BW 129: Your Guide to Financial Security After Loss - with Andy Dziedzic
Dec 17, 2024[TRANSCRIPT BELOW]
Emily sits down with Andy from the Prepared Retirement Institute to discuss financial planning tailored for widows. With years of experience and a personal understanding of loss, Andy shares invaluable advice on rebuilding financial confidence after losing a spouse. Learn about creating a personal financial strategy, the importance of estate planning, and finding a trusted financial partner to guide you through challenging times.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to regain financial confidence after losing a spouse.
- The 4 P’s of financial planning: Protect, Prevent, Provide, and Prepare.
- Why a fiduciary is vital for managing your assets.
- Practical steps for estate planning and avoiding probate challenges.
- Building your financial "board of advisors" for long-term stability.
📖 Connect with Andy:
Website: https://www.preparedretirementinstitute.com
Podcast: The Widow Empowerment Project - https://thewidowempowerment.blubrry.net
FB - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089898574480
LI - https://www.linkedin.com/company/103415991/admin/page-posts/published/
💬 Let us know what resonated with you most in the comments below!
Chapters:
02:20 Introducing Andy
03:06 Andy’s Background and Mission
04:50 Financial Planning for Widows
13:19 The Four P's of Financial Planning
23:12 Estate Planning Essentials
28:47 How to Connect with Andy
30:36 Join the Brave Widow Community
👉 If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more widows and support them on their journey to healing.
#WidowSupport #GriefJourney #HealingTogether #LifeAfterLoss
Resources:
- Secure your free spot for the Widow Winter Solstice: https://www.bravewidow.com/winter
- Brave New Widow free guidebook: https://www.bravewidow.com/start
- Join the Brave Widow Membership Community: https://www.bravewidow.com/join
Join the Brave Widow Community:
If you're feeling overwhelmed and unsure of your next step in your grief journey, now is the time to take action. The Brave Widow Membership is here to provide you with the support, guidance, and community you need to heal and rediscover joy. Don’t go through this alone—join us today and start moving forward with confidence. https://www.bravewidow.com/join
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Hey hey, I’m Emily Tanner. I was widowed at age 37, one month shy of our 20 year wedding anniversary. Nathan and I have four beautiful children together, and my world was turned completely upside down when I lost him.
Now, I love my life again! I’m able to experience joy, achieve goals and dreams I thought I’d lost, and rediscover this next version of me.
I did the work.
I invested in coaching for myself.
I learned what I needed to do to move forward and took the steps.
I implemented the tools and strategies that I use for my clients in my coaching program.
This is for you, if:
- You want a faith-based approach to coaching
- You want to move forward after loss, and aren’t sure how
- You want to enjoy life without feeling weighed down by guilt, sadness, or regret
- You want a guide to help navigate this journey to the next version of you
- You want to rediscover who you are
- Join the Brave Widow Community: https://www.bravewidow.com/join
- Schedule a consult with Emily: https://calendly.com/bravewidow/widow-consult-call?month=2024-08
Find and take the next steps to move forward (without “moving on”).
FOLLOW me on SOCIAL:
Twitter | @brave_widow
Instagram | @brave_widow
Facebook | / bravewidow
YouTube | @bravewidow
TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Emily: Hey, hey, and welcome to episode number 129 of the brave widow show. If you guys are watching this on YouTube, or on some form of video, you will see that I have started moving into my new office environment. And I am so excited, not only for the lighting, which will be much more stable in these videos going forward, but just for the ability to expand To spread out, to focus, to, as someone said earlier today, just up level the Brave Widow brand and all of the coaching that is happening here.
[00:00:44] I am so incredibly excited to be able to have dedicated office space. Now, if you're listening to this show in real time, I would like to invite you to our Widow Winter Solstice, which is happening this Thursday evening. December 19th from 7 p. m. To 9 p. m. Central Time in this widow winter solstice We're going to have a panel a panel of five widows who are going to answer some of the toughest questions and topics that widows experience We're going to have giveaways.
