Make It Last with Victor Medina - Legal & Financial Retirement Planning

This week on Make It Last Radio, Victor had the opportunity to interview Andy Fritz and Kelly Astbury of Homestead at Hamilton, an independent and assisted living community. Tune in to hear about Homestead’s “successful aging” philosophy and all about what makes Homestead a unique community.

If you would like more information on Homestead at Hamilton, Andy and Kelly encourage you to visit their community at 2560 Kuser Rd Hamilton, NJ or visit their website: www.homesteadathamilton.com

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript…

Victor Medina:  Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad you can join us this Saturday morning.

I’ve got two guests on today, Andy Fritz and Kelly Astbury from Homestead in Hamilton. They were in my office. We were chatting about what they were doing. I just hit the record button because I figured it would make a great show. It did make a great show. We’re going to join that interview in progress. You’re going to be listening to them talk about what they do.

Now, we didn’t give a proper introduction to Homestead in Hamilton. It’s an assisted living, independent living facility or community that’s based in Hamilton, New Jersey. When we got into the interview, we were already talking with Kelly about some of her programming, what she does there.

I want you to stick with that. Then you’ll hear everything you need to about Homestead. I think it’s a great, novel choice out in the industry when you think about how to transition away from your home and into something else. Here we go with Andy Fritz and Kelly Astbury from Homestead at Hamilton.

How big of a dance studio…In other words, are there classes that happen every week?

Kelly: Yes, we offer classes…

Victor:  Daily?

Kelly:  Yes, six days a week. It’s pretty much a school‑year activity, September to June, but then we also offer summer camps and summer classes.

Victor:  Different styles, all kinds of styles?

Kelly:  Different…Tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, adult fitness classes.

Victor:  What is the difference between lyrical and anything else?

Kelly:  Lyrical, the way that I explain it is it’s a combination between jazz and ballet.

Victor:  I don’t know if this would be right, because I’m such an idiot, but if I’ve seen Alvin Ailey’s Dance Troupe, it’s like ballet, but it’s very flowy, and…

[crosstalk]

Kelly:  That would be actually more modern.

Victor:  There’s no chance that I have any idea.

Kelly:  You know what I say to people? Picture someone dancing to a Celine Dion song. That is lyrical dance.

Andy Fritz:  Like interpretive dance?

Kelly:  You know how she just has a beautiful, powerful, songy voice? That is more like lyrical dance.

Victor:  What do you do when you’re not running your dance studio that’s related to Homestead Hamilton?

Kelly:  What do I do? What don’t I do? I’m just kidding. Basically, for Homestead, I’m currently the program director, so I’m responsible for all of the successful aging programming that we have in place, from activities, events, trips.

Your legacy goes far beyond the finances and personal items you will leave behind. The real legacy your family will remember you by are the collection of stories, photos, and videos you have gathered over your lifetime. Steve Besserman of AriJoe productions is an award winning documentarian and he assists families in the telling of those stories. AriJoe productions can help you capture the amazing lifetime stories of your loved ones, to share for many generations to come.

Visit AriJoe Productions’ website for more information and to watch some of the amazing documentaries Steve has put together for families and organizations in the community.

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript…

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us here today. I am excited for today’s show because I have a guest. His name is Steve Besserman. He is the principal of AriJoe Productions.

He calls himself the chief storyteller. That’s exactly what he is. I wanted to interview him because he’s an individual that started a company that basically helps you capture your loved one’s stories. I think that’s such a fantastic service.

So many times we spend time and effort lining up finances and doing planning. We put wills and trusts in place where really the value of the legacy is in the personal stuff that people bring. Many times that’s captured in their stories.

Whether or not we’re doing an audio recording, a video recording, or what‑have‑you, people are their collections of stories, and what they’re passing on, their values.

I know that in my own practice we used to do something called a priceless conversation which tried to capture some of those values as part of the estate planning process. It’s not something we do any longer, but for a little while it was one of the steps at the end, and people found it to be very valuable.

I wasn’t sure that at my stage in my career that I had the best storytelling skills, I guess. Maybe that’s the reason why I abandoned it, but I am so glad that Steve is doing that. I’ve got to give you the introduction for this clip.

