Here’s some of what we discuss in this episode:

🌍 Macroeconomic risks – Ultra-wealthy worry about inflation, volatility & geopolitics—just like you.

📊 Smart investing – It’s not about hot stocks, but bespoke, tax-aware strategies.

🛡 Wealth protection – Stewardship means preparing heirs, coordinating professionals & guarding against cyber threats.

👨‍👩‍👧 Family readiness – Involving children in planning avoids confusion when inheritances arrive.

💡 Purpose-driven wealth – Money is a tool for quality of life, not just accumulation.

 

Listen Now:

The Smart Take:

0:00 – Intro

6:23 – Macroeconomic Risks & Investment Confidence

20:16 – Security, Stewardship, and Risk Beyond the Market

29:25 – Purpose, Health, and Quality of Life

 

Cybersecurity and Your Retirement: Protecting What You’ve Built

 

Learn more about the Retire Smarter Solution ™: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/ep-45-retire-smarter-solution/

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The Hosts:

Kevin Kroskey, CFP®, MBA – About – Contact

Tyler Emrick, CFA®, CFP® – About – Contact

Episode Transcript:

Tyler Emrick:

What do ultra wealthy families worry about? Turns out, it’s more than private jets and taxes. Today, we’re breaking down the top three concerns they’re planning for and why you should too. From managing your risk in uncertain economic environments, to protecting your wealth from more than just the market downturns, and making sure their wealth supports a meaningful life and legacy. So, whether you have one million or 100 million, these priorities matter. And today, we’ll show you how to incorporate them in your financial plan. All coming up on Retire Smarter.

Walter Storholt:

Back again on Retire Smarter. I’m Walter Storholt, alongside Tyler Emrick, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, a Chartered Financial Analyst, and one of the wealth advisors at True Wealth Design, based in Northeast Ohio but serving clients all across the country. We’ve got a great show today, Tyler. I want to learn from the ultra wealthy, and so, I’m glad you’re bringing this topic to the table.

Tyler Emrick:

You got it. Yeah, as always, right? I’m always trying to read, trying to find different things that we came across. My favorite blog had an article that was headlined, What The… what was it here? Ultra Wealthy Families Think About and Their Top Three Concerns, and I was like, “oh, well, what’s this? So I dove in, took a look at it, and there were a lot of similarities to the families that we work with on a day-in and day-out basis. So, that’s what we came up with the topic for today and yeah, we’ll see where she takes us.

Walter Storholt:

We’ve probably all seen those kinds of articles, Tyler, where, the ultra wealthy do X. Why don’t you emulate it? And it’s not always about financial planning. Sometimes, it’s about other elements of life, like the morning routine of billionaires, copy this for success, all those kinds of things. Well, I’ve seen those articles and they talk about the benefits of standing desks. The ultra wealthy, they’re using standing desks. So, I’m a convert, my first episode-

Tyler Emrick:

You are.

Walter Storholt:

… with you at my standing desk now. So, we’re going to see if it works. I don’t know.

Tyler Emrick:

No, it looks good.

Walter Storholt:

I don’t feel smarter yet, but I’m a little bit more squirmy than usual, I’ll say that.

Tyler Emrick:

No, no, no. It’s going to work out pretty good. I don’t know, maybe I’ll jump on the bandwagon as well. I certainly could add anything I could to a more healthy lifestyle, working out, getting steps in, whatever it is. Right? Well, actually, have you gotten the treadmill to go underneath and are you up on yet?

Walter Storholt:

I haven’t gone that far. We haven’t gone that far yet. We’ll see. Something tells me that would be hard to host a show with you while I’m walking down this.

Tyler Emrick:

You’d be bouncing around. Hey, we’d test out those cameras, wouldn’t we?

Walter Storholt:

[inaudible 00:02:32]. Editing and trying to do that efficiently might be a little tougher, but we’ll start with just the standing for now.

Tyler Emrick:

That’s fair. Well, hey, that’s a pretty productive weekend, right? Getting the office set up, getting the standing desk put in. That’s not bad at all.

