Ep 105: The Story of Dr. Smith

Ep 105: The Story of Dr. Smith

Listen Now:

The Smart Take:

Hear the story of Dr. Smith and how his retirement concerns are likely similar to many of your own. How do I select a good advisor? What to do with my employer retirement plans? How do I transition my healthcare? Hear all of this plus estate planning issues and Dr. Smith’s reflections on his retirement transition in this jam-packed episode.

 

HAVE QUESTIONS? Need help making sure your investments and retirement plan are on track? Click to schedule a free 15-minute call with one of True Wealth’s credentialed and experienced professionals.

http://bit.ly/calltruewealth.

Or listen to episode 45 to learn about True Wealth’s Retire Smarter Solution™ that aligns your money to your goals, overlaid with tax-smart strategies, so you can retire with confidence.

Subscribe:

Click the below links to subscribe to the podcast with your favorite service. If you don’t see your podcast listed with your favorite service then let us know and we’ll add it!

The Host:

Kevin Kroskey – About – Contact

Intro:

Well, get ready to retire a little smarter today. Walter Storholt here, alongside Tyler Emrick, Certified Financial Planner at True Wealth Design. He is solo today running the ship, and we can’t wait to chat with Tyler a little bit on today’s episode and kind of a special episode for you as well. If you’re new to the show, the True Wealth Design team has several offices and serves multiple areas across the country based out of Northeast Ohio, but also offices and presence in Southwest Florida and the greater Pittsburgh area, but can help clients really anywhere across the country. If you’ve got any questions, you can go to truewealthdesign.com. Tyler, Kevin has taken the day off, turned the keys over to you, my friend. Are you ready to roll?

Tyler Emrick:

Oh, I am. Absolutely, Walt. How are you doing today?

Walter Storholt:

I’m doing pretty well.

Tyler Emrick:

Nice.

Walter Storholt:

We were talking before we hit the record button on the show today. I’m remote. I’m on what’s supposed to be a working vacation, but it kind of is just work, and then evenings, we’re trying to treat it like a vacation. I’m down in Myrtle Beach today, so we’re not going quite international, but we’re all over the country today, Tyler. It is good to be with you, and we’ve got a great show on the way because you’re going to kind of take us under the hood of True Wealth Design, and we’re going to get to explore a little bit.

Walter Storholt:

We probably have a lot of people who have listened to this show, Tyler, for many months, if not a couple of years at this point, and every once in a while, we like to do a deep dive into somebody’s experience, with the True Wealth Design team, with you and Kevin and the rest of the crew there. What’s going through their minds as they get ready for retirement? What’s that first meeting look like? How does the process unfold from there? You’re just going to walk us through that story and that journey. I can’t wait.

Tyler Emrick:

Oh, no, absolutely. Well, you hit the nail on the head. I called it a case study, but I love the short story. I think that sounds a lot more exciting.

Walter Storholt:

Case study’s very stuffy.

Tyler Emrick:

Right? I was driving in this morning, and I was thinking about that. Oh, what do we call it? What do we call it? The story? No, that’s great. The case study definitely sounds very back in college in the lecture room.

Walter Storholt:

Yes. Well, we’re going to learn as much as you would in a case study, but with the softness of a good old story.

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely, and the client that we’re going to be talking about today is someone that I’ve been working with for just about a year or so now, and this individual’s situation is really, very similar to a lot of the clients that we work with on a day in day out basis, so I think there’ll be a lot of tidbits and educational things that were concerns of his when we are meeting that it will be very applicable to a lot of the listeners out there and even more so, or maybe to build on that a little bit as well if there’s any listeners out there that have maybe never worked with a financial advisor before, or are sitting there on the fence saying, “Hey, is it time to start?” or “How do I know if I actually need one? Is my situation really that complex?”

Tyler Emrick:

I think we’ll try to frame the story in a way to give you a little bit of an insight, like Walter had mentioned on that process, maybe what those first meetings look like. What were some of the concerns that he brought into us, and how we handled those, and fielded those types of questions. Sometimes I think individuals can build up financial planning, and there’s, in their mind, they have this idea of, hey, I got to have 10 million bucks. I got to have a ton of money to come in and actually work with a financial advisor, and Walter, I really don’t think that’s the case, and more often than not, it’s not the case.

