And good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Gene DICKERSON, your host, your personal financial advisor.

A pleasure to be with you.

I hope you'll be with us for the entire show.

It doesn't take very long for a half an hour to go fast.

And you might miss something if you scoot off.

So settle in.

Hopefully you've got a a beverage that you can stay refreshed throughout the show and maybe even a pad and pencil.

Not a bad idea to take a note or two here or there in order to maybe refresh your memory of something where you go, Wow, that really talks to me.

So much of what we do on more than money talks to everybody in our audience in one way, shape or another, basically, because we are the most relevant financial show on television today, coast to coast and border to border, without a doubt.

How can I be so bold as to say that it is because of you?

You ask the most interesting questions.

You are what set us up for success?

Because asking the questions that are important to you, zoning in on those important topics, honing in on what's the highest priority in your financial life allows us to be so relevant.

Any lectures I might give you about tax code or estate planning, legal documents and such would simply put you to sleep.

But the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of what's going on in the lives of your friends, your families, your neighbors.

It's a fascinating certainly for us, hopefully for you.

And perhaps the most important thing you might jot down this evening is my email address, Gene, and ask m t IMDB.com.

You might very well wish to have access to the entire more than money team.

We answer every single question back to you.

The hard ones?

Sure, the easy ones, of course.

So silly ones on occasion, sure.

But every single question gets answered back.

And then Megan picks a selection of those to air on our PBS 39 show.

Hopefully, hopefully in the future, one of those questions will be yours.

So don't hesitate at the low, low introductory price of free.

You get to have your questions asked and answered and and benefit from all that and maybe, just maybe be able to help someone else benefit as well as they hear your question asked and relate to it, integrate that into their concerns and maybe walk away with some ideas that make their financial lives and the lives of the people that they care about even better.

So let's show you exactly how this works.

The folks that you're about to hear from, they asked the questions and Megan brought them to us.

Megan, where do we start this evening?

Well, our first email tonight is actually not a question you're going to have to help me fill in the story here.

It says, I'm extremely disappointed in Eugene.

Dot, dot, dot.

Have a great weekend.

What's going on here, Jeanne?

Well, I clearly I have disappointed someone.

And what makes this remarkable, great fun.

Great fun.

Sure.

On occasion, I've said some things on air that not everyone agrees with.

I could be wrong.

I'm not.

I could be wrong.

But of course I'm not.

Bottom line is, this individual had the rare talent of telling me how very disappointed I was.

Basically taking me Paul Pillar to post and and chastising me in every way, strongly worded and then ended with.

Have a great weekend.

That's lovely.

The it is impossible to be a public figure of any kind as as modest as our efforts are.

They go far and wide.

We have viewership literally coast to coast and border to border through the PBS systems.

We're and we're very grateful.

But it is impossible to answer as many questions as I have on air, have as strongly worded opinions as I on occasion do.

And yet not offend anyone, not get anyone's feathers ruffled.

And in this case, the gentleman.

He had some ruffled feathers, but he expressed himself beautifully, took me to task, and then wished me a great weekend.

If you find anything that I do or say on air that gives you pause of hay that I'm not really sure I agree with that.

Send those emails as well.

I confess that unlike some of our competitors in the in the financial advisory field that get their knickers in a twist when they're.

goodness, I've been I've been chastised, I've been criticized.

They they find that very unsettling.

I, I find it great fun.

So thank you.

Thank you for the energy.

Thank you for the passion.

Thank you for reaching out and taking the time and wanting to to help us be better.

And thanks for the great weekend.

That was very, very nice.

So Meg's not a great story, but a fun story.

And maybe the fun continues where do we go next?

Well, now we have a question.

This one says, Recently my parents sold their condo to fulfill their long standing desire to live in a downtown.

In my downtown condo, offering them greater convenience for shopping, socializing with friends, and fostering a stronger connection to the community.

My parents proposed to use the proceeds from their condo sale to pay off my mortgage, an amount that precisely matches the outstanding balance.

The challenge arises as I still carry a mortgage on my condo.

Initially intending to rent it out to cover the monthly payments.

Complicating matters, my older sister is entitled to 50% of the money from our parents condo sale.

Given that there are only two children in my family, if they clear my mortgage, how do I determine my sister's future claim on my condo?

Assuming the condo sale fetches $400,000 with $200,000 allocated to settle my mortgage, my parents assert that upon their passing I must return this amount to my sister.

However, I wonder if it's truly that straightforward.