Walter Storholt:

I think so, I think so.

Tyler Emrick:

So, good deal. Yeah, I was actually, part of the reason why I bring it up is I actually had, my wife was out of town all weekend, so I had my two little girls all weekend, so it was very eventful soloing for the weekend. But although when my wife got back in town on Sunday, I did catch a little bit of flack. She asked me, she’s like, “So, how many times did you guys go out to eat?” And I was like, “Well…” And then she kind of got to the real real point and was like, “How many times did you guys go and get ice cream while I was gone? I was only gone three days.” And I was like, “Might’ve been three times getting ice cream. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the girls, so.”

Walter Storholt:

What’s wrong with once a day ice cream? I don’t think that’s a big deal.

Tyler Emrick:

Hey, we did switch up the places we went, right? We did. Where did we go? Sweet Frogs, then we did Cold Stone, we had a whole host of places that we went, which was pretty good.

Walter Storholt:

Nice.

Tyler Emrick:

But we definitely got caught. So, it sounds like we both had a pretty good weekend.

Walter Storholt:

Yeah, it’s good stuff.

Tyler Emrick:

You did a little more work than me, it sounds like, though.

Walter Storholt:

Well, just a slight bit. Ours didn’t involve a whole lot of ice cream, so, unfortunately. We’ll have to fix that and remedy it next weekend, but.

Tyler Emrick:

Definitely, definitely. But I didn’t even think about you bringing up the hey, day in the life of the ultra wealthy, having the morning routine. It definitely is kind of along those lines for sure. I wasn’t thinking about that specifically, but that’s a great point. And I think the big gist of the podcast today was really just trying to say, well, hey, these are what those families are thinking about. This is what’s top of mind as you think about your specific situation and what you’re prioritizing. Hey, or do they align or maybe is there another way to start thinking about things? So, I think you’ll find after the pod today, there’s a lot of similarities and a lot of concerns, and that was really surprising to me. And yeah, we’ll jump in and tackle the three biggest concerns that popped up in the article in the blog that [inaudible 00:04:38].

Walter Storholt:

I think this will be great to do as well, because a lot of people have this default assumption, I feel like Tyler, where oh, well if I’m not… They must have access to strategies and things that I’ll never be able to do. So, what can I possibly learn from how they do things? But I think you’re going to reveal to this, that’s not necessarily the case.

Tyler Emrick:

No, I agree wholeheartedly. That world is blending quite a bit. And what I mean by that is, to your point, these things in these investments or the services and things that the ultra-high net worths were becoming accustomed to this family office style of advising. As technology has gotten better, as capabilities of advisors have gotten better, I think you’ll find that especially the listeners here that work with us on a year-in and year-out basis will find that there’s quite a bit of similarities to the services and the structure and what we’re trying to accomplish with the families that we work with, that some of these ultra-high net worth individuals are getting with the family offices that have over 100 million net worth and teams and gobs of individuals working on their financial situation. That line is definitely blending, which I think is just great.

And really, as the listeners are paying attention to the podcast today, thinking about your expectations of the advisor that you work with should probably never be higher than they have been in the past. Right? It’s not just a, hey, I come to you for an insurance question or I come to you for this particular type of question. I mean, we are really looking at from an advisor standpoint, not complete family office model, but certainly some of those aspects coming down and that integrated holistic financial planning approach that we talk about all the time, I think is going to be one of the key points as you’re listening through the podcast here today, for sure.

Walter Storholt:

Most people like to set low expectations and over-deliver, so I’m going to hold you to that, Tyler. You opened up a can of worms there of increasing our expectations of what to expect from our advisors.

Tyler Emrick:

Absolutely.

Walter Storholt:

So, that’s helpful. That’s helpful.

