Transcript Episode 128: Changing Advisors

Summary :

Why Make a Change?
“You can’t get a second opinion from the person who gave you the first.”
Breaking Up is Hard to Do. Some “Red Flags” to watch for.

1. Poor performance
   • If you’re the one who’s doing all of the work
2. Fees
   • They’re more focused on their fees and commissions than your needs
3. Lack of Communication, Dialog
   • Your concerns are Important
   • Ask QuestionsWhen the only time you hear from your advisor is when they want to make a trade, make a change or sell you something.
   • You’re not getting clear answers, or their talk is going over your head
4. Stagnant Advice
   • Their way or the highway
   • Your financial situation is changing, but their advice isn’t.
5. Business Model Incompatibility
   • Accumulation vs Distribution phases

Narrator Intro

This is Retire South Shore Radio, a weekly program designed to educate you on all your retirement options and introduce you to Mark Rowlette, founder of South Shore Retirement Services. For the latest on free seminars, to obtain a report or to set up a consultation, please. 

Visit Retire South Shore Retirement Services and real-world retirement solutions looking at the whole picture. To design a complete strategy, including retirement planning, Medicare decisions and legal documents. 

Now here’s Mark Rowlette and your host, Jordan Rich. 

Host Jordan Rich

Hello Again, welcome. 

It’s another edition of retire South Shore radio program that’s all about retirement planning and how it’s important to rest assured that you don’t have to worry about money in retirement. 

But it’s a lot more than that. 

I’m Jordan Rich, and with me is my good friend Mark Rowlette, the founder and president of South Shore Retirement Services, located in Hingham, MA. 

We say South Shore Retirement services, that’s the name. But man, you’ve got clients all over the place now – a lot of snowbirds and a lot of people branching out, and that’s terrific. 

Mark, great to see you. 

And before we get started, you’re wearing something rather attractive to we want to describe to the listening audience. 

Mark Rowlette  

Yeah, this is from a fishing tournament that we were in last week and I had a good friend make us up a bunch of shirts so we were wandering around with. 

Yeah, I noticed in the last few tournaments that other people had the shirts with their boats and whatnot on them. So I decided to get them boats. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Well, I just want to say as a fan of golf shirts and things, which this is not that. 

That’s a very sexy looking outfit. 

And the boat by the way, we’ve never, we’ve never mentioned we should probably have a contest on this. I guess we never mentioned the name of your boat, and all these months and years, what is the name of the boat, Mark? 

Mark Rowlette    

The boat’s name is Outnumbered II and the reason for the name is that it’s the second boat, that’s why it’s the two. But it’s outnumbered in that I thought it was funny that I live in a house with four women and we have three dogs, two of which are women as well, and fiercely outnumbered in my own home, so that’s why I have no [bread]. 

Host Jordan Rich
You picked the right name. 

Well, today we’re going to focus on a question that a lot of people may ponder from time to time and may take action on and that is … you have a financial advisor or a team of financial advisors maybe for years …

And when is it time to re-examine, and when is it time to perhaps make a change and why? So we’ll take a look at that today. 

Mark Rowlette   

I hear that all the time. People come in and they say, “listen, I just want to let you know, I’ve had a financial advisor for 20, 30 years. Why should I make a change? I’ve built a long-term relationship with this person”. And sometimes the answer is – “Why would you make a change or – you shouldn’t make a change. There’s everything that you’re doing is great, and your person is on point.” 

But sometimes it may make sense to consider making a change. There are a number of reasons that people would potentially look for different advice, and I wanted to talk about reasons that maybe it’s time to do that. 

Things change in people’s lives all the time. You get older, obviously, we all get older. Your objectives change. Your risk tolerance might change. Your life has completely changed. Maybe you started with this person when they started in the business, too, which is great … 

And you started accumulating a little bit of money and now it’s not a little bit of money anymore. Or maybe your financial advisor started in the business when you started working with them, and your amount of money is no longer the focus or important part of their business model. So there’s a number of reasons to change it. 

One of the obvious glaring ones, and I was going to talk about that quite a bit, is that their specialty is not what your current situation requires, so that those are all reasons to potentially start looking. 

Host Jordan Rich

Right, right. And sometimes it’s just a matter of age. I mean, you may age out, he or she may. They age out and there’s always that question of successorship in any field. 