Considering the potential inflation of this value over time, our tentatively alternatively splitting the $400,000 evenly now would allocate $200,000 to my sister and the remaining 200,000 to me.

Yet this falls short of covering my existing mortgage, requiring my parents to cover the balance.

I question the fairness of all of this, especially asking them to handle the monthly mortgage.

I will seek your advice on this matter and really appreciate it.

Thank you.

goodness.

I certainly appreciate you taking the time and giving us the detail to ask that question.

So apparently appreciation goes both ways.

That's that's quite a lovely thing.

We should have more of that in this world.

That's an unpaid commercial endorsement for let's have some peace.

Bottom line is that I certainly appreciate your willingness to be sensitive to the needs of your entire family.

Your mom and dad, of course, your sister is.

That's very admirable.

You are.

You're trying your best to be even handed.

That is sadly, occasionally rare in when when substantial sums of money come into play.

In this particular case, you're doing great.

Your instincts, your your objectives are very, very clear.

Your interpretation of some of these numbers may not be as clear.

So let's let's at least clarify one particular word that jumped out at me as Megan read this this question.

The word is entitled, Your sister is entitled to X.

No, she's not.

And neither are you.

Neither of you are entitled to anything from your mom and dad's estate.

Not even a dime.

Neither of you are entitled to them treating you in an equal way.

Which may or may not be the same as a fair way.

But it sounds like everyone's trying to do the right thing.

So let's put entitled aside and let's start talking about practicalities for your mom and dad to have this opportunity to move into a condo that you own that gives them, goodness, all this wonderful quality of life opportunities, connections with friends, walking opportunities, shopping opportunities, community opportunities.

Good for you.

Great for them.

It does not say anything in your email about them paying rent.

As a matter of fact, you were clear at the end of your email that you are very much committed to them not paying the mortgage on the condo.

I agree.

So it's taking roughly half of this, puts them in a position where they don't have to pay rent.

Fans and tastic.

You get the appreciation on the condo.

As long as they live there, they get the quality of life benefits and the cash flow benefits.

And of course, they have other assets put to the side.

Part of it proceeds from their home.

Part of it, I'm sure.

Savings, IRAs, retirement plans, etc.. Their quality of life can be can be supplemented at their passing.

Relatively easy thing to do.

The a trusted experience the estate planning attorney would simply assign the first $200,000 of the your your parent's estate to your sister and then the balance would be split 5050.

Very straightforward, very common, not inappropriate at all.

There are risks there.

One of the risks not to your mom and dad is that they live a long and healthy life.

They they follow my my recommended path.

A happy, healthy hundred lives to be 100 and be happy and healthy all along the way.

There may not be $200,000 in the estate, so that's certainly a risk.

You have the risk of if they move into your condo and things are indeed they enjoy longevity.

You're condo is going to be tied up for a very long time.

You're not going to be in a position.

You're going to be limited.

You certainly wouldn't sell it out from under them.

And so you have some limitations about the money that's being offered to you.

So you're concerned about is it fair that she gets 200,000 in the future when you're getting it now, you're giving up rental, you're giving up control, you're giving up liquidity.

So I think the word fair makes perfect sense.

So again, assuming that the estate 500,000, the first 200 goes to your sister, you split the difference.

So she would get 350.

In the estate, you would get 150.

It makes perfect sense and good for you and and your sensitivity to everyone involved, I pray, is deeply appreciated by your family.

Well done.

Well done.

Well done.

And very, very thoughtful.

Make it short.

One longer one.

What's next?

Well, this one starts off with a couple of questions, but they're all really good questions.

It says, How do I pick a financial counselor?

How much should I expect to pay for their services?

Does a financial counselor also advise on taxes?

You often talk about getting a good financial adviser and tax lawyer, but I have no idea how to find that person and no experience with advisors or lawyers.

I do not even have a will prepared, although I need to do that.

I don't know what is an appropriate cost to get advice from a financial adviser.

A lawyer, and or how much I should expect to pay to have a will prepared.

I have longevity in my family and and am in very good health for now.

I don't want to run out of money if I live too long.

The whole idea of managing something as important as our retirement money when I know so little about it terrifies me.

I feel I fear my inertia is hurting us financially.

What is your advice, Jean?

Well, my first piece of advice is to create a system of financial support system and advisory support system that can alleviate your fear.

Retirement is intended to be a wonderful time, a spectacular time, a time of great enjoyment, perhaps the time of great service.

You may have the opportunity to make a real impact in your community or on your family.

Perhaps it may be a time of great family involvement.

