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Video Transcript
Cynthia de Fazio – 00:20
And welcome to On The money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio and I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is founder and president of secure money advisors. Brian, how are you today?
Brian Quaranta – 00:30
I’m doing great. Cynthia, how are you today?
Cynthia de Fazio – 00:32
I am fantastic. Thank you so much for asking, how’s your beautiful wife and your lovely son?
Brian Quaranta – 00:38
She is absolutely fantastic. My son is great. He’s getting older and older. Oh, my gosh, we got the other little guy on the way. So, we’re coming on an official family here, I guess.
Cynthia de Fazio – 00:48
Oh, I’m so excited. I can’t wait for that. Because I can’t wait to see pictures. And I know you’ll share that with me.
Brian Quaranta – 00:54
yeah, everybody loves seeing them. You know, you know, I was teaching Maddox, how to ski last year. You know, I taught him to ski like one and a half years old. And then of course, I took them again this year. And those are always fun pictures to look at. Because if you ever seen a kid dressed up, ready to go scan, you know, he looks like a character from South Park. Yeah, you remember.
Cynthia de Fazio – 01:15
All the different layers. So cute. So how did he do the second time on skis?
Brian Quaranta – 01:22
First is really good. Yeah, you know, I know most parents and grandparents can understand this. But the hardest thing about getting the kid to ski is not actually skiing in itself is getting their gloves on. Right? I mean, the gloves become a problem. I said, if there’s anything that I would reinvent at some point in my life, it would be kids gloves, because I have not found a pair yet that just go on. I don’t know why we need fingers. With kids gloves. I don’t even know even the mittens. I don’t even know why we need the thumbs. Can we just make a circle? I think that makes sense. I mean, they’re just their hands are to their side. Why they skis so yeah, but that is the most challenging part about teaching a little kid.
Cynthia de Fazio – 02:03
I love it. Well, Brian, you have such a passion for helping people retire comfortably and retire with confidence and also staying on the right track. Yeah. So, I should ask you what types of questions are you hearing from your clients right now to ensure that they’re on the right track?
Brian Quaranta – 02:19
Yeah, you know, I mean, our clients are well educated. So, they’re getting answers to what they have questions, too. It’s the new people that we’re meeting that have questions like, I don’t know when to collect my Social Security. I’m going to be retiring, and I’ve got a 401 K plan, what do I do next, a lot of people telling me that they’re not retiring with pensions. So, they’re a little bit worried because, you know, they’re looking at what their income is going to be in retirement, and maybe the only income that they’re going to have is Social Security. So, they’re, they’re not sure how they’re going to get the remainder of their income, they’re concerned about market volatility, they say, you know, I’m at a point in my life, where I can’t really take another big loss in the market, because I just don’t have time to recover. They want to look for ways to protect more of their money. So, it’s, it’s pretty common, you know, we’ll see 25 to 30 people at our office every week. And when you ask people what their primary concerns are, this is typically what they’ll say. And then of course, you know, you have the other you know, concerns of, we’d like to move, you know, we’d like to go to Florida or Miami, I just helped a client retire to Wyoming. Yes, Cody, Wyoming of all places. And, you know, we spent we, we spent about a year building out that plan. And there was a lot of moving parts to build out, very complicated retirement plan, because a lot of different income sources coming in going out, you know, that then that can be challenging, especially if you have, you know, like this individual, he had some income coming in for a three year period, then he had income coming in for a four year period, then he had income coming in for a 10 year period. And so, income was changing constantly. And for them, it was really hard to figure out what all these moving parts were going to look like. Because there’s you know, that until they met us, they didn’t know properly, how to lay it out in a planning model, to give them that clarity that they needed to have the confidence to be able to finally make that move. And that’s very rewarding for us to see because, you know, investing people’s money. I mean, you know, I’ve been doing that for 23 years. It’s not the investment of the money that gives us joy. It’s what we’re able to accomplish by putting together the plan and helping people reach their long term goals and the things that they want to do in retirement, whether it be spend more time with the grandkids, whether it be moved to another state, travel the country, whatever it might be, the joy that we get as a planning team is helping give them the confidence and clarity to be able to do those things.
