Retirement

Retirement Planning Is Boring?

September 7, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

Reading Time: < 1 minute On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we continue our conversation with Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on why retirement planning is boring. The last thing you expect to hear is that retirement is boring. Retirement finances and strategies can consume and overwhelm any pre-retiree couple. During this episode, Christine Benz explains how retirement planning can be simple and boring. As Christine said, Doing the boring stuff such as saving and living below your means can really impact your financial future. Having both spouses working and saving for the same goals can be challenging, yet rewarding. Don’t be confused by other advisors that may confuse you into buying something you don’t need or want. If you are wanting a second opinion, we’d love to have a complimentary coffee or call with you to learn more about your concerns, struggles, and goals. If you want to learn more, you can click here to learn more. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

Christine Benz is Morningstar’s director of personal finance and author of 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances and the Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Russian/East European studies from the University of Illinois. Christine lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg. She is an avid cook, a political junkie, and a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan. Follow Christine on Twitter.

Beware: How to Choose Your Financial Advisor

August 28, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

Choosing amongst the many financial advisors, financial planners, and wealth managers can be daunting. There are a lot of credentials and designations to consider. Consider reading: CPA, CFA, or CFP®: Pick Your Abbreviation Wisely. At Intelligent Investing, we have all three of the best-known professional designations in the financial industry.

When it comes to how an advisor gets paid, unfortunately, the water becomes even murkier. A fee-only financial planner sounds strikingly similar to a fee-based financial planner, but there’s a big difference in how they get paid. Here’s what you should know about fee-only and fee-based financial advice:

Fee-only

Fee-only financial planners are registered investment advisors with a fiduciary responsibility to act in their clients’ best interests. They do not accept any fees or compensation based on product sales. Fee-only advisors have fewer inherent conflicts of interest, and they generally provide more comprehensive advice. The advisor does not receive a fee or other compensation from another party based on the referral of a client or the client’s business. Fee-only advisors help reduce the conflicts of interest inherent in how they get paid and what they recommend.

Although fee-only financial planners may include other methods of charging clients such as a flat retainer, or hourly rate, they typically will charge based on a percentage of assets under management. Intelligent Investing typically charges clients based on a percentage of assets under management.

Another advantage of a fee-only financial planner is that there are no financial hooks, surrender charges, or lockup periods. Clients are free to leave at any time if they are disappointed.

Fee-based

Commission-based agents and brokers often don’t like this distinction. Blurring the difference, they created the category dubbed “fee-based,” which sounds a lot like fee-only. However, it means they charge a fee in addition to collecting commissions. Study after study shows that even consumers seeking a strictly fee-only advisor find these terms confusing.

Most commission-based agents and brokers are no doubt sincere people trying to do honest work for their clients. However, based on our study of human behavior, we believe human nature is bent, and good intentions often fall prey to repeated temptation, especially in gray areas. The fees of commission-based agents and brokers are tied to specific products and transactions. This model completely misses much of what clients need. Although commission-based agents can serve their clients in unique ways, product commissions seem a backhanded way to acquire comprehensive wealth management.

Broker-dealers have another potential conflict of interest…revenue sharing. Generally, revenue sharing payments are a percentage of broker-dealer client assets invested in a particular fund. This means the broker-dealer gets paid a percentage from the fund company to put clients in a certain fund or investment. This may or may not be best for the client. As long as the investment is “suitable” for the client, which is a lower standard than the fiduciary standard, they can get away with this.

Intelligent Investing

Intelligent Investing is a 100% fee-only fiduciary registered investment advisor. One of the reasons we founded Intelligent Investing was because of the fee-only fiduciary structure. We were attracted to the fact that we could “sit on the same side of the table as our clients” and act in their best interests. We took comfort knowing we could sleep at night because we did our best in creating a portfolio for the client, without being tainted by sales commissions. It would be too difficult to run a business if its success pulled us in a different direction than working for our clients. Because we are getting paid to do whatever our clients would do if they had our time and expertise, we are free to do just that without worrying about how we get paid for the service.

