Good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host.

Happy to be with you.

Hopefully that you will be with us for the entire half hour of our show this evening.

I think you'll pick up some really good ideas, maybe stimulate some, some thinking on your part, maybe spark some questions that you might want to send along.

We'll talk about that in a second, for sure.

But first, I want to welcome everyone who is just joining us for the very first time.

We are multiple six seasons in to our, partnership with PBS and really, really thrilled.

We have had responses from all across the country, fantastic folks that are picking it up on, both, their local PBS systems and on passport, which is fan tastic.

People go online with their memberships to PBS, they get to see all kinds of shows, learn all kinds of things.

We happen to be part of that.

You are very kind.

So if you are for the very first time joining us, welcome.

A couple things.

Half an hour goes very quickly.

Don't doze off.

Don't get distracted because you miss a lot.

And number two, if you find yourself being even mildly entertained at any juncture, you have my sincerest apologies.

He said, tongue in cheek.

One of the things, we do occasionally is that we take a peek behind the curtains.

And, tonight, the peep behind the curtains is not here.

It's in the more the money world.

We mentioned often that if you send us your emails, Gene at ask MTM dot com, we answer every single one back.

I keep saying we it's because there are so very many of our more than money advisors.

They are, at your service.

No charge, no obligation to answer the questions that are most important to you.

That's fantastic.

The behind the scenes, the behind the curtain thing that I wanted to share with you, is, the work environment are more than money.

Office has a a rather, I think, interesting, appropriate and interesting, work philosophy.

And that is very important.

We take our work very seriously.

The work we do for you, we take very seriously.

We don't take ourselves very seriously at all.

And what makes us interesting?

Over the holidays, I had the chance to spend a little time my personal library.

I happened to own a couple of books here and there, a couple of tapes here and there.

Yeah.

All right.

I might be more than a couple.

And, one of the gentleman I studied for decades, gentleman named Brian, Tracy's very, very bright guy has always been a tremendous asset in terms of helping me understand my business and how best to approach it, but it's fascinating.

I pulled out, one of his original, courses from many, many years ago, 30 plus years ago.

And one of the things that he was very stern about.

You work.

When you work, you don't play it work.

There's no you've got to be serious.

There's no, there's no tom foolery, there's no shenanigans.

This is work.

And he could not have been more off base now many, many years ago.

Maybe that was true.

I don't think so.

But maybe that was true.

So when you have that opportunity to engage with, someone on our more than money team, understand that you're dealing with someone who really is serious about being of maximum value to you, but is also, relaxed and enjoys coming to work.

And isn't that the kind of person that you want as your financial advisor?

Something to think about.

Speaking of.

Something to think about.

Something I've been thinking about for quite some time.

As, as a shake up here at the show.

Something's got to give.

And, I, I say all that tongue in cheek because, Megan, our financial correspondent, will be taking a hiatus from more than money.

She's got some professional education that she would like to attend to, and we're so excited for her.

We are so sad to be losing her for quite a few months.

But we are excited for her future, and, Meg's.

I'm going to miss you on air.

I'm going to miss being here.

I love coming to do the show.

I love the PBS team.

I love our viewers.

I'm always, like, surprised when people send an email.

And it's to Gene and Megan.

So I'm just pleasantly surprised by how amazing this experience has been.

And I've been able to learn a bunch of stuff just by hearing the answers.

And, yeah, I'm just going to miss it.

But if you if you ever miss me, we do have all the episodes on our website and YouTube and stuff that you can always see my face, but I'll make an appearance again.

Oh, without a doubt.

And, for those of you who have not figured all this out, Megan and I are very close.

And I am beyond thrilled.

My small sacrifice of losing her on air for her ability to move into areas that are very exciting for her, couldn't make me prouder.

I'm very, very proud of her.

So, having said all of that, do you want to give us, a question for your last show here?

For the moment.

I would love to.

Yes.

Our first question tonight says I appreciate your sage advice.

I have gained a lot of useful information watching your show.

I'm 84 years old.

My wife is 71.

We are both retired and receive about $15,500 monthly from Social Security for our three B annuities and my RMD.

In addition, we have approximately 4.8 million in 4 or 3 B plans, Roth IRAs, broker accounts and CDs.

In 2026, my wife will begin her RMD, which I estimate to be about $4,500 per month.

We have no debts or mortgages.

We are able to live comfortably, travel and put away money each month.

My 59 year old son only child was recently diagnosed with liver cancer.

His future is uncertain.

He is married with two adult children and two granddaughters.