Cynthia de Fazio – 04:47
Yes. And let’s talk about that a little bit more in depth. Brian, you’re passionate about the bucket approach. What are the buckets at the office?
Brian Quaranta – 04:54
Well, things need to be simple in retirement and the reason they need to be simple is because simplicity allows you to understand when you understand you have clarity when you have clarity of confidence, right? So, this is what it all comes down to. Investing itself is complicated, right? Especially, you know, with some of the technologies we can use to protect market downside, but it’s not that, you know, I don’t want to when I go to my house and I turn the light switch on, I don’t sit there and contemplate of how that electricity is getting into the room, all I know is I need light in the room, right? So, for our clients, all they know is they need X amount of money every single year, and they want to do this, this and this. And we want to be able to deliver a plan that they that they understand that simple that if anything ever happened to me, okay, or anything, you know, or, or they decided to, you know, go to another state and choose another advisor, they would be able to explain their plan to anybody. So, the bucketing approach is very, very simple. We believe that money belongs in three separate buckets, okay. We call it a blue bucket, a green bucket and a red bucket. All right. And the blue bucket is simply just bank money. Because we all need emergency cash reserves. Sure, if something goes wrong, we have to go get money very quickly, the bank is a great place to do it. Not a great place to keep a lot of money anymore, because you’re actually losing money safely at the bank. Isn’t that crazy? It’s crazy. So, and then, of course, your green money is what we consider pension money. So that’s money that’s designed to pay you an income. Okay. And then your red bucket is your stock market money. That’s your risk bucket. Okay. Now, the key to taking risk is time. So, the more time you have, the more risk you can take and the better returns that you can get. But you have to have time. Well, how do you create time when you’re approached? And when you’re in retirement and you need your money right now? Yeah, you create time by having buckets of money. Okay, buckets of money, create bridges. And what I mean by that is, so for example, if somebody needs a certain amount of money on a monthly basis, okay, what I can do is I can create a 10 to 15 year income bridge from that green bucket. So that green bucket is going to provide my client with income for 10 to 15 years, why is that important? Because that means I can let the red bucket or the stock market money grow for 10 to 15 years, without ever touching it. And again, the key to success with stock market money is time, because you will have fluctuations, it doesn’t matter whether you work with me or the advisor down the road, your portfolio in the red bucket will go up and down in value. Okay. So at the end of the day, fundamentally, you have to build a plan out in a bucket approach, especially in retirement, because you’re shifting from accumulating money, right, where you’re just working, you’re putting money away, your employer is contributing on your behalf to now actually using your money, and the strategies, the techniques and the mindset that that that happened in a distribution base. They’re completely different than what you do in the accumulation phase. So, the whole idea of the bucket approach, one is to provide simplicity, but it’s also to provide the fundamentals of what a good distribution plan should look like. Okay,
Cynthia de Fazio – 08:04
absolutely. Well, Brian, thank you so much for shedding some light on that. I know that you have a very special offer to present to the viewers. Today. Let’s spend a little bit about a little bit of time talking about what that is. And then opening the phone line.
Brian Quaranta – 08:15
Yeah, so the right track retirement system really was designed to help people get on the right track. And it all came about because people would ask me for the last 23 years when I would first meet them, we just really want to know if we’re on the right track. And folks, that’s what I’m offering here today is for you to get on the right track. I always say if you’re not on the right track, when would you want to know that when would be a good time to know the right track Retirement System truly is designed to help you in five key areas to help you design the very best income plan, the very best tax strategy, the very best investment mix, a healthcare strategy and estate planning strategy. So, for the next 10 callers who call in right now, we are going to give you a complimentary right track retirement review, you’re going to come to our office. And we’ll send you a little packet out telling you what you need to bring to the office and my team and I will sit down with you. And we’ll bring you through a right track retirement conversation. This will help give you the clarity and confidence that Cynthia and I are talking about here today. But you got to do your part. You’ve got to pick up the phone. You’ve got to call us today, dial 1-888-382-1298 and schedule your right track retirement review today.
