A good evening.

You've got more than money.

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

Happy to be with you.

Happy to serve you for the next half an hour or so.

So settle in, maybe grab a cup of coffee or something.

Stronger pad and pen.

Not a bad idea as we share as much information as we possibly can in a very short period of time.

Welcome back to all of our loyal viewers.

If you're joining us for the very first time, we welcome you.

I think you'll find the next half an hour goes very, very quickly as we are the most relevant.

We lay claim to being the most relevant financial show on television today.

Coast to coast, border to border.

It doesn't matter what station you're on, it doesn't matter how large the network might be.

We are the most relevant.

We claim that boldly because of you.

And if you're just joining us for the first time, you might be going.

I'm not really sure how that.

How does that work?

Well, you send us your emails to Gene at ask MTM dot com, G-E-N-E at ask mtm dot com.

And we build an entire show around your questions.

So what's relevant to you?

The most important topics in your financial life and often financial and more type.

The show is more than money.

So often we're we're integrating a lot of different financial topics into one question.

Sometimes the questions are quick and easy, sometimes not so much.

But that's kind of the excitement of the show.

And hopefully you'll hear some questions.

You know what that applies to me.

There's not directly to me, however, that unfolds as your questions arise.

Make sure you join them down because you'll want to send those off to our More than money advisors.

We answer every single question back to you, and then we select a a selection for a future show.

Maybe one of your questions will end up on a future show as well.

Now, speaking of future shows, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor.

Circle on your calendar.

March the 6th.

March the 6th is a very exciting evening for us as we're opening up.

We've talked many times on this show about peeking behind the curtain.

How would you like to see completely behind the curtain.

No peeking.

Involved.

Be involved in the product of two, not one.

Two.

More than many shows.

Be doing, live recording.

We're going to have a studio audience.

One I've been told some Hors d’Oeuvres, but more importantly, a chance to see exactly how more than money is produced and and, and created from start to finish.

Have your questions asked and answered.

Perhaps.

Maybe even some of you would like to take the microphone and ask your questions.

But details, of course, are being fleshed out as we speak.

We're asking you to circle the date well in advance so you don't miss out.

If you're seeing our show from further afield, perhaps you want to make a trip into, the Holy Lands into Bethlehem and, join us.

And that would be very, very exciting indeed.

Details PBS 39 dot org slash events PBS 39.org slash events gives you some details.

They will be fleshed out as we go along, and it would be a great pleasure for me personally to be able to meet you face to face and, maybe share some, some of, what I've learned over 780 years with you and the folks that you love.

So please join us now, for those of you who are loyal viewers, you're saying.

Wait a second, Megan.

As you may have, heard on our last show, Megan is taking a sabbatical.

She's getting some advanced training, some education, and that's fantastic.

We're very excited.

Excited for her.

That will take her away from us for a number of months.

And so, whatever shall we do?

Well, we're going to go old school and back to way.

And you might remember, if you've been with me from day one, when Gene was all Gene all the time.

So reading the questions, answering the questions, giving you the information that you need, let's get to it.

So, Javi, what's our, our first headline to be, very good fiduciaries in fees.

The question, actually, gentleman says I have two questions.

Do your advisors act in a fiduciary capacity?

And number two, are you a fee only advisor?

And if so, what are your fees?

These are two excellent, excellent questions.

Very simple very brief.

But the impact is extremely important.

Now I will certainly answer based on our more than money advisors.

But more importantly we've got to think much broader.

We have to think about the thousands of advisors that are out there, plying their trade, advising their clients coast to coast and border to border so that as you're either from maybe communicating with a financial advisor and I'm on our more than money team, we we serve clients in more than 30 states.

We are coast to coast and border to border.

But you may have someone locally that you like to talk to.

That's fantastic.

When you're talking to them, the word fiduciary will become a very important topic to raise on your part in a in a very serious way, in a very realistic way.

When you're talking to a financial advisor, particularly the first time, considering whether he or she would be appropriate for you, what you're really doing is conducting a job interview.

You are asking critical questions about their experience, their background, their value systems, the advice that they typically give, what's their typical client.

And fiduciary is a word that you should be familiar with for that very purpose.

Fiduciary in a in a strict legal sense, is one who acts on behalf of another, putting that other person's best interests first.

So as a financial advisor in the old days, decades ago, most financial advisors were essentially stockbrokers, stockbrokers who earned a commission.

And if they said to a client, you should buy this.

And the client said, yes, they earn very nice commission Commission.

If they said to the client, I'm looking at your situation, there's really nothing that you should buy.

They earned nothing.

A tremendous conflict of interest, meaning that they, often did not put their client's interests ahead of their own.

A fiduciary in today's financial world is very easily found.

There are I think, the predominance of advisors that you would bump into would fall into the category of fiduciary, of putting the client's best interests at heart, removing as many of the conflicts of interest as humanly possible.