Intelligent Investing is a fee-only fiduciary registered investment advisor. Share on X

Our primary fee structure is based on managing all of our client’s financial affairs. Many of the services we perform for clients depend on an integrated financial plan that goes beyond investments. Our services strive to be more holistic, and often we will collaborate with other professionals, such as estate planning attorneys and CPA or tax professionals.

How We Get Paid

We charge a percentage of assets under management because of our emphasis on offering comprehensive wealth management. We get paid one way…by our clients. Period. We are not incentivized to put our clients in any products or investments via revenue-sharing agreements. Since we are independent, if we think it is best for a certain investment to be in a clients’ portfolio, we will put it in that clients’ portfolio.

Our clients’ fees (based on a percentage of the assets we are managing) get them access to us any time they need us. We purposely don’t add an hourly rate. We do not want clients to hesitate to contact us. If there is an hourly charge, many clients wouldn’t call even when they should.

We are fanatics of the 100% fee-only model. We would much rather see consumers handling their finances on their own than wondering if the products they have been sold are really the best option to meet their goals. It is also why we give away as much “do-it-yourself” information as we can. We want consumers to be as informed as possible about good wealth management techniques.

If you’d like to become a client of Intelligent Investing, please click here to call or schedule a “discovery” meeting.

Spending Money in Retirement with Christine Benz

August 26, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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Spending Money in Retirement with Christine Benz

Reading Time: < 1 minute On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we continue our conversation with Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on spending money in retirement. During this episode, Christine about retirement distribution strategies and whether there’s truly a safe withdrawal rate. Interestingly enough, she mentions a study that more retirees were concerned about finances than death. She highlights this strategy of simply taking 4% and whether it’s still usable in today’s economy. Many pre-retirees and retirees are concerned about running out of money. Having a written financial plan and having flexibility with withdrawals are some of the keys to having a good probability of success of not running out of money. Are you are wondering whether you have enough money to outlast your lifetime? If you are, we’d love to have a complimentary call or coffee with you. We are fee-only fiduciaries that don’t sell other products, so you can rest assured, we want to have your best interest in mind. Please visit investedwithyou.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

Living in a Glass House Pt.1

August 12, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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On this episode of Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll be interviewing Shelly Hamilton on living in a glass house. During this episode, Shelly is joined by her son-in-law, Adam Morgan. A glass house is a term used for more those whose lives are more public than the average person. They talk about the hurdles, challenges, and experiences of living in a glass house. Shelly stresses the value of staying true to their faith and values whether people are watching or not.

One of Intelligent Investing’s core values is Truth. We believe that speaking the truth in love is so vital…especially when it comes to talking within families. We strive to unite families with financial communication, and if you are going to be transferring your business in the near future (especially to another family member), we’d love to start having a conversation with you. We can help be the liaison between family members, and we can help you plan for the many aspects of transferring a business.

If you haven’t subscribed to our podcasts, you can go to our podcast page and choose whichever method you want to download them. While you are there, you can go to our blog page and subscribe so you can get our latest Intelligent Insights directly in your inbox.

Shelly Hamilton Bio

Shelly Hamilton, the daughter of Frank Garlock, married Ron Hamilton aka “Patch the Pirate” in 1975. They have managed Majesty Music and written sacred music for children and adults since they joined the ministry in 1978. Shelly currently ministers at Majesty Music as pianist, composer, arranger, and recording producer. In 2013, their son killed himself after years of struggle with mental health issues. The family’s public struggle and acknowledgement of mental health issues has reached people around the world. Most recently her family faces a new challenge: Ron Hamilton’s early onset of dementia. Her insight and music will encourage anyone facing the challenges of life.