Cynthia de Fazio – 09:24
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the phone number to call is on your screen. That number is 888-382-1298. As Brian mentioned, you deserve to know that you’re on the right track today. Because if you’re not, what better time is there to find out they would have to be today. Again, that number to call is 888-382-1298. We’re going to take a very short commercial break, but I have so much more with Brian when we return.
Brian Quaranta – 09:47
So everybody can tell you how to invest your money. There’s not a lot of people out there and a lot of firms that can teach you how to use your money. Most people also tell you that they’re scared and the reason they’re scared is because they’re afraid of running out of money.
Neil Major – 10:01
The last thing you want to do is have a really good job in your 60s retire, be looking for work again, in your late 70s.
Brian Quaranta – 10:09
The average person might say, well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds can have a good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas, income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning.
Neil Major – 10:24
Because we’re not just product pickers here, what we do best here as we build retirement plans,
Brian Quaranta – 10:29
nine out of 10 people, when they walk through the door would ask us, we just want to know if we’re on the right track. And I always say, if you’re not on the right track, when would be a good time to know it? Probably now,
Neil Major – 10:40
people you know, can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan.
Brian Quaranta – 10:45
This is about you, if you’re not getting what you need, and you feel that when you walk out of the advisor’s office, it’s time to get a second opinion. And you can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first of the difference at secure money advisors. As a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income, and give you the retirement withdrawal.
Cynthia de Fazio – 11:18
And welcome back to on the money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio and I’m joined today by Brian Covanta. He is founder and president of secure money advisors. Brian, I definitely want to spend some time in this segment talking about how people are relocating all over today, it seems like people are not staying in one spot very long. And you may have something in our prior segment about people moving and perhaps going out of state and working with someone differently. But they don’t have to do that they can continue to work with you, even if they’re anywhere in the country or anywhere.
Brian Quaranta – 11:47
in the country. And it’s so easy to do these days. Because first off, we can do business in any state. Okay, that’s the advantage. One advantage of working with secure money advisors, you know, I’ve got clients in Florida, Wyoming, California, Michigan, I mean, they’re there all over the country. Yeah. And that’s an advantage, right? Because, you know, in the past, when people went out of state, it wasn’t as easy to work with their financial advisor. Now today, it’s very, very simple, especially working with a fiduciary firm, like secure money advisors, you’ve got that advantage to do that. And what’s nice is, you know, you really don’t ever lose that personal connection with them. Because we have the ability to do FaceTime, right and face to face meetings still. And so, the servicing, the quality of the servicing that we give to our clients that are out of state is just as high quality as those that are still in the state that we actually see physically at our office. So yes, working with us, no matter where you live is simple to do. Okay, all of our clients when they do move out of state, do stay with us.
Cynthia de Fazio – 12:50
Yeah, I love that. So, I also should ask you, if you decide to retire, let’s say at age 95, what happens? What happens to your clients?
Brian Quaranta – 13:00
So when they retire at 95? If I were to retire and
Cynthia de Fazio – 13:04
retire at 90, or 96? Yeah.
