And good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Jean Dickerson, you've got Megan Smith, you've got an entire team bringing you our show this evening.

And hopefully answering your questions, the kinds of questions that are high priority for you, the kinds of questions that maybe move the needle, maybe get you closer to your financial goals, maybe give you a little more confidence, a little more peace of mind, maybe all of that and those maybes, those maybes keep us coming back and hopefully give you the kinds of information, the kinds of details and, and guidance that that make your life a little easier.

That's a lovely thing, if that can happen for for you and anyone else that happens to be around folks that you love, folks that you care about because we are we're very dedicated to the the bigger picture, the generational impact that we might be able to have as, as grandparents, as parents, as, as, as children, grandchildren, the impact that we can have has a ripple effect.

And and if we do some, some pretty solid things, make some good judgment calls, that can have a really positive effect in areas that we may, we may not know about for decades.

And wouldn't that be wonderful?

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

It is a wonderful time of the year as you're seeing us for the very first time, or if you're picking us up on rebroadcast, that might be a little different.

But if you're seeing us for the very first time, spring has that way of lifting our spirits and bringing more, energy, more life, more light, for sure.

And to our lives.

And in many ways, financial advisory work is very much like that, allowing us to plant some seeds that we can, we can tend to that we can oversee, protect, grow.

And then at some point, harvest in a way that, makes everyone, every part of our family, every part of our community, better for having known us.

If you are joining us for the first time, I'm going, wow, that's fairly philosophical.

Well, by golly, it is.

It's, you know, the title of the show is More Than Money.

So bottom line for us is that we cover a lot of ground, but you decide what ground that we cover by sending us your emails.

So Jean at ask mtm.com works very, very well for two reasons.

Number one, you can send us your questions.

Fantastic.

You may see your question answered on the air, at some future show.

And number two, you can request our newsletter.

Recently, the last few months, we've been publishing every other month and, e letter so that you get it directly to your inbox.

And gosh, we've had such great response from you folks.

The compliments are very much appreciated.

We appreciate that very much.

But more importantly, I think we're touching you.

I think we're touching the kinds of, areas and information and, contacts that you wish.

So, if you have a need for either of those things, please, use that email, and we'll be glad to serve you.

Speaking of serving you, Megan is the starting point for service.

So, Megan, where do we start this evening?

Hi, Jean.

Our first email tonight says Jean, I am a 78 year young member of your triple H club.

And enjoy your TV show every week.

You have done a marvelous job of educating me and your other viewers.

I was also thrilled to see that Megan has returned from other pursuits as you to make a good team.

It does actually say that.

So thank you very much.

It says I have accumulated 4.1 million in domestic mutual fund investments, a home valued at $500,000 shared with my bride of 54 years, have a son and daughter, two granddaughters who have been kind enough to take college tuition from us.

No social security, a pension with an annual inflation adjustment.

And we had a well created two years ago that we invited the kids to attend so they would be aware of the contents and would understand what they will inherit.

I have kept a monthly budget since college, and I've never had a mortgage for more than five years.

Paid for a car other than outright, since I have no interest in interest and have no credit card debt.

This year I finished passing my traditional IRA to various Native American charities at $100,000 per year, with the balance going into my Roth IRA so that my wife will not have to pay taxes on it in the event of my early departure.

Right now, we live quietly on our regular income, wondering, are there any investment adjustments that you would recommend?

Thank you so much!

For your kind words are very much appreciated, particularly about Megan, because let's be clear, she is the star of the show and I'm barely holding on.

So goodness.

What?

You've done a number of things that are tremendously, tremendously important and successful.

Congratulations.

Well done.

You, 4.1 million in assets.

Spectacular.

Doesn't tell us where that is relative to you, your wife.

IRAs, not IRAs.

That's okay.

We'll circle back to that here in a moment.

One item that I wanted to point out, one comment that you made in your email that I wanted to point out to the audience.

It may not seem like a big deal, but it caught my attention almost immediately.

It was your reference to not only having your estate documents constructed, but having your son and daughter be part of that process.

Part of that process, so that they can understand exactly what, what is and what isn't.

It is a. Double edged sword when we involve the next generation in our current plans.

Because estate plans are exactly that plans.

They are not yet etched in stone.

You mentioned early on our triple H club, happy, healthy 178.

You've got 22 more years.

My guess is that your children, if your grandchildren are in college or out of college, your children are probably in their late 40s.

That means that by the time that you ascend to the next level, they will be in their 60s or 70s.