Tyler Emrick:

No, no, I think it’s big. And the first big concern that was on the list was what they called macroeconomic risk and investment confidence. So fancy terms, but when we get down into the nitty-gritty of it, the worries were around inflation, market volatility and geopolitical instability. So, three pretty big words but I think a lot of the families that we come into have a lot of the same concerns. And no matter what your political stance is or whatever news publication that you listen to, there’s going to be plenty of headlines out there that are going to be pushing you. And certainly, there’s no shortage of headlines around the three items that we had just mentioned before. And the article was referencing the fact that the ultra wealthy families were really prioritizing expectations around a proactive strategy around how to deal with these items. Right? They want their advisors to communicate it clearly and bringing ideas to the table, not just, hey, they come in and they’re covering a particular report.

I was actually meeting with a family just last week and they were coming from another advisor as most do, and we were talking through kind of their experience with their current advisor. And they’re like, “Yeah, every time we go in there, they show us this big chart going back to 1920s about stock market performance. I don’t know how it really applies to my situation and what’s important to us, but they sure do love showing that chart,” and they kind of chuckled about it before, but.

Walter Storholt:

Probably because the chart looks pretty good, right?

Tyler Emrick:

It does, yeah. So hey, this is why we invest, this is the power of long-term investing. But it’s fascinating to me that that was one of the things that they had picked up on when we were talking about their prior advisors’ relationship. It was just this idea of a chart. It wasn’t anything about what their family’s trying to accomplish, maybe the why behind what they’re investing in, or what they’re going to do in the next handful of years and how their money’s going to help them get there. It really wasn’t any of that. It was really just going back to, hey, this chart and how their investments were going to solve or track the historical performance of the stock market.

And I think the article does a good job of getting down into the nitty-gritty and kind of continuing to bring that to light, because the comment from the article was that, “These individuals are expecting bespoke guidance at a high level on topics such as alternative investments, charitable planning, estate planning.” And I was like, okay, yeah, that makes sense and that is certainly not that much different than the expectations of the families that we work with. Right? Alternative investments, for example, this is something that our families might be more familiar with the term diversifying assets. There can be a multitude of definitions for alternative assets, diversifying assets. But when I think about that, I think about, well, is your advisor using what’s new in the industry to accomplish your goals? And not necessarily what’s new, but what’s cutting edge and what’s solving a problem.

For example, a few months ago we were going through a portfolio change and we’re still continuing to work through that now. Kevin actually came on the podcast and was talking about some of those changes. And some of the investments that we added to the portfolio were added to the portfolio because of the structure and the way that they accomplish their goals. It’s not just simply picking a mutual fund or an ETF now. Now it’s saying, well, how is that ETF structured to be more capital efficient, for example, to make sure that my money is working harder and smarter and delivering growth without maybe having to invest unnecessary cash in those investments. So, this idea of capital efficiency has really, I think, came to the forefront in the industry over the last handful of the years.

I think investment strategy, like our tax aware long-short strategy that we’ve talked about a multitude of times, kind of fits nicely into this category as well. We could see it even expand out into what we do with our money market or cash-like investments, where we’re trying to take a different lens from, hey, how can we make this investment more tax efficient? For any of those listeners that have filed their tax return and they’re getting those big interest payments and they’re like, wait, I have a tax bill. What’s going on? Your investment selection and your structure, your portfolio, there are vehicles now that can solve some of these more complex issues, whether it be a tax issue or an issue where you’re trying to get certain exposures.

And as you’re thinking about an advisor, these high net worth individuals are expecting their advisors to be on the cutting edge and be thinking about, well, what’s the smartest way for us to be deploying this capital and the best use case from an investment vehicle standpoint that we should be in? And I think here at True Wealth, we certainly pride ourselves on that selection and taking that next step and trying to understand, well, what are some of the other ramifications of the investments that we’re using inside the portfolio, whether it be a tax situation or whatever the case may be. So, this idea of alternative investments isn’t just the whole pie in the sky, hey, I put my money in a hedge fund, I got the old 2 and 20 fee structure, that type of thing. I think it’s more so about, hey, what’s on the cutting edge and what can we use to get better outcomes for the families that we’re in? And these should be the same expectations I think all the listeners should have of their advisor as well.