Brian Quaranta – 13:07
Well, you know, the good thing about secure money advisors is when I build secure money advisors, I saw a fundamental problem in the financial industry itself. Most people are working with one individual. All right, so they’re working with their advisor. And that could be meaning that the advisor they’re working with, even Is it a big firm, it could be at a big firm, it could be at a local bank, whatever, right? But they’re working with one person. And even if those advisors are at a big firm, the client still is only working with that one individual. So that’s a little bit of a problem. Because you really should have a dedicated team of people working on your behalf. Why is that important? Because let’s suppose a client would need me right now, while I’m on TV, it’s not going to happen, right? So, but they have relationships with all of my advisors, all of my support staff, and they know they can call in and they can walk through their accounts walk through their planning model, it does doesn’t have to be with me. Now the great thing is, you know, my clients still see me, I’m President, the office a lot, I still run meetings. But the planning the team model is an advantage to the client. It’s an advantage because it provides a higher level of service to the client to have a team-based approach. You know, one of my longest advisors that have been with me is Maggie, and you know, Maggie is so excellent at what she does, and delivering such great service to our clients and she’s super smart. And a lot of times they want to see her more than they want to see me okay. And I actually feel I mean, that’s the greatest compliment you could ever get. Because absolutely, you know, the compliments that we do get is you know, we love your team. We feel so good about the decision we made of being with you. And you guys are always so attentive and detailed towards it. You know, teaching us if we have questions about something and taking the time, that’s the one thing we hear often is, thank you so much for taking the time to help us understand this, you know, because we don’t really I mean, if I got to spend two hours with somebody, I do it, you know, what, what is it going to take for them to grasp what they need to grasp about their retirement, not only to spend that amount of time, but also simplify the process? Right, right. Because when the process is simplified, people do feel more confident about the plan. When you feel more confident about the plan, you actually go out and you live out the retirement dreams that you said you were going to do whatever that might be, she’s different for everybody. Sure,
Cynthia de Fazio – 15:41
yeah. Well, it’s that level of care, Brian, that obviously makes you and the team so successful, because we’ve heard that time and time again, that you just take so much time getting to know your clients. My question is also, how do you stay in touch with your clients throughout the year?
Brian Quaranta – 15:56
Yep. So, we have a client servicing model that we’ve built out, that’s a roadmap for our clients, right. And we have a 411 servicing model. And there’s a number of ways that we approach it. So, number one, we have about four client events a year that are just for our clients, we have a review that we do with our clients each year. But our clients also get access to unlimited financial planning appointments throughout the course of the year at no additional cost to them, which they really like, because we want to be the financial sounding board for the family, it doesn’t matter whether you’re looking to purchase a new home, or you want to take a large sum of money out to help a child pay off a debt, whatever it might be, you know, we hear it all at this point. But we want to be there at all points. And people feel very confident that, hey, they’re there to service us. It’s a real concierge service, right? I go to a concierge doctor now. Okay, we pay a little extra money a month to do this. But it’s the best thing that I ever did for the family. Because what was happening to me was, I was going to my doctor’s office, and the doctor’s office was just so crowded, so busy. Even though I would see my doctor, I could tell it was just a very fast paced office, and I didn’t feel that the quality of care was there, I found out about something called concierge Doctor services. And you do pay, it’s kind of like a gym membership on a monthly basis. But I could pull out my phone right now. And I could text my doctor, he’ll text me back in a very short period of time, whether I need a prescription or I need to come in and get a test or whatever it might be. And that level of service makes me feel really good about my health, your financial health is no different. You need to know that you can pick up the phone and call the office and get an answer. Now, my doctor at the concierge service, I don’t actually talk to him all the time. They have a team, and the team knows me. So, and I like talking to some of the nurses better than I like talking to him. Right. And that’s how secure money advisors were built. And that’s a beautiful thing for people because, you know, there’s nothing better than calling an office. And when people pick up the phone, they know who you are, right? The whole team does. Sure. And that makes a world of a difference for somebody when it comes to that service on an annual basis. And, you know, we’ve got a 98% client retention rate. Now, you may be thinking, where did the other 2% Go? A lot of them just die? You know, it’s not because they’re exiting, but it’s because of the quality of service that we provide. I mean, I have, I have clients that have been with me for over 20 years clients, you know, 15 years, 18 years. I mean, there’s a lot of longevity there. So, you know, we’re very proud of that. It’s one thing we really pride ourselves on.
Cynthia de Fazio – 18:27
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Brian, I know that you have a very special offer to present to the viewers at home. Let’s talk about what that is, again, before we reopen the phone line.
