[00:00:11] Speaker A: Welcome to Guided Legacy.
I am Dion Duckett, and on this show, we talk about the decisions families face when they are protecting aging loved ones, preparing for the future, and trying to make choices with clarity instead of fake fear.
Today, we are looking at a powerful part of legacy retirement confidence. My guest is Kirsten Crumb, vice president of client acquisitions and wealth advisor with SRG Financial Advisors. Kirstjen works with pre retirees and retirees who are moving from saving for retirement into generating sustainable income. And she helps clients coordinate investments, taxes, Social Security, income planning, risk management, and legacy planning into one cohesive strategy. Kirsten Crumb, welcome to Guided Legacy.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Thank you for having me on this morning. So excited to be here.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: I'm so glad you decided to join us today. And I know you have a lot of good information for us. And so I've got a few questions to start off.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: So.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: So, Kirsten, many people spend decades saving for retirement, but still feel uncertain when it is time to start living from those savings. What makes the transition so emotionally and financially challenging
[00:01:41] Speaker B: when people start looking at retirement? You're totally right. There's two different big pieces that are a part of that. One is that emotional side, and the other side is the finances. Right. You know, many folks come to this point of life, pre retirees, and they have never retired before. Right. They live these long careers and they have become experts in their own field. But one thing that they have never done before is retire. So it's scary, right? It's also, it's kind of a void that they have to fill because, you know, they, they've become an expert in their field. And now what, now what do they want to do with their free time in their life? They want to spend that with family.
And then on the finance side, a lot of people think that once you get to retirement, you're kind into the finish line. Right. And really, it's just a new race you're starting. It's, it's not just completely over yet. I like to tell a quick story about a mountain climbing a mountain, you know, your accumulation years while you're working. It's like you're climbing up to the very top of that mountain. You plant your flag and you have retirement at the top. Well, now you got to make yourself
[00:02:45] Speaker C: all the way down that mountain.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: And so it's just an interesting way to look at it because a lot of people think once they hit retirement, they're completely done when it starts thinking about their finances. And really, it's just new obstacles that
[00:02:56] Speaker C: are ahead of them.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: I, I like that visual. That's really good.
Ties into being over the Hillman.
So what are the biggest questions that you hear from pre retirees and, and retirees when they first begin thinking seriously about retirement income?
[00:03:20] Speaker B: The first questions are just naturally human questions as far as how much can I live off of, when can I retire? What's going to happen to my loved
[00:03:29] Speaker C: of these unknowns that kind of come
[00:03:31] Speaker B: up in life and it can be so overwhelming because a lot of folks don't even know where to start. Right. That's, that's why they come in and
[00:03:37] Speaker C: have a conversation with someone like myself
[00:03:39] Speaker B: and they just kind of, you know, lay out. I've been saving my whole life, I've worked my whole life.
You know, they're looking over at their spouse and it's like, we try, we want to enjoy our life. We want to do all the things on the bucket list, all of the things we have been saving up for, dreaming of doing. And that's our job, is we want to make sure that they're able to do those things and answer those questions and feel confident when they're asking those questions that we have an answer for them. When we meet with a client, the first things we're asking actually is what's important to you? Who are the family members in your life? What's the occupation level you'd like to be at? Because we find a lot of people actually they retire, but they really want to be work optional, where maybe they want to work part time somewhere just to give themselves a hobby or something to do.
And then recreation. What are those bucket list things? What are those things that they want to make sure they're accomplishing and, and money just ends up being the how of what we do for all of those things. So being able to go back to the core what is important to you? Start with that as the first question and then, and then we like to go, go from there.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. And then, then, you know, like now we're going through, you know, periods of a lot of inflation. And so I think a lot of people have concerns about that. And so, so how does helping someone answer will my money last Change the way they think about family security and legacy?
Yeah.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: When they start asking about how their
[00:05:13] Speaker C: money is going to be able to
[00:05:14] Speaker B: last, you're thinking of not only their lives, but also, you know, their children's lives or whoever it is that they have listed as being able to continue their legacy. Like you mentioned, you know, we have, we're living in times with higher inflation we're living in times where their kids are likely unable to purchase a house the same way that they work.
Even if they aren't or are able to purchase a house, they've spent so much more in rent, food, all of the things. As, you know, life has become more expensive lately, and especially for the younger generation. So I think having parents, being able to have kind of this open conversation with, you know, understanding that their situation was different as they were growing up, but understanding also how are they going to leave that legacy behind to their kids? Because having that open conversation from the very start is going to leave them in a lot better place than just,
[00:06:04] Speaker C: you know, hey, mom and dad have
[00:06:06] Speaker B: left all of this for you, and this is their legacy they want to leave to you.