I think gone are the days of the old, hey, you go in and sit with your advisor once a year. They have a list of their hot stocks and they’re saying, “Hey, we think we should make an investment change here and we should pick this particular stock.” I think there’s just a better way of doing business now, Walt, and the industry has certainly changed. And I think that’s what they’re getting at when they say this idea of expectations around alternative investments.

Walter Storholt:

Yeah. The two things that jump out to me from when you were talking about that bespoke word, obviously. So, custom, tailored to my needs, is something the ultra wealthy are expecting to be done. And what you’re saying is a reasonable expectation for the regular wealthy or regular folks as well these days because of that blending. And then obviously, comprehensive is the other word that comes to mind. So kind of customized, comprehensive, these two things should go hand in hand in today’s planning world.

Tyler Emrick:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, the other two line items there when they brought up the bespoke was charitable planning and estate planning. To be able to do those things effectively and efficiently, you’ve got to really understand what the family or client that you’re working with is trying to accomplish and the why behind it, so that way we can structure these plans in a way that is the most tax efficient and is going to be making these decisions in a way that’s efficient. Because certainly, as we all know, I mean, we just did what, two podcasts on tax law changes that just passed in July.

Inevitably, these changes are going to continue to happen, whether it be from a tax standpoint or just the industry continuing to push forward with some of these unique solutions to problems. I think it’s just important as an advisor that we are staying aware of those and making sure that when they fit with the families that we work with, that we’re in a position to be able to clearly articulate the why behind, why are we putting these in here, why is this applicable in your situation? So that way, the families we work with can really just make the best decision for them and what they’re trying to accomplish.

So, another point that they made within this first section, again, macroeconomic risk and investment confidence. They had a seemingly, I don’t know, it kind of threw me off guard line in there where they started talking about return expectations from the survey that they did. And they brought up this idea that most of the high net worth individuals that were surveyed actually said their return expectations were around 6 to 8% annually if they have confidence their principle is protected. So, those two things are kind of at odds at one another, right? Walt, because when you think about, well, hey, you’re reaching for return, you generally are going to have to take on risk to be able to get there. Well, capital preservation might not fit inside of that bucket.

And what they went on to say is the statistics showed that of the individuals that were surveyed, about a little over 60% of the individuals said they should have some speculative investments, and around 65% of the families surveyed said that principal protection was their number one goal. And that math doesn’t necessarily add up, or certainly there’s, hey, I want to have my cake and eat it too, type deal, right?

Walter Storholt:

For sure.

Tyler Emrick:

And get both end of the spectrum. And I think as advisors, this is a very important crossroads that we sit at in managing those expectations with the understanding of what our families are trying to accomplish is extremely important. Because at any time if you’re saying, “Hey, this investment’s expected return is 10, 12% per year,” well, that’s going to inherently come with some risks to be able to get there, right? And the question becomes, is that a worst case scenario or that picture painted appropriately of how it could potentially go the other way? And making sure that you don’t lose sight of one or the other, and that both are at the forefront of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Walter Storholt:

It’s interesting, if I were just shooting from the hip, I would kind of think ultra wealthy, I’m going to be really aggressive and take lots of risk and have very high expectations for return. I’m picturing a high powered CEO who’s just demanding the world of everybody that he works with, but that doesn’t match necessarily to the real world, those kinds of stereotypes or visions you’re saying.

Tyler Emrick:

No, at least not from the survey that they were, or the client was talking about.

Walter Storholt:

Yeah, or from your client experience, it sounds like as well.. Client was talking about

Tyler Emrick:

Correct. No, I think it’s reasonable expectations and I think it really comes back to how those expectations are communicating, communicated, and that the client and the family that we’re working with understand why that fits into their picture and what they’re trying to accomplish. Right?