Brian Quaranta – 18:35
Yeah, the right track retirement systems, Cynthia, I mean, I built that because everybody wants to know if they’re on the right track. And folks, that right track review, it really is designed for you to figure out whether or not you are on the right track. And I always say if you’re not on the right track, when would you want to know that for the next 10 callers, we are going to give you a complimentary right track financial review, we’re going to go over five key areas with you when you come in. We’re going to talk about your income, taxes, investments, healthcare and estate planning, it is going to be a very informative meaning it’ll open your eyes up to a lot of things that maybe you haven’t thought about. And more importantly, it’s going to give you the clarity and confidence you need. But even if you are doing the right things, if you are on the right track, it’s going to reinforce to you that you are doing the right things. But you got to do your part today. If you want to take advantage of this complimentary right track retirement view, you’ve got to call us today. So don’t procrastinate. Don’t kick the can down the road. Call us right now. 1-888-382-1298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298 to schedule your complimentary right track retirement review.
Cynthia de Fazio – 19:41
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home. The phone number to call is once again on your screen. That number is 888-382-1298. As Brian mentioned, you’ve worked your whole life to get to the retirement years you deserve to retire with peace of mind and clarity. Again, that number is 888321298. We’re going to take a very short commercial break. When we come back, I’m going to talk to Brian about what it feels like when you first walk into secure money advisors. Stay tuned.
Brian Quaranta – 20:09
If I could help you increase your income, if I could help you pay less taxes, if I could help you potentially maximize the returns of your investments, while reducing risk reducing fees if I could help you prepare for a health event, or more importantly, when the good Lord decides to take you home, to make sure that the money you’ve accumulated over your lifetime goes to your family and to your charities rather than the IRS. Would that be worth the time to come in and get a second opinion.
Cynthia de Fazio – 20:39
And welcome back to on the money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Covanta. He is founder and president of secure money advisors. Brian, I know a lot of people in the viewing audience today are watching the show a cup of coffee in hand and they’re wondering, gosh, I want to call in I want to book that appointment. But what is it going to feel like? What am I going to expect am I going to be scared when I walk in. So, let’s talk about what it feels like when someone first walked through the door of secure money advisor,
Brian Quaranta – 21:07
I mean, the process of going into a for any appointment, right? Whether you’re picking a new accountant, or, you know, you’re going into an attorney’s office to talk about your estate planning. For some people that can be very nerve racking, you know, but it’s secure money advisors, you know, the promise we make is number one, as a fiduciary firm, we’re not there to sell anything, we don’t have anything to sell. So, you know, what we really want to do is hear your story, we want to find out about you, you know, our job is to understand who you are, what you’re trying to accomplish, and you know, where you’ve come from, and where you want to go. And it’s a very, you know, relaxing environment in our office. So, we take a lot of pride and be very welcoming, and not intimidating. And I think that’s important. Because people need to feel comfortable if they’re going to open up their financial life to somebody, you know, some people might be scared of being criticized that, you know, that maybe they haven’t saved enough money, or maybe they’re not doing the right things. But we’re not there to judge, we’re there to look at where you’re at, right, what you’re trying to accomplish, and figure out how to better what you’re currently doing to put you on the right track. And so, you know, our team does a really good job in providing that environment. And, you know, our culture at the office is something that Yeah, it really is kind of our secret sauce. Because when you ask people, you know, what made you decide to work with us, they’ll tell you Well, number one, you guys really, truly provided us with a plan. But there was just something about your office, when somebody tells you it’s just something about your office, what they’re really referring to as your culture, right? It’s the culture, they can’t put a finger on it, but it just feels good when they walk in. And that’s kind of the tone that we’re setting for those people when they come in, you know, and we’re not the right fit for everybody. You know, and if you aren’t doing the right things, I’m going to shake your hand and tell you to keep doing what you’re doing. And, you know, if anything changes come back to us, you know, people do have good advisors. You know, not every advisor out there is terrible. There are some terrible ones, but not everybody’s terrible. You know, there’s a lot of you know, I’ve seen a lot of people come in, and there’s good work being done. Yeah. And I like seeing that, because our industry needs that.
Cynthia de Fazio – 23:19
Oh, sure it does. Absolutely. So, I should ask for the first appointment, would there be a list of documents that people need to bring with them? Or is that more of a getting to know you type meeting?