Steve showed up. We had him here as a guest. We prerecorded this interview. He just started talking, so I hit the record button because his stories were fantastic, and I didn’t want to have him to say it again.

What you’re going to hear is me entering in into the conversation. You are going to be eavesdropping to the recording that I hit. In fact, we even talked about it in what we’ve recorded in there. I thought it was important enough just to capture it all at once, and Steve did a great job sharing that.

Without further ado, here is my interview with Steve Besserman of AriJoe Productions.

Victor:  Not just because I suppose that they’re older, but did you always want to focus in capturing the stories of the older generation, that you’re not working with elder care population stuff like that?

Steve Besserman:  Yeah. It’s a priority in my wheelhouse as is producing video documentaries for small to mid‑sized businesses ‑‑ for marketing purposes, obviously ‑‑ and for nonprofits. I’ve done several projects for nonprofit groups to help them raise awar...

This week on Make It Last, Victor gives details on why a portfolio is not a plan, a newly proposed NJ fiduciary rule, as well as a glimpse as to why NJ has been ranked as the worst tax structure in the nation.

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

To read the entire transcript click below

 

Victor Medina:  Everybody welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad that you can join us this Saturday morning on, what is it, a Columbus Day weekend. We have had a run of special guests in the last two shows, but today you’ve got me by myself, by yourself.

Hopefully, you’re strapped in for that because I’ve got a bunch of stuff to talk to you about today. I’m really excited to share the information with you.

Today, we are going to talk to you about why a portfolio is not a plan. There’s a whole rash of a new situations where investments are becoming free. We’re going to talk of why simply having a portfolio is not the same thing as having a plan.

I’m going to talk to you about a new rule in New Jersey, introducing the concept of fiduciary status, why that’s a requirement and maybe what you can expect if, in fact, this law passes.

Finally, New Jersey has won an award, essentially, as having the nation’s worst tax structure. I’m not sure you’re going to go and celebrate that with your neighbors. I’m going to talk to you about why that is. Why do we rank 50th in the entire country?

We’ll go through all that. Before I do, over the last week, I was actually in Orlando, Florida, at Disney World, not on vacation with my family, but doing something just as equally fun, which is that I have been hosting for the last 10 years a tech conference for attorneys.

One of the things that distinguishes my practice, especially in the legal field, is that we run an all‑Mac or an all‑Apple law firm. We’ve got Apple products everywhere in the computers that we use, and the tablets that we use. Back about 10 years ago, it’s a pretty rare thing to have somebody set up a firm like that.

What I did was I created a conference that I invited people to come to, to better learn how their technology works and make sure that they were optimizing it. The reason why I’m sharing this with you is, while it was a great conference, in fact, I had the opportunity to have my mom join me, which is something that I always like.

She’s been a fixture of the conference for the last seven years or so, basically, because I had this person who’s supposed to come and help me run the conference, She quit two weeks before the conference was supposed to happen. I didn’t have a replacement.

I ended up asking my mom, who lived about an hour away or so, would she mind coming and sitting at the desk and checking people in? Of course, she said, “Yes.” She was happy. I said, “Look it, I’ll pay for your room. I’ll get you a ticket at Disney World, if you’d like. I just need help with this conference because I can’t do it on my own. There’s 50, 75 people that are coming.”

She shows up, and she does a brilliant job. Next year, I bring somebody from my office, who’s been the same person who’s been from my office ever since.

Some of you who are clients of ours know Julianna and know that she’s ano...

Medicare open enrollment is swiftly approaching. Now is the time to gather as much information as possible and begin your planning. Tune in this week to get some great information from Carol Baker, Principal of CABA Benefits, as she shares her wealth of knowledge on everything Medicare.

If you need additional information you can give Carol Baker a call at 973-428-0863 or visit her webpage cababenefits.com

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript…

Victor J. Medina:  Hey, everybody, welcome back to Make It Last. I’m so glad you can join us this Saturday morning. I’ve got a special guest. Earlier in the week I recorded an interview with Carol Baker because we are upon Medicare open enrollment. That is the middle of October to the beginning of December.