Due to his health issues, he will be going on disability until retirement age and then drawing upon his pension upon his retirement.

His monthly income will decrease.

He owes about $80,000 on his mortgage.

His home is worth about 2 million.

I don't know what his monthly mortgage payment is.

I was thinking if he no longer had a mortgage, his monthly expenses would drop considerably.

I was considering paying off his mortgage early inheritance to help out.

But what do you think of this plan?

And are there any factors which I should consider?

Thank you so much.

Well, first of all, thank you for trusting us for these questions.

Your, son's challenge is significant, and we send prayers and hope, and life and energy, are in his future.

The challenges, are significant, but not insurmountable.

And keeping a very positive, very, eyes on the horizon.

Posture is very, very important.

We're not.

Pollyanna is here.

We understand that the monster that cancer is, takes our friends and our family.

But some folks, some folks seem to do much better than others.

So with incredibly good treatment, which I'm sure you will support, without a doubt.

And a positive, uplifted attitude, given the best possible way to fight the monster and to be there for his his daughters, his wife, his daughters, his granddaughters.

So that's that's my first piece of advice to you is to encourage, surround him with that positivity, surround him with that life and that energy.

Make sure that he has every tool at his disposal to have, excitement about his future.

A a a pull for, from from where he is into his future.

Now, number two, your instinct is correct.

Having a little less financial burden, could be, a positive.

It could be.

In this particular case, you're suggesting that paying off the mortgage is a very nice step.

It is something you can easily do.

It is something that will indeed reduce the monthly expenses for the family.

Modestly, an $80,000 balance on the 2 million, home is not the issue.

In terms of relief from, financial stress, my suspicion is that the, real estate taxes, the insurance, the maintenance on the home far outweigh a relatively small mortgage payment.

But based on what you've told me in terms of your assets, it's something you can easily do.

So why not?

Why not start your, future planning for your son and his family by saying we're going to start with clearing the decks.

Let's get rid of this, nuisance loan that you've got.

And, that's a good first step.

But going forward is where the real support is going to be, important.

I was intrigued by the fact that you're currently, able to save money on the income that you've got, and yet your wife will soon begin her RMD with, 4500 a month, 50,000 bucks a year.

Now we're talking real money, and now we're talking about having a family approach, a family strategic meeting about where can we provide the most bang for our buck in terms of supporting our son, daughter in law and the kids so that they have, maybe it's an educational issue.

We don't know how old, the children are.

I'm thinking of, two adult children.

Two grandchildren.

We don't know how old the grandchildren are.

Maybe it would give him more peace of mind if he knew that their education was paid for.

You can easily do that.

Maybe it would give him more peace of mind if there were something to set up.

So that, should things, unfold poorly, that his family knows that their home is secure not from the mortgage, but from the real expenses, the maintenance, the real estate taxes, etc..

So, first and foremost, sit with a trusted, experienced estate and elder law attorney.

Make sure you're coordinating with your financial advisor and your tax advisor so that you're looking at every single avenue for you, for your son and his family, to have the most positive emotional impact.

Many cases, small donors have very big, positive influences on how we feel.

So if, a granddaughter is 12 years old and you can say we're going to take care of college, that might very well be a tremendous relief.

We don't know.

I don't know exactly where, the dollars are best placed, but you're blessed.

You are blessed.

You have a, a wonderful you have accumulated a wonderful, investment portfolio.

Put that to really good use.

Put that to the the best possible use of supporting your son and his family at a time when they need it.

Desperately trusted, experienced estate and elder law attorney, a good tax planner, good financial advisor.

Put the plan together and follow it through.

Well done Megs, where next?

Well, definitely changing the tone.

But yes, prayers to their family for sure.

This one says you often talk on your shows about your advisors reviewing their client investments, every 90 days, wondering, is it really necessary to change up investments that often?

And doesn't that just run up expenses?

Well, aren't we the cynical one?

Goodness.

There's.

Let me start with the second piece.

First, 20 years ago, the answer would have been yes.

It's called churning.

It's a very bad thing.

It's a very bad thing for a professional investment advisor to be doing.

Churning says you gave me $100,000 to invest at the end of the year.

I have bought and sold so many stocks that you're on, what, 1099 reflects hundreds of thousands of dollars of gains and losses, because I've been buying and selling and buying and selling and buying a because 20 years ago, ten years ago, commissions were how I got paid.

So if I bought something for 10,000, sold it two weeks later, bought something new to me, I could recycle and churn through your investment account.

And instead of earning commissions on a $100,000, I could earn commissions on $500,000.

