then review it. And it's you know, so it's super, super quick to pre create this kind of quick dashboard. you know, vital signs for for the client's financial health. yeah, and the other the other sections on here are just, you know, what we already talked about, the financial objective up at the top. obviously that would be blank when the client walks in, the list of goals. We're gonna try to populate that as as we talk and Taylor Stewart: See, I I I think that's really important what you just said, that like that's blank when you walk in. I wanna come back to that, but good. Colin: Yeah. Yeah, and then the very bottom of it is just changes to be made. and so Yeah, what what were you gonna say? It's blank when you come in. Taylor Stewart: No, I think that's good 'cause there's there's a couple of things. Like some of this is gonna look familiar for some people, but like I there I think well, there's a lot here. That first of all, like you can already glean a ton from just the the numbers that are in here. Where their income is going, you can see what their savings rate is, what their debt rate is, how much they're paying in taxes, where they're you you see a a net worth number and it's divided into purpose. Like there's just already you can get a real good feel for where things are at. kind of or and it also helps orient you, especially if you kinda have a standard way of looking at things. And you can see the investment I'm just investment allocation and taxes, like you've already you've got such a handle on this client already, just where they're what what's going on in their financial life. so I think that's cool. but no I I want to talk about the the goals and objective piece. And Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: because right now if you're looking at the screen it's nice and filled out. with some really concrete goals. But you said that's blank and you actually work through this with clients. I think that is freaking awesome and I wanna know more about how that conversation goes. Colin: Yeah, I mean I I s sometimes actually it's you know, it's not blank. I'll you know, w I've had a I've had a I've had a intro call you know, I've had that fifteen minute intro call with Taylor Stewart: Well, okay. Yeah. Colin: them and so, you know, I may know what their chief complaint is, or you know, have some idea of what, you know, a couple goals that they wanted to talk about. But it's it's mostly blank and maybe I haven't actually put those on the page yet. Taylor Stewart: Well I think that's nice too, 'cause that shows that you were listening. And you can say like, Hey, I want to refine this. Colin: That's true. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: This is what I heard the first time around. I mean, that's that's great. Rather than totally blank it, Colin: Yeah, yeah. Taylor Stewart: also communicate like, I didn't really pay attention, what are we gonna do? You know. So Colin: Yeah. yeah, so it's it's it's either blank or maybe I've got a couple bullet points there. But but you know, there's so many good questions to start to get at what somebody's financial objectives are or or their purpose or their various various goals. I don't know, what are what your favorite ways to to start that kind of a conversation? Taylor Stewart: put me on the spot. I was not thinking about that. For uncovering those things. Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: I I don't I wouldn't say that I have a straight like now let's talk about your goals. Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: it just like my process is really like I tell people it's there's kind of two meetings, right? We're gonna it's it's very fact based. Just understand the facts. What's this account? How did it get there? Why did you make this decision? and then the second meeting would be this big picture meeting. What ends up happening is they completely blend. And as you're Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: talking through the facts, that uncovers a lot of those pieces. And so really I I have found it just happens naturally. Like we've created that account because we wanted to be the kids' education fund. so education's important. Tell me more about that. So like it just kind of like honestly, like it's just happens. It just starts with like, okay, I do a similar thing, like let's upload some information so we have a starting point. And then it's literally, what's this account? Why that account? Why Bank of America? Colin: Mm. Taylor Stewart: Why do you save that much? Just let them start talking about how they made the decisions. And that uncovers a lot. You know, my parents had an account there. I really liked it, had the highest yield on this their checking account when I opened it. Like that you're you're learning so much about how they think. One person hasn't thought about it since they were a kid. The other person did research to find and they're a little more of an optimizer. So it's like it just kinda happens. And then hearing the stories on how the accounts got to where they are, like when somebody has last week we were talking like literally a house fund, a kids fund, all separate accounts earmarked with certain savings amounts. You know they're pretty clear on what they want and where they want to live. And so like Colin: Ha ha. Taylor Stewart: tell me more about that. And others like it's just all in there. I don't actually know what a brokerage account is. So it's