That same family that I spoke about earlier that I met with last week, obviously we were diving into their experience with their current financial advisor, and as with most families that we talk with, when we got into that investment conversation, when we got down in the nitty-gritty asking, “Well, how were the investments selected? Why are we using those investments?” A lot of that was deferred to, “Well, hey, that was because that’s what the advisor recommended. That’s what the advisor recommended.” And that’s not uncommon. I think there definitely has to be some trust there between the advisor and the family that we’re working with. But I also think that it’s important that you’re working with an advisor that’s able to clearly communicate the why behind it to be able to fit in well, how does this portfolio fit into again, what you’re trying to accomplish?

The worst thing that we can do as advisors is get individuals into an uncomfortable situation to where we maybe go through another 2022 where the market was down over 20%, the bond market was the worst bond market we’ve experienced, ever, and their account values start going down to a degree to where they’re not comfortable. And you get that inevitable call like, “Hey, I stopped the bleeding. I’m in that protection mode now.” We’re no longer in that, hey, speculative trying to reach for that return, we’re in protection mode, and then we start making more emotional decisions around the investments. I mean, that’s really where we want to avoid, and I do think there needs to be some communication and back and forth with the family or the individual that you’re working with to make sure that you don’t get into that situation. A lot of that work is done up front first.

You don’t necessarily have to get down to the nitty-gritty of like, well, hey, why are we in this particular bond fund and its capital efficiency and its expense ratio and the why there. Certainly, if you’re working with a fiduciary in some of those nitty-gritty things, your hope in your professional is at a spot and is looking at that type of stuff. But I think the overarching high-level picture of how your investments fit in and what you’re trying to accomplish and what are those return expectations and maybe worst-case scenarios. What do those look like and are we comfortable with them? I think are always good questions as clients should be asking themselves, and hopefully have good answers for that to be able to feel comfortable about it.

But at the end of the day, Walt, I mean, when we talk about this first key risk, I think the integrated approach and basically saying, “Hey, our investment strategy isn’t necessarily just about performance and beating benchmarks. It’s about aligning our risk, our return expectations with what actually matters in life and what we’re trying to accomplish,” I think is the overarching theme here. And keep in mind too, same concerns across the board with families. Right? I mean inflation, geopolitical risk. I mean, these are things that our clients are coming in and asking us and we’re having conversations about all the time, and we certainly have been over the last say, six months and even going back further, right? These are always going to be things. The headlines might change a little bit, but they’re certainly always going to be something to pull out from those headlines and talk through, for sure.

AUDIO:

What would your life look like if you designed it around your true wealth? It’s a powerful question and one that True Wealth Design helps individuals, families, and business owners answer every day. With a fully integrated approach to financial planning, tax strategy, investments, and business advisory, their team can bring clarity and confidence to every part of your financial life. Take the first step toward a stronger financial future with the no cost, no obligation discovery meeting. Just click the link in today’s show description to get started.

Walter Storholt:

Okay, very good. So lessons from the ultra wealthy, those macroeconomic risks and that investment confidence being a big section, a big part of this survey that you’ve been breaking down. But it’s not all about that. You’ve got some other key takeaways here, and I’m interested to see you explain number two here, because it seems so simple and basic and straightforward, but why wouldn’t it be a central tenant, if that’s the case?

Tyler Emrick:

Sure, yeah. The second concern is this idea, they roped it into security, stewardship and risk beyond the market. So security, stewardship and risk beyond the market. So that’s very broad, but they really hit on a few key points that I think are very relevant. And at the end of the day, I think this can kind of fall into one big category of, how do I make sure it doesn’t all go away, right? Not just with market crashes, but how do we protect the wealth that we’ve got?

Walter Storholt:

Sure, Uncle Sam, inheritances, all sorts of things would fall into that umbrella, right?

Tyler Emrick:

Correct. And the survey and the article really got into this idea for the ultra-high net worth around, well, what does their legacy look like and how are their heirs going to be able to manage that, specifically kids, came up quite a bit. And really, I think that’s a good lesson for anybody to be thinking about.