So the current plans are unlikely to be what unfolds at your passing.

It's also unlikely that one of you that both of you, you and your wife will pass at the same time, that's it's not it's not terribly unusual, but it's not terribly unusual either.

It's it's a rare occurrence.

So there's different issues here.

So from an investment standpoint we can talk about that.

Of course.

But from a bigger picture standpoint, from a generational standpoint, legacy issues are a very important consideration.

What impact.

Not necessarily dollar amount, but what impact do you wish to have on both your children, your grandchildren?

And if you are blessed to be part of the triple H club, great grandchildren.

So having that fluidity, that flexibility in your estate plans, in my opinion, extremely important, having your children involved, I don't see that as a negative.

I just see it as a, a requirement, an additional requirement as your estate plans change, that they be kept informed at some point, you may find some, they may not agree with your plans, or they may have some concerns about your plans.

Those things should not deter you from staying on track and making sure that whatever plans are important to you are carried out.

Finally, from an investment standpoint, sounds like you're doing just fine.

It would be wise to have a second opinion, simply another set of eyes looking at what you're currently doing to see how it matches up with your goals and if it matches up, fantastic.

If it doesn't, you've got plenty of time to make adjustments.

So your original question the investments not my highest priority.

I don't know that it will be your highest priority, but certainly your family will be.

Excellent question.

And again, thank you for your kind comments.

Max.

Where do we go next?

Our next email tonight, says my mom just gifted me $10,000 and I'm stumped about my next move.

I'm 55, female, single make $78,000 a year.

I have no kids.

I have $60,000 left on my mortgage with a 3% rate and a $15,000, on a car loan, 8% rate.

I also have $1,000 on a credit card, which will be paid in full next month, and $4,000 in savings.

I have a retirement fund through work, which is in fairly good shape, but had to reduce contributions this past year because of increasing costs.

This feels like an opportunity.

Should I increase my retirement contributions and live off the $10,000 cash?

Since the cash has already been taxed, or pay $8,000 towards my car loan and put $2,000 in savings?

Or do you have better advice?

Thanks.

Better advice?

Yeah, that's not right.

Often we shouldn't refer to advice as either better or worse, whether it's fits better or fits you more, or pleases you more, or accomplishes something in a more efficient way, that's a good litmus test.

Quite often.

Quite often because of my, esteemed stature and my hosting of such an outstanding, television production, such as more of the money is, folks say, well, I, obviously whatever Jean thinks is best not the case.

Absolutely not the case.

If we're talking about mathematical formulas, a better mathematician will give you better answers.

That's that's certainly true.

But in the financial advisory world, when you have, as this young lady does, a series of options, all of which are pretty darn good, then the selection isn't guided so much by, experience.

Hosting a television show, or or, gosh, a good referral.

It's it's more guided by what best suits what best fits this individual.

This young lady gives us a lot of good information.

She's done very, very nicely.

Couple things caused me a little bit of concern.

Number one, her her savings, her her emergency fund is not very large.

It's not very large at $4,000.

Generally speaking, that causes me a bit of concern.

In general, we're looking at about a six months, of, of savings as a, as an emergency fund in her case, 30,000 or so she said for causes me some concern.

So could she drop that into her savings and be done?

The answer is yes.

Should she pay ahead on her mortgage?

Absolutely not.

3% interest rate mortgages are the holy grail.

That's lovely.

So hang on to that.

Could she pay ahead on her car loan, I think?

Yes.

8% should be saving.

Helps a bit.

My personal preference.

Personal preference would be for her to do exactly what she suggested later in the email.

Add to her retirement plan, add to her 401k, allow that to get likely a tax deduction, tax deferral and cook.

She is now 55.

It could cook for five, ten, 15, 20 years and compound over all those years and then create a lifetime income much higher than she's currently expecting, in my opinion.

Based on what I know, that's a good way to go.

Certainly a way, that that she will appreciate much more over time.

But a little delayed gratification in this particular case may end up, serving her extremely well.

10,000 over next ten, 15, 20 years could very well turn into 20, 30, $40,000 and produce two, three, 400 more dollars a month of income for the rest of her life.

Pretty good deal.

And by the way, make sure you thank your mom.

That's a really cool thing.

She's done.

Max, that was outstanding.

And, gosh, we start off with two strong questions.

We have another strong one to follow up.

We do, this next person I think is interested in meeting with you.

It says I'm watching the show on PBS, and, and I need expert advice on our finances.

I always enjoyed Jean's advice and was interested in what his financial planning services would cost.

