Stacey Andres
Jon Gay

TRANSCRIPT

Jag: Welcome to our weekly podcast, the Art of Wealth Unbroken. We provide our listeners with insights and proven strategies to protect the wealth they’ve built against poor financial planning, investment mistakes, global and national economic conditions and governmental policies. We discuss the topics in finance, retirement and politics that are on your mind, giving you certainty in uncertain times.

These discussions can help you make better informed decisions so you can make better financial choices with the wealth you’ve built and are continuing to grow. Our host are Stacey Andres, registered financial consultant and Michael Wallin, Certified Financial Planner. I’m Jon “JAG” Gay. And for our topic today, we’re discussing selecting the right advisor to navigate you to the island of financial independence, where it’s hopefully sunny, you can have a cocktail. Welcome back to the show. Stacey, 

Stacey: Thank you, Jag. It is great to be back. It has been a few weeks and I’ve definitely missed being with both of you. The topic of today’s show really formed from a conversation that I was having with a client that recently joined the firm. And in that initial meeting, the client’s questions centered around performance of the investment models.

And while that’s okay, there really seemed to be very little concern around any other aspect of the relationship other than performance alone. 

Michael: Yeah. And performance is an important goal. But it should not be a singular selection criteria in identifying the advisor that is best suited to helping an investor to prepare for and navigate through their retirement years.

Jag: Yeah. I mean, a quick search on the internet will give you a page of article listings that have all the top tips and finding the right advisor. Stuff llike, are they a fiduciary? Validate their credentials? How are they compensated? What kind of communication skills do they have and how will they keep you on track?

Stacey: Jag, all of those are important questions that a client should ask and have an understanding. However, that is the part of the iceberg that is above the water. It is the tip of the iceberg, but what you really need to know to find the advisor that can assist you to getting to that island of independence is one, does the advisor align with you in principle and beliefs?

This is critically important. If this does not align, you probably should not be working together. Period. 

Jag: True. 

Stacey: Number two, does the advisor’s view of risk align with yours? Number three, have they successfully navigated clients through the economic storms and political headwinds in the past? Four, what methodology does the advisor use?

Are they tactical with their investment strategy? Are they strategic? Maybe they’re using a hybrid, a combination of both? And then finally, and this is a very important aspect of any relationship. Is,the advisor a true counselor or just a salesperson? Are you multidimensional is a question that they should ask. Your advisor should understand both a quantitative side of your plan, meaning what can be measured as well as the qualitative side, what is making your life better?

Making the math work by itself is not a successful plan. And if the dreams and goals that bring happiness to the client aren’t achieved, then the plan really can’t be considered a success. 

Michael: I’m sure many of our faithful followers have seen the CFP board’s commercials over the last four to five years. When this campaign came out, it was, it really took the industry by storm. 

Jag: I gotta admit I was a little offended by this as a former radio and wedding DJ, but it’s the one where they take the DJ with no financial training. They dress him up, they load his lips with things to say, and he successfully convinces prospects to trust him.

And they agree to become clients based on the script he was given. 

Michael: Jag, that’s exactly the commercial I’m talking about. It is a very powerful message shared by the CFP media campaign. The DJ had long blonde hair, very Californian look. And in the commercial, you know, he lost the golden locks. He kicked off the Birkenstocks for pin stripes and a windsor knot.

They gave him a script that focused on the emotions of the client. And at the conclusion of the meeting, he would come clean. He would tell the clients that he really was not a trained financial professional and that he was really just a rave DJ. Could you imagine how the clients felt right after agreeing to move their life savings into his control?

They were all just blown away after just stating I trust you and you are very knowledgeable. 

Jag: Very hornswaggled, or bamboozled, or pick your word there. Yeah, exactly. 

Stacey: Absolutely. Unfortunately, Mike, that’s kind of the first introduction experience that I had when I came into this industry, the first organization that I worked for.

And fortunately it was for a very short period of time, but they had a great story. It played on the person’s emotions and it drew them in. But when it came to actually planning and structuring something that was gonna work for their client, there was none of that. And in every single instance, they would always point the client to one of two products that were never in the client’s best interest, always the best interest of the advisor.

And really there was such a high turnover rate. That most advisors were not even there for six months. And unfortunately for the clients that were being drawn in. Them finding out when they found out, it was too late at that point. And so it is what I learned there about how not to do business, to work with a company that has made me passionate about how to do things correctly.

Jag: Now let’s take a quick break and find out how our listeners can benefit from the services Stacey and Michael offer at Optivise Advisory Services. They combine the expertise of their seasoned professionals in financial planning, tax legal and investment to assist their clients in achieving the lifestyle they’ve always dreamed of through their proprietary info right system.

They address each of the 10 pillars in their planning process, investment, retirement, income tax, social security, education, healthcare, personal care, charitable, legal, and wealth transfer. Their comprehensive approach brings certainty in uncertain times. And to receive your free Arc of Life report, you can visit the website artofwealthunbroken.com.

That’s artofwealthunbroken.com or call 855 378 1806. That’s 855 378 1806. The Arc of Life report will show you how each of the 10 pillars in the info right process connects together to form your unique, personal financial canvas 

Michael: Jag and Stacey, recently, I just read an article on the Nerds Eye View, which is Michael Kitce’s platform.