Walter Storholt:

I’ve definitely heard that multiple times, where someone will be like, “Oh, I wouldn’t qualify. I have to have multiple millions of dollars to even be worth a financial advisor’s time,” and it’s so often someone who just thinks they’re a regular old folk, I’m just regular folks, and then they still can benefit from meeting with an advisor. It’s amazing when you then hear those kinds of stories and how those turn out.

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely. I even think about my own situation. When I first got in the industry, I was talking to my mom and dad about financial planning. My mom ran a machine shop, my dad was a bus mechanic, about as blue-collar as you could get, and a few years into being in the profession, and I talked to mom and dad. I was like, “Hey, you guys should probably meet with someone,” and the typical response, “What do we need to meet with someone for? We have a very basic situation. We don’t have anything to talk about,” and as with anything over time, I kind of wore them down. I didn’t have a really good answer for her. I was just like, I guess that makes sense, okay.

Walter Storholt:

Oh, that’s great.

Tyler Emrick:

As you get more experience, you get more comfortable, and I could come back to her and eventually hounded her. I was like, “Look, mom. You’ve got probably less room for error than someone that does have millions of dollars, so making sure that you’ve got your ducks in a row, you make your decisions right on social security, you invest properly.” It’s probably that much more important because they have such little room for error, and that was, I think, the point that won her over and eventually got her into meeting with someone.

Walter Storholt:

That’s fantastic. Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. Less room for error, so even more reason to meet with an advisor in those situations.

Tyler Emrick:

Definitely, and as we dive into the story of the individual that I’m thinking about today, I actually get to name them. I think what, Dr. Smith? Does that sound good?

Walter Storholt:

Okay, yeah. Dr. Smith. I like it.

Tyler Emrick:

I think, even though Dr. Smith is pretty generic. I kind of thought I would come up with something cool on the fly, and Dr. Smith is definitely not it, but that’s all right.

Walter Storholt:

I don’t know. I could see Dr. Smith being maybe a good superhero villain name perhaps, or something like that, so it’s got some intrigue to it.

Tyler Emrick:

I like that. We’ll do superhero. Dr. Smith, the superhero, came to me, and he actually worked for one of the local hospital systems in the area, Mercy Health. For those listeners that are unfamiliar with Northeast Ohio, there are a number of large hospital systems in the area. Cleveland Clinic, UH, Summa. Mercy Health is one of them, and I had worked with a number of individuals from these hospital systems, and I had an individual that I worked with for a number of years at Mercy and actually referred Dr. Smith to me, which really, that’s not uncommon to get a referral. As you think about benefits to any employer, not just the healthcare field, but any employer, they have their retirement plans, benefits packages, and there’s all sorts of different quirks and things like that, that’ll come up over time, so those referrals are very natural and very common because we have a good understanding of hey, how does our benefits work?

Tyler Emrick:

What are some of the things that we’re going to need to know as we maybe transition to retirement or transition to another company or whatever, and understanding those options and what it looks like, I think, is a pretty nice value add. That’s how I got introduced to Dr. Smith. As you think about it, how does that process even work? A lot of times, what’ll happen is whether it’s a referral or someone that just goes on our website and asks for us to contact them, what you’re typically going to get is we’re going to have a phone call or set up a time to have a quick conversation over the phone and these conversations, what, last 10, 15 minutes or so. They’re not really meant to be in-depth, a bunch of questions, it’s really much like, “Hey, let’s get to know each other. What are you looking for?”

Tyler Emrick:

Answer any immediate questions that the individual might have, and then if everything kind of jives up right, let’s set aside some more time, maybe come into the office or do a virtual meeting where we can actually dive into it a little bit more. Most of the time, we’re having that first conversation, and then if everything goes well and it makes sense, we’ll set up a more in-depth meeting where we have a little bit more time set aside, and those subsequent meetings are called discovery meetings, initial consultations, you might hear, and a lot of those are done virtually now. Some of them, obviously, we’re still here in the office, so if you’re in the Akron area, Canfield, or PA, close to one of our offices, you can still come in, but that’s generally what happens first. And then, we come in for this first meeting, which I’ll tell you what, Walter, probably some of my favorite meetings are those first meetings where you’re getting to know the people for the first time.