Thank you.

Yes.

I remember now why I decided this was an important question.

It's not because this individual desires me to such a high degree.

Understandably so.

Let's be clear.

It was the question about cost, a question about cost.

That's a very, very interesting question, and one that I don't recall us if we have, I don't recall discussing in any detail in, in any of our recent shows, financial advisory work in general.

Your, your, your, your framework around paying for financial advisory work in the old days.

In the old days.

Right.

When I began a thousand years ago, 780 years ago, to be exact.

Everything was commission.

Everything was commission.

You bought a stock, you paid a commission, you sold a stock.

You better commission.

You wanted to buy life insurance, annuities.

You paid a commissioner everything was commission.

And, many ways, in many cases, very high commissions.

So it was not unusual.

If you bought $10,000 worth of stock, they would charge you $300, 3%.

And then if you wanted to sell that later on, another $300, another 3%.

If your investments didn't make at least 6%, you lost money.

The, investment advisor made buckets of money, but not you.

People got tired of that.

So as a result that over time, that, way of paying for for advice, shrunk, people were not pleased.

They weren't getting great advice.

They were paying way too much money.

And so it became it morphed.

It evolved into, kind of the frameworks that we see today that come in a number of different, formats.

Number one, I think the most common today in terms of investment advice, particularly, is a small percentage of whatever investments are being managed by the advisor.

So using a, a simple example, $100,000, if you have 100,000 hours with a financial advisor, roughly 1%, and I've seen it range from 0.7 7/10 of a percent to 2.5%, which I think is tends to be kind of outrageous, but but let's use 1% as an example because it's easy math.

You would pay $1,000 a year to your financial advisor.

You would pay no commissions, little or no additional fees.

Pretty straightforward.

Lots of folks find that very accommodating.

Lots of folks find that, I'm profitable.

I'll circle back to that here in a moment.

There is an alternative.

Some financial advisors only work, on a per hour basis.

So whatever amount of time is involved in managing, your investments and providing your advice, there, there, their fees generally, the per hour rates are pretty substantial.

Not unusual to see numbers in the 300, 400, $500 an hour.

An hour.

And you say, wait, wait, wait a second.

If I have 100,000 to invest, 500 an hour, that's only two hours a year.

Wouldn't I be better off?

The answer is maybe.

Maybe.

But if you only need a half an hour a year, you'd be better off going by the hour.

And then other financial advisory firms, very few, very few, I should say.

But other advisors, work on a on just a flat fee.

They charge $1,000 a year, whether you have 100,000, a million, 10 million.

They don't care.

It's a flat fee.

It's a retainer.

And off they go.

They generally, those those those advisors who who have those, those kind of arrangements, generally have a lot of clients would not be unusual for them to have 500 or 1000 clients at $1,000 a year.

Now they're grossing their practice is grossing half a million, a million, and they're feeling pretty comfortable.

Which of these three fits you?

That's up to you.

That's that's a decision that you and your financial advisor, or at least potential financial advisor, need to go through in, in kind of detail so that you have some comfort level about how this, fee structure impacts your probabilities of both success and your satisfaction with the level of services that are being provided.

There are some extremely well known and least brand recognized financial advisors who who charge a very substantial fee and only provide only provide, investment advice.

That's all they do.

They do nothing else.

That's not typical.

However, that may be their model because they spend millions and millions and millions a year on, on advertising, and they successfully can acquire clients who are willing to pay a lot of money for a fraction of the service.

But the trend in the financial advisory industry is towards a more holistic approach, providing not just investment advice, but providing tax advice, Social security advice, insurance advice, life insurance, long term care insurance, disability insurance advice, providing advice on so many different levels business planning, business succession planning, risk management, college funding, legacy planning, all of that from in many, many a financial advisory quality financial advisory firms.

That's the holistic approach that's getting all of that for one fee.

That, in my opinion, is the best way to go.

If you are working with a financial advisor, an investment advisor, family wealth advisor, who has some degree of skill on the investment side, according to studies done by Vanguard, at least two that I've seen over the last 5 or 6 years.

For every dollar you spend with a financial advisor who is, successful for you, you can expect to get some value measured in, in about $3 for every dollar.

So whether it's increased rate of return, decreased taxes, eliminating some mistakes that you might be making on your own or gaining these other services.

If in our example, $100,000 is a $1,000 a year fee, you should be looking at a gain, a value of about $3,000, according to the Vanguard studies.

So, think about how you would be comfortable paying for services.