just I found those two like we can like position it as we're gonna have these nice two conversations, but it just kind of naturally happens in just that exploring their financial life and Yeah. So it a lot of times it comes out and then I would be taking my own notes and then might like, here's kinda what I'm hearing. And I would tell you, like, I I mean I I look how many do you have there? Like nine goals, six goals, something? Well, there's no right or wrong answer there, but I probably like Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: keep it more of like three to four. but that I I I'm learning on as we go here. I think this is really good. Colin: Yeah, I mean I I I think you're right. Like the I it i I try to have just a conversation and generally the they're they're excited to come tell you what they care about. and so it's not actually Taylor Stewart: Yeah, yeah. Colin: that hard to get it get it out. and and you know, sometimes I'll say like and I actually I don't lead with the financial objective like let's let's summarize everything that matters to you in one sentence, go. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Well what's the purpose of your life? Colin: I I I usually introduce the concept of it and say like, you know, maybe by the end of the day we'll we'll have an idea of like what we would put up there. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: And I'm listening throughout the conversation to like for that for that nugget, basically, that that one or two sentences that captures what matters to them. In this case it's it's balance enjoying life now wi while planning thoughtfully for the future. this is a single mom who's who's been through a divorce and and you know, she's she makes good money, but but there's a lot of you know, potential instability that comes when when you don't have a a a s a spouse's income to fall back on or you know, things like long term care or whatever. So and so she's she you know, we talked about those things in our meeting. but, you know, so she's she's clearly, you know That's that's the key issue for her, balancing life now and and wanting while her kids are still at home, you know, they're they're about to go to college and and also, you know, wanting to to be prudent and make sure risks are covered. Taylor Stewart: So I okay, a couple of thoughts. First of all, one thing on the financial objective, I do t I tell people this is gonna reveal itself. It always just comes out naturally. And so somebody says something Colin: Yeah, yeah. Taylor Stewart: as a phrase, like boom, that was it. But also I want to talk about like as a putting my planner hat on, what I picked up on and how I like as you were just explaining that, you said single mom, okay. And then on this screen I go, Okay, she's fifty one, got it. and then you said sing she makes good money, she makes a hundred and eighty three thousand a year, good money. Two kids getting ready for school. Okay, yeah, they're 14 and 17. She's got 227,000 saved towards retirement. Yeah, good start, maybe not enough. Like Okay, but she's worried about retirement. Two million dollars saved for her own retirement, probably on a good pretty good track. But how much does she need to spend? Right now she's spending $86,000 a year, but that's with two kids. Like, all of this is just on one view. I Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: already have a ton of context for how this con like what to talk about that Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: person just with this right now. And if you scroll down a little Colin: Absolutely. Taylor Stewart: bit, you can see their investment allocation tell you a lot, probably, about how she thinks about investing. You'll go, okay, twenty-six percent stock. Whoa, we're a little bit nervous. N a million dollars in cash? What's going on here? Like, look at all this conversation that's coming under just right now. Like just Yeah. Yeah. And and you Colin: Yeah. Yeah, I mean I th that's that's exactly right. Taylor Stewart: can be talking through and like noting down the other some more specific stuff or do more later. But like, yeah, that and this is all laid out in a way that generally the client understands, you know, it it's and this is why it's so anyway, sorry, I just thought that was so interesting that as you were talking about that, I was already piecing together this person in my mind of like, I feel like I got a pretty good handle on this. And so I just think that's so cool. Colin: Yeah, I mean and this this is something it the the ability to evaluate these kind of h headline statistics or or you know st the the kind of element style you know, what's your what are what are your labs say or what you know what's what's on the the doctor's chart basically. You know, how do you look at the at somebody's numbers like that, their financial, you know, health card and scorecard and and know what are gonna be some relevant questions to ask and and areas to to address in their plan. And so yeah, I'm I'm totally on board with this. And and not only does it like give me a ton of insight before I've even seen the client, for for areas that may be worth exploring, but also like for an existing client, and I've you know, I've had fifty other meetings and now I've got to get ready for the next one. you can look at this scorecard here basically and and know Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: i instantly get your mind back to yeah, that's that's what's going on with this client. And and that use it as a way to jog your memory as to what's what's important to focus on here. You know, just these these key stats basically. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. totally. I just thought something else I gonna say. well I wanna d talk about elements real quick. Yes, I was an elements user. Obviously parts of this were heavily inspired by elements. The Where is my income going line was completely from Elements. I asked them, they said, Go for it. You know, I love that line. Something is one of my favorite exercises. I'm I'm gonna guess you clean this up a little bit 'cause there's no chance she walked in the door and her deficit, her solve was zero. Yeah, okay. Colin: No, in fact I use the I just I just assume it's zero. So so basically Taylor Stewart: zero out surplus of okay. Colin: what I do I plug in all the income sources, you know, all the saving sources I know, all their debt payment I know, and and a tax estimate, and then I just assume they're spending the rest. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, which is which is fine. But I was gonna tell you well, one other thing. We you can actually also add giving as a component now too. For some people that's really important and you can add as as a fifth bucket. But the moment the the light bulb moment for so many clients and when things really click is I'll let them tell me. Like I I'll send them the form in Cordora, what's your income? Where are you saving? Debt, all that they'll populate this. And what everybody knows their income. They generally know where they're saving, their debt payments they know for sure, taxes we can calculate. The only thing that they have to kind of come up with in that form is their spending. And in theory, yeah, unless they're obviously drawing down money, it should all equal zero. I've yet to have it equal zero. And normally it is Grossly understated their spending to the point where, like, in this example, right now there's $86,000 of spending and a zero dollar deficit. They might say, like, I'm spending fifty thousand dollars a year. And you come in and you go, Great, is this your income? Yes. Is this your savings? Yes. Is this your debt? This is your taxes. So you have about a $30,000 year surplus, right? No. Well, something must be wrong. Let's go back through it. Colin: Ha ha ha. Taylor Stewart: I guess I'm spending more. So, like, but that moment, let Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: there some advisors can be too obsessed with making everything tie out and look pretty. Colin: This is, this is. Taylor Stewart: That's not always the point. Showing the mess is sometimes the point. And like I I it it's completely accidental, but like that disc like seeing things not add up, seeing them go, That's not what I thought. There's changes I need to make has been a light bulb moment for so many people. So like embrace that mess sometimes initially. It's okay. Because you're you know, they're working through it as well. And I just that's been one of the most powerful things. I love that line so much because it makes sense to people, it's concrete, and I love showing like let it be a mess. I think it's okay. Colin: Yeah. Yeah, there's there th I do ask clients to estimate their spending ahead of ahead of the meeting. And like you said, invariably it's it's lower than reality. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: And and that's just the case 'cause 'cause you do the math yourself and you're like, Okay, well what do I spend each month? I know my mortgage payments this. I spend about this much on our heating and error and the electricity bill. You know, you start adding it up from the bottom. And calculating it that way, that kind of bottoms up total, Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: you always undercount because you forget about the well we had a thousand dollar auto repair bill, you know, a couple months ago, and we had Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: our property tax bill come due, but we only pay that every six months. So it's just, you know, people when they and I've had you know retirees send me their retirement budget and I've plugged that in here and and it's like, okay, well, we've got we've got a lot of extra funds to play with. With you know, that that's great. But then you Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: wait, w where are those coming from? Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: it's so so that's exactly right. And I think I think having people going through the the exercise of actually where is my money going? and and having that realization hit home. I actually am spending that much. Taylor Stewart: Yes, and let them guess and be wrong. There's something about there's something powerful about that. You 'cause you're that's a no litmus test might be the right word, but like kind of a test of how in tune they are. Is it Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: or some people be like I have no freaking clue. Okay, we know what we're dealing with here Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: And and one thing we have done, we you can now actually track spending directly inside a corridor to get a concrete answer there too. Because yeah, we don't want to always leave it open ended. We want to actually get those actual numbers. And you can do that with linking accounts or