If we start planning ahead and everyone is kind of on the same page, that that makes the world of a difference. And yeah, times are hard right now, and especially just for the younger generation.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Okay, okay. And so why do you think it's important to coordinate investments, taxes, income planning, risk management and legacy planning instead of treating them as separate decisions? Or is it important to do that?
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it is so important to do that. In our first meeting with a client, we actually go through, we like to
[00:06:48] Speaker C: call these all our pillars, and there
[00:06:49] Speaker B: are seven core pillars. I'll kind of go through all of them. But the idea is, you know, finance touches so many different aspects of our life, whether we like it or not. Right.
We really can't make it decision without kind of in the back of our mind thinking about finances, whether it's how it's going to affect our lives, our spouse's lives or our kids or that legacy's life. So, you know, when someone comes in to meet with an advisor, they often think, oh, investment management, right. They just start talking about the market and what it's doing and how my investments are going to grow. And, well, that's a big, big piece about what we do. It's really like the engine that drives it. But it's not the sole piece because we can't make good decisions about your investments without looking at everything else in your life. Right. It depends on how old you are, what your health is, what tax bracket you're in before we can ever make those decisions. So some of those other kind of pillars that we like to look at, the next one being risk management, that applies both inside and outside of the portfolio, like I just mentioned, you know, what is your risk tolerance?
[00:07:53] Speaker C: You're likely going to have different risk
[00:07:55] Speaker B: tolerances for all of your buckets. Of income or all of your buckets of investments. Right.
We don't want to be pulling money out of say this one that we're hoping to grow for the next 20, 30 years while we have another one that's going to be less susceptible to any market risk. Right. Want to make sure if we're taking income out somewhere that whether the market drops tomorrow or not, there's still going to be food on the table. Right.
Tax planning is also one of those huge pieces. We can't just start investing and not taking consideration what type of tax treatment that that account is getting. And that's another misconception as folks start to hit retirement is not considering that as a factor. And tax time doesn't just happen, happen on April 15th. Right. It's an ongoing thing. And so a few, few, few other of those pillars, just to name a few, is, you know, cash management, whether that's budgeting at home, your legacy planning, what you might leave behind of folks and just overall all of those things have to work with each other because we just, we can't make one decision in a vacuum. Everything kind of daisy change each other. And I think like I mentioned, that's, that's just how finances work. Right. It just has so many different prongs to it and it's never just a one static kind of question that we're ever asking.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Okay. And so do you often end up working with other professionals outside of your office and coordinating?
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah, we certainly do. Especially when we start thinking of legacy planning. You know, there's going to be people with very complex estate plans that might happen and, and being able to coordinate with them. We're, we're actually lucky that in house we're able to do tax preparation services.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: So we get to have that in
[00:09:41] Speaker B: house, which is really nice for clients to have because, you know, as we're planning with them, it's not, you know, we have to go reach out to your accountant or your tax preparer because we already have that information, which is
[00:09:51] Speaker C: kind of a special thing about us,
[00:09:54] Speaker B: which, which makes it really nice because just a quick phone call and question about, you know, I'm going to buy this. What are we looking like tax wise this year?
We've already had your accounts all in and we've already got a copy of your tax return. We do your taxes. And so being able to answer that pretty quickly is really awesome and kind of cuts out one of those additional folks to have in your whole financial picture. But we still work with plenty of other professionals in the space. When it starts to thinking about the client, whether it's their legacy planning or their accounting or business owners, there's still plenty of coordinating with other professionals.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Okay. And so, Kirsten, what do you wish more families understood before retirement decisions become urgent?
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah, before. Before things turn urgent. I wish more folks were able to kind of sit down with what are the things that might come in front of us? Right. We're never going to know exactly when
[00:10:52] Speaker C: those events are going to happen, but
[00:10:53] Speaker B: we do know in life there's going to be critical financial and life events that happen. There's going to be happy ones, there's going to be sad ones. You know, whether it's having a grandchild or your daughter's getting married, those both, as we see it, have financial pieces to them. Right.
And then kind of on the flip side, those unfortunate events, you know, what happens if my spouse is now in the hospital for an extended period of time or something happens to them? We want to make sure that we have kind of backup plans in place because it's already such an emotional time that they're able to call us up. Okay, what's the game plan now? I know we have a contingency plan in place and we just start thinking of those things ahead of time rather than just when they truly arise right in front of us.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Okay. So we see retirement planning is not just about numbers. It's about helping people feel secure enough to make thoughtful decisions for themselves and the people they love.