All of these things are intended to be fan tastic, enjoyable, pleasurable at the highest level, and hopefully ideally stress free, whereas stress free as it can possibly be.

So you are asking very good questions, and I am of the strong opinion that if you find yourself the right financial support system, the right financial advisor, the right tax adviser, the right legal adviser, that your anxiety will drop dramatically and that you will begin to see tremendous increases in your enjoyment of retirement.

And you mentioned our retirement.

So you're married.

So you want to have that maximum retirement pleasure for as long as you possibly can.

And having longevity in your genes is is fantastic.

Of course, the boss doesn't care about the genetic Mac backing that you have or how many miles you ran this morning.

When your time has come, your time has come.

But having that as a high probability lends an important piece to this, which is the as you mentioned, the let's not run out of money piece which needs to be addressed.

Now, let's talk about finding a financial advisor.

You mentioned financial counselor.

Financial counselor.

Financial advisors come fundamentally in two flavors.

Investment advisors that will invest money for you.

There are many very large firms across the country, most of which I have no use for.

But that's me.

That's my personal opinion.

And you'll understand why.

Here in a moment where all that they do is invest money.

They are not interested in your tax issues, they're not interested in your estate issues.

They may absolutely not be interested in whether you run out of money or not.

They would not counsel you on Social Security choices or life insurance or long term care.

That is not what they do.

They have a very, very narrow focus and you pay substantially for that.

Not unusual for the fee to be somewhere between one and 2% per year based on the amount of money that they invest for you.

So if you have a half a million dollars that you wish to invest, they will charge you somewhere between five and $10,000 a year to be your investment advisor.

That is one flavor of financial advisor.

Second flavor has a much broader focus.

They invest money, of course, but they also plan your tax result so that you can minimize the amount of money that you are owed.

Uncle Sam.

They will work with folks to make sure that your estate is in good order.

Your life insurance, long term care issues are in good order.

They can answer questions about reverse mortgages, about leasing versus buying, about gifting, about college funding.

In other words, they are holistic.

They are looking at the entirety of your financial picture.

Now, you might rightfully expect that you will pay significantly more to have all of that advice versus just investment advice.

You might be pleasantly surprised to find that that is not the case, that holistic advisors in many cases charge exactly the same fee, in some cases slightly less.

Very, very interesting.

It's a choice that investment advisors and financial advisors have made in terms of their business model, what they wish to do and perhaps even what they are best trained to do.

Learning how to invest is a a fairly discrete packet of skills and learning how to be a holistic advisor is a much more extensive package of skills.

But it very often comes down to how the advisor sees him or herself serving their clients, serving their clients.

So finding a trusted, experienced financial advisor, holistic financial advisor, will put you way ahead in terms of believing your fears because you will get that tax advice.

Depending on the the firm and the advisor, they may even prepare your tax returns for you.

You will get that estate planning advice and depending on the firm, they may actually perform the documents for you, execute the documents for you.

So there are lots of those out there.

You can certainly start with whoever is the best looking on TV.

I think that's all right.

That kind of kicks me out of the mix, actually.

But bottom line is you can good referrals if you have a friend or a family member that's in a similar financial circumstance to you that you respect their judgment, ask for a referral from them.

If you have a professional that you're working with, perhaps an accountant that's been doing your taxes, ask for a referral from them.

If there's an attorney that you're familiar with, perhaps ask for a referral from them or friends that you again respect.

So bottom line is there are a lot of ways to find your way there.

The pay is going to be the way you compensate them is going to be relative.

Really are the same across the board independent of the services you get.

So look for one where you get the maximum.

Why not get the most bang for your buck and goodness, from where I stand and from the questions that you're asking, I think you're going to do really, really well.

I think having that not just financial support, but that emotional support, that ability to have a third party act in your best interests, act on your behalf, it's a tremendous advantage.

And I hope I pray that you get.

goodness.

Peace of mind and an assurance so that you can enjoy the rest of your retirement and a quality financial advisor.

Can they assure you that you will never run out of money?

The answer is yes.

There are techniques available that will guarantee you will never run out of money.

So make sure when you're interviewing your financial potential financial advisors, you question them about that and see what they have to say.

Outstanding.

Very, very good question.

Fundamental at its heart, but so expansive.

What's next for us, Megs?

Our next email says, Jean, I really enjoy your show and your presentation of advice to your audience.

I've become a real fan.

I am 74 years old and have an IRA with approximately $1 million in it.

I've been taking RMDs for the past several years.

I did a few IRA two Roth conversions in the past trying to minimize RMDs.

My RMDs are approximately $40,000 and growing.