Is it ever possible to be completely free of conflicts, a financial probably, yes.

Emotional?

Probably not.

Political?

Maybe not at all.

But bottom line is reducing those conflicts to the smallest, number or smallest percentage they can possibly be so that the best interest of the client is at the forefront of everything that they recommend, everything they do in the best interest of the client.

Most financial advisors who act as fiduciaries never earn a commission.

There's not a commission that's generated for the purchase of a stock or the sale of a stock, purchase of a mutual fund, an ETF, or the sale of either of those either so that the compensation they receive typically is a relatively small, 1% or so, plus or minus, per year on whatever investments they, recommend that they manage for their client.

So they are not, put in that awkward position of if I, if I put you here, I make more money.

If I put you there, I make less money.

They are compensated exactly the same, no matter what recommendation they give to you.

And as a result, your best interest rises to the top.

Fiduciary.

Very important word.

Make sure that you're familiar with that.

You're comfortable with having that discussion.

By the way more than money advisors fiduciary now fees.

We already mentioned roughly 1%.

I've seen as low as one half of 1% for very, very large accounts.

1015 $20 million accounts.

I've seen fees as high as 3%.

Those are largely going by the wayside.

But as large as 3% for relatively small accounts.

And in some fiduciary, investment advisor offices, they have a minimum fee.

So maybe the minimum fee is $1,500 independent of what the account value is.

So if you only have $15,000, then 1,510% fee.

It's not technically a fee, it's a retainer.

But bottom line is you've got to ask the question.

So in the more of the money world headquarters, for example, our fees range between 1 and 1.5%, depending on the size of the account and the services involved.

And as a result, our best interest is to make sure your best interests are served at the highest level possible.

Not because we'll make more money today, but because the higher level of service that we provide to you that any advisor might provide, any advisor.

Listening to my show, seeing my show tonight, I would strongly advise you to embrace the idea that what you make on a day by day basis is not terribly relevant to your business success.

What you must focus on is serving your clients, because serving your clients means that they will stay not for six months or a year, but six years or six years.

And you say 60 years.

We have a young associate in our office who, very likely will be serving clients for 60 years.

And recently I lost my longest standing client 44 years.

And at his passing, I lost a dear friend.

So that covers an awful lot of area on a very, very brief question set of questions.

But I hope that helped a lot.

Shall we go to our next question?

What does it take to be a millionaire?

Goodness, the question doesn't start that way.

I'm receiving a legal settlement.

After legal fees, it will amount to a net of about $4 million.

I'm afraid to make mistakes.

This money will end up being my financial future.

I don't want to lose it.

What should I do to protect myself?

The reason I chose the title.

What does it take to be a millionaire?

Is because a lot of folks, naturally assume, a million bucks.

It seems pretty straightforward.

Being a millionaire is not just the amount of money you have.

It's the mindset that you have.

It's it's it's how you mentally approach your financial resources.

So being a millionaire in, in the definition of I've piled up $1 million from however I may have gotten it, either I earned it.

I have a business.

I've grown to that level.

I've invested in, grown to that level.

I've saved and grown to that level.

Having that number of dollars is the start, but it does not make you a millionaire.

How you think about that money, how you approach that money, how you, allow that money to work for you.

That's what makes you a millionaire.

Which is why, by the way, it is now.

Gosh, it's it's, it's stuff of urban legends.

You you read about, someone who has created a tremendous, success of tremendous business success, for example.

And if you look just a little bit into their background, you will almost inevitably find they made a success previously, and they lost it all, maybe several times.

It's because they had the dollars required to be a millionaire, but they didn't have the mindset.

And what types of mindset, what type of, what approaches would a someone who has a millionaire mindset take if they were, marshaling $4 million?

First and foremost, they would assemble a team.

They would not rely on their own resources, their own, skills, their own experiences.

They would assemble a team to assist them in in managing this, the significant block of assets, a financial advisor, of course.

Tax advisor, of course, an attorney, of course.

When was the last time you saw a movie where there was a very successful multi-millionaire who did not have a tax advisor, did not have an attorney?

I'll get my attorney on the phone.

Attorney that they call, by their first name.

This is not a accidental.

Hey, I've got to go to the Yellow Pages to find an attorney.

Millionaires have a mindset that says I don't have to rely strictly on my own knowledge.

I can assemble a team that can provide me with tremendous amounts of knowledge.

So let's use those three as good examples.

I'm sure there will be others, that you will assemble as part of your team, but let's look at those three, in, in a microcosm.

So, financial advisor, if the financial advisor is full service, they will be looking at all manner of issues.

Investing, of course, protecting investmen Reducing liabilities very, very important.

Reducing risks.

Millionaires often think not in terms of how much can I make, but how much might I lose if I take too much risk?

Those are some of the mistakes that amateurs make that millionaires avoid because they have a team that starts with not just what can we make, what kind of return can we get, but what protections can we build in to this investment system so that major mistakes are not made?