Walter Storholt:

Oh, sure. Yeah, it’s like the first date. You got lots of questions that you can ask, and you’re getting to know each other, and the first impressions are always exciting to see if you’re going to be a good fit for one another.

Tyler Emrick:

You got it. Well, and two, I think I handle those meetings all the time, so I probably can take it for granted a little bit that we try to set those meetings up the best we can and make sure people are prepared and know what to expect, but I think a lot of times when individuals come in for those first ones, their expectations can be all over the place, and it can probably be a little bit overwhelming sometimes, like what are we going to talk about? Where is it going to go? You come into-

Walter Storholt:

So really, your number one job is to help people feel more at ease, it sounds like.

Tyler Emrick:

Oh, you got it. Well, in a lot of those meetings, it’s not like, “Hey, you’re going to have to come in, and you’re going to meet with me, and you’re going to have to make a life-changing decision that you’re committed to for the next 20 years.” It’s nothing like that at all. Those meetings are much more focused on the individual or the family that comes in and talks to me, and it’s my job to really help facilitate that conversation and get it to a place to where we understand what they’re trying to accomplish.

Tyler Emrick:

They voice their concerns. They get their questions answered, and we really try to find out, is this going to be a good fit, and are we going to be able to step in and help them in the way that they need that help? I think everything, should you come in for a meeting with us, typically, you’re going to meet in one of our conference rooms upfront. It’s a pretty non-threatening room. It’s big. It’s got a lot of chairs sitting around a table. Heck, Walter, we got candy out there, coffee, very, very relaxed environment, to say the least.

Walter Storholt:

All right, I like it. Are you brewing the coffee, Tyler? Who’s the barista in the office?

Tyler Emrick:

I do it. We’ve got a few other individuals that do it as well. Whoever’s around pretty much takes care of that, but we got plenty of coffee, and different flavors, too.

Walter Storholt:

We got some hazelnut going on or a little french vanilla?

Tyler Emrick:

Hazelnut, absolutely, absolutely. Kevin even splurged on a pretty good coffee machine as well.

Walter Storholt:

Okay, nice. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Kevin.

Tyler Emrick:

Two cups a day person, here I am, so I drink my fair share of coffee, and in Dr. Smith’s case, his was a little different. We were pretty busy that day, so he actually came in and met in my office, which is a little smaller, a little more intimate. You never know what you’re going to get when that happens. I still got the coffee, still got the candy sitting on my desk, but when he comes in, the first thing that he mentioned, he sits down, says our pleasantries and all that good stuff, and he is like, “Hey, I’m retiring. Now I need you to tell me I can retire.”

Walter Storholt:

Nice and direct.

Tyler Emrick:

You got it. Like, “Hey, we got to fit a plan to make sure that I can do this,” and I know he was half joking, but a lot of those individuals that come and meet with us it’s that they have something going on in their lives or a big change, whether it’s retirement, maybe an inheritance, maybe a kid’s going off to college, whatever the case may be. That big life event gets them thinking about the future, and they come in and see us.

Walter Storholt:

I guess you also get people who come in probably of different mindsets. Someone might come in and say, “Hey, I don’t know if I can retire,” and that’s like the level one, and then there’s folks that are like, “I think I can retire, but I’m not sure,” kind of lacking that confidence side, and then you have people that are like, “Hey, I know I can retire, but just what do I do? Tell me how to do it. Let’s do it. I know I can do it, but I need to know the how.”

Tyler Emrick:

You got it. Absolutely. The earlier you come in, I’m a planner, so the more we can get in, the more time we got, and the more comfortable I’m going to feel. The less time, “Hey, I got a decision I got to make within 30 days. I got to get this done,” sometimes that can be quick, but whatever the case, I think getting an individual coming into the office and seeking out help in the financial industry or a financial advisor, it’s just great. It’s a big first step, and I think the important aspect to remember is that a lot of times, these first meetings with us, it’s not like you’re going to get pitched or sold something and you’re going to have to make that life-changing decision right now. It’s more so giving you a form to have a conversation that we can lead if need be and ask questions, or if you’ve got a lot of concerns and questions, to give you time to voice those and see how can you get the help that you need to fix that?