My question is, I've heard of qualified life annuity contracts as a method, as a method to reduce the size of the IRA and delay taking payments from this when I am 85.

What are your thoughts on using a Q LLC for this purpose, and can we take more than one?

Interesting question.

Q Lack.

No, it's not Quark.

It's Q like kick, Q ac It's right there.

Q Lacks qualified longevity.

Annuity contracts were designed a few years back to do two things.

They have two intentions.

One is to reduce current required minimum distributions by moving a portion of your IRA balance into a Q act into this annuity contract that does not pay you any income until later.

In this case, 85 is the age that's being suggested.

Often these key facts are acquired by individuals much earlier early sixties mid-sixties, so that the amount of time that they have to cook is significantly longer.

If you have a Q act that is 20 years in the making, it is not unusual to put on picking numbers out of thin air.

Don't hold me to these, but they will give you a sense of how these work would not be unusual to take 100,000 added at 65 and begin taking out 35, 40, maybe even $50,000 a year at age 85.

And that goes every year for as long as you live.

So like the question that we had just previous, where the young lady has longevity in her future.

If you were 65 and you knew you could trade 100,000 of your $1 million IRA for 50,000 a year starting at 85 and going as long as you live and you're planning on living to 100, you're going to turn 100,000 into $750,000.

That's a really good deal.

And you'll reduce your RMDs when you start being required to take them.

Now, a couple of things that we have to keep in mind.

You're not 65.

At 74, you have a much shorter period of time for that money to cook before you start taking distributions.

So you should expect that there's the the distributions at 85 will be much more modest than what we just talked about.

Number two, there are limits to how much of your IRA you can commit to a kulak.

As I'm going by memory, I think I'm close.

I think it's 125,000.

If you have a million, 125,000, 12 and a half percent of your of your investment is pushed off, you don't have to take armed days, but you're still taking RMDs at about an 88% rate of what you're currently taking them.

It's not going to have a dramatic impact from a tax reduction standpoint.

So you're going to have to be far more impressed with the cash flow you get at 85 than you are with the tax reduction that you get at 74 or 75.

Really, really important.

Taking a cue from your individual IRA has nothing to do with what your spouse might do.

It's sound if I'm going, if I'm remembering correctly, the email it says We we meaning hopefully your spouse.

I'm guessing each of you can do that at the same percentages apply, same proportions apply, but it's a significant amount of money.

So if each of you has a similar scenario, could you each do $125,000 in Q lacks?

The answer is yes.

And could you have a 85 substantial bump in your income?

The answer is yes.

One other point about Q axis.

Like any other lifetime annuity.

If you turn 85 and you get your first check for $50,000 and then the good Lord calls you home, the Q Act ends, your heirs typically get nothing.

So it is a roll of the dice, perhaps.

I prefer to think of it as an optimize stick investment in your future, that you are foursquare joining the happy healthy hundred team and planning on being around for a very long time and enjoying yourself for a very long time.

Having a huge bump in income at age 85, 85 is the new 65, please.

You're going to be happy, healthy, traveling, moving, sharing with family, sharing with friends.

You're going to have a great opportunity there.

So you do need to explore.

You do need to be educated.

You do need to have all of these details laid out for you specifically.

Not general numbers, not kind of, but very specific.

Make sure you are working with a financial advisor who has access to Q Lacs.

Not all of them do.

Make sure you're working with a financial advisor that understands the IRS tax code very, very clearly.

Not all of them do.

Some of them are prohibited from giving you tax advice.

Make sure your financial advisor has those two pieces locked down so that when the recommendation comes that you should or should not do a q lac, that you have real confidence that it's the exact correct recommendation for you.

Thank you so much.

Goodness.

Great questions this week.

All right.

We started out disappointing somebody, but we ended up giving you a strong explanation on the Q lack side and maybe helping you spread your retirement moneys out a bit and guaranteeing you'd never run out of money, if that's your question.

Goodness, we've done our job.

If it's not your question, you may have others.

We encourage you.

We implore you, help us stay.

The most relevant financial show on television by sending us your questions Gene and ask and team icon any and ask MTM dot com and whether they're brief.

Hey you're disappointed but have a great weekend.

We're extensive.

We answer every single question back to you and some of those will appear on future shows.

It makes it so worthwhile.

I want to thank you all.

You spend time with us.

You do us that great honor.

We hope that we return that with good service.

And if if you agree that we do.

There should be no reason in the world that you won't be back with this next week.

As we return to the podium for another edition of More than Money.

Good night.