That addressed really a very interesting twist to the topic on client advisor, value conflicts as a client. Do you have confidence in the advice you’re receiving from your advisor? And we’ve all worked with, you know, this is nearing my 30th year in the business. And I have sat with clients in the past. I have shared with them strategies that would help them achieve their goals only to have them come back and say, well, that sounds good, but I’d like to do it this way.

That really wasn’t using me as the advisor. That’s really only using me as a salesperson. And that’s really not where the value was. So I always ask that question. Do you have the confidence in me to guide you through this process? Do you understand the advice, the timeline and how the recommendations will benefit you?

That’s a question that we wanna always ask our clients that once we make a recommendation. Do you understand the advice we’re giving? Do you understand the timelines in which you utilizing those strategies can show you the benefit and will also help you to navigate to that island of financial independence?

Do you really understand the recommendations? Could you share these recommendations with other individuals and articulate why we’re doing what we’re doing? The third component of really understanding and avoiding the conflicts between the client and the advisor is, does the strategy take into consideration your personally held beliefs and values?

Now Jag you’re aware, you know, Stacey and my practice, we really focus on planning that is God/ Christ centered around both the investment portfolios, as well as utilizing the quality of life for our clients. So when we look at biblically responsible investing, if we look at values based investing and that’s different for every individual, sure.

You know, we don’t push our values or our beliefs on other people. But what we wanna do is really come in as that counselor and advisor that says, if these are your personally held values and beliefs, we want to align you with the companies that you would be proud to own and be proud to be invested in, and then help you to be able to remove the companies out of your portfolio, that doesn’t align with your values and beliefs so that you know that every dollar you’re investing,it has a purpose behind it that aligns with your goals. 

Stacey: So Mike, how many times have you had a client come into you and you ask ’em if they understand the plan that they have in place with whoever they’re working with prior to you. And they have absolutely no clue.

Michael: Every day. 

Stacey: Yeah. It happens all the time.

And so those are great questions that you outline there, and it is really a two-way street. The client has to have confidence in the advisor to provide them with the expertise, but the advisor must also be able to operate outside of the emotional dynamics that the client often experiences in times like we’re experiencing right now.

And so working synergistically together is important. 

Jag: What I’m hearing you say is why hire an investment advisor if you’re not gonna adhere to their advice? Sounds pretty simple. 

Michael: Absolutely. And for Stacey and me, our personal investing methodology is centered around our values based investing, really focusing on those companies, that investors would be proud to own.

If that’s not important to you, then we probably wouldn’t be the right investment firm for a person to be aligned with because you want to make sure that your investment advisor aligns with what your beliefs are. And that their risk profile, every aspect of what they’re going to do to help you achieve your objective is personally aligned. 

Jag: You know, we’re hearing more and more about companies and corporate responsibility and companies sharing their political values, their religious values, whatever that is these days. And that plays right into what you’re saying. Stacey, how do you approach conversations with your clients in regards to values based investing 

Stacey: Jag, it boils down to making your clients aware of all their options. Too many advisors, in my opinion, they limit their scope of investing options for their clients to the one size fits all approach. Michael and I begin our conversations with our clients asking the right questions, getting down to what is it that really matters.

Michael: A recent survey, I think, really sums this up. And Charles Schwab ran this survey. More than 8 in 10 Americans agree that their personal values, whatever they may be, play an important role in how they manage their financing, adding to a long list of factors Americans’ weigh when making other purchases and other decisions.

Personal values ranked third on the list just after price and product features with almost 8 in 10 Americans, 79% guys, saying that they try to use their purchasing power to support brands that are aligned with their beliefs. This survey is in direct conflict with another study that showed that 68% of the advisors surveyed stated that their clients were not interested in values based investing.

Almost 80% of the client state that it is important to ’em, and nearly 70% of the advisors are blind to what really matters to their clients. 

Jag: The way you phrased that, Michael, is really interesting. When you said that the studies are in conflict with each other, they’re actually not, when you think about it. Because the investors are saying this stuff is important to us.

It’s the advisors in many cases that are blind and not seeing it. So they’re not conflict with each other. It’s just that there’s two completely opposite perspectives. And this is a great conversation because we’re kind of bridging that gap and showing your potential clients and our listeners that you understand why these things are so important to them as investors.

If somebody wants to come talk to the two of you, Michael, Stacey, about all this stuff and about values-based investing, about your philosophy, about how you can align with their investment goals, strategies, and of course values. As we’ve been talking about, they can go to our website, artofwealthunbroken.com. 

Again, artofwealthunbroken.com or the phone number is? 

Stacey: 855 378 1806.. 855 378 1806. 

Jag: All right. Good to have you back, Stacey. It’s nice to have the full compliment of hosts here on the show. We’ll talk to you guys next week. 

Stacey: Great. Jag thanks. 

Michael: Thanks Jag. Thanks Stacey. 

Jag: Investment advisory services are offered through optimized advisory services, LLC. an SEC, registered investment advisor. Optimize only transacts business in states where it is properly licensed or excluded or exempted from registration requirements.