After the break, we're going to look at Social Security income planning and how families can create more confidence around the money they will depend on.
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So before the break, Kirsten Crum and I discussed why the transition from saving to retirement income can create so much uncertainty.
Now we are going deeper into the decisions that shape a retiree's daily life.
Social Security, spending, taxes, and the confidence to know how much income can be used without putting the future at risk.
So, Kiersten, when clients ask, how much can I spend in retirement? What factors should they be looking at before answering that question.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah, this is an important one because like I mentioned, this is almost always the first question that folks ask. Right.
[00:14:07] Speaker C: It's obviously kind of the most important
[00:14:08] Speaker B: one when they hit retirement. And, you know, it's going to be different for everyone.
[00:14:13] Speaker C: And I know that's such kind of
[00:14:14] Speaker B: a blanket answer, but when people come in, it depends on so many different things. You talk about what is important to them. You know, the family that's going to prioritize going on Europe vacations for the next five, 10 years is going to have a very different plan than the folks who are just going to go visit their lake cabin every year. Right. So even if someone had, for example, the same exact financial picture and they came into us, their plans are likely going to still be different. And I think that's also kind of a misconception. People start to think like, okay, well, my neighbor down the street did this and I want to do that, or this is what they're invested in. And I think that's good for me. Okay, well, is he in the same situation that you're in? Because likely not.
Other things to even consider is things such as your health or your age, your age between you and your spouse, all of these kind of little nuances that you don't necessarily think of are going to have such a incredible kind of impact on your financial plan. We can get as detailed as to looking at, like when you take Social Security based on what your age versus your partner's age is, because maybe we can start applying for spousal benefits and it's going to make more sense.
Well, your partner or your person down the street from you is probably not in the exact same situation like that. And so the strategy that we apply for you is just going to be vastly different. So when folks come in, I just want them to understand that your plan is truly unique to you on so many different levels in and outside of the finances, and being able to expect your plan will be different.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So. So how should people think about Social Security as part of a broader retirement income plan rather than as a standalone benefit?
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Social Security is one of those things.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: We start thinking of all of those little daisy chain things that all go together. Right. And Social Security is certainly one of those. We can't just make a decision on Social Security and, and just write it out from there because we wouldn't be doing true planning. There's. There's so many things consider when it comes to Social Security. And it's kind of interesting because when you think of kind of an average retirees income years prior, it used to be a pension, their savings and Social Security.
Well, nowadays we don't see as many of those pension plans. Now if you're working a government job or something like that, that's awesome. You've still got those great benefits of a pension plan. But nowadays a lot of businesses have
[00:16:44] Speaker C: kind of gone away from that and
[00:16:45] Speaker B: they transitioned to like a 401K or 457B, something of that sort.
[00:16:51] Speaker C: So now the onus is really on
[00:16:52] Speaker B: the individual at the end of the day. Right. So rather than kind of those three prongs of income of the pension, your savings and Social Security, nowadays it's really, you don't have that pension prong anymore. Social Security as we know, is kind of a little shaky anyways as we don't know when it possibly could run out. If, you know, benefits are reduced in the future, if it's taxed. Additionally in the future there seems to be all kinds of laws and administration that seems to change regarding Social Security.
And at the end of the day then there's just your Savings or your 401k, your investment. And so really claiming that, you know, Social Security is a part of your income plan, but we certainly can't rely on it being the largest piece really because of the things that could change with it and that we just have to kind of go with absolutely everything you have going on in your life. All of the investments and savings we have to break down, you know, what are the different tax buckets all of those accounts even are too, and then build a plan off of that. But simply looking at Social Security on its own, we wouldn't be able to make a good educated plan for an individual that way.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: Okay, okay. So what are some of the common mistakes that you see retirees make when they begin drawing income from their assets?
[00:18:13] Speaker B: The, the most common mistake is just
[00:18:14] Speaker C: simply not having a plan to begin with.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Right. When they start working with us, they start to understand that. But you know, like I started to mention, taxes are a huge portion of this. You know, we unfortunately can't run away from taxes. Right. And so even just looking at an account and thinking, okay, this is how much is in it, surely I'll be able to take this amount out and live for 20, 30 years and I'm going to be just fine. Right.
That's not always the case. Right. They forget this huge part of the equation, which is taxes, for example. So when they start drawing from their assets, that's one huge mistake that they kind of leave behind.