Brian Quaranta – 23:28
Yeah. So, when they call in today for the show, and they set their right track retirement review, we send them a little kit in the mail that preps them for that meeting. And it tells him what to bring and how to be prepared. Because over the 45 minutes to an hour we’re going to spend with you, we want to get the most out of that meeting, we want to be very, very productive in that meeting. So their time is valuable. Our time is valuable. We’re going to roll up our sleeves, and we’re going to do a lot of hard work within that one-hour period.
Cynthia de Fazio – 23:54
Okay, yeah. So, Brian, that’s the first consultation. What happens after that? What are the next steps?
Brian Quaranta – 23:59
Yeah, well, it’s the analysis. So, the first step is to understand what their goals and concerns are, then we take everything that they have. And we do an analysis, this is where we start plugging everything into our models, we’ve started getting everything into our software is to do a risk analysis, to determine the level of risk that they’re taking, versus the return that they’re getting. We look at the fees that they’re paying, what their probability of losing money is how much money they could lose. And then we look for ways to improve the portfolio. And sometimes that might be just changing a couple things within the portfolio to improve it. You’d be amazed, you know, if somebody has five or six different investment positions, if you just change three of them, the better result that you get. Okay. So, the second meeting, when we come back, we go over that analysis, and you get a nice report of that analysis. We bring it up on the big screen. We go through all of the numbers with you. And again, like we’ve always talked about, it’s not an opinion, we’re just giving you the black and white facts of how the data looks. And I think People appreciate that because, you know, they don’t feel that we’re criticizing what they have, or trying to sell them something we have, we’re just saying, here’s where you are. And here’s where you can go, right? Your data shows like this, the data could look like this. And people go, well, how do I get from there to there. And that’s, that’s easy to do. Because at the end of that second meeting, typically people will want to hire us. And that’s when we onboard them. And we’ve got an entire team that transfers all the money for them and brings all that stuff over and it is seamless for the client, the client really has no heavy lifting to do at all, because a lot of people are like, well, if I want to leave, am I going to? Am I going if I want to leave my current advisor when I’m going to pay fees? Am I going to pay taxes by the column and get that? No, none of that? So, we handle it all. Some people want to say goodbye to their advisors, but other people just say, you know what we it is turnkey. Once the client gives us a thumbs up, we do all the hard work of bringing it all over.
Cynthia de Fazio – 25:56
Are you back to doing workshops? Again?
Brian Quaranta – 25:59
We are Yeah, so you should go folks, you should go out to our website. WWF secure money advisors.com. We do a radio show every single week, Saturday and Sunday, Saturdays is on 94.53 ws Sundays is on WD VE. And then of course, we have our educational workshops, which at the secure money advisor’s website, you can go to our events tab. And you can see at what local university we’re going to be at or library where we provide some additional education on everything from Social Security to taxes to the proper way to build retirement income.
Cynthia de Fazio – 26:31
Brian, with only a minute and a half left of the show this week. Any final words of wisdom that you want to impart to the viewers at home?
Brian Quaranta – 26:38
Yeah, have a plan? You know, you definitely have the plan. But I have another child coming right?
Cynthia de Fazio – 26:44
Yes, you do.
Brian Quaranta – 26:45
The one thing I have is a plan for when that child arrives. Yeah. And that’s everything from how I run my schedule on a day-to-day basis. What time I get up what time I go to bed. You know how many appointments I can do in a day, how I execute on the TV show, the radio show is a very disciplined schedule. But it’s a plan. And when you have a plan, you have a high probability of success. And that’s what I would stress to everybody is have a plan and that’s what I want you to do folks have a plan by coming in and getting it right track retirement review. It truly was designed with you in mind to help you determine whether or not you’re doing the right things. So, but you’ve got to do your part. You’ve got to call us today and schedule that appointment. So, pick up the phone, call us right now. 1-888-382-1298 and schedule your right track retirement review today.
Cynthia de Fazio – 27:30
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home. Most specifically we would like to thank you for spending time with us today. That number to call is 888-382-1298 you’ve worked your entire life to get to the retirement years you deserve to know if you’re on the right track. Again, off here. All you have to do is call in as 888-382-1298 Be safe. Be happy, be blessed. We’ll see you back one week from today.