I’m going to jump right into the interview with Carol. We talked about all of the options on selecting Medicare, different plan options, what you can do about Medigap policies. You are in for a treat today. Let’s go right to the interview with Carol Baker.

I’m joined today by Carol Baker. Carol Baker is the principal of CABA Benefits. You can locate that at cababenefits.com.

I got to admit Carol is here because she’s my business health insurance broker. We went out to lunch and we started talking about Medicare and Medicare supplements because, in as much as I have my CFP and I do financial planning for people, specifically people in retirement, health benefits in itself is a completely different area.

I can’t handle that kind of insurance. I thought, “Oh my goodness.” Carol has such a wealth of information that I had to invite her onto the show. I’m so happy that you joined us. Welcome, Carol.

Carol Baker:  Thank you for inviting me.

Victor:  Let’s start with a top‑down view of Medicare. I think people just take for granted conceptually what it is. Describe for me generally what Medicare is, when it begins, and then we can start delving into things like the different parts and whatever else. Generally, how would you describe Medicare?

Carol:  Medicare is a government program. There are different parts of it, Part A, Part B. There can be a Part C that you take advantage of, and Part D, which is the drug portion.

Many people take Medicare once they turn 65 or go ahead and enroll. They’re generally entitled to it if they worked for a certain amount of quarters ‑‑ 40 quarters ‑‑ in their lifetime or about 10 years, or their spouses have worked.

Victor:  It’s a health insurance program you get eligible for. You attain eligibility largely based on your work history and essentially paying into it. When they’re taking out all those payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, you’re earning a certain number of quarters so that you can get this when you turn 65.

Carol:  Yes, absolutely.

Victor:  Is it automatic? When do you start looking at claiming Medicare? What are the timelines for getting enrolled, at least on the parts that are already included or you’ve earned?

Carol:  If you are already collecting Social Security or railroad benefits, which I don’t personally know of anybody who’s collecting railroad benefits, but Social Security. If you have already started collecting Social Security,

On this episode of Make It Last, Victor hosts an interview with Mary Kay Krokowski, President and Founder of Aging Advisors. Mary Kay gives information on what Aging Advisors can do for families who are feeling overwhelmed with the future care of an aging loved one and when the time is right to call a geriatric care management service.

For more information on Aging Advisors visit their website: http://agingadvisors.com/

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript…

Victor J. Medina:  Everybody, welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host Victor Medina, I’m so glad you could join us this Saturday morning. I am really excited to present an interview I held with Mary Kay Krokowski, who is the principle and founder of Aging Advisors. She is a geriatric care manager.

We are going to talk through a lot of really interesting information about when geriatric care management is necessary and warranted, and what you can do to set yourself up to be in a great position for the future. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Mary Kay Krokowski.

I am joined today by Mary Kay Krokowski, who is the principle and the founder of Aging Advisors. I am so glad you can join us Mary Kay because we get lots of questions.

Our world is in around how do we help people who are facing long‑term care crises. I am going to hit you with a bunch of questions, but before I do that, just tell me a little bit about who you are, how you arrived at this stage, and what Aging Advisors is.

Mary Kay Krokowski:  Thanks for having me, Victor. I have been a registered nurse since a long, long time ago, over 40 years. The progression of the things that I’ve done have been the typical things ‑‑ the hospital nursing,

I was really an emergency room nurse for quite a while. I went into visiting nursing, which I loved because it was walking into people’s homes and using my nursing skills in a really practical way.

I did a little three‑year stint in assisted living and then was grabbed by another care manager, actually, who was one of the original care managers from 1986 ‑‑ Connie Rosenberg, who still is a wonderful mentor for me.

She taught me the fundamentals of care management. I’m not a social worker, but it’s almost a combination of social work and nursing. In lots of ways it’s knowing the needs of, and I particularly enjoy older adults. There are some care managers that focus on people with disabilities or people with mental health issues.

Victor:  Younger, but ongoing and persistent.

Mary Kay:  Correct.

Victor:  OK.

Mary Kay:  Correct and using a different insurance mechanism. Most of the time they’re on Medicaid or they’re on SSI or something else often times. The majority of the people that I see are on some form of Medicaid or a pension benefit kind of Medicaid.

