What Makes Our Financial Planning Process Unique?

Plan With The Tax Man

Every firm has distinct principles that guide its approach to financial planning. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes to explore the core values and unique processes that set our firm apart. We’ll walk you through how we get to know our clients on a deeper level, create personalized financial strategies, and how our approach redefines what it means to have a successful financial planning experience.

Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com

Call: 844-707-7381

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Transcript:

Speaker 1:

This week on the podcast, we're going to talk about what makes Tony's process and the team's process unique at Tax Doctor, Inc. Let's talk about that this week here on Plan With The Tax Man.

Hey, everybody, welcome in to the podcast. Thanks for hanging out with Tony and I for a few minutes, as we talk investing, finance, and retirement. On this episode, we're going to maybe walk behind the scenes just a little bit, talk some core values, things of that nature, on what Tony and his team do at Tax Doctor, Inc. I thought it would be a good idea to refresh this a little bit. I think we probably talked about this stuff once or twice before over the last couple years of doing the podcast. But it's important I think, to go back to some of the roots, if you will. Some of the basics, if you will. We're going to have a little conversation with Tony.

What's going on, my friend? How are you doing this week?

Tony:

I'm doing well. Getting ready to start the week, and weather's still looking good here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Tony:

Everyone is happy.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're taping this the last week of October, dropping it on Halloween. So Happy Halloween! Get your candy on.

Tony:

That's right, get your costumes and candy.

Speaker 1:

Do you have a favorite candy? I'm in my 50s now, Tony, but I still have a favorite candy. Do you?

Tony:

Still the favorite, which I think is the number one for Halloween, and that's Reese's.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. Yeah. That's one or two. You see it goes back and forth. Snickers, I'm a Snickers guy. I think those are usually the top two right there.

Tony:

Right.

Speaker 1:

I don't know, black licorice.

Tony:

I was just going to say ... Go ahead.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say, I was going to ask you a question about black licorice. Do you eat it? Have you ever eaten it?

Tony:

I have never eaten it. In fact, oh, it's bad.

Speaker 1:

Right?

Tony:

To me.

Speaker 1:

I don't even know, why do they still make it? Does anybody like it? I don't know.

Tony:

Somebody must like it.

Speaker 1:

They must. But I have never met anybody, in all my travels, that likes black licorice. Hey, if you like black licorice and you're checking out the podcast, shoot us a message, let us know. I'd be really curious to find out how many people like black licorice.

Tony:

I would, too.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, you were going to say something?

Tony:

I was going to say I just heard, it was actually on the way to work, I don't know if this accurate, but it was on Sirius XM. They were saying the estimated spending on Halloween this year is approaching $11 billion.

Speaker 1:

Isn't that crazy?

Tony:

Between the candy, the costumes, and all the parties. Boy, that's just a big number.

Speaker 1:

Isn't that nuts? That's just nuts.

Tony:

On a day that just really you go out, and beg for treats, and get scared.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think with the craziness of the world all the time, sometimes we just have to hang on to some of those few traditions, and some of those things that maybe just give us a little fun, a little reprieve, a little whatever.

Tony:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I guess it could be worse. But yeah, that's some crazy ... I think Valentine's Day, too. Crazy numbers that come in on Valentine's Day.

Tony:

Yes. That's another one, yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's pretty wild.

But anyway, let's get into our topic this week. Tony, let's talk about your core values. What mission statement, if you will, or to go Jerry Maguire for a second here, if you were writing out a mission statement about your patient process, what is the core principles that you and your team try to exude?

Tony:

Yeah. Probably the biggest one is we take the approach that you have to do all of your planning with I call it tax-centric or tax in mind. One of the biggest things that people I think lose track of, even though they're always complaining about all the taxes they pay, is taxes over your lifetime are one of the biggest expenses you'll ever pay. You want to make sure, in your planning process, that you're taking all that into account. I think that some advisors don't do that. Obviously, some of them don't have tax backgrounds, which is why they don't do that. I think that you need to use that in there with your process because that is going to make a big difference on that end goal and number.

When we're working through our plans, we always are trying to keep that in mind. Every time we meet with clients to go over their plans, we're discussing that as well. I think if you don't get anything out of this podcast, make sure that you are doing that in your own situation, because that is real key for us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. I think that's an interesting point because not to say that advisors who aren't also CPAs are tax-focused are doing a bad job.

Tony:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

But you do have to have this other layer of you're working a financial professional who says, "Okay, here's the things we're doing. Now run that by your CPA to make sure everything's groovy." Granted, to be fair, a lot of financial advisors are very tax smart and very tax efficient. But you have that extra layer there, as a CPA, CFP, and an EA. Of course, it gives you the ability to not only think about it now, which I guess would be the CPA side, but then also the future looking tax implications, which is marrying both of those worlds.

