Zebra Smash - Real Financial Planners | Real Conversations

Holly Donaldson, (for NAPFA members listening, you know her as Holly Thomas), built her business as a plug and play operation. Clients would go to her for financial planning, but with her help they could plug into whichever 3rd party investment manager they saw fit. Why did she go that route, and how did it work out? And what sorts of clients were drawn to her approach?

Fresh off of his presentation at the NAPFA 2017 Fall National Conference, Brad Breeding, CFP(R) of myLifeSite.net joins Ben and Roger to talk about aspects that planners need to consider when discussing aging plans/living arrangements with clients.

Brad has a unique perspective in this area, having worked as an advisor for 14 years before launching myLifeSite.net. In that time, he fielded so many questions about Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) that that identified a need for resources and databases related to general questions about CCRCs, various contract types, the application process, and how to research specific communities.

In this episode, Brad touches on:

• The age/life phase when most folks need to seriously consider long-term aging plans
• Pros and cons of "Aging in Place"
• Considerations of defaulting to a family caregiver, and the limitations of direct home care providers
• Defining elements of most Continuing Care Retirement Communities
• Differences between the three primary CCRC contract types
• Aspects to consider regarding refundable entry fees

While discussing home care providers, we stumbled on the right name for case managers who can help coordinate health and other care-related activities for older folks. The term we were looking for was "geriatric care managers." Brad wrote a great post about geriatric care managers at myLifeSite.net You can also find more information at the webpage of the Aging Life Care Association (formerly the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers).

On a cold January 2nd, 2018, we spoke with Linda Leitz over Skype about why she went back to school to get her PhD, and how that experience has shaped her as a practitioner and as someone who serves in leadership roles within the profession. Linda has done great work for financial planners for years, so its no surprise that one of her motivations behind going back to school was to look for new ways to help the profession grow and improve.

Links:

Linda's Dissertation - She said it couldn't be found! Google said otherwise.

Heat Pumps in Cold Weather - A lot of articles say they work fine, but we know better.

This is the first in what will be a two part series, in which your co-hosts interview each other. This time around, Ben interviewed Roger. Here's your chance to learn the origin story of the curmudgeon you've heard in your earbuds over the past year.

Part One of this series took place near Roger's birthday on Christmas Eve. Part Two will be coming soon on or near Ben's birthday.

One 2017 business story you might have caught was IBM's decision to eliminate all remote work. They announced it during the spring, but basically if you want to work at IBM, you have to work in the office. No more working from home.

No financial advisory firm has reached IBM's size and complexity just yet, but we grapple with the pros and cons of remote work just like they do.

In this episode, we chat with Bethany Griffith of the Abacus Planning Group, who continues to work for her South Carolina firm while living in Germany.

Bethany mentions two helpful systems that keep her connected to her firm, which we've linked to below:

• Allworx phone systems
• Yammer, an internal chat/social media solution

Anyone who has taken the CFP® exam knows that it's a long, steady process, followed by what feels like incredible excesses in free time. But hardcore ZebraSmash listeners want to know how to fill that void with new reading materials, 'cause they're crazy like that.

In this episode, Roger and Ben talk about the 5 books they recommend for folks who have just put away that insurance textbook and have Amazon gift card burning wholes in their pockets. Roger's list leans more on the managerial/enterpeneur side, while Ben's list touches on history, marketing, psychology and communication. All in all, it's an impressive list.

• High Output Management (Andrew Grove)
• The Innovator's Dilemma (Clayton Christensen)
• The Lean Startup (Eric Ries)
• Getting Things Done (David Allen)
• Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
• And here's the Youtube interview Roger mentioned. (not free)

• Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk (Peter Bernstein)
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini)
• Selling the Invisible (Harry Beckwith)
• The War of Art (Steven Pressfield)
• Difficult Conversations (Stone, Patton and Heen)/Thanks for the Feedback (Stone and Heen)

The next episode in our series of conference summaries. Thanks to Chad Smith for taking great notes at the Fincon 2017 conference

Nothing - and we mean nothing - says Thanksgiving holiday like hiding out in your room with a plate full of turkey and cranberry sauce and an industry-specific book. And we we have the book for you!

In this very special episode, Roger and Ben review Philip Palaveev's G2: Building the Next Generation. Roger spouts page numbers, Ben recites chapters, we have a spirited debate over the appropriateness of always sending in firm principals to close sales...it's just just like Thanksgiving dinner, but with your favorite ZebraSmash co-hosts.

We both liked this book a lot, particularly because it spoke both to G2 professionals and to firm founders, which seems like a first to us. We highly recommend it to both groups.

• Defining and recruiting G2
• Transitioning lead advisors in client relationships - getting G2 from "second chair" to the lead role
• G2's role in Business Development
• Management of teams, managing "up" to founders, and management of self (e.g,, the elusive work-life balance question)
• Buying shares (G2)/Selling Shares (Founders/existing shareholders)
• Firm governance, which we admittedly didn't spend a lot of time covering. We'll blame the fact that Roger's jury duty ended a day to early.

• Buy the G2 book at Amazon
• Philip Palaveev's The Ensemble Practice
• Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback, by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
• Andy Grove's High Output Management, which may get its own ZebraSmash book review podcast one day.

Roger missed the NAPFA Fall conference due to theatre commitments back home in Texas, but his wife Natalie was there and was willing to share her experiences with us. Did she sugarcoat her review to avoid any awkwardness with conference chair Ben Birken? (Hint: No)

It's not easy coming up with a snappy, ironic title about employee benefits for government workers. So in the spirit of government service, we're not really going to try. Instead, we're going to let this episode's topic speak for itself.

Kevin Lozer, CFP(R) of ClearLogic Financial in Reston, VA joins Roger and Ben to talk about the workplace benefits and planning opportunities for federal government employees. In this episode, we cover:

• The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), including differences between the two, benefit calculations, and survivor benefits.
• The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP; the federal government's version of the 401(k)), including investment options, the awesome power of the G Fund investment option, and the quirky rules around withdrawals.
• The myriad of health plan options available to government workers
• The interplay between Medicare Part B and the Federal Employees Health Benefit program for retirees
• Long Term Care Insurance and Life Insurance benefits for retirees

The package of benefits is so good that we've both decided to sign up and become a forest rangers.

• The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
• You can find a plethora of information related to government employee benefits at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website
• Here's a breakdown of the General Schedule (GS) classification levels and pay grades