And another part is understanding how do they segment off their different accounts. Right.
When we think of risk tolerance, it's not like a blanket statement that every investment account you have is going to be at the same risk tolerance level. There's going to be some pieces that are more aggressive that we don't plan on touching for a while, and there's going to be some pieces that are
[00:19:14] Speaker C: much more conservative, like we said.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: So you're still able to have food on the table. We're still taking income off of this piece here. That is a relatively low risk.
And we know we're comfortable that that's where our income is coming from. Because again, like I said, if we don't have a pension and we can't rely too hard on Social Security, we're really relying on those savings and investment accounts the most. And so just having a plan that actually takes into account those, you know, the risk tolerance and the taxes, rather than just kind of willy nilly going through and, and pulling out of those accounts in no specific order.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Okay, and so how, how can tax efficient retirement strategies help families preserve more of what they have worked so hard to build?
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. Like we said, taxes are a huge part of it. And at the end of the day, it's not just what you come, what you're making, or what that account value is, but it's truly what you actually take home.
So starting to actually think of it that way is, is a world of a difference. And you kind of see clients, like, kind of light up of like, oh my goodness, I, I didn't realize I had to even plan for this as much as I did because sometimes they, they start pulling money out of an account that they've had forever and they, they think that this account was already mine. So why would taking it out mean that I owe taxes on it? And it goes down this whole kind of rabbit hole of, wow, I, I didn't even realize what I didn't know. And that's one of the overwhelming things when retirees get to retirement because they just don't know what they don't know. As simple as that. You know, we see so many different professionals that are so high in their careers, but finances is something they've kind of pushed aside their whole life. And, you know, they're thinking about taxes in their own job, but they don't think about it when it came to their own investment accounts.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Okay. All right, Kirsten. And so what role does the mile marker formula in helping clients navigate the financial Decisions that arise throughout retirement.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: So some of those pillars that we
[00:21:21] Speaker B: spoke about, you know, cash management, tax planning, legacy planning, risk management, all of those things together is what we call our mile marker formula. So we live down here, actually, in Lake of the Ozarks. If you, if you live down here, if you've ever visited the lake down here, the lake has different mile markers on it, which is kind fun. So, you know, you're trying to meet up with someone, hey, we're over here at mile marker 20. Let's meet at the restaurant over here.
And so that's kind of what is the background to. To that process. As we talked about, there's going to be different life events that come in front of us. We like to call those our mile markers. We know they're ahead of us. We know what we're looking at going forward. I don't know exactly which ones are going to happen when. Right. But we know that moving forward, there's all of these mile markers we're going to have to. To plan for and all of those mile markers. Come back to that very first question in a meeting, and it's, what is important to you? We want to know the family members, what occupation level you're getting to and the recreational items that you would like to kind of cross off your bucket list. So then we can make a plan for the how, which is the money. Right. Those are not the things that we do. Why we don't do things because of money. We do things as a result. And money is just one of those things to kind of help solve for all of the other things that we like to do. And that's our process going back to the core and understanding there's going to be many things ahead of us, many of those mile markers, and how can we plan for those things right now?
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Okay, so we can see that a strong retirement income plan gives families more than cash flow.
It gives them direction, reduces avoidable stress, and helps protect future choices. When we come back, we will explore how financial education can empower women, families, and everyday people to make more confident decisions.
Welcome back to Guided Legacy.
I am Dion Duckett, and I'm here with Kirsten Crumb of SRG Financial Advisors.
We have been talking about retirement income and planning.
Now we are turning towards something that is very personal in Kirsten's story, the importance of financial education, especially for everyday people and women who may not have been given the tools, language, or confidence to make major financial decisions.
So, Kirsten, your passion for finance began when you realized how little Financial education was available to everyday people, especially women.
What did you see that stayed with you?
[00:24:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I love to tell my story about how I kind of got into finance and the finance world that has led me now to be a professional in this industry because it's so important that there's financial literacy out there. I feel like I've always had kind of a knack for understanding financial literacy and, you know, being kind of entrepreneurial in spirit as I've grown up and in college is really where I kind of took those first steps in and truly wanting to learn as much as I could about finance. And in the process of doing that, kind of found myself going down a rabbit hole. I would be at the library at my college reading all of the books on finances and the stock market and everything. People probably thought I was crazy, but the more I learned about that, the more I realized there was a need for other folks to be able to understand this in a kind of tangible way.