Tyler Emrick:

In Dr. Smith’s case, he had, as with most individuals, a few topics or a few things that were extremely important to him, and when we first got into the conversation and started talking, sitting there drinking our coffee, I always generally ask and try to get a framework for, have you ever worked with a financial advisor before? Have you had any experience with someone in the industry, and in his particular case, he actually had. It was actually a number of years ago, over 10 years ago, when he had met with this individual and worked with him for a few years, and I’m always curious or always try to ask, “Well, how did that go? How did the conversations and what happened?” In his case, it really wasn’t a good experience. He actually stopped working with the financial advisor and hadn’t been working one for really the last 10 years, and a few key things that he said, I’ll really never forget.

Tyler Emrick:

The first was, he said, “Every time I came into the office, I really felt that I was really being pitched something new or the latest and greatest thing,” whether it was a product, whether it was a particular investment, all those conversations were the advisor pitching something and not really giving him a forum to say, “Hey, what’s on the agenda or what are you wanting to talk about or what’s going on in your life?” and how can we frame that conversation to best meet his needs? It was very much the advisor’s agenda. He felt that that put him in a spot to where they were always reactive as opposed to proactive, and what I mean by that is, or at least what he meant by that is that, when he had a concern that came up, he had to bring it up and the advisor would then have to digest that and then talk through it.

Tyler Emrick:

It was never the advisor proactively saying, “Hey, based off the information that we’re at and what we have on you and where we’re going, the changes from last year to this year, maybe we need to talk about X, Y, Z.” It was never that. It was always, “Hey,” Dr. Smith bringing up, “I seen an article or I seen on the news where XYZ is happening. Let’s talk about it.” It was very, very reactive, and he said that, and that stuck with him. He’s like, well, why wouldn’t I just do that myself? I can get headlines, or I watch the news. If I need more data, I can find it and research it myself, and that’s kind of the vibe that he had when he had worked with him, and he said he really didn’t like it. I think a lot of individuals have a very similar experience with advisors in the past, and it puts a bad taste in their mouth and just says, “Hey, we can.”

Walter Storholt:

That can be hard to overcome, I’m guessing, right?

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely. Well, and I think what had drawn him to us, and he had done quite a bit of research on our firm, and obviously, he was a referral, so he had talked to the individual that I worked with for years, but it was very important for him that the advisor that he worked with didn’t make commissions off of the investment products, so he wouldn’t feel like he would have to be sold something or have to make a decision on every meeting on whether he would put money in here or there, or whatever the case is. He didn’t want an advisor that was paid off of commissions for investment products. He wanted a fiduciary, which is a term probably most listeners have heard. If you haven’t, a fiduciary is just a financial advisor that really has to put the client’s interest above their own. It’s kind of a shame that we have to have a term specifically for that, Walter, but we do, and a CFP professional is someone that, probably an easy designation that if you see after someone’s name to where you can say, they’re likely going to be in a fiduciary capacity.

Tyler Emrick:

And then the other thing I think that I would like to point out here, as I think about the way that we typically have those meetings or work with individuals versus what he was getting with that prior advisor, is reactive versus being proactive. I think being proactive is really a big piece of what our job is, and the way that we kind of bring that to light or try to be proactive is, we are a very process-oriented firm, so most of the time when individuals, or not most of the time, just about every time an individual that works with us on an ongoing basis meets with us, we’re going to have some type of meeting agenda that we’re following to make sure that we cover some of the big topics that are going on in the world are going on in their specific situation. A lot of people, I think, when they work with financial advisors, they get the big 90-page book, Walter, that has everything in it that they would need.

Walter Storholt:

The shiny brochure, multiple pages, all that kind of stuff.