bringing in transactions from statements or whatever. But I just wanted to highlight that line of like how impact like how awesome that line is and let it be messy. and the other thing I want to talk about, like you mentioned like vital signs and everything. That's an elements term. I never really resonated with that. Like this is about like variables you can control. That's Colin: Mm. Taylor Stewart: really the thinking here. And so like Like some of this I was doing long before elements. Like the the I call it a purpose driven balance sheet down there. Like it's it's you know, what is for liquidity? Not what is liquid, what is for liquidity, like it's job you and I have gone back and forth about this a lot. Like like Colin: Ha ha ha. Taylor Stewart: a Roth account, is it liquid? Like it's technically liquid, but it's not for liquidity, it's not for liquidity. So it doesn't go in that line. But like what is your money going for? And then so there's th what can you change like Can we change our debt? Can we change our b our spending? Can we change our taxes? It helps you identify the things you can actually change. Same with investment allocation and to a certain point, taxes. Like that's what it's what everything's about. It's like, what are we actually gonna act on? And so that's that's really what the other reason that I broke this out like that is to help identify what can it's partially to help people understand and then help them know what to do next, which is the whole point of Cordora. Colin: Yeah, I mean and and and I do a lot I mean, my focus is retirement planning and so Taylor Stewart: Yeah, yeah. Colin: you know I spend a lot of time looking at, you know, the the tax allocation, you know, where how are we gonna get funds out of tax deferred accounts at the Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: lowest average rate possible over your lifetime, whether that's through Roth conversions or or just planned distributions and you know highlighting what you know where I can quickly look at this and see like okay this is someone who may have an R and D issue depending on what their spending is and their and where they're saving right now. If they keep Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: building up tax deferred accounts you know We're gonna be doing stuff like that in in retirement. and and that prompts a whole conversation during during that interview. Meeting, you can spot issues like that. You know, generally I like to see a a balance between tax deferred, tax-free, taxable. You know, obviously there are reasons for it not to be balanced, but but you know, you you can say like that's that's kind of the goal is eventually to have a balance and have ability to choose where funds are coming Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: from, that sort of thing. So I I love this chart. That's why I put it on the one page plan, because there are so many conversations to have around tax allocation, especially For retirees and even accumulators, too. You know, where should you be saving? Do you expect your income to go up in the future? Like what tax bracket are you in now versus you know where we think you'll be in in 10 years, 20 years, in retirement? Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: most people have never thought about that. And and likewise with with how my money is invested, I think you can tell a lot about a person's tolerance for risk or maybe blind spots that they have. you know, a lot of clients come in with very little exposure outside the United States. And so there's a conversation right there. you know, it hear a lot a lot of clients as as well as this person, a huge allocation to cash. And so, you know, it just brings up questions, things to talk about and and and gets to, you know, not only things we may want to change, but just understanding where they are now and and what has led them to this point or to have this and whether it was thought out or whether it was just kind of default, but w it's just what happened, or or whether it was out of fear, whether it was intentional. So Taylor Stewart: You you said something that brings up a question. So the the each of these sec sections is labeled. Where's my income going? What is my money being used for, et cetera? You said, How is my money invested? I often find myself saying that the same way. That it says, where is my money invested? Two, two, two things here. First of all, you can change those. You don't have Colin: Mm. Taylor Stewart: to just use our defaults. You can change the all of those la this is all very, very customizable. So you can change that label, but have you found that these labels connect you would click the pencil icon up there. We'll just do a live demo here. So click the ac or scroll down and you can Colin: There we go. Yep. Yeah, we'll just do it. there we go. Taylor Stewart: you actually just that's just double click like the text. There you go. So there you go. and then this is cool too. Yeah. You can save it as a new template. Save it Yeah. Yeah. I same like I Colin: Haha, there we go. Learning something. I'm gonna save it for every client. save changes to the template. Yeah, because that is how I say it. How is my money invested? Taylor Stewart: I get it. Like I can every time I want to switch it I can go both yeah both ways with that. But like Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: I I think this is something that like I call it like