Because I think it gets very overwhelming. We have people that start talking about finances and they, they, they, they, they start explaining it in a way that's just like, oh, here's all the stuff that I know and I know so much more than you. And they don't actually break it down in a way that's digestible for someone to really understand.
And so something that I have always wanted to keep true to me and myself throughout this whole journey is, you know, being able to make those kind of educational short form videos ex showing my whole experience of learning finance and making it digestible to people. And that's exactly what I do still today, meet with clients I already trust that they have come to me as a professional. They, they acknowledge that I understand what it is that I'm doing and that I'm going to be knowledgeable about what I say.
I'm not here to prove that to them. Right. What I am here to do is answer their questions, make it in a way that they understand it. So when they go home, they have that conversation, they're looking over at their spouse and it's like, wow, okay, that, that kind of clicked and that makes sense. And it's, it's, it's so hard, especially being a woman. I think there has been the stigma with finance for, for so many years that, you know, maybe the man is the head of the household or the man is the one that takes care of finances, but there's no reason that a woman can't do the same thing, right? So that's something that I've Also kept with me is, is being a female in this industry is. Is awesome because I get to work with also other ladies and, and being able to teach them and make it understandable for them, because I understand that, you know, when they come in to have this conversation, the last thing they want to do is a man who is proving that they know more information than them. So me being able to kind of be on that same level and make sure that they truly understand without feeling like this bigger person than them. So staying true to myself is really what I have kept this whole way.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: So why do you think so many people feel intimidated by financial conversations even when the decisions affect their families every day?
[00:27:14] Speaker C: Yeah, people feel intimidated by finances because it's something that we just kind of hold close to our hearts. You know, it's something that feels intimate to us. It's something that we don't necessarily want to share with everyone, even if it does affect so many different decisions in life. We've talked about how many different kind of prongs finances has, and a lot of decisions. You know, finances are kind of on the back of the mind when we go through different life events, but it's just one of those things. People don't want to feel ashamed, they don't want to feel embarrassed about, but they don't really.
The more open conversations we have is actually going to kind of make everyone else understand a little bit more and feel a little bit more comfortable in themselves. And especially when we start thinking about families and families leaving behind to their kids or anything like that, those conversations need to be had ahead of time rather than just when something comes up.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: Okay, and so how do you think advisors can make retirement and legacy plan feel more accessible instead of overwhelming?
[00:28:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: Going back to staying true to myself as far as making things less overwhelming and more understandable, because I think a lot of other professionals kind of, this is a mark that they miss. Right. They want to just explain and over explain and go down these kind of rabbit holes. And when you're sitting in front of a client, you kind of need to put yourself in their shoes as far as what is the information that they actually need to take home at the end of the day? What are the things on their mind that really need answer that's going to kind of calm them, feel good, and just understand their situation a little bit more. This goes to that pillow test that I've talked about. And the pillow test is what are those things when they go home at night and they start thinking of finances and it's the thing that keeps them up at night. Well, if they spoke to an advisor or someone that gave them this really long explanation and how important and all of these little things are that they don't understand, they're still going to be stressed out about finance. They actually might go home and be even more stressed out than they were prior to meeting with someone where as opposed to if they come in and for example, they're meeting with myself and I'm able to explain to them the situation they're in. I've seen this before. You know, we're going to make this work. We're going to build contingency plans. We want to make sure we're doing everything that is important to you, your loved ones, what you want to be accomplishing in life. Life. Okay, well, that's the difference in everything. Because now they go back home and that pillow test is now kind of at ease.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:42] Speaker C: They're not thinking about more and more things that they don't know and don't know. And really now they're actually thinking of, okay, we're going to have a plan. I can take a deep breath. I don't know exactly what's going to happen next, but I know that there's going to be a plan and we're going to be okay when something happens. So being able to have people have that understanding rather than the just, oh my God, I feel so overwhelmed. We want to make people feel like, okay, I think I actually understand something now.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Right. And I think what you said is key. It needs to be digestible and understanding because the education is not a one moment thing. It's a continuous and ongoing process. So I think your approach is awesome.
So what have you learned, Kirstjen, from creating educational content for focused on personal finance and retirement planning?
[00:30:36] Speaker C: One thing that I've learned is that there's a need out there and there's a need for people to understand things in a way that they're able to take home and that they're able to digest.