It’s always been very interesting, and it reflects itself in my history with emergency room nursing is that triaging. When I meet a family, going in and doing a lot of observing of body language and observing of vocal tones, and along with are they short of breath, are they worried I’m going to tell them they have to move out of their house yesterday.

Also dealing with the families because the families are very distraught. They’re very worried about an older adult most...

IRAs are very different from most other assets and require very specific planning. IRA’s tend to be where most people’s money is – so tune in this week to get a clearer picture of just how different IRAs are from your other assets.

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below for the full transcription 

Victor Medina:  Everybody, welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad you could join us this Saturday morning. I’m excited to be here because we’ve got a great show taking a different direction from where we were last week.

We had a great show last week and if you missed it, you missed the opportunity to learn a little more about CareOne Jackson and some of the activities that it’s doing in its Harmony Village. I urge you to go back to the podcast either on Spotify or on iTunes, look up that episode and learn a little bit more about some of the innovative things that they’re doing at assisted living facilities.

We’re in Assisted Living Week. We’re ending it this September 15th, if you’re listening live. That was celebration of assisted living. I wanted to pivot a little bit today and talk to you about 19 different ways that IRAs are different from other assets.

We’re going to go through each one of those and explain a little bit more about what makes what I’m sharing with you so different from other assets. I’m looking forward to doing that.

Before I get into it, I do want to share a little bit of personal information. I think it’s related to something you want to hear about, especially in retirement. We had an opportunity to gather my entire family. By family, I mean my parents, my mom, my step‑dad, my brother and sister, their children. We had three children, six grandchildren, my parents.

We were all in Charleston, South Carolina. We were trying to ‑‑ with the storm, just thinking so much about it. We were trying to get my mom’s home ready for downsizing. We were trying to get ourselves all around the stuff that had to be packed, the stuff that could be shipped to their place in New York, what needed to maybe get sold in a tag sale. Interesting dynamics developed around that.

We were going through everything that were in cabinets, in drawers. It was really helpful to have the family members together, because we got the opportunity to hear from my mom’s stories about what she had. There were some stuff that were just run‑of‑the‑mill and who wants this dish and whatever else.

There was obviously some other things there that had stories behind it. My mom still kept, for instance, a set of tin templates for making cookies. She always had some activities. She was card making. She was making cookies and different decorations.

We got an opportunity to relive some of that stuff which I think it helps me highlight how important it was to make sure that we’re passing on our values and our stories in addition to our money.

So much time is spent on making sure all the concrete and cold‑related aspects of planning room place. Do you have the right documents? Do you have the right money? Is it supposed to go where it is, optimizing taxes?

At the end of the day as we were gathering around the stuff, I was reminded of how unimportant that stuff really is. That the really important stuff that we were focusing on were the stories and values...

This week, starting tomorrow, 9/9 until 9/15, assisted living week will be going on. Assisted living facilities will be hosting events to celebrate those who work and live in the facilities, under the theme of “Capture the Moment.” On Make It Last, this week, Victor interviews Lisa Kelly and Michelle Gidosh of CareOne Assisted Living Facility.  They share what makes CareOne a unique facility as well as what you should look for if you’re shopping for a facility.

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

For more information about what CareOne has to offer visit: www.care-one.com

Click below to read the full transcript

Victor Medina:  Hey everybody, welcome back to Make it Last. I’m your host Victor Medina. I’m so glad you could join us this Saturday morning. I am excited for today’s show, because we have two special guests from CareOne company.

It is Lisa Kelly who is the Regional Director of Business Development and Michelle Gidosh who is the Program Director at the Harmony Lodge at CareOne in Jackson. It is appropriate for me have these two special guests on this week, because coming up starting tomorrow September 9th it’s National Assisted Living Week.

I’m going to talk to you a little bit about different levels of care in this first segment, but then we’re going to spend some time with Lisa and with Michelle talking a little bit about dementia‑centered care generally.

What is it? Why does it differ from traditional assisted living? What people should be looking for in terms of watching out for their elders? What is they should be looking in shopping for an assisted living facility? What is important in that area?

I think this is a good show if you happen to have somebody that is in your life or you know of somebody that is dealing with people who have got cognitive decline. It’s going to be an important set of information that’s going to help you out. I’m excited to have them on here.