Tyler Emrick:

Yes, and we have that, but I think the vast majority of families when they come and meet with us, they go off of that meeting agenda, which is much clear, much more concise, and has a lot of the major planning items held in it, and I think it gives a sense of purpose to every meeting that we have, and it kind of keeps that on track. And then, of course, prior to every meeting, giving clients the ability or the opportunity to say, “Hey, what’s on your mind? What’s important to you? Are there any life changes that we need to know about?” and things like that to get in preparation for the meeting, allows us to take the time to tweak and develop that plan and make sure that’s as productive a meeting as possible.

Walter Storholt:

Well, it’s quite the beginning of the process, getting to know each other, and then getting to know those needs and those values, and then you start marrying that all into your process. I can see where all that starts to work together and build momentum into the direction that you want it to.

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely, so he had quite a bit of questions about just our firm in general and our process, and I think a lot of families that come in do, but as we moved down his list of action items or things that were important to him, of course, retirement. He said, “Hey, I’m retiring. I need you to tell me I can.” When we think about retirement, there were two things that were on his mind specifically that I think are on the minds of a lot of families when they meet with us, especially families that are getting ready to retire. It’s, what are we going to do for healthcare? And then, what am I going to do to get a paycheck? Handling those two questions, I think there can be a lot that goes into it. Dr. Smith’s case, he was over 65, so he was eligible for Medicare. So that healthcare decision was a little less complex. Over 65, so he went on Medicare, just generally get signed up for Medicare part A and part B.

Tyler Emrick:

And then his decision point would come into play and decide, how do I want to get some additional coverage? Generally, the terms that you’re going to hear are going to be a supplemental plan or an advantage plan. We’ve built up a network of individuals that help us with that. Zig Novak is the individual that we’ve worked with for a number of years here locally. I think he was on one of our podcasts about a year ago or so, but he would come in, and he would be able to meet with them and go over those particular options, and then we would be able to help facilitate that as well, all in house. In his case, Medicare was a major concern for him, but the way that we would go in and fix it was, I would say, less complex than someone that was actually wanting to go and retire, maybe pre-65. And then we have a whole nother set of options and concerns that we need to be thinking of because if you’re not 65, of course, you’re not going to be eligible for Medicare.

Tyler Emrick:

You’re going to be looking at maybe Cobra, maybe going on an individual healthcare plan or a spouses plan, if that’s available to you, and when you go into those decisions, there’s a lot more complexity that’s going to be in there. You might have to manage your income, or how much income hits your tax return might come into play there. You might have to be worried. How long do you need this coverage? Of course, Cobra, you can generally only get for 18 months. There are a few circumstances where you can get it a little bit longer, but you have it for 18 months, or if you can jump on a spouse’s, that would be good as well and looking through what those costs look like, how much healthcare are you utilizing, all goes into that as a decision. Healthcare was big on his list, and that was one that we could check off relatively easier, but I think the second item is a little bit more difficult, and that would be just overall distribution planning. When I say distribution planning, I really just want you to think, where’s my paycheck going to come from? I’d say that’s fairly important, Walt. Wouldn’t you agree?

Walter Storholt:

Very important.

Tyler Emrick:

How am I going to get paid?

Walter Storholt:

Yeah. Where’s that coming from? How’s it going to get into that bank account?

Tyler Emrick:

You got it. Well, he was not unlike many individuals who over the years, he had had a few employers, and over time, you can accumulate multiple retirement plans. If those employer plans are in 401Ks or 403Bs and still tied to the employer, well, now you have to go in and take a look and say, “Well, what are we going to do with those plans, and which plan should I actually start taking distributions from?” It can be a bit overwhelming, and then you start adding in, I got all these retirement plans, and then maybe I have a nest egg that’s saved in my savings account. Maybe I have an investment account that we could potentially pull from. And it’s like, well, how do I bring all those together to do my distributions or take them in a very tax efficient way or in a way that’s going to best suit the plans that they have available to them?

Walter Storholt:

Well, as you can see, it starts to get deeper and deeper in terms of the moving parts. This is where maybe your process starts in a similar way for folks, Tyler, and then once you get into these details, that’s where each individual plan and process starts to get customized because now you’re getting into things that really only Dr. Smith is going to be facing or trying to navigate through, and that’s probably the fun part for you guys.