There's not necessarily as much of a need for people going in these, you know, just super intimidating conversations when really we can kind of bring it back a little bit back to home and back to where it really matters to folks. And so the real life problems are things that we're able to talk about and be very candid about and open about. We talked about why money is something that feels like very personal, very emotional to people. Well, the reason is because a lot of their life, in a way, kind of depends on it. But if they. They look at it that way, then they. They start stressing out and everything. So, again, being true to the fact that, you know, financial literacy can be something that is understandable to people, and you don't have to be an expert in finance to be able to understand what someone is saying is really the biggest piece of all of this. And it goes back to feeling just confident at the end of the day and whatever their financial picture is. And that's. That's just what I've been able to find. And the best and reward. Most rewarding part of all of it is just when you kind of see people almost take that, like, sigh of relief. The difference between, like, the first, second, or third meeting, and you just see someone get a little bit more confident each time. And that's really one of the biggest pieces.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. And so how can families encourage more open conversations about money, aging, retirement, and legacy before a crisis forces the discussion?
[00:32:15] Speaker C: Yeah, families absolutely should be encouraging some of these conversations prior to, you know, retirement or aging, because the last thing we ever want to see is someone, you know, be in a crisis. For example, someone goes into the hospital or, unfortunately, we have lost a loved one, and now all we're thinking about is finances or collecting all of their documents, collecting all their things. You know, where did dad have the house keys or the. All of the important documents at? You know, that's the last thing we need to be doing while we're grieving someone. So I don't think a lot of times we're even thinking of that or when we think of finances, we're not thinking of what we're maybe leaving behind or the lack of.
We're leaving behind to someone. So having those conversations ahead of time and kind of explaining to folks that, you know, we need to kind of loop the kids in this.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: We.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: We call this something, you know, we call this our family phone call while we're working with a client.
We want to include the kids in this conversation because it is so important. We don't want to have this point of crisis, and we don't know where to go next.
So it's not sharing every single minute detail about their finances, but it's. It's kind of sharing. Sharing the. The overarching picture and something as simple as, what accounts did mom and dad have? How do I access those accounts? Am I listed as a beneficiary? What even happens if something were to happen to them? Who do I reach out to, being able to have all of those answers all in one place?
And also being able to just kind of talk about it prior to it happening because unfortunately there's going to be those life events that we're not looking forward to that are going to happen. But candidly we have to plan for those events. And so just starting to be open, starting to have that conversation, whether it's just as simple as tracking down what all of the different accounts are and what would happen if a crisis did did emerge.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Right. And during the break we talked about how that's really key in this digital age now because there was a time we could just watch the mail for the statements, but now things get frozen and you don't even know what accounts are out there in the cloud.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: Things get lost and yeah, this has been good.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: So financial confidence often begins with education.
When people understand the conversation, they can participate in the decisions that shape their future.
After the break, we will break bring everything together around Legacy, family protection and practical steps viewers can take now.
Foreign.
Welcome back to Guided Legacy.
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So welcome back to Guided Legacy.
Today, Kirsten Crum and I have been discussing retirement confidence, sustainable income, Social Security, tax efficient planning, financial education, and the importance of helping families make informed decisions.
In this final segment, we are connecting those themes to legacy, how the right financial planning can help families protect loved ones, reduce confusion, and make decisions with greater peace of mind.
Kirsten, when you hear the word legacy, how do you connect it to retirement income planning and wealth management?
[00:36:42] Speaker C: When I hear the word legacy, I think of several different ways that it obviously connects into wealth management. Because one, the legacy that you leave behind is something that we have to to be ongoing and planning for, right? And there's a few different kind of nuances when it even thinks about, you know, planning for your legacy, whether that's, you know, the who, who are you leaving this legacy behind? You know, we see people who have their kids listed as beneficiaries. We have people who have, you know, maybe an organization or church that they've been really close with throughout their lives and that's who they'd like to leave their legacy to. But starting to think ahead of time who that person is or who that organization is ahead of time. So they, they kind of have that understanding as well. Because at the end of the day, it's also going to affect their lives too. For example, the legacy that you might leave onto your heirs and there's a few other aspects of it too. When we think of legacy is how much or do you even want to be leaving behind a monetary legacy? Some people will get to us and they'll come in and they'll say, you know what A successful financial plan for me is going to be getting to the end of my life and having just a penny left, left. And there's going to be people like that, there's going to be people that are going to come in and you know, we want to do what we can with life. We want to travel a little bit, but we, we want to leave live pretty modestly. We actually have five kids that we really want to help out at the end of our lives. And that's our legacy we live. And then kind of on the other side of that, there's maybe the legacy in the sense of what is their personal good that they want to give to this community.