[00:01:23] I'm giving away some signed books, some Amazon gift cards, and some other free exciting things that I don't want to reveal just yet. And we're going to have music and activities and all of the things like this is the Biggest most talked about event that I host all year long and I'm so excited that it is happening this Thursday you need to be there.
[00:01:48] Go to BraveWidow. com to get your spot and to register for the giveaways that we are going to be doing And if you're listening to this after December 19th, if you go to brave widow. com slash free F R E E, then you will be able to sign up for the next live event that we have. And for the wide variety of free resources and tools that we have to help meet widows where they are and take their next steps in their journey.
[00:02:20] Okay, I'm going to introduce Andy here in just a moment, who's our guest speaker for today. But I want to share that Andy's team had reached out maybe a couple of months ago now about the opportunity of doing a, what we call a podcast swap, or just the ability to appear on each other's show and to help provide value to the audience that each of us serves.
[00:02:44] And I have just been thoroughly impressed with not only Andy, but with his entire team in their dedication to widows, in their concern and care for people who are in this stage of life, and in just their openness to talking through some of the hard things. All right, so let me introduce Andy. Based in the Philadelphia metro area, Prepared Retirement Institute is a fee only financial planning firm comprised of advisors, serve as a chief financial officer for high net worth members of the widowed community, business owners, individuals and families across the country.
[00:03:26] In the wake of losing a life partner, finding a path through devastating grief while also managing financial Responsibilities and estate complexities can be overwhelmingly challenging. The Widow Empowerment Project podcast is dedicated to helping all members of the widowed community navigate the terrain of their new reality by bringing together a community of guest speakers and library of resources in one centralized location.
[00:03:55] Presented by the Prepared Retirement Institute, the Widow Empowerment Project podcast aims to be the go to resource for anyone who has lost a life partner, whether newly widowed or years into the journey. Andy holds a bachelor's degree in entrepreneurship from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in finance from LaSalle University and is driven by his passion to improve people's lives by simplifying financial complexities.
[00:04:25] For which we are all grateful. I will include all of the links of where to find Andy, a prepared retirement Institute and the widow empowerment project podcast in the show notes. So you can go there to find the direct links. All right, let's dive into my conversation with Andy.
[00:04:45] Andy, welcome to the show and thank you so much for coming.
[00:04:50] Andy: Thank you so much for having me as you and I have talked in the past about this journey that widows go on and the amount of work that you do is incredible, but one of the areas that we really like to specialize in is the financial part of the journey, which actually ends up becoming a very large part, depending on which phase of life that you're at.
[00:05:16] So I'm excited to talk through that with you today.
[00:05:21] Emily: Yeah, I know For so many widows when they have lost their spouse. They've lost that thought partner There comes a lot of insecurities and a lack of confidence. So having someone who's an amazing partner, especially in this financial space can help widows really rebuild that confidence in their decision making and planning.
[00:05:45] And when your team had initially reached out to me and just talked about the heart that you all have for widows and serving them, I was immediately intrigued because I don't hear that really often, but want to commend you for that. And also I know the audience will be curious to know like where your own passion for helping widows stems from.
[00:06:09] Andy: Sure. For me, I've lost a lot of close people in my family over my life. So I lost my sister when I was in high school. I've lost your grandparents. But my mom was the triggering event that occurred in 2021. She was only in her 60s, but was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And it was less than a year that, I just saw her deteriorate, it was fortunate enough to be able to care for her.
[00:06:40] And along the way, me being a financial planner, I, career, I did as much as I could to help her and my stepdad get prepared for this moment. And even though. I checked all the boxes of the financial moves. There were so many other things that I did not take into consideration that on the back end of it was really hard to deal with for my stepdad.