So, Mark, let’s zero in on some of the obvious things that people are focusing on when they’re looking to change or thinking about a change. 

Mark Rowlette  

The obvious stuff is poor performance, right? Your money is not doing what you think it should be doing based on where you’re at. And how much money you have inside of your various accounts. 

You look at it from the perspective of fees. Things have evolved and changed over the years and maybe you start looking at and saying, “well, where are all these fees going to, what are they going for?” Or maybe you’re looking at your accounts and seeing there are no fees. 

Well, we all know that nothing is free. We don’t do it for no cost, either. And so, if you’re not aware of what your fees are, you should look at what your fees are. 

Things like lack of communication, where there’s no dialogue going on between you and the people who are taking care of your life savings. 

That could be something that I would call a red flag. Stagnant advice. It’s the same old, same old, right? You’re doing the same thing that you’ve been doing for the last 30 years. And maybe that’s fine, but maybe it’s not because things have changed over time. 

The bigger ones are that their business model potentially isn’t focusing on the current stage in your financial life cycle. And there’s a number of financial life cycles and lots of people start with their advisors many, many years ago. 

And listen, I’m not trying to have people leave their people, but these are huge decisions for folks to make and this your life savings and you don’t want to make a mistake. Maybe you started with your person during the beginning lifecycle of the financial world during accumulation and then it moves on to growth and wealth management and then it moves on to preservation. But maybe now you’re starting to look at distribution and how do I take the money out? Or even you’re starting to look at the last life cycle. At that life stage is wealth transfer because maybe you’re taking the money out, but you don’t need to take the money out for your income, so what’s the best way to navigate that to pass assets from one generation to the next? 

I realized that as Neil Sedaka said, “breaking up is hard to do” and had this conversation with multiple clients when they come in and say I don’t even know what to say, I don’t know how to approach that conversation. And the reality is, if the person who’s helping you with their money is not able to continue to help you, but they really helped you with your money up to that point and they’re good, solid and they’ve done a great job … they’re going to understand that if they can’t help you and facilitate what you need now that it’s OK to make that change.

If they don’t understand, well that also is a problem I would think, right? And nobody likes to lose a client, but if you can’t help them from the business that you’re in, then you should let them go and let them go on to the next stage and deal with the specialist that helps them in the field or area of life that they’re in now. 

Host Jordan Rich 

More on this in just a moment. A reminder, the 15-Minute No Obligation Strategy Call is available to you anytime. You can set it up by phone or set it up by visiting the website RetireSouthShore.com, a great chance to get your specific question answered. Again, no obligation, a simple phone call. 

And you’ll get clear answers. You can call 781-836-4214, talk to the office folks, and set up a time when it’s convenient for you.

The 15-Minute No Obligation Strategy Call – visit RetireSouthShore.com. You mentioned the keyword “communication”. I’ve had people tell me that they’ve tried to reach their advisor. And sometimes if you’re working with a big firm, (there’s nothing wrong with a big firm) you don’t have to go through the various stages of telephone prompts and so forth – but that’s a big issue when you’re trying to find out what the fees are and you’re not getting an answer right away. 

Mark Rowlette  

I have a few signs that it might be time to consider making a change, and that’s one, you know, communication kind of echoes into all of them. But, obviously, being able to get in touch with your financial person is important. 

But believe it or not, one of the things that I was looking at is that that many, many people who are afraid to call the financial advisor. 

They don’t want to pick up the phone, they don’t want to ask the questions on their assets because they maybe are nervous that they don’t have enough or they’re nervous that they’re bothering the person.  They don’t think that their concerns are important. If you have a concern about your money, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got $50 dollars or $50 million dollars. 

That’s your money and you’ve got a concern and it’s important to you show it, so it should be important to the people who are helping you with your money. 

They sometimes think “Aww, well, I started with this person many, many years ago. He’s built up or she’s built up such a great business.”  I think she or they are too busy, right? 

They’re too busy to take my call so they don’t pick up the phone, or the advisors outgrown them from the perspective of they’ve built up their own practice and that’s wonderful. 

I mean, I wish everyone the best in their businesses, but they feel like they’re bothering them, you know that. They look at it like, “We’re friends and I don’t want to bother him, he’s running his business or she’s running her business.”