How can we build a plan around that? Because we also get people that come in and you know, rather than having a second job or kind of a part time job after retirement, I want to really give back to an animal shelter or something in my area. And that's the legacy I want to live. And we don't realize that that's also a huge part of our financial plan is. Okay, well, we're not going to be getting income from that type of job because it's something that you're giving your time for. So we'll plan that in. And so there's so many different ways that you can kind of incorporate the word legacy when it comes to financial planning, understanding that everyone's going to have a very different preference. And it's also likely going to change over time. I can't tell you how many times we have had people that have, you know, maybe had kids listed as something as their heirs and then they decide later on they've actually switched this and they want to give it back to a charity. And instead. So being able to be dynamic with that word legacy and understand that that's something that that also could change with life.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think you've said a lot of things that are key. I had it interesting situation in my office last week. I had a couple, both of them only children and they had no children.
And yeah. So most people come to me and Their first thing is where they want their stuff to go. But they were like, we don't know where we want our stuff to go. So they had to go back and think about what they want to leave for legacy.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: So, so.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: And they don't think of these things till you say something.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Right, right. And that was the thing. And I had never experienced that because most people come in, that's the first thing when they think about planning is what's going to happen to my stuff.
So then how can risk management protect a retirement plan and the people who depend on it?
[00:40:07] Speaker C: Yeah, so risk management when it comes to your plan is all about like, what are those accounts or what are the pockets of your investments and your savings that we're actually pulling retirement income off of? Because if we can plan, for say, example, what your income, what you would like it to be an income throughout your first few years of retirement, well, we're going to put that money in somewhere that is going to be obviously less risk averse to anything and it's going to not be susceptible to market risk. And so being able to plan from there, okay, now we're going to be able to transition to a different kind of bucket of your investments of what is going to be a little bit more growth oriented that we're not going to touch for a while. We're waiting to go through this pile over here until we get to that pile. And so risk management absolutely comes into effect. We touched a little bit before in one of the other segments that risk management also comes into play when we start thinking about like our health.
That's going to change. Your risk tolerance is going to change as we age, as different levels, life factors come at us. And so being able to understand what's good today is not going to be what's good tomorrow, five, ten, twenty years from now.
And that plans almost always change, we can never predict truly for everything in the future. So kind of having that built in risk that, that we have maybe a little bit more of a pocket over here that is less susceptible to the market risk because the last thing we want is a client looking at the market and thinking, wow, now my retirement income is going to go down because of what the market did. And that's not what we want to plan for.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So Kirsten, what, what is it that families should review when they want their financial plan, retirement plan and legacy goals to work together?
[00:41:57] Speaker C: Yeah. When you start putting all the pieces together, this is where like you really see the plan start to come into place.
And you know throughout our whole show today, we've talked a little bit about each of those different aspects, but, you know, just the, the core of the financial plan is, you know, they're coming in with, here are my accounts. Here's what I've saved. My entire life I've been working, we talked about, you know, maybe planting that flag of retirement isn't truly the end. It's just the start of a new, new chapter, a new race. You're coming down that mountain. Okay, well, people now have to start thinking of, how do we go down this mountain? What are the important things in our life as we start to come mountain, like you mentioned, are there people that have heirs listed? Are they folks that don't have anyone listed? And rather their legacy is something to be leave behind and what they're either doing or putting back into their community or maybe an organization.
We're going to see so many different clients that come into us, and it's so special that we get to see all of them because you wouldn't even imagine how different everyone's plan is.
And so just being able to have that open conversation, transparency, and just make it digestible to that person sitting in front of us is really when you start to see all of those different pieces start to come together. And that's really how all of those work, all in one, one plan.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. And so I often have adult children who are coming to me about their parents. And so how can adult children and aging parents, Parents have more productive conversations about financial preparedness without creating fear or conflict?
[00:43:36] Speaker C: Yeah, this is an interesting one because I think that it goes back to kind of some stigmas that we just have in, in our lives. And it's, you know, the fact that the adults being the ones or the kids of parents being able to be the ones that kind of, I don't even know, boot them along into, hey, we need to start talking about what finances are looking like. Or, you know, hey, mom and dad, you need to actually start planning for those things ahead of time. And it can be kind of a weird thing because, you know, finances is very emotional and trying to think of, you know, well, I'm, I'm the elder here, and, and now my kids are telling me, I need a plan for my money. It sometimes turns into kind of a weird situation. And, and so, you know, that's, that's what we get to do is, is kind of be that middleman in that conversation and be able to put the pieces together of, okay, hey, if mom and dad, your true, true legacy you want to leave behind is to leave behind to these four kids. We need to have those conversations with those four kids and we need them to all be on the same page with kind of what's going to happen. Because like we had said before the break, you know, we live in a digital world. Sometimes it's harder to even understand what everyone has.