Certainly, if you got a $100 million estate, there’s some challenges there that need to be mindful, but if you’re sitting here listening and you’re on the doorstep of retirement, maybe you got a mil, a million and a half in retirement assets, you got another 500,000 in life insurance, maybe you’ve got another half a million dollars of equity in your house. And if something were to happen to you, I mean, now you’re talking to like, okay, that’s two, two and a half million dollars that would go down to your heirs. That’s not an insignificant amount of money that could potentially go down to children or heirs. Do we feel comfortable with what that transition looks like? Are our children prepared for that? Would they be able to manage that? Not only the children, but would our family members be able to manage that level of wealth and make good decisions on it?

And this idea of having family members or at least key individuals that are included in your estate in on at least some planning meetings and having some level of understanding on what they might have in front of them, I think is over the last handful of years has been, I see more and more of it. Meaning that I’ve done more and more plans for children of our clients in the last handful of years than I have at any other time in my career. So, it certainly is top of mind for the families that we’re talking to and working with.

And also, even having children in on the planning meetings, not necessarily working on the children’s situation, but also having them in on the meetings and having the children understand what the estate potentially could look like. What are some of the decision points? Where do they go? And having some of these more pointed meetings around, well, how is that wealth going to be transferred down to the next generation and what are my priorities and how does that look, I think is good for really any of us to start thinking about. It’s fascinating to me how when you start counting up maybe your net worth and those life insurance policies, just how big the numbers can get, Walt.

Walter Storholt:

Sure.

Tyler Emrick:

And what some of these individuals that inherit these larger estates are having to deal with.

Walter Storholt:

Yeah, and when someone’s inheriting that kind of money, you want them to be well prepared for that day when it comes around. So involving them in the meetings makes a lot of sense. And again, we’re wrapping this back around not just for the ultra wealthy, but to the everyday person, same thing applies. How often have your children perhaps come into an influx of any amount of money, whether that be a million dollars or more, or even just, I don’t know, $50,000, even if that’s part of the legacy. That’s still a big influx of money that somebody might not have any experience with dealing with and managing. And so, being part of the process will set them up for success rather than just sort of rolling the ball out there and saying, “Hey, figure it out.”

Tyler Emrick:

No, you got it. And it happens all the time, Walt. Just two weeks ago, I met with a referral where she was in a situation to where actually she was the executor for her aunt and uncle who passed last year. And between the two of them, she had to manage and make decisions on well over 10 different accounts. These are retirement accounts, annuities, some life insurance proceeds, a big money market account. She had two trust documents that she was working through with an attorney trying to understand, well, what are my rules here? What do I have to do? How do I manage these assets? Because one of the trusts was actually, she was the trustee for the trust so she had control, but it was for the benefit of some younger nieces and nephews that wouldn’t get the money for a handful of years.

But her aunt had never talked to her about the trust or some of those, so she was literally going into it cold, not only having to deal with a multitude of accounts that have different tax consequences of inheriting them and different rules that need to follow around distributions and the such, but she also had these two different trusts. And some accounts had the trust on as a beneficiary, some didn’t. There was really no rhyme or reason, or at least she didn’t understand the reasoning behind how it was structured. Certainly, there was some thought and some work put into it from her aunt, but she was literally in this situation where she was almost throwing her hands up going, I don’t really understand. There’s these things I know I need to get done. I have X amount just sitting in cash in this inheritance. It’s been sitting there for the last year. I want to get it invested, but I have all these other decisions that I need to make. How do I prioritize them? How do I know what to do first?

And the bank and the attorney and the CPA that her aunt and uncle had worked with, I mean, they were all different individuals. And she was running into the fact, Walt, that she would go and ask one and they’re like, “Well, we don’t necessarily know the tax consequences. You got to talk to the CPA.” CPA would come back and say, “Well, you got to look at the trust documents and the specific wording. Maybe we should go back to the attorney.” And just getting bounced around these different professionals and there wasn’t anyone there to really-

Walter Storholt:

No quarterback, nobody.