$1 million.

Some folks went hog wild.

It's illegal.

It's it does not benefit the client.

So it's illegal.

It's called churn.

That issue has largely gone away.

Using, Charles Schwab as an example.

There are many other online brokers, many other brokers, custodians, that financial advisors use.

But we use Charles Schwab as an example.

If you invested $100,000 and bought 100 thousands of stocks, your your commissions would be zero.

And if you sold them three months later, the commission would be zero.

If you sold them, bought something new, zeros or there are no commissions.

So the motivation for a financial advisor to buy and sell, buy and sell, buy and sell churn is gone.

They don't make any more money.

As a matter of fact, they probably lose money because there's there's resource, there's time, there's energy, there's effort that's got to be made in order to to do all that trading.

And yet they make no money.

So let's go back to the issue of meeting every 90 days.

Our financial advisors are fiduciaries, acting in the best interest of their clients.

They construct portfolios that are intended to be evergreen, meaning they don't need much in the way of a just meant for changes in the economy changes and interest rates changes and the global picture.

So what might change that would require them to make changes in the investments you might change.

Your circumstance might change.

Now not every 90 days of course, but are there marriages short divorces of course.

Sadly.

Do we lose people short?

Joyfully?

Do we have babies?

Are there children and grandchildren and great grandchildren?

And maybe we're downsizing a house.

Maybe we're upsizing.

Maybe we're, selling two houses and going into one.

The list of maybes goes, it's it's infinite.

So meeting on a 90 day basis is not strictly an investment requirement.

It is not strictly attending to.

I'm selling something and I'm buying something different.

That's not the case.

As a matter of fact, if I were to guess, I haven't done the the academic study.

But if I were to guess, I would think that in our more than money world headquarters, the average 90 day cycle does not produce any changes in the investment accounts.

Fascinating.

Maybe one out of three.

One out of four requires that a particular investment be pulled out or put back in.

Maybe something matures and comes do and that has to be reinvested.

Of course these things happen.

But in terms of a significant change in structure, three out of four, four out of five, reviews don't entail any of that.

So why have reviews that often?

Well, there's at least a couple of reasons I want to keep us on track.

Keeps all of us on track.

We want to have a, a trust bond between you as a client and an advisor.

And what's the best way to to build trust, have a relationship, talk, develop that over time.

And these are 92 reviews.

Give us a chance to do that.

We have met, we've collected a lot of information upfront.

And now we're we're deep.

And excuse me, deepening that relationship, learning what's happening in your life, things that might impact things that you may not have thought about that might impact your financial picture.

The question we just answered, in a review, we would say, so how are we doing while we've got a lot of money and we got a lot of cash flow?

Well that's great.

I guess we're done.

No, no, no, my son is 59.

He just got diagnosed with cancer.

What can we do?

Way more important than what stock are we going to buy.

Way more important than do I do I do bonds or do I do structured notes?

Way more important.

So our 90 day review process keeps us on track and keeps, helps us build a relationship, attends to ideas, issues, challenges that are not necessarily connected to investments, and as a fiduciary as a as a financial advisor.

There are many great ones across the country that have the exact same philosophy.

We are not just here to move money from stocks to bonds and back.

That's not our role.

Our role is to bring the maximum value to your life and your finances that we possibly can.

That's the reason for 90 day reviews.

Long winded, but I think you get the point.

Meg, is there someone else that needs me to make a rather pointed answer?

I think there might be.

Actually, that was a very good segue.

Our next question says on a recent program, a person asked about giving her house to her children or putting it in her will.

I have the same problem and I would like to hear your advice again.

I understand that taxes could be involved, so I want to make the right decision.

I don't think I want this on TV since you did answer this question already.

But I enjoy your show very much and I've learned a lot.

Thank you for all the help you give to the people.

Thanks.

We very welcome.

Now some folks will say, wait a second, she said, I don't want this on TV.

And yet we we asked it on TV.

This is TV, right?

You got it.

There's a really important reason for that.

She is, interpreting our shows as, as, what?

A serial a and a, TV show that where one show leads into another and you got to go back.

Hey, I missed that Walter White.

He was a chemistry professor.

Seriously.

Now he makes meth crazy talk.

Bottom line is that there are lots of questions that folks have answered in previous shows that we will really answer because every question, even though they sound very similar, they have different nuances to them.

And there are lots of folks who didn't hear the answer to the first time, or third time or 11th time that we answered the question.

So it is again really important that you understand there are no silly questions.

If you miss something, that's fine.

Circle back to us.