In January 2018 Majesty Music announced their third generation of leadership. After years of waiting for God’s timing, Ron and Shelly transitioned the ministry over to their son-in-law Representative Adam Morgan and his wife, Ron and Shelly’s daughter, Megan.

How Potential Higher Inflation and Taxes Impact Your Retirement Strategy

July 29, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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How Potential Higher Inflation and Taxes Impact Your Retirement Strategy with Christine Benz

Reading Time: < 1 minute On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we continue our conversation with Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on how potential higher inflation and taxes impact your retirement strategy. Christine believes we should be mindful of potential inflation and high taxes. A key point she makes is not waiting to implement tax-saving strategies. During this episode, she explains the value of tax-deferred accounts. Tax-deferred accounts blended with other financial vehicles could be beneficial to your financial strategy. At Intelligent Investing, one of our unique factors is that we strive to minimize fees and that includes government fees. There are many planning opportunities, especially in the sweet spot years between retirement from an employer and when you start social security benefits. We love organizing our clients’ financial junk drawers, and we’d love to organize yours. To learn more about Intelligent Investing or to become our next intelligent investor, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

The Retirement Bucket Approach Part 2

July 21, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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The Retirement Bucket Approach with Christine Benz

Reading Time: < 1 minute On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we continue our conversation with Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on the retirement bucket approach. During this episode, Christine expounds further on the bucket approach and behavioral finance. Hans and Christine talk about situations where investors reacted poorly to market situations. Christine stresses the importance of sticking to your financial planning during uncertain times. At Intelligent Investing, we strongly believe in behavioral coaching. We believe that the behavior gap (the difference between actual investment return vs. actual investors’ returns) can be significant and minimized if advisors and clients behave properly. This often means doing the hard thing and not chasing after returns or headlines. It also means turning off the scary headlines that make you want to abandon your portfolio and plan. To learn more about behavioral finance and our philosophy, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Christine Benz Bio

Transitioning the Family Business

July 14, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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On this episode of Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll be interviewing Shelly Hamilton on transitioning the family business. During this episode, Shelly is joined by her son-in-law and daughter, Adam and Megan Morgan. They talk about the hurdles, challenges, and considerations that took place when transitioning the family business to Adam and Megan. Shelly stresses the value of communication during the process and considering the feelings of others in the family.

Transitioning a family business is one of the most difficult things to do. When you factor in transferring a family business to another family member, you take the difficulty to another whole level. There can be hard feelings and difficult conversations. One of Intelligent Investing’s core values is Truth. We believe that speaking the truth in love is so vital…especially when it comes to talking within families. We strive to unite families with financial communication, and if you are going to be transferring your business in the near future (especially to another family member), we’d love to start having a conversation with you. We can help be the liaison between family members, and we can help you plan for the many aspects of transferring a business.

Shelly Hamilton Bio

The Retirement Bucket Approach

July 8, 2021 by Hans Blake, CFA, CPA

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Reading Time: 2 minutes On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we interview Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz on the retirement bucket approach. Christine has been a longtime believer in this retirement bucket strategy. During this episode, Christine defines the retirement bucket approach and highlights the pros and cons of this strategy. The basic idea is securing one to two years of portfolio withdrawals. A critical component of this approach is setting aside cash reserves. Liquid reserves can bring peace of mind to those employing a long-term portfolio strategy. There is some initial risk building this cash reserve, but you build yourself a bulwark that you can spend through as opposed to a depreciated equity holding. It is important if not vital for retirees to have a plan for liquidity needs. Perhaps setting aside 1-2 years of living expenses in a money-market type of account or investment is best. Perhaps it is utilizing a bucket approach. Without understanding a clients’ needs, wants, and wishes, and having a timeline for when those expenses may occur, your plan and/or portfolio may not be optimized. We’d be happy to have a quick call or coffee with you to start the conversation of how we may best serve you and your family. To get started, please visit investedwithyou.com. Schedule a short discovery call or meeting We’ll be interviewing Christine on several podcasts regarding retirement strategies, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.