It is National Assisted Living Week. That is September 9th through the 15th. Basically, every assisted living facility is going to be hosting different events, essentially, to celebrate that.

There’s a theme for this National Assisted Living Week. It is Capture the Moment. This National Assisted Living Week is, basically, an opportunity for residents, their loved ones, staff, volunteers, local communities, essentially to celebrate the individuals that are served in assisted living and learn more about this sector of long‑term care.

Capture the Moment as a theme hopes to inspire residents to realize their dreams and seize the day. Simultaneously, the theme supports reflection as residents may look back on pivotal moments of their lives.

With the theme wordplay referencing photography, residents may refer to pictures, videos from their past. Those are good ways to trigger memories and get people connected back again to the past.

The theme also aims to remind assisted living staff that often little every day interactions with residents can help deliver super high quality person‑centered or dementia‑centered care.

That’s going to be one of those things that’s really important as you have somebody who is suffering especially from cognitive decline, that they have moments, opportunities, things where they settle back into who they are and who they we...

Abuse against the elderly is usually hidden in plain sight, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” if you will. Some terrible individuals, who are in positions of authority and trust, are taking advantage of their most vulnerable, elderly clients. In this episode, Victor shares a few stories, which happened pretty recently and unfortunately, fairly often. These stories are of trusted authority figures who abused their power and took advantage of their elderly clients. They stole money and disguised it as necessary fees for their services. The lesson from this episode: always have a system of checks and balances in place.

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript..

 

 

Victor Medina:  Hey, everybody, welcome back to Make It Last. I am your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad you could join us here this Saturday morning. For those of you that are joining us on Facebook Live, welcome back as well.

Hey, listen, if you’re interested in watching this show, of course, you can always catch that on Facebook Live, where we simulcast the show as well as on YouTube. We’ve got all of the prior episodes. I shouldn’t say all of them.

We’ve got a bunch of the prior episodes going all the way back where we’ve done to recording. Sometimes, a little bit more fun to watch the show if you’re looking on your phone or your screen and listen to it.

Either way, we’ve got a bunch of different ways for you to engage with Make It Last. This is the show that helps you keep your legal ducks in a row and your financial nest eggs secure. We’re talking all things retirement. Just last week, I spent the first segment talking about bad actions that were going on with Wells Fargo fiduciary relationship.

I can’t even go a week, one week. Didn’t get there one week before we have a next article with more bad actors. It really got me thinking. In this same time, August 21st or so, I was featured on another radio station, NJ 101.5, that was doing a segment on elder care.

They did a five‑day whole special on elder care. They finished up on that last day with me, some interviews with me. The interview really only lasts about 45 seconds on the air. There’s a little bit more online. If you go to NJ101.5.com, you will be able to look up my quotes and what I was talking to the reporter about, dealing about asset protection and how do you make sure you don’t go broke.

One of the things that I found missing in the stuff that they were talking about, was how to protect elders against abuse and exploitation. It gets me to the topic that I want to be talking about today, which is that I want to help you understand, first of all, how elder abuse might occur, and also, how to avoid it.

I have three different news reports that have all come out within the last month or so, two of them in the last week, talking about situations where people in trusted positions, specifically professionals like lawyers and financial advisers, ended up doing something wrong with the money.

Really, they’re after money, in the case of the lawyer, in their position of power and trust. Let’s go through each one of these. I’m accused, I think, of being too harsh on financial advisers. Let me now put up one of the elder law attorneys and absolutely put them on the cross,

In the first half of this episode Victor shares the news regarding Wells Fargo’s wealth management services. The advisors working at Wells Fargo were technically fiduciaries but they were pressured by their corporate bosses to make the most money for the company- rather than looking out for the best interest of the client. In the second half of the episode, Victor gives insight on legal asset protection, specifically two difficult assets to protect, the home and IRAs.

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript

Victor Medina:  Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad you can join us this Saturday morning.

I’m excited for today’s show because I am going to get back on my pulpit. I’m going to rant and rave about fiduciaries and financial advisors screwing you over. I got new information. I got new ammunition. Then I’ll get off the pulpit. [laughs] I’ll talk about something that might be more interesting to you because this one’s interesting to me.