Tony:

Yeah. I love 401Ks and everything else, and tax deferred savings.

Speaker 1:

Sure, sure.

Tony:

A lot of people that are accumulating large balances in those tend to forget that they have an IOU to Uncle Sam toward the end.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Tony:

Now with the new rules, when you die you have to take it out faster and things, it's just something to think about when you're planning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Let me ask you a question, Tony. I don't know if I've ever asked you this. Which one were you first? Were you a CPA first, or a CFP first? Were you an accountant or a financial advisor?

Tony:

I started out as an accountant.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Tony:

Early on, when I was working for somebody else, this was 30 years ago plus, all the partners got to talk about all the good stuff. We were just the grunts, if you will. I always wanted to do that-

Speaker 1:

The adding machines, yeah.

Tony:

Yeah, yeah. We were the operations, and they were the people that got to talk with the clients, and do all the things, and the planning.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Tony:

I wanted to be that. This was well before even the CFP stuff, and financial planning was even a thing.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha.

Tony:

It just was one of those things, "I want to be able to do that." That's how I got into it, way back in the day.

But yeah, in answer to your question, I was an accountant first.

Speaker 1:

Okay. Again, the role of the CPA typically, it's revisionist history. They're doing their job, they're doing their job well. They're looking at the tax situation that's just expired, the past year. They're going back, and they're helping you do all that kind of stuff. I think by having that hat, and then moving yourself into the CFP, it probably gave you a really interesting and unique approach, which is probably why you set your business up the way you did. To say, "Look, I want to do this not only for the current calendar year, but we've got to be tax efficient through all the years moving forward because that's really where we're going to make a real dent." Is that a fair assessment?

Tony:

That's a fair assessment. With tax clients, we already know, at least on the financial side, a lot about them, doing their tax over the years.

Speaker 1:

Sure, yeah.

Tony:

You know where they're at. You can even back into what they have or haven't saved. It's easy to have conversations about, "You need to start thinking about," say for example, retirement. "Oh, by the way, we have to try to do it tax efficiently." That's how the conversations generally start. If they're not working with somebody, then that's when we will introduce ourselves and say, "Let's try to put something together."

I think most planners are this way, especially us. If people have an outside relationship, we are definitely not out there trying to step on anybody's toes, or steal clients.

Speaker 1:

Right, right. There's enough folks out there.

Tony:

Number one, it's not good business ethically.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Tony:

It's not good if somebody else is doing a good job. We're basically looking at the tax clients and others that don't have that.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Tony:

Or some of the people have retired, or they don't hear from them, that kind of thing, is where we come in.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think the new numbers ... We've been hearing for a while now that, it was what 10,000 Boomers a day retiring. We've been hearing that for a couple years. Well, I think now, in 2024 going in 2025, I think it's now at maximum peak. They're calling it Peak 65 that's been making the rounds on some of the media lately, you might have saw that. It's 12,000, I think, people a day are eligible for retirement. That's a huge number. Granted, that's globally. But still, that's a big number. Plenty of business to go around, to your point.

Tony:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

There's no reason to go poaching, so to speak.

Tony:

No.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about customization and client education. How do you help clients build that strategy and make those informed decisions? Because education clearly is a big piece of this. Some people really want to come see a professional like you, Tony, and say, "Okay, teach me what I don't know, help me understand this stuff." Others will come to you and say, "I don't care, just handle it."

Tony:

Right.

Speaker 1:

You have to balance that customized plan to, I guess their individual wants and needs, as far as even just knowing the information.

Tony:

Really, right off the bat, before we even agree to work with someone is, after we've had a conversation or two and they want to move forward, we basically have them in, and we go through ... It is basic. There's literally 10 or 12 things. We just have them check a box saying, "Does this thing worry you?" Then we score it. Then based on that, I don't show this to the clients, but I basically say, "Yeah, you probably do need some help." Or, "You've pretty much got everything under control by the way you answered this." Then I'll ask them, "Why are we even talking?" But most of them have some anxiety and some pain, so we start there.

Once that's determined, then we go into the plan. Of course, we use software, like most everybody does.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Tony:

Then we have some more detailed things to try to get to know them. I always tell people, just like your doctor, I'm uncomfortable with recommending things until I know more about you. I've got the tax stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Tony:

I need to know what some of the emotional stuff is. Your goals, what you want out of life, and all of this, before we can make recommendations. Because I think a lot of people think all we sit around and do is make recommendations, and mine could be further from the truth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Pick this stock, pick that fund. Right, yeah.

Tony:

Yeah. Not it.