But what happens? 

And listen, I build up really close, great relationships with our clients when they come in the door and you do become friends with them. But the clients all know we have that open dialogue. You know me very well, so you know how direct I am. I know that these are business relationships, so what happens if you get too close to someone who’s like your buddy or your pal, and the money isn’t doing what you wanted to do, or something goes wrong and you feel nervous or afraid to pick up the phone and ask about that. 

To me, that’s a huge red flag. I’m going to say “Red Flag” a lot. Hopefully that’s OK with you. That wasn’t for the radio, but that’s a huge red flag. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Well, another aspect of this is that, when someone proactive, especially in an economy that we’re in now with downturns and fears of inflation and so forth, you’d like to know that someone is looking out for you. Not that everybody has the time at every moment to do that, but it is a helpful sign when any advisor in any form says hey, “here’s something we ought to talk about.” 

Mark Rowlette  

Yes, absolutely. Listen, lots of people come to the workshops that we give or come to our webinars or call in from the radio or even come into the office for meetings and they say, “I’m just looking for education” and that’s fine. 

But when you’re dealing with huge life and financial decisions, huge transitions in your world from alright, I’ve grown this money for X amount of years and now I’m going to need to start using it, you need the advisor to evolve along with you, and if they’re not evolving along with you, that’s a problem. Which kind of brings us to another reason to potentially start thinking of looking around, if your financial advisor doesn’t listen to you. 

They, you know, basically it’s “their way or the highway” and “this is how we’ve done it” and “this is how we were going to continue to do it”. And “why would we need to change?” 
It’s kind of like, “don’t question the doctor, just take the prescription”. People don’t want to question the doctor. [As if] whatever they say is the right thing and they know best. 

But maybe they don’t. I even have clients now that question physicians when they say, “you need to take this” and they say “why” and they question it. And that’s a good thing. You should do that. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Well, we’re in an era where information is available at the touch of a button and I think people in general are more aware, at least of their options. So the idea of not calling and not following up and thinking, well, I’ll just let it ride – that’s a different era, the pre-Google era I think. 

So there are a lot more options, but it is important to re-examine anybody you’re working with in any capacity – every once in a while, particularly during turbulent times. 

So when we come back, more of these signs that it might be time to investigate and what you can do to mitigate your own situation. It’s all about you and your future that we’re trying to focus on here.

Stand by. RetireSouthShore.com, of course, is the website you can connect for that 15 minute, no-obligation strategy call anytime.

[Begin pre-recorded segment]

Narrator

One of the biggest stressors when it comes to retirement is the obvious one. Will you ever have to worry about running out of money in retirement? 

Host Jordan Rich 

That is the key question and proper retirement planning working with the All Hands Analysis team can truly help. Here again is Mark Rowlette, founder and president of South Shore Retirement Services. 

Mark Rowlette (recorded) 

Most of our clients have a person when we meet with them, somebody who’s helped them accumulate their wealth during their working lives. But distribution, going into retirement, starting to take money out of these accounts is a totally different animal. 

It’s not just about returns. Returns are important, but strategizing on what’s the best way to take this money out, how you should take it out, when you should take it out, and where you should take it from is critically important when you’re transitioning into retirement. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Schedule your free 15-minute strategy call today. Just visit RetireSouthShore.com.
Investment advisory services made available through AE Wealth Management LLC, AEWM. AEWM, and Seltzer Retirement Services are not affiliated companies.) 

Host Jordan Rich 

This is Jordan Rich reminding you that South Shore Retirement Services offers a number of ways to learn about a happy and safe retirement with frequent evening seminars at local fine-dining establishments. You can find the complete schedule and register for these seminars at RetireSouthShore.com. 

There are also regularly scheduled webinars. There’s the retire South Shore Podcast series and the South Shore Retirement Services Newsletter. 

Information is power, and the All Hands Analysis team itself through retirement services is ready to inform, educate and reassure you in retirement. Again, visit RetireSouthShore.com. 

