A quote from Brandi Jo: "Here's the truth about me and my business... I don't get paid unless you benefit. It's as simple as that! Many of my colleagues want to charge you excessive fees and separate you from your money. Not me, and I make that promise every day."
1. I saw on the front page of your website that over 300,000 baby boomers are retiring every month. Wow. Based on your experience, how many of these retirees are likely to be truly ready (financially) for retirement?
I would say only the many who have chosen to work with me on their retirement income choices. The unique approach that I follow does not depend on how much money they have saved or how many assets they have acquired throughout their lifetime. It is all dependent upon how efficiently their income choices are positioned.
Quite often a client of mine will enjoy more income over their lifetime, especially during retirement, just by simply being able to position their assets properly and following a more efficient strategy for a lifetime of guaranteed income.
We do this by allocating their assets into appropriate guaranteed vehicles but also leaving room for gains with the protection of a market volatility buffer of at least three to five years.
With all this being done well in advance of retirement time, we are able to increase my clients' retirement income by at least 30% and sometimes more than 50%. This means that someone who had roughly $125,000 of retirement income from pensions, 401k, IRA, and annuities can have at least an income of $187,500 a year guaranteed for life.
2. Do baby boomers still have time to improve their retirement prospects if they are retiring soon--or already retired?
Absolutely! There is always time, but you need to be realistic. The only thing I can't give anyone is their time back. And as we all know time is finite, so it is best to get started right now, today, with a pre-tax retirement summary to see where we are and where we need to focus.
I encourage anyone and everyone to contact me to get their retirement summary at no cost and then allow me to educate them about the many possibilities they may have. There is more to revealing more income choices than just another mutual fund or working longer or--worse--taking on more risk with their existing savings.
3. Would you tell us a little bit about your retirement income course? Does it include readings or videos or...?
The Retirement Income Planning Course is a series of five videos that I have produced to take someone through the entire understanding of how retirement income streams work. Many of my clients have accomplished the first half of their retirement goals which is compared to climbing a mountain: once you get to the top, you need to know how to get back down the mountain, and that's where maximum income options come into play.
The two white papers we discuss are important to the decision making process for which route to take during retirement. The Wharton Financial Institutions Center published a policy brief on the Importance of Investing A Lump Sum for Retirement Purposes. This is in direct relation to how retirement income streams work and how much changes in the investment environment when someone is taking an income from invested active assets. The policy brief shows just how much uncertainty there is with a retirement account that is being used for income purposes. The example case given in the policy brief shows that the income stream has less than a 50% chance of lasting the entire life of the retiree.
The other white paper we discuss is from Morningstar with one of the researchers being Dr. Wade Pfau who discussed the impact of such a low interest rate environment on retirees' assets and portfolios. The findings reveal how fragile retirees' portfolios can be given a lack of liquidity to sustain the bear market years during retirement.
4. What made you decide to focus your career on helping people with retirement financing?
I want to help all my clients through every phase of life. It just so happens that most of my clients are well into their accumulation years, and they want to make sure their assets, opportunities, and liquidity last for their entire lifetime.
We do this by making sure we capture most of their income outside of the markets' volatility first and then leveraging their liquidity for the purposes of lifestyle. Building the bridge between accumulation and distribution is where the permanent and guaranteed vehicles play a major for my clients.
5. Are there some lessons you learned as a professional golfer that have transferred into your current career as a financial advocate and author?
It's been said many times that one round of golf is like life. There are ups and downs throughout every round of golf we play. But the process and the strategy is what delivers us a good score. Golf as a metaphor for life is one that I talk about often with my clients.
We all know where and what the end goal is: we just need to make sure we have most efficient strategy possible for our course of life.
Thanks, Brandi Jo!
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