Speaker 1:

That's definitely not the case. Well, Tony, you said something a minute ago. Let me expand on that. You've been doing this for 30 years, in different capacities. You've been in the financial services world. If somebody walked in for their initial consultation, and handed you their files, their basket of stuff. Like a lot of advisors and professionals who've been doing this a long time, I imagine that you probably could look it over, and probably pretty quickly, within five or 15 minutes, have a rough idea of what they should or shouldn't be doing. But to your point about, "I don't know you yet," that's not the best way to give a recommendation. Could you do it because you have the skillset? Yeah, you probably could.

Tony:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But you need to learn more about ... You can see all the data, but now let's find out about who the person is. I think that's the real happy marriage in that relationship.

Tony:

It is. Once you design a plan for them, and I walk them through it on a basic level. We don't like to talk in jargon, or anything like that. We just set some goals. No different than you'd do, whether it's your business, whether it's your fitness. We monitor those goals and say, "Where are we?" When we meet again, are we progressing toward that goal? Or has it changed and we need to reassess?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Tony:

Because that'll tell us a lot about are we in the right things, as far as investments go, to meet those goals. Or maybe, we need to switch things up. Really, I like to call us we want to be the financial quarterback of your financial situation. Yes, we're going to have some investments in there and some different things, but we want to make sure you're covered from start to end. And not only investments. It could be charitable giving. It could be you're under-insured. It could be you're concerned about putting things in trust for some grandkids, things like that. It gets people talking about some things that sometimes they never thought about, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Well, that really brings me to my last point, which is how do you value, or how do you assess success for your clients? Yeah, obviously we could go with the basic financial metrics.

Tony:

Right.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty much a given. Hey, is the plan solid? Is it going to get you ... "We've run the numbers, you're going to be able to make it until 99 before running out of money," or whatever, something like that.

Tony:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But what other metrics do you guys use to measure success for a client?

Tony:

Well, besides that stuff, which is a given, we have some little charts that we call the Client Happiness Charts. We have clients fill this out at different times along their journey. Then toward the end, when they're retired. Because we want to make sure that they're checking of the boxes that really matter to them, as far as what they consider success. For some of them it's "Hey, I'm now able to travel, I've always wanted to do it." For some of them it's, "I've got this little menial job, I love going to it." There's about 25 of them there.

As we go through the process, it's fun to see, especially if somebody started say in their 30s. We've had a few. I pull them out, they're now retired. To show them, "Well, here's what was important back to you back when you were 35, this was 15, 18 years ago. Now look what you're doing." Just show them the progress.

That's what gives us the most joy, is to see them doing what they want to do. Obviously, some of that takes money, and that's the whole point of trying to grow it. It's that, and making sure that they understand how much they can take out each year and not outlive their money, because that's a big issue with all of our retiree clients.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. To your point a second ago as well, are you happy with all the other different pieces? Have we addressed and dealt with the legacy conversation?

Tony:

Right.

Speaker 1:

Just checking off the bucket list stuff. There's all these little pieces that go into valuing or measuring success for the client. Is it a pleasant experience? Do you look forward to coming in, and talking with your advisor? And saying, "Yeah, I feel like we're buddies. We don't hang out and go to dinner together, but I feel like we have a good rapport." I think that's really important in a lot of business relationships in life, but certainly when you're talking about your money.

Tony:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

With your doctor, too. Some people dread seeing their doctor because they don't like their personality. It's like, well, maybe get a different doctor so that you can have a conversation with them that you're going to take to heart, and it also resonates with you. I think same thing financially. If you go see an advisor, and they don't click with you, and they're giving you good information but you just don't like them, and therefore you don't follow through with it or do anything, you're just wasting your own time. You know what I mean?

Tony:

Exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's important. Good stuff. Well, good conversation, man. Thanks for hanging out with us and chatting a little bit about what makes you guys unique. People in general are unique, so every situation's going to be different. Certainly, there's those big generalities, Tony, that affect all of us in the financial world. Social security, and taxation, and inflation, and blah, blah, blah. All the big core tenets that we have to deal with, that's certainly a part of the game that we have to run through. But every person's little puzzle is different from the next. You and I are completely different people, so our strategies are going to be different.

If you need some help, get on the calendar. Have a conversation with Tony and his team. Or if you're already working with him, and you've got some friends or loved ones that maybe should have that chat for themselves, let them know. Let them check out the podcast. Or just reach out to Tony and his team at yourplanningpros.com. That is yourplanningpros.com for a complimentary consultation and conversation with the team at Tax Doctor, Inc.

Tony, thanks for hanging out, my friend. Good conversation.

Tony:

All right. We'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Always appreciate it. Of course, it's Halloween as we're dropping this, so happy Halloween to everybody. Stay stay and sane. Don't forget to get out there and vote, because it's just around the corner. We'll see you next time here on Plan With The Tax Man.

Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.