(end of prerecorded message — music)

Host Jordan Rich 

We’re back with retired South Shore radio. I’m Jordan Rich. With me, of course is Mark Rowlette, the founder and president of South Shore Retirement Services, located in Hingham, Mass. And we’re focusing on a very important issue and that is, who it is in your camp that’s working with and for you and whether or not that’s the right person at the right time. And again, it gets personal because we get to know people in any frame of reference, in any walk of life they’ve been working with for years. But assessment is an important issue. So, Mark, what else should people consider when it comes to financial advice? What else should they be considering now in today’s changing climate?

Mark Rowlette  

Well, I think you know reasons to consider doing a review and potentially making some adjustments, not just to your money, but to the people who are helping you with your money – is your financial situation is changing, but the advice isn’t. The advice is the same as it always has been. 

You maybe are retiring, but your advisor is stuck on the accumulation side of things, and not that accumulation is not important, but as you get closer to needing and then go into actually needing the money, you’re in the distribution phase. 

You’re taking money out of these accounts. So the advice has to change from the perspective of when you were 30, 40 and 50 years old, accumulating, accumulating, accumulating. That advice has to change. I have multiple clients who have gotten remarried. 

So that’s also a reason to look at your financial world. You’ve got his money and her money, right? Now you’re coming together as a union in marriage, but it doesn’t mean that your money is coming together as a union in financial marriage.  But you’re married, maybe filing jointly, and maybe things have changed up from how you’re going to utilize your money, and then how is that money going to filter back to the people that you wanted to filter to, because you might not want to leave all of your assets that you accumulated to your now new spouse – because you wanted them to go back to your children and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s completely fine, but unless that is brought up, some clients don’t even know that that’s not how it would work unless you direct the money that way. There are rules around beneficiary designations, so I think as your financial situation, and your world – changes the advice should be evolving and potentially changing with you. 

Host Jordan Rich 

I think the point that you’re making, too, is that lives are complicated, not that they weren’t always. But I think they’re a little more complex than they were, say, a generation ago. I mean people do get remarried, people do have mixed families. 

There are all kinds of issues that are at play and one of the things that I am recalling in my own personal experience was I had a particular advisor who was helping me with insurance, life insurance at the time and was very intent on pushing product. And I’m not opposed to product. Products are what make us prosper when they work, right? But should you be leery of anyone who’s very hot to trot on any particular product at any time?

Mark Rowlette  

Yeah, I mean It’s difficult to say yes on that, and it’s difficult to say no on that, but … 

Host Jordan Rich 

I know it’s a loaded question because obviously there are very good vehicles. But when you feel as though you’re being pushed into something really hard, is that a sign that you …? 

Mark Rowlette  

Well, to me it’s another red flag when the only time you hear from your advisor is when they want to make a trade, make a change, sell you something. And maybe it’s the absolute best thing that you could be doing, but that might be a sign that they’re more focused on their fees and commissions than your needs.  Many people and many clients prefer, you know, a fee only, or an hourly fee, or a flat fee so if and when there’s any changes to be made, it’s in the best interest of the client. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Well, I think the point needs to be made again and again that so many of the financial advisors out there are doing an outstanding job. People are very happy with them. They’re servicing their clients the way they should be. That point will be made over and over again, Needless to say. 

Mark Rowlette  

Absolutely. And I’m not saying that you should change financial advisor because you think they’re doing something wrong. There are many, many advisors that I’ve taken over from – clients are transitioning – that are doing a wonderful job. They’re just not focusing on this stage in life that the clients are at now and where the clients are going. And it’s not that they’re not focusing on it because they’re ignoring it. It’s just it’s not the focus of their business. 

You don’t go to McDonald’s to get an oil change. You don’t go to Stop and Shop to get your guitar tuned. So there are certain advisors and certain firms and certain organizations that focus on one stage of a financial life and there’s certain ones that aren’t. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Mark, a very important issue in all of this, of course is taxes, particularly in retirement. We and you particularly cannot give tax advice on this program. 

But, you do have, as part of the All Hands Analysis, help from a qualified CPA. But when you’re dealing with a financial advisor at any stage in life, taxes matter. If they are not focusing on taxes, is that another red flag? Because taxes can really affect you in retirement. 

Mark Rowlette  

Yes, well, you already saved me from having to say it, but I’ll say it again, yes.  I don’t give tax advice. We build tax strategies our CPA team can be available to clients in helping them actually do the filing part of it. 