And then we get to the point where now it's crisis mode and we're searching everywhere on, on, on dad's laptop and we don't know where to go next. And so that's just not what we want to do either. So having those, those conversations from the very beginning and, and making sure everyone's somewhat on the same page even, even if it's hard to have those kind of conversations between kids and the parents.
[00:45:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think you just said something that's really key and having someone like you facilitate the conversation because in my own personal circumstances is my, my parents have been extremely successful. My dad was always at the top of his game and then he got Alzheimer's and Yeah. Now here I am and the roles are reversing. I'm becoming the parent. And that's not an easy. Especially with your father.
That's not it.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:37] Speaker C: Especially someone that might be, you know, who's been so able to succeed in life.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: Right. And always been in charge. And, and so having someone like you who can help facilitate the conversation and especially if you've been involved, you know, along the way.
So it's not me bringing in my advisor to talk to my father, you know, so, yes, I think you hit on something key.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: So what is one person practical step viewers can take this week to feel more informed and confident about their financial future?
[00:46:16] Speaker C: Yeah. I think one step that viewers could do this week or right now is just kind of start to get a layout of what your picture even looks like today.
You know, it's, it's interesting. We, we think about people start planning for like a vacation longer than they ever do to plan for retirement, which is such a crazy thought to even think of. Right. But just where are you at today is, is the very first step. Let's see, you know, start gathering those documents. You know, start gathering who is going to be your legacy, what you end up leaving behind, what your situation is today and kind of start gathering what your priorities in life are. Sometimes we don't even think of what those priorities are when we get to retirement. And if you're a younger viewer, you know, we've talked about how it's kind of A harder age to kind of be growing up and becoming an adult in this age, understanding that you're not alone.
And it still goes back to the same thing. Where is your picture at today and what are kind of those goals in the future? But making that first step is just, you know, gathering everything, taking a deep breath. That's what I want everyone to kind of do when it starts to think about your finances and reach out for help.
There's resources online out there. You know, you're going to see a variety of them. You're going to see kind of the extreme of someone that's just, you know, going to over explain things.
But there, there is information out there for you to get. And so making those first steps, maybe writing down a couple goals that you have for yourself, whether it's, you know, say you're younger person budgeting, maybe let's just track our budget. We don't have to make any huge, you know, sacrifices right this week. Let's just start to outline and understand what our budget is. If you're for example, a pre retiree 3 maybe let's pull up that 401k statement that we haven't looked at in 5, 10 years and let's start to open up the conversation of what life might look like when you do retire. So just starting with some of those kind of key first questions about your life and your current financial picture and understanding that we can build a plan, we don't have to panic when we build that plan and just being kind of calm as we approach this new chapter of life, no matter what financial picture you're currently in at this time.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: Okay, so KSTON krum for viewers who want to learn more, how can they connect with you?
[00:48:41] Speaker C: Absolutely. For viewers at home you'd like to connect, you can go ahead and visit our website.
We're located here in Osage Beach, Missouri. We've actually got offices kind of all over Missouri in the Midwest. You can Visit us at www.
ON that website. You're going to be able to find all kinds of different resources about who we are, a little bit more about our process, the mile marker formula that we touched on today. And you can also schedule a call with me if you'd like to have kind of that first consult that's absolutely free of charge. It's just a conversation where we get to know you and understand you and start to ask some of those very first important questions of what's important, what are you looking for? Where are you kind of at right now? And, and before we even get into any of the nitty gritty of the numbers. And we'd like to make sure that the first meeting is something that you don't feel overwhelmed in. So absolutely check us out on there. And you can always give us a phone call as well at 573-302-7212. And I'd be more than happy to kind of talk to you about your picture right now and what finances look like to you and mean to you and what, what's important to your life.
[00:49:53] Speaker A: Okay.
Well, Kirsten Crumb, thank you. Thank you for joining us on Guided Legacy. This conversation has been great. We thank you for helping us understand how retirement confidence, financial education and legacy planning can work together to protect the people and futures that matter most in our lives today. Everyone watching to everyone watching, legacy planning is not only about what happens someday. It is about the clarity, stewardship and decisions we practice today.
When families understand their options, coordinate their plans, and ask the right questions early, they can move forward with greater confidence and less fear.
I am Dion Duckett, and this is Guided Legacy. Thank you for watching. We will see you the next time.