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely, no doubt about it. In his case, and I wouldn’t say this is exclusive to his employer, but he had, what’s called a non-qualified 457B plan, and for individuals that have that available to them, what this is, this is a retirement plan that’s offered through an employer, where if you’re maxing out your traditional 401K and 403B, and you’re looking for another place to save that 457 plan can be another place for you to put back money, and when you make those contributions, you get a tax deduction for it. Over time, that 457 account continues to grow, and then once you retire, what happens is, or at least in his case, the plan rules dictated that he had to make an election on what he wanted to do with that money within 60 days of him leaving.

Tyler Emrick:

He had a little bit of a timeframe there where he had to say, “All right, what am I going to do with this account? It can’t be rolled over into another retirement account. I have to start taking money from it. I have all these options on how much I take and how long or how many years I take it. How do I make that decision?” And that was a pretty big pain point when he came in. What am I going to do with this, because I don’t want to have this account just cashed out and all taxed in this particular year, which would’ve been the case if he didn’t make a decision on it?

Walter Storholt:

Where did you take him from there, Tyler? What was next in the process?

Tyler Emrick:

Next in the process for him, and I think that this was his other big pointer coming in, was really having an estate planning conversation. He had lost his spouse a number of years ago, and it was him, and he had a few children, and he’s like, “Hey, I’ve been doing this on my own for the last 10 years, but I’ve never had a conversation with any of my children. None of them know where my accounts are.” I think he had about three different custodians, meaning that his accounts were at three different companies, and he started to think that, if something were to happen to me, what are my kids going to do? This could be a very big challenge for them to track down all these accounts. I don’t have anything in one place. He’s like, “I want to make sure that I have the documents in place to ensure that that transition is very smooth.”

Tyler Emrick:

In his case, he actually wanted to, and we have started to have meetings with his children. That way, they get a framework for understanding what their inheritance is going to look like. Where what’s that distribution plan going to look like? If something were to happen to him and he didn’t pass, well, he doesn’t have a spouse in there to handle bills and take care of things, and having his children in on some of these planning conversations to at least get a framework for, who would they call if something happened? What would they need to do? Where would they get money if they needed to cover medical bills or anything like that, I think was very, very important to him, and having a financial advisor or a central place to where they could go was very appealing in his situation because it was just him.

Tyler Emrick:

As you think about the basic estate planning documents that he needed to have in place, like most, he hasn’t update updated his will, his trust, or any of those documents or any of his estate planning documents since his wife’s passing. Again, that was well over six, seven years ago, so that was a big priority for him, so we had a general conversation after we got through that planning process a bit and said, “Hey, let’s look through what documents you have in place now.” He didn’t have a healthcare power of attorney. He didn’t have a living will declaration. He lived in Ohio, so in Ohio, those documents are pretty standard. You can print them off online and get those in place to take care of those healthcare wishes, which was very easy.

Tyler Emrick:

He had his son, who we wanted to help make financial decisions for him if something were to happen, so we got his financial power of attorney set up so that way, his son could do that if he became incapacitated. We updated his will, and then he did have a trust, and we did update that as well. As we think about a trust, in his case, it wasn’t a trust that he was trying to use it for tax purposes or use it for long-term care concerns or anything like that. It was really, the trust in his mind was there to help and facilitate that transition upon his passing to make it that much easier because ideally, we want to have as minimal amount of your assets passed through probate as possible, and that trust is a good tool that we could use to help facilitate that transition and keep some of his tangible assets like his house, for example, out of probate.

Tyler Emrick:

Now, the type of trust that we use for him is called a revocable trust, which generally, not generally, which means that he owns the trust. The trust can be changed. He’s again not getting any tax benefit by putting his house in the trust or putting his investment account in the trust. It’s more so there that, upon his passing, that trust becomes irrevocable and then designates how those assets would be distributed to the children. In his case, that conversation around estate planning was very much, “Hey, how do I get my children involved and make sure that estate planning transition is efficient?”