We appreciate that.

It's a chance to reinforce to everyone kind of how we think about particular topics.

And this is an important topic.

So, giving her house, the questions are taxes.

And I used two hands because there's two kinds of taxes.

We have to pay attention to inheritance taxes, income taxes.

So let's paint a scenario that's not in the email, but it would be useful for demonstration purposes.

I'd say this young lady brought her home for $50,000 many, many years ago.

It's now worth $450,000.

On the inheritance side, if she leaves it in her estate and passes it to her children through her will, the state of Pennsylvania will use that as an example.

Even though many of you are in different states, we'll charge 4.5% of $450,000, 20 grand ish.

If you're in a state where there is no inheritance tax, this becomes rather easy because the answer is zero.

And you'll see why that's important when we go to the next step.

So if her instinct is, I want them to not have to pay the 20 grand, then keeping it is a bad idea and giving it away is a good idea.

Now, why would that not be a good idea?

The income tax.

I told you there was two income taxes.

If you gift this particular home, I paid 50.

It's worth 450 to the kids.

You have also gifted them the $50,000 basis cost basis.

So when they sell the home for a $400,000 profit, they will pay capital gains on 400,000.

About plus or -80,000 bucks.

Now again, be very, very cautious.

Make sure you're consulting with your tax advisor.

Different states have different rules.

Different states have different applications of those rules.

Some have no inheritance taxes, some have no capital gains on residences.

So make sure you check in with your tax advisor.

But if you happen to be a resident of a state that charges inheritance taxes, and of course, if you happen to be a resident of of of the USA, the, the capital gains taxes, something you have to be very, very concerned about.

So in most cases, in most cases the capital gains tax is the real problem.

So keeping it in your own name and leaving it to them in your will solves that problem because they receive a stepped up basis at your passing.

So instead of a $50,000 cost basis, it will be 450,000.

They can sell the house and pay nothing.

Not a bad idea.

So make sure you're dealing with a trusted, experienced the state attorney.

Make sure you're dealing with a trusted, experienced taxpayer so that you can look at both sides of these coins in your particular state.

Make sure you understand where the costs are, and then make the decision it's best for you.

Well done and thank you.

Thank you very much.

Megs, another?

We have another question about passing things to the next generation.

This one says I would like to make it easy, or at least simple for my heirs three equally, to transfer ownership of my stock portfolio or to turn it into cash.

The bulk of my estate consists of 70 stocks held by dividend reinvestment firms.

Some of the older ones have a certificate component.

Thanks in advance in advance for your help.

Yeah.

Our headline says does 70 divided by three come out equally?

Wow.

This individual, bless them, him.

Yeah.

Lesson, is trying to make it easier for his heirs, to inherit a very diverse stock portfolio.

And for most of you, this is not a challenge that you find a common, you've invested, maybe through an advisor, maybe mutual funds or or exchange traded funds.

But having 70 individual stocks, some of which are still in certificate form, will circle back and and make sure we understand that, to be divided equally among three people.

Sounds like this is, it would take a miracle.

It does not take a miracle.

It takes a little mechanics, just a little bit of work.

Here's what needs to be done.

This gentleman needs to set up, either through an an advisor or individually online himself.

A brokerage account.

And he needs to transfer into that brokerage account.

All of these stocks, whether they're in electronic form, most of them certificate form.

That's kind of going out of out of style.

But everything has to be transferred into that account.

Now that that account is set up to hold everything, nothing has changed.

He still has all his 70 stocks.

He still has some dividend reinvestments.

He's got all that.

Do you want any changes?

He has no certificate.

Those have all been deposited into the account.

He can set up the account using a transfer on death designation T od and name his three heirs as beneficiaries of that account, so that at his passing, all 70 of those stocks, however they are value, are split equally, and they drop directly to those three heirs, and they drop without going through probate, without going through as well.

So a little bit of work on his behalf will save his heirs a tremendous amount of work.

If his heirs had walked into the more than money offices with, here's the situation.

Our dad died.

He had 70 stocks everywhere, and they're all supposed to be divided equally.

Our head would hurt immediately.

We'd get it done, but it would be painful for everyone, that involved in this case, he can prevent all of that rather easily.

Speaking of preventing, I can't prevent megs from leaving us, but I can hold her seat open for her return whenever she wants.

So if you want to send her an email, Megan at ask mtm dot com, feel free.

And if you'd like to rejoin us next week as we answer your questions, send us your question gene at ask mtm dot com.

You might hear it here when we return to this podium for another edition of More Than Money.

Good night.