[00:07:08] It was really hard to deal with for family members. So I almost slapped myself in the forehead because I was like, I do this for a living. Why is it still this difficult to really get through the full process? Not only be prepared. Knowing the event is coming, but then afterwards there were so many other things with health insurance and decisions that he had to make, but he was not the financial decision making partner in the relationship.
[00:07:37] Usually that's, I see, it's very rare that both spouses are in charge of the main financial decision making. And it's because if both of you are trying to do it, you'll like trip over each other. So usually in relationships, one person will do most of the financial planning. They'll make decisions together, but my stepdad wasn't really one that made many, not very tech savvy.
[00:08:07] And just got frustrated pretty easily. So it was like that just clicked in my head. I was like, I need to find more resources, more checklists, or just ways to make that process easier. And I almost, I gave our industry a failing grade for how many resources are out there and how many people actually focus on that.
[00:08:31] On not just necessarily only serving the widowed community But also preparing married couples to be ready for what happens if that event occurs
[00:08:43] Emily: Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I think that's so important because so many widows felt like they were totally unprepared And even if they were the person who paid the day to day bills They a lot of times really weren't involved in a bigger investment strategy or estate planning or thinking about more of those long term goals and financial insecurity is one of the biggest challenges that they struggle with.
[00:09:10] So I think it's amazing that you're not only stepping in to help those people, but you're also thinking forward of let's prevent this from being one of the things widows have to struggle with. Like you're making that bigger difference in your community of clients and people that you serve. I am curious if you would share more about what all your organization does.
[00:09:33] I know, obviously, you help with financial planning and you have the Widow Empowerment Project podcast but I'm also thinking that a lot of our audience may not even be familiar with what all someone in your type of an organization would help them with.
[00:09:50] Andy: Try to summarize that by referring to ourselves, at least our organization as a personal chief financial officer.
[00:09:58] So when somebody is running a business and it starts to make money and grow, become an asset at some point in the business, you have to, if you want to have a successful business, you need to have somebody start to look after the numbers because every little decision that could be a 1 percent positive or negative direction makes a big difference.
[00:10:20] And it they're really that key financial decision making partner in the business that you have to bounce ideas off of me. I do it myself. Sometimes we actually have an outsourced service that focuses only on our industry, and there are times where I'll run something by them. And once they respond with their opinion, I'm like, wow, that wasn't really that good of a decision.
[00:10:43] Like, why would I be thinking that? As financial planners, it's sometimes intimidating for people to come in and say, Hey, I just lost my financial decision making partner. Now I need to find somebody that is a stranger or maybe referred to, through a one of their relationships, like a CPA, a friend, but it's.
[00:11:05] A personal chief financial officer in our industry looks specifically at the tax side, the investments, insurance, all of your state documents, anything to do with charitable desires, setting your kids up, protecting yourself from, all types of things once your assets start to build. And we've created this business here and our strategic partners so that we can offer all of those services, some of those services.
[00:11:37] And it makes people feel really comfortable that if the financial side of their life isn't really something they care to deal with, we're their outsourced chief financial officer for their household. And as things change, with administrative changes, politically with IRS tax code changes, there's always something for us to be having a conversation about.
[00:12:01] And I think that's really what people like is they can just call us or through our resources that we provide. They'll really help make a educated answer around their finances.
[00:12:14] Emily: I really like that approach of you're not there just from a transactional perspective, but you're there in partnership with them in helping them to make some of those tough decisions or to think through things that maybe they never even thought about before.
[00:12:32] And, Thank you. Being able to understand that from such a unique perspective, I often teach people in the community to build a board of advisors of people around them that can help them make decisions, bounce ideas, be able to pick up the phone and address. Some of their questions and certainly having someone in that CFO or financial planner space is one of those key roles and building their confidence in making decisions.
[00:13:03] Can you share a little bit about your organization's philosophy or about, your values and how you typically think about some of these services or in working with
[00:13:19] Andy: Sure. We really go by the four P's we call it here. So our first P is to protect everything that you have.