Walter Storholt:

Man, great to see how you can pull all those different pieces together, all the different moving parts, and you really start to move toward a solution, and I imagine Dr. Smith is getting a little bit more comfortable at this point. Excited? What’s been his change in emotion from when he first came in to then, when you’re getting to this part of the process?

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely. In that first meeting, these topics are covered much more high level, and our goal on that first meeting was to identify what’s our action plan going forward and how are we going to set up our time over the next month or two to tackle some of these concerns? These were all big things that we needed to tackle his retirement, distribution planning, his healthcare, and then that estate plan, and then over the course of those coming months, over the course of, it was about two meetings with him, and then we had a separate meeting with the healthcare specialist where we ironed out all those details and got that plan in place, and we’ve still got a few things that we need to shore up, but we look at where he started and where he is at now.

Tyler Emrick:

I think he’s been very happy and expressed, “Hey, I feel much, much more comfortable with what would happen in some of these worst-case scenarios from the estate planning standpoint and much more comfortable about what he’s going to do with his retirement,” because he’s getting ready to retire here in the next month or two. In his case, we were able to do a lot of that work upfront, have those conversations, and give him time to digest and make sure that I want to take that recommendation, or yes, this is how I want to do it, because of course, sometimes we got to make sure that the financial piece might make sense there, but it’s also got to make sense from an emotional side, and it’s got to make sense from his personal situation. Sometimes that can take some time, and in his case, he had plenty of time to get that all in order, and then when he retires here in the next month or two, he’s going to be able to go and feel comfortable, and we can just check off things as they go.

Walter Storholt:

That’s fantastic. Any final details of this process, and how did the story conclude with Dr. Smith?

Tyler Emrick:

Oh, he’s still working, like I said. We’ll see when he retires here in the next… It’s going to be in the beginning of October. When he retires, I think he’ll be able to enjoy it and be able to do some of those things that he’s been wanting to do for some time because he did work well into his seventies, so he’s like, “It’s time. I’m going to enjoy it.” He’s not going down to Myrtle Beach. He is going down to the sunshine down in Florida, though.

Walter Storholt:

Oh, nice.

Tyler Emrick:

For a bit of time.

Walter Storholt:

Just as nice.

Tyler Emrick:

Getting out of the Ohio weather, even though we are coming up on fall, which is my favorite time of year. Cleveland winters can be pretty rough.

Walter Storholt:

That won’t really matter in Florida, though.

Tyler Emrick:

No, not at all, not at all. He gets the best of both worlds.

Walter Storholt:

That’s fantastic. Well, I loved the story today, and it’s just a great illustration of the depth that you guys take into each and every single planning process that you take clients through. Hey, if you’re listening to the show today and you’re kind of like, man, that story sounds a lot like me or I can see myself going through or benefiting from that kind of process, and even if you didn’t have a whole lot in common with Dr. Smith, it’s just an illustration of the attention to the detail and the kind of benefit you get by meeting with an advisor and taking these kinds of steps.

Walter Storholt:

If you’ve got questions about that, want to talk a little bit more with Tyler and the rest of the team at True Wealth Design to find out if you would be a great fit to go through their planning process and see if you could work together, you can easily set up a time to visit by going to truewealthdesign.com. Click on the, are we right for you button to schedule your 15-minute call with an experienced financial advisor on the True Wealth team. Again, all you have to do is go to truewealthdesign.com and look for the “Are We Right for You?” button, or you can call (855) T-W-D PLAN. That’s (855) 893-7526. Well, Tyler, thank you so much for your time and your help on the show today. I think we’re going to have to boot Kevin out a little bit more often. This was a lot of fun.

Tyler Emrick:

Yeah, I enjoyed it, Walt. You make sure you enjoy your time out on the beach.

Walter Storholt:

Will do, will do. Thank you so much, and thanks, everybody for tuning in today and we’ll see you again next time on Retire Smarter. Kevin will be back with us on the next episode, so we’ll see you then. For Tyler, I’m Walter. Thanks for listening.

Disclaimer:

Information provided is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. Information is obtained from sources that are deemed to be reliable, but their accurateness and completeness cannot be guaranteed. All performance reference is historical and not an indication of future results. Benchmark indices are hypothetical and do not include any investment fees.