Tyler Emrick:

… pick up the ball, yeah.

Walter Storholt:

Yeah. Nobody organizing the effort and calling the plays and all that.

Tyler Emrick:

Correct. So even for the individuals that are putting some thought into this and maybe have the trust put up and things like that, have you gone that next step and really made it concrete? Or is there a professional that you work with that could be that quarterback to help run everything to say, hey, you need to prioritize this decision, this decision, this decision, these ones can wait. And this is how it kind of impacts all the other levers that we need to be mindful of when you think about managing an estate in that way. So, we see it quite a bit and understanding how that legacy and transfer of wealth would potentially happen, I think is a good conversation for everyone to be thinking about.

The other thing that falls into this line, which is pretty timely, which is cybersecurity. And really, the threats that are really coming due here in the last handful of years with AI and large language models and just these scams becoming more and more elaborate. Right? I mean, Walt, we just did a whole podcast on this a handful of months ago, where we had a unique situation-

Walter Storholt:

Which if you’re watching on YouTube, we’ll link up into the corner of the screen somewhere around here, so you can go click that and watch it and we’ll link to it in the description if you want to go and consume that whole episode.

Tyler Emrick:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and we also brought up the idea of, hey, what’s True Wealth doing to combat some of this? We brought the idea of a trusted contact or a security word or a safe word, which we’re implementing with the families that we work with over the coming year to kind of get those in place for the individuals that want them. But this is clearly top of mind for the ultra-high net worth and saying, “Hey, how are we protected from a security standpoint? My dad is out there, what services should we be using? What should we be doing to get these protections in place?” And I think, I mean, Walt, it’s not going away. As technology continues to rapidly increase at the degree that it is, it brings a lot of good, but certainly, it’s going to open the door for some of these continued risks.

Walter Storholt:

It’s going to be whack-a-mole. As we fix one cybersecurity threat, there’s just going to be another new one that pops up, and I think it’s going to be like that for a while.

Tyler Emrick:

Sure, yep. So, legacy and cybersecurity were the two big ones that fell in this category of security, stewardship, and risk beyond the market. And I think the big key between all each of those is just really, hey, who’s quarterbacking? Who’s coordinating this? Who can you go to get answers to some of these questions to make sure that you’re in a spot that’s secure and safe and comfortable? Because the risks are certainly out, and how are you not only avoiding them, but managing them and being prepared for them?

Walter Storholt:

Good lessons so far from the ultra wealthy. How about our final key point to this conversation?

Tyler Emrick:

Final one, which I think is, I don’t know, we talk about it quite a bit on the podcast, but this idea of purpose, health and quality of life. Right? Going beyond just the dollars and cents of a retirement. For many clients, wealth isn’t the end goal. It’s a tool for building a life of significance, and certainly, I think that’s forefront with the ultra-high net worth. But I think it’s also a very, very important exercise for the individuals or all of us that have accumulated some level of wealth and are working with an advisor and really making sure that their money is being used for its best case scenario for you and for your family.

Now, some of the things that came up here for the higher net worth is this idea of the family office and coordinating healthcare and doctors and really, bill pay and childcare and all these things. Right? So, I think that might be certainly maybe more applicable to the ultra-high net worth. But for the individuals that are listening here, I think this idea of having an individual or a quarterback that we’ve referenced a few times here in the podcast today, I think this is where it’s really worth their weight in gold. And what I mean by that is, all of these decisions are integrated and linked together in some way, shape, or form, right? Your investments will affect your taxes, will affect potentially what healthcare plan that you select, or what your estate plan might look like. Right? They’re all interconnected.

As I start thinking about just in the last year, some of the questions and things like that that we work through with families, big item would be balance sheet management and going for financing, or family loans, or lending, home purchases.