[00:13:27] So if you start to build up assets, you certainly don't want to lose them. And so what are some of the steps, either investing in a strategic way, making sure you have proper insurance coverage to protect in an event of either a sudden loss or a sudden disability? These are all things that fall under our protect category.
[00:13:49] And of course, the prevent side is probably, I think, clients most favorite because we try to prevent unnecessary taxes to pay as little as legally possible. And of course, expenses. We have joined Charles Schwab as our platform, and we joined there because they offer us the cheapest access to investments that is out there in the universe.
[00:14:14] So for us, We're always looking not just by platforms, but even investment types that we don't want to have unnecessary expenses in the portfolio so that it grows faster and you get to what we call working optional sooner than later. And then, of course, the provide is the third P that once you start to accumulate assets, if I were to have to summarize our industry in a very short, concise way, you're basically once you start working to the time that you stop.
[00:14:48] Your goal is just to build the mountain of assets that at some point it gets large enough that the income from those investments can last you the rest of your life. So we do extensive work to try to find the best type of investments that provide income, provide stability. All in that category. So that's a big part.
[00:15:12] And it's more of the most exciting conversations that we're having because people are getting closer to retirement. They're like, Hey, I'm not going to have a job anymore. Where's the income going to come from? So that's the third P and of course the final P in, even in the name of our firm is to prepare.
[00:15:30] There are so many phases, including, like I said in the beginning, the married couple. That is just starting out or maybe is already established. It's like, how do we prepare for something we don't really want to talk about, but could be a crucial time in our family's life if we don't prepare for it properly.
[00:15:51] And even for say a business owner preparing for a big event. That they're going to sell their business. There's a lot of moving parts there. So within this prepared part of our process, that's like our ongoing consultative where we're meeting on an annual basis, making sure we're checking every one of the boxes so that we know we are prepared for the worst.
[00:16:17] And of course, even preparing for the best as well, which is just a. And awesome from retirement or working optional phase of our lives.
[00:16:28] Emily: Yeah, I really love that. And I just talked to a widow earlier this week who had inherited her husband's business where he was one of the partners. And so she feels. in the situation of, do I remain a partner?
[00:16:45] Do I, what are my options and what do I do? And it sounds like at least, partially that you'd be able to help her, answer some of those questions and understand just different implications based on whether she maintained that or decided to sell off, her portion of interest there.
[00:17:04] I imagine that there are people who are listening or watching that are like, Oh my goodness, you're talking about so many things that sound overwhelming. I haven't thought about, I don't even know. I, maybe I have some investments or stocks or mutual funds, but I don't even know where to find those.
[00:17:23] Like they are just feeling somewhat overwhelmed. And could you talk about Maybe as you start working with someone who's new or considered a beginner, or maybe they are insecure about even starting this conversation because they feel like they should already have all this together. What your process is in warmly embracing them into your space.
[00:17:50] Andy: I think that the industry has changed in a very positive manner where It isn't about transactional relationships anymore. Hey, you have a problem. You're trying to. Send your kids to college. Here's a commissionable life insurance product that I'm just gonna try to sell you. We're never gonna talk again.
[00:18:08] That is the fear of our industry is that someone's just gonna come in and try to sell them something and they're gonna be stuck in it and never really get much consultative advice. So I think that is positive for our industry that the whole advising world Has shifted to this more fiduciary role where we are only acting in the best interest of the client.
[00:18:34] It's like when they do well, we do well. So if you can tell when you're meeting with someone, I get excited about trying to save taxes for somebody. If I can find like in your client's situation where they're inheriting a business, there would be so many things that we would at least be able to show that if.
[00:18:55] You just keep doing what you're doing. This is how you would be here. But if we implement step number 1, step number 2, step number 3, this is how much higher. I always call it your 95th birthday party, how it's going to impact your 95th birthday party, positive or negative. So if we could put.