I can’t stop talking about this because it’s crazy to me that this goes on as rampantly as it does. I was just meeting with a client this week. It was one of these things where we started the legal engagement. We helped them with their estate‑planning and elder law asset protection planning.

I said to them, “Look, are you interested in having a conversation about your financial matters with me because we have this expertise? We can do that for you.” They said, “Well, sure. We’ll be happy to have a second look.” I met with them.

The first thing that I do when I have that meeting is I set the table with what we have right now. I make an assessment over what they have and what I think about it. It’s more like a diagnostic. I’m acting a little bit like a physician. I’m essentially looking at what they have.

I said, “OK. Let’s run a few tests to see what you have.” Before we can prescribe what you need, of course, I need to figure out what you have first. We did that. Look, it’s a pretty standard story these days. They had some very expensive investments. These investments were ill‑positioned for them in retirement.

We ran some illustrations and, essentially, were able to show that if they stayed in these investments, they weren’t going to make it through retirement.

When I asked them about that, they said, “Well, this is what we were told was in our best interest.” I said, “Were you working with a fiduciary?” If they were working with a fiduciary, and they were told that this was in their best interest, then they were sold this product, it was wrong.

I have some recourse. They have some recourse. A fiduciary has to be looking out for their best interest.

When we investigated, of course, this person was not a fiduciary. They were a broker. They were nothing more than a salesperson. That meant that they could sell them whatever they wanted as long as it passed at a very low bar of suitability. If it did that, then everything would be OK’d by the regulators.

That’s what happened. There were all kinds of problems with it. First of all, it was a terrible strategy for retirement. It was also a terrible product. It was a high expense variable annuity.

On this episode you will find a continuation of the second half of episode 67, where Victor discussed the unpredictability of the stock market. Here, Victor will discuss the answer to the question- if the market is so unpredictable, why should you have a plan at all? As well as, what type of plan is best to follow.

 

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA®) and Certified Financial Planner™ professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Click below to read the full transcript

Victor Medina:  Everybody, welcome back to Make It Last. I’m your host, Victor Medina. I’m so glad that you can join us this Saturday morning. We’ve got an exciting show for you here today.

I’ll tell you something, if you missed last week’s show we’re actually going to be continuing on a little bit of a theme that we touched on last week. Let me recap that for you real quick. Last week, toward the end of the show, in the last segment, I talked a little bit about active fund managers, people who are trying to time the market.

I want to distinguish here between people who are actively trying to underprice securities, those people that think that they’ve got a good deal, that they can predict what a particular security is going to be going in which direction, and actively trying to time the market.

I focused last week on timing the market, knowing that you are at the height and therefore it was appropriate to move to cash before things started to tumble down, and then knowing, for instance, that you were at the bottom, and then to use that cash to invest.

The report that we covered last week disproved anyone’s real ability to do that with any degree of confidence. The numbers that we shared is that in order for that type of strategy to be effective, somebody had to be right north of 70 or 74 percent of the time, and nobody out of the top 28 people that were identified were capable of doing it even slightly more than 50 percent of the time.

Although that sounds numerically like it means that there is an advantage ‑‑ you’re going to be right more than half of the time ‑‑ unfortunately, there are all these transactional costs that go into that that basically dilute any real effectiveness at the end of the day.

So here was the point. The point was that you can’t time the market. I left last week’s show with a bit of a tease, saying, “Well, if there’s no point in timing the market, if they are unpredictable, then why have a plan at all?”

I mentioned that I was going to talk about that today. I do want to talk about the strategy of an investment plan and why one might have some plan going into some investment strategies.

A couple of quotes that come to mind…I think Patton was famous for saying that everyone needs a plan and all plans are useless. Mike Tyson was famous for saying, “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.” [laughs]

We’re going to still need a plan at the end of the day here, but we need to understand that the plan is not about the ability to predict with certainty what’s going to happen at any point in time.

This arrives at my own personal philosophy on investing and why we have decided to use a particular fund family within our strategies ‑‑ because their philosophy, their approach to it very much matches what my academic research has suggested is the case.

When you look at it,