I mean, I got two handfuls of individuals that are either building a house, got their house up off for sale, in the process of purchasing another one. The question becomes is, as a financial advisor who understands your full financial picture, being able to help with those things I think is really key. Right? Not only can we help with the financing decisions or shopping around lenders, hey, how much house could you afford? What does your situation look like after you purchase this house? And how high could you potentially go up before you get into issues? Should you do a variable rate loan? Should you do fixed rate? Should we prioritize closing costs? I mean, this home transition I think is a perfect example of where a good financial advisor can really make a process like that very seamless and easy. Helping just getting documents that tax returns and account statements over to the financing individual. Your advisor should have all that type of stuff and be able to leverage and help you do that.

The ultra high net worth are taking it one step further with bill pay and childcare, but for the individuals that we’re working with, it has to do with that balance sheet management, maybe home purchases, healthcare plan selection, whether that be, I mean, we’ve done how many podcasts on healthcare options pre 65 or when you’re on Medicare, how do you go through and make that plan selection? Or even if you’re working, how do you maximize the employer benefits that are afforded to you? Your financial advisor being that quarterback or that hub is in a perfect spot to help you make the decision. And what we’re seeing from the ultra-high net worth is they’re expecting their advisors, if they don’t understand it, they have a specialist or they have the individual that they can bring in that is not only just a referral, but someone that thinks the same way, someone that is integrated, someone that puts the client first, someone that has all those same principles and values that of why you chose and started working with your advisor. That expectation is steady from the high net worth individuals, and they got those expectations.

I think for all the listeners today, you should have that same expectation of your financial advisor to be able to go to them and if they can’t help, then they should have hopefully a trusted professional in their corner to help you navigate that you can at least lean on for some of the questions that might be out of the scope of the advisor. But more and more, that line’s getting blurred and families are expecting advisors to be able to help lead in those decisions and help make some of these important financial health lifestyle decisions as they come up.

Walter Storholt:

Well, if you want to plan like the ultra wealthy, even if you aren’t in the ultra wealthy category, or even if you are, of course, you can always reach out to Tyler, Kevin, and the great team at True Wealth Design, and that’s the level of service that you’re going to get, just what we’ve talked about on today’s show. And more, believe it or not, right? Normally I say we’ve just scratched the surface. I feel like we covered a lot of planning angles today, so we did more than just scratch the surface, but yet still, you guys do even more and go to those next levels, that little bit layered deeper when you work with clients. And so, I love hearing about all of those details.

And we get the question, obviously all the time of, how do I interact? How do I get started with you guys? How do I find out more? Well, the best next step to take that we tell people is to go to truewealthdesign.com. We’ve got it linked in the description of today’s show. You’ll click on the button that says, let’s talk. That’ll allow you to schedule a 20-minute discovery call with an experienced advisor on the team. You’ll see if you’re a great fit to work with one another, where some of just the early areas of improvement might be in your plan, where the gaps might be, and then you can decide whether to move forward at that point. But it’s a great first step to take just to see if you’re a good fit to work with one another and what opportunities are there. So again, click let’s talk at truewealthdesign.com, and you can schedule that quick visit with Tyler, Kevin, and the rest of the team at True Wealth Design. Doesn’t matter where you are, click from anywhere.

Tyler, thanks for a great breakdown today. I would say go get yourself some ice cream, but you already had three this weekend, so.

Tyler Emrick:

That’s fair. I was going to tell you to get some.

Walter Storholt:

[inaudible 00:35:57].

Tyler Emrick:

Come on. Right? Some sweet treats are always good. All right?

Walter Storholt:

That’s right. You got to hold onto those last few moments of summer anyway, right?

Tyler Emrick:

We do. We do, because fall is upon us, that’s for sure. Football season’s coming up, so our Buckeyes are getting ready to start.

Walter Storholt:

It’s here.

Tyler Emrick:

So, weather will be turning very quickly.

Walter Storholt:

So get the ice cream in while you can. Yeah, I love it. Well, thanks, Tyler. We’ll look forward to talking to you on the next episode.

Tyler Emrick:

Yeah, we’ll catch you then.

Walter Storholt:

All right. See everybody next time right back here on Retire Smart.

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