[00:19:12] Two or three steps just from having a conversation with us changing, their whole net worth and outlook on finances in a positive manner that's huge for us. And it's, but at the same time, it's tough to find who's the right fit. Because there are so many options out there, like some of the bigger firms like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard.
[00:19:37] They have a lot of direct business that you can go and do it yourself with some guidance. And then they also have very generic planning options there that, that could work for a lot of people. But then once that mountain starts growing, every little decision and every little tax positive move we can make is just going to be that much bigger where you need to start dealing with some on that.
[00:20:07] Is fully engaged in your financial world. So that is depending on how you feel about the industry. That's just maybe reach out to your CPA, maybe talk to an attorney and other trusted contact in that space and say, Hey, have you had any good experiences with financial advisors in the area? Are they a fiduciary?
[00:20:30] And that would at least be a good start to start finding if you need help at that next level.
[00:20:37] Emily: Can you explain a little bit more about what a fiduciary is? Some people may not be as familiar or want to learn a little bit more about that.
[00:20:50] Andy: Sure, so our industry is a flat fee based industry where no matter what product you're using, say, somebody's interested in stocks, they may be more conservative and want to go into bonds, mutual funds.
[00:21:09] ETFs are all different types of financial instruments that before enacted, it still exists in the brokerage world. Every time there's a transaction for one of those products, there's a commission generated to the advisor, which starts the, and I'm not saying it's always the case, but it starts to look as though it's a conflict of interest.
[00:21:30] If the advisor saying, Hey, I bought this investment and now I'm selling and I'm buying this one and then I'm selling buying this one, they're just generating more and more commissions by making moves where for us in our industry, we just get paid the exact same amount across the year.
[00:21:48] And the phrase that I said, we do better when the clients do better is if we're charging a one, a 1 percent fee across a portfolio, if the portfolio goes up, we're certainly going to be doing better as a revenue stream to our business. But if it goes down and that really hurts. So that's where that first part of the P is it not only important for our clients, but it's important to our firm that we want to make sure we protect all the assets for our clients, because then.
[00:22:18] Our compensation as advisors goes down tremendously, and even the last part of fiduciary is it does allow us to touch on all of those other categories I talked about in the beginning, like the tax, the state insurance, just to be completely consultative across those.
[00:22:41] Emily: That's really helpful.
[00:22:43] As I think about where widows are typically in their journey they have, They're fully aware that they need an estate plan and that they need to line out what would happen in the event that they were to pass or there needs to be, beneficiaries assigned and that sort of thing.
[00:23:02] And sometimes what we know we should do, we put off the Doing or we don't do just because, as you said, we don't want to think about it or it's another to do or a task. Could you talk a little bit about your estate planning process or some of the things that you help people really consider and think through as they're thinking about the future?
[00:23:24] Andy: Sure. I think the first question, depending on their beneficiary desires, I usually ask, do you want to see the smile on their face when you hand them the check? Or do you prefer to leave it all as a legacy? And there isn't a right answer there. But as you start accumulating assets, if I can give you a very high probability that you're not going to outlive your assets and your 95th birthday party is, going to be In the millions of dollars that you'll still have, when you turn 95, then you do start having to ask yourself that question as an individual, especially if you're a surviving spouse because then it's you're just making sure that you're taking care of yourself.
[00:24:09] But then what do you want to do with the rest of the assets? Because in certain states and even at the federal level, There are some either inheritance tax issues or estate tax issues that you have to be careful for and take into consideration. So that's step one is figuring out what do you want to do to hand them the check or leave the legacy.
[00:24:34] And That's completely up to the client, but one of the main steps that I think is super important for people to go through, at least on maybe a year, every other year basis is to look at all assets that they have in their name. If you just have it in your own individual name, no beneficiary listed, then that asset when you pass is going to go through a probate process.
[00:25:01] Okay. And that is brutal to go through at times because you're already grieving as an executor of an estate or something like that. And it's unnecessary and is usually handled with maybe just filling out one form in a lot of different assets. One of the assets that is a little bit more difficult is a piece of real estate.