Think about the services that you're interested in, receiving, and then be, careful, be thoughtful about the selection that you make and ensure that you're getting value.

That's the key.

Whether you're paying in one way or another may not be the most critical piece.

The most critical piece might be what value are you receiving for the advice that you're paying for?

Excellent question, short question.

Very long answer for good reason.

Hopefully that helps as you're looking for your financial advisor.

Meg's another one, please.

Sure thing.

Our next, email says you listed three people who would be necessary to help administer our funds to a younger grandchild should his parents pass.

Who are these people?

Jean, can you tell us?

I'd be happy to.

And as the headline says, is it three or is it really six?

Goodness.

As a grandfather myself, father of three gorgeous daughters and a now amazing granddaughter, the idea of of creating an estate plan, a legacy plan that will protect them and provide for them, it's my highest priority.

I have been blessed beyond belief.

I have no need for myself.

And and yet, sure I do.

My need is for them to be happy and healthy, and just gloriously, enjoying their lives.

And if I can help in some way, I want to do that.

What does that require me to do?

Well, in almost every case, particularly my granddaughters, to, you, if they're under the age of majority.

We need a trust.

We need a trust.

A trust will hold the assets for the child until some point in the future where the trust, calls for those funds to be distributed.

So, right away, we need a trustee.

We need someone who will act, in charge of that trust.

Follow the trust, document the trust instructions, and make sure that those are follow.

Secondly, if the, child is, under the age of two years old, under the age of majority, parents are gone.

We need a guardian.

We need a guardian.

Someone who will physically, day by day, 24 over seven, raise this child, hopefully in as close a fashion as as as this grandchild's parents would have as as as their child's grandparents, have parents would have.

I misspoke there about grandparents because in many cases, the, the, the parents have chosen as their guardian the grandparents.

Not a great idea.

Not a great idea as much as I'm over the moon.

Would love to have my little one with me.

24 over seven.

Probably not the best choice.

I would love to think I am, but I. I know in my heart of hearts I'm a grandfather.

I'm over the moon.

Parents responsibilities are quite different.

Quite, much more challenging, to be honest.

All I have to do is be crazy in love.

That's all I have to do and spoil and for and spoil.

Parents have to add that discipline and that guidance and be there.

Be there 24/7.

365 so Guardian and lastly, executor, the executor documents are the executor of the documents.

The executor executrix, male, female doesn't matter.

Is the person who carries out the final wishes as outlined in the well.

So we've we've got a trust trustee, who needs to be trustworthy, obviously, and financially astute, guardian who needs to be full of love and have the same value system as the parents involved.

And executor, executrix, someone to carry out the instructions within the will and make sure that that is, that they're put into effect.

The the executor role.

Very brief, no fun, but very brief and can be done, in rather, short order.

Guardian lifetime trustee is in the middle because trustee will be necessary until the funds are distributed most often.

Rough rule of thumb distributed at ages 25, 30, 35.

That kind of an idea.

So, if you're looking at a two year old grandchild, trustee has responsibilities for next 30 years.

Guardian has responsibilities for the next, hopefully 100 years.

And the executor several months and done.

Now the headline says, is it three or is it really six?

It's really six.

You need contingents for each of these roles.

Because if I am named as the trustee, fantastic.

At some point I will not be here.

And if there's not a contingent, trustee named, the courts will name a trustee.

You don't want that to happen.

So bottom line, do I need I need a primary trustee.

That's my first choice.

And if that person can't or won't number two contingent.

Same for the Guardian.

That one's really tough.

It's tough enough to find somebody who will raise your child the way you will.

And that you have that love and compassion that that's tough to do.

And then finally, executor.

That's actually pretty much the easiest of the three.

So yes.

Gosh, lots of complications, lots of moving parts there so that you, you have the greatest confidence that the love that you're feeling for this child is, is carried through whether you're physically present or not or not.

God bless.

Gosh.

Covered a lot of ground, allergies challenging this evening.

I'm sure for some of you around the country, the same kind of an idea, but forgive me.

And bottom line, for all of us, if we may be of service, if you will, graciously allow us to answer your questions and guide you along the way, we'd love to do that.

Send us your email, gene, and ask him TMZ.com.

Ask me your questions.

Request our newsletter.

We're happy to do, that you do you that service in any way that we are able.

So, thanks to Megan and thanks to our entire crew for allowing me to stand behind this podium and and give you some degree of insight.

And hopefully you've learned enough or been mildly entertained enough that you'll want to return when we're back here next week for another edition of more than month.