But yeah, I think there’s a missed opportunity there. So many of the people that I meet with on a weekly daily basis have significant amounts of money, if not their largest asset, in something that they have not paid taxes on yet. (maybe with the exception of their home and sometimes not with the exception of their home)

A 401K IRA, 403-B, whatever it might be, and as you start to transition or as you start to look at alright, “how am I going to start taking this money out?” You have to not focus on “how do I minimize my tax liability this year or next year?” 

It’s how do I minimize my lifetime tax bill? What do I think is going to happen coming down the pike that’s going to end up costing me and my family more money. 

And if your people who are helping you with your money say “we don’t get involved in that”, you’ve got to go see X, Y and Z person, that to me is, maybe not taking care of the whole picture, because that’s equally as important, in my opinion, as actually making money with your money at the same time. 

Host Jordan Rich 

The 15-Minute No Obligation Strategy Call is an option for you. If you have a particular question based on today’s program or anything we talk about, it’s very simple to set it up. 15 minutes (or 20 minutes, if need be) you get a chance to chat with somebody from the All Hands Analysis team. Visit RetireSouthShore.com to do that.

You mentioned Neil Sedaka earlier, “Breaking up is hard to do.” There’s also a song or two or 50 about the stray, the romance, that might be a little bit in jeopardy because you have a wandering eye if I guess if you have the inclination to look elsewhere, that is a sign that things might not be up to speed with what you’re doing. 

Mark Rowlette  

Like I said earlier, there’s nothing wrong with educating yourself. It doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is incorrect. But I say it often to people that, if there’s no issue at all with your financial plan and your financial advice, then why are we sitting here? Why are we sitting in my office talking? 

And the reality is that people want education. People listen to radio shows like ours. They listen to podcasts. They go to educational workshops and seminars. They see what their other friends are getting and they’re exploring what they should be doing now. If you’re the one who’s doing all of the work because you feel like there is something you should be doing, that to me is a problem and I think you might already have one foot out the door. 

And listen, it’s hard to change. It’s hard to have that conversation. It’s hard to walk away from a 10, 15, 20, 30-year relationship. But it’s harder to make a mistake, and find out when it’s too late that you cannot recover from it. 

I wanted to close today with something a client said to me, and I want to say it to people who are listening. I agree with it completely, the client said money can’t buy you happiness, but poverty can’t buy you anything. 

So I understand there are more important things in life than the money. That’s family and all of the stuff that you want to do. But to make a mistake or have missed an opportunity because you were not being told by the people you were paying, is a reason to potentially just review second opinions.

I close up every seminar by saying we give lots and lots of second opinions, and the reality is you can’t get a second opinion from the person who gave you the first. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Right. But it’s important. I think you made the mention of it a second ago. It’s important to ask your current advisor or advisory team to review with you, to sit down and go over things so you’ll know where you stand. 

Again, the biggest issue for so many people is they’re not getting clear answers or the talk is going over their head, which happens a lot in the in the financial industry. So it’s very important. 

Speaking of webinars, seminars, there are lots of them coming up. We mentioned them on the show during the breaks of course. And there’s also the podcast. There’s also the newsletter and the very active website. 

You guys have been very busy in the office keeping the information flow going, even though it’s summer and I know it’s fun to be out there on the boat, but you love seeing people and shaking hands and pressing the flesh as well. 

Mark Rowlette  

We’re constantly meeting with clients and wanting to make sure that everything is being taken care of from their perspective and meeting with new people. I will have some News, an announcement to make in the next couple of weeks and we can do that on the show and then it’ll be on all of the websites and what not as we continue to grow. So I’m very excited about this. 

Host Jordan Rich 

Well, the All Hands Analysis team is part of the approach and it means everything under one roof. It’s RetireSouthShore.com.

 This program airs on weekends. You can call the number that I’ve been giving out regularly 781-836-4214. Or on the weekend you can call and leave a message and we guarantee you somebody will get back first thing Monday until we meet again. Hope they’re biting and I’ll see you next week. 

Mark Rowlette  

Alright, take care. 

Disclaimer

Narrator

You’ve been listening to retire South Shore Radio, a presentation of South Shore Retirement Services, for the latest on free seminars. 

Narrator

To obtain a report or to set up a consultation, please visit RetireSouthShore com. Stay tuned for more real-world Retirement Solutions from RetireSouthShore.com.