[00:25:24] Keep in mind, certain states have different rules. I'm just quoting, Pennsylvania rules here. Is that a lot of times it may make sense to retitle your house in the name of a trust Because they don't ask you who do you want to name as a beneficiary when you go and buy a piece of real estate So one way that you can avoid the probate process with real estate is by retitling it in the name of the trust So just little things like that of titling are super important plus naming beneficiaries on everything You can go to your bank.
[00:26:01] A lot of times people will just have a bank marry couples. It's just in their joint name Here in at least in pennsylvania, you can add a designation called a payable on death account So it's your joint account But if something happens to you and your spouse Then it goes to whoever you name just like in an investment account naming a beneficiary so that check box Is super important, especially with 401ks If you don't name a beneficiary in a 401k, then that asset will have to just be withdrawn at times for people when it comes to them, rather than rolling it into an IRA, triggering a lot of unnecessary taxes.
[00:26:45] So all of that around the estate planning is we have to first make sure all of that is lined up properly. And then we could start looking at the estate documents to say, All of this wording in here, does it still pertain to your situation? Like another, a child that you had named as an executor, they could have moved 10 States away.
[00:27:09] Meanwhile, one of your other kids is 10 houses down from you. A lot of times, depending on their financial acumen, it makes sense to have somebody that's closer to you so that person doesn't have to fly, in and settle the estate and do all of that stuff when, The event occurs. So just little stuff like that.
[00:27:27] I'm not a licensed attorney, so I can't tell you how to write your documents, but we can certainly through our process tell you what to look for the different check boxes that get you almost 95 percent ready for any event. And then it's just more that remaining amount is settling the estate and the attorneys, usually do that on their end.
[00:27:56] Emily: Thank you. Those are some really great points. I know for me even though we had a will, we still had to go through probate and I wasn't educated on having a trust and how that's different in my state. And of course it may vary by state, but for people that have nothing, definitely would encourage you to work with an estate planner, to work with an attorney, to get those trust that trust set up depending on what your state looks like.
[00:28:22] And just becoming more educated about how all of those things will work because the probate process here took up to a year. And in the state where I am, if you have a trust and some of those things set up that Andy mentioned, then you avoid probate and that beneficiary can take control pretty much right away, at least here.
[00:28:45] So thank you for sharing that. Andy, if people want to work with you and your team, they want to learn more about you. They want to find that widow empowerment project podcast. What's the best way for them to reach out and connect with you and your team?
[00:29:02] Andy: Sure, the main website for our firm is preparedretirementinstitute.
[00:29:09] com and we have all of the scheduling links up there for each one of the advisors here in the office. If you just want to have. The free consultation up front to maybe go through some of the items you may have questions on. We don't charge for the initial consultation. And then through all the social media channels, we're on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube with the widow empowerment project podcast.
[00:29:37] You can definitely find us on any of the podcast channels. And really the main part is. From our industry now has done a really good job of allowing relationships in the financial planning space to be virtual. I love getting face to face with people, but the financial planning relationship can be done cross country, and we have a lot of very user friendly tools that can be done through zoom, Microsoft teams, whatever.
[00:30:14] Emily: Awesome. I will be sure to share your links and where people can find you in the show notes. So if anyone's like driving, doing other things, you can go back in the show notes and be sure to find that. So Andy, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom and insights with us. It was a pleasure to have you on today.
[00:30:33] Andy: It was awesome being on here. Thank you very much for all that you do.
[00:30:36] Emily: Are you a widow who feels disconnected? Do you feel like you're stuck or even going backwards in your grief? Widowhood can be lonely and isolating, but it doesn't have to be. Join us in the Brave Widow membership community and connect. We teach widows how to find hope, heal their heart, and dream again for the future.
[00:30:57] Find your purpose and create a life you love today. Go to bravewidow. com to get started.