credorifying everything. Everything I try to lay out in a question form when I can. Because it is about Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: helping clients understand. It's not like investment allocation review. Clients don't know or care. How's my money invested? They care. Income Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: statement. Nobody cares. Where's my income going? I care. So like have you found Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: that to be helpful? I mean I guess you kinda just now learned you can edit it though, but like what would I mean clearly it hasn't bothered you enough to want to change it before, but just wanna know have have you thought about labeling these things and communicating them with people? Colin: Yeah, I mean absolutely. I and then I think so far we haven't fine tuned it like that. You know, I actually I didn't know that I could change that label. but Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: I have changed, you know, down here on the on the changes to be made. I I Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: I stopped using the default categories that you had and and just broke them down into to the classic, you know, financial planning areas, changes to be made to cash flow, changes to investments, changes to estate planning, changes to insurance. 'Cause that's what made sense to me and how I communicated it to clients. So I have I have customized that, but I don't I don't know. I and I've played around with a lot of other guides as you call them. You know, this is just my my one page plans. Taylor Stewart: Just go click the pencil icon and show on the sidebar like all the different components on the side. So you on the it's on the side. Colin: Sure. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: You can just you can just scroll it. Like there's a bunch and you can filter them and we got a little AI generator there. A bunch of things and it's real easy. Just drag one in and and then you can so just there's a lot of of things to make. So you've you've explored these and made it your own, but there's a lot Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: that you could do here. There's insurance components, estate planning components, more investment components, notes, images, all sorts of things you can do. So yeah, you've just good. Colin: Yeah, for yeah. And I I've looked at all these and and and I I do think they have their use and and especially for certain clients, like if you've got one that's really focused on you know the the where where an issue is their overspending on their home, like maybe using the balance sheet metrics is gonna be more impactful to them. you know, what's how much of their net worth is in their home, and and how much of their income is going towards housing, that sort of thing. And so what's their what's their debt ratio. so you can cust Taylor Stewart: And you could also change what's on what was shown on that and reorder them as well. So you can really it Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: it's again, I'm gonna say it again, it's about what the client needs. Colin: Yeah, it's super and it's super flexible and and quick to either, you know, save save this as a template that I can use with any client or save it just to this particular client, because that's what this client needs to see and needs to track, you know, regularly. Taylor Stewart: And how do you g pass this on to people? Do you you can print it to a PDF. You've got your logo Colin: Yep. Taylor Stewart: in there, so it prints with your logo. you could also give them access to the portal and they could see it this way. Are you printing to PDF for the most part? Yeah. Nice. Colin: Generally I'm printing to PDF. I mean I I I've my a lot of my clients are older and and a little less tech savvy and so Taylor Stewart: No, totally. Yeah. Colin: maintaining one more password and and and thing is is harder for them, although, you know Taylor Stewart: I get it. Colin: so I generally print it a to a PDF and send it to them along with my, you know, after meeting email. Taylor Stewart: Great. Nice. Colin: Yeah, so that's the I mean that's that's the whole plan. I mean for for this person I added a few changes to be made. I think that's the like the last section of the plan here is okay, what do we actually need to do? and and that oftentimes I'm changing on the fly in the meeting with either tasks or or changes that they need to implement. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: and so that kind of brings it full circle to like, you know, understand where you are now and then what w and where we want to go, what what are the goals and then okay, here's the concrete steps to what you should do next. Taylor Stewart: Mm-hmm. Colin: which, you know, as we've said is the whole that's the whole ball game. Taylor Stewart: I I tell people that that changes to be made, that's the financial plan right there. Everything else was context. Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: I mean I I I I I really think I know we love our charts and graphs, but objective, goals, changes to be made. Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: What what are what are we here to do? What's our guiding principle? What are the you the main things we want to be accomplish? What do we need to change to get there? That's it. You want to add numbers? Fine. You don't have to. Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: I mean I think it's it's great. And like so very cool. Colin: Yeah, l less is more a lot of the time. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, yeah. Colin: and and and then you have the ability to dig in and and and look Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: at these numbers in more depth, but but yeah, this is this is like everything on here is on there for a reason because it fosters a certain conversation or there's a certain, you know need to track it. and so Yeah, this it's g it's like a dashboard and plan all in on one one and a half pages. Taylor Stewart: Well so I'm gonna I'm that's why but I called it guides for a very specific reason. I didn't call it a dashboard or something like that. Partly because like dashboards can be kind of just for decoration in a lot of ways. Like guides are tactical, they can be visual, they can be text based. It's flexible. A guide is val most people guide is useful and valuable and it's not like it can it could be anything. You know, and that's the whole point here. That's a guide. Whatever your client needs for whatever the use case. This is your kind of one page plan snapshot. There's you can create other you know, you could do a liquidity one, you could do a retirement phone, an insurance one, all these different versions of them. It's whatever you need to do in that situation. So, I love it. This is a great use case. And I Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: love that too, of like you're saying, so like had a prospect, captured their documents, populated this, talked it through, filled it out on the spot, sent it to her after. She became a client two days later. Colin: Yeah. And and really like it it sounds like a lot, but it's not that time consuming to to pull out that information and and populate just at a high level what their what their cash flow and balance sheet looks like. and then you've got a nice polished deliverable you can give to them and and demonstrate your value. Taylor Stewart: Yeah, I think that's so good. And especially and like I'm guessing during a meeting you're not really navigating off the screen. Colin: No, especially not in the in the early, you know, meetings. In later Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Colin: meetings, absolutely, you know, when when we were gonna dig into cash flow or we're gonna dig into the retirement, you know, calculator. Taylor Stewart: Why do you say absolutely? Why'd you say absolutely? Later meetings absolutely. Colin: You always push me on whenever whenever I say anything that's superlative. Taylor Stewart: Anytime any absolute statements like you said something earlier before you're like you have to do it. I like, why do have to? Because I'll tell people, even though I freaking build software now, I don't ever show my screen, hardly Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: ever. Colin: It is, it is. Taylor Stewart: But like I I I mean, you certainly can. There's some great visualizing tools, and I'm not against it. I'm just like I'm just curious, like yeah, but for this meeting, you're you're you're sticking on this page. I think that's great. You're not visually overwhelming, you're letting them see things, you're staying on one spot. I love the filling it out in front of them too. That's Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: just so cool because it feels like you're building it together. Rather than like, let me go back and create it. I think that's awesome. Colin: Yeah, yeah, and you can Yeah, it's super easy 'cause this always uncovers like, I forgot about this account or whatever, Taylor Stewart: Yeah. Colin: and you can just jump back over to the profile, create that account, you know, and and boom, it updates like that. and you can I joke sometimes like, we're making making money for you already, your net worth's going up. Yeah. Right. Taylor Stewart: Yeah. It's true. When you when you when people see that number they want it to be bigger and they're gonna try to make a completeness check there. actually so saying that thing about not sharing my screen, I I I have to correct myself a little bit because I do give most clients access to the portal and they're a lot of times got it pulled up on their computer. So we don't necessarily need to. And I don't Colin: Mm, mm-hmm. Taylor Stewart: know if you've ever seen it, but it live updates on the spot. Like if you change something on Colin: Yeah. Taylor Stewart: that, it will change on the client side too. So Colin: It's got a it's got a fun little animation as it rolls up the the dollars too. Yeah. Taylor Stewart: On certain pages, yeah. It that was a fun little add on from a co founder, but yeah, cool. This is great, man. Really good process. Colin: Yeah. cool. I mean, yeah, next time we'll I don't know I don't know w w where we'll go from here. I've been I know you've been busy working on some tax tax planning guides and and you know, excited to check that out and and figure out how to incorporate it 'cause I'm also sending out tax tax reports right now to to clients, so who knows? this was Taylor Stewart: Yeah, we've done a lot of work spending spending tracking, going a little bit deeper on that, building budgeting in a way that's actually useful. some fixed flex stuff, taxes, and so yeah, lot always a lot going on. But yeah, excited for the next chat. Cool man. Well, see you next time. Colin: Yeah, likewise. cool. See you next time.