Really, really important taxes in this, the IRS is your partner, whether you want to acknowledge it or not throughout your adult life, maybe even starting much, much younger, depending on where you are.

In terms of, your family saving for your college, maybe setting up a custodial account, maybe making gifts to you.

Very common folks give gifts of, a share of Disney stock to a young baby, so it may start much younger.

But taxes are an ever present issue that needs to be addressed.

So many, instant millionaires, the folks who win the lottery, for example, or have a legal settlement, they come into the money, very, very, suddenly, make mistakes.

On the IRS side, the IRS has little or no sense of humor around you going, I was silly.

I made a mistake.

I'm sure you'll forgive me.

They don't forgive, and that lasts forever.

So, gosh, I've lost track.

But I think in, in general, lottery winners, go bankrupt at, like, a 30% rate.

Somebody out there will double check my numbers and make sure that I know whether I was even close, but I think that's pretty close.

Around 30%, almost always due to, they got in trouble with the IRS and the IRS or the state taxing authorities, however, taxes.

So if you have a tax professional that's very skilled, experienced, trustworthy, that avoids the second big issue.

So we're avoiding making investment mistakes through a financial advisor.

We're avoiding making tax mistakes through a tax advisor.

And lastly your legal advisor will allow you will encourage you will insist that you set up certain structures that will protect your investments, will protect your estate, will protect your family.

Those might be corporations, they might be LLCs, limited liability companies, they might be sole proprietorships.

That's that much protection.

But it's an interesting, technique for setting up a business.

There are lots of different pieces of this puzzle, that your attorney will make sure you have the proper structure in place so that those errors are not legal in nature.

One of the most important things your attorney will certainly do, particularly with an amount of money this large, is to encourage you, require you to set up an estate plan and estate planning.

Lots of folks agree.

I have a wealth.

If that's all you have.

You do not have an estate plan.

An estate plan is multiple documents that work together to protect you during your lifetime and after your passing, and protect those that you love.

So will absolutely.

And amount of money this large.

Likely a set of trusts as well and medical directive.

So in the event sadly that your house is lost, someone needs to make decisions on your part that that's well documented and things are as they should be.

And powers of attorney.

What if you can't respond?

What if you're unable to respond with something?

That you can't be reached?

You're vacationing.

You're doing very, very well.

And, decisions need to be made on your behalf.

From a financial standpoint, the power of attorney is very, very important there.

So again, $4 million does not a millionaire make a millionaire mindset is what makes a millionaire.

So having a financial advisor, a trusted tax advisor, and a trusted, experienced attorney, that's how a millionaire would approach this concern.

Outstanding.

Megan.

We're here.

I would say Megan, where to next?

But in this case, I'll say, Javi, where to next?

Are gifts good.

And seems like a foolish question.

Let's find out.

I've enjoyed your show on PBS for the past year.

I've learned a great deal.

Thank you.

My question is, my wife and I are in a CCRC.

For those of you who are not familiar with that, as as you get older and closer to retirement, you likely will become familiar with that term.

Continuing care, retirement community CCRC very important.

I feel our current income, with our current income and it comes from multiple sources, is enough to cover our living expenses and our savings.

Nest egg is quite secure.

We began writing checks to our four children four years ago, each year at Thanksgiving.

Ironically, in the amount of, you guessed it, $4,000 each.

We would like to continue doing this as it has very little impact on our savings.

Number one, is this a good idea to help minimize taxes on inheritances later?

Is that is what we are doing legal as far as the IRS is concerned?

Thank you for taking your time.

Goodness.

Gifting is in many ways, particularly in this.

In this case, as as described, it's fantastic.

It is absolutely wonderful.

It's joyous.

These folks, for kids four years, 4000 bucks, somewhere in there, what, 60, $70,000 range they've already given away.

Can you imagine the number of stories they've already accumulated from their kids?

Hey, dad.

Hey, mom.

We were able to use that money to put a down payment on the car that we needed so very badly.

And, and replace that old clunker, and now we're safe and sound.

What a great story.

Hey, Mom and Dad, we're putting that money you're giving us into your grandchildren's college fund.

What a great story.

Hey, mom and dad, you helped us get out of debt.

You helped us pay down our mortgage faster.

These are all wonderful things that have great impact, great positive impact on the entire family.

And they're seeing it.

It wasn't left in their will, and they have ascended to a better place and hope that all these things have become useful to their children.

They are seeing it in real time.

It is a beautiful, beautiful thing that they are doing now.

Will it help reduce inheritance taxes?

Because our show is seen in many different locales, many different geographies.

Some states have inheritance taxes, some do not.

The federal government at this point, as as I am recording this show at this point, has, nearly zero interest in the average Americans estate, because for a husband and wife, to have their estate taxable on a federal level, the estate combined would need to be in excess 25 million bucks.

So I think we're on safe ground to say probably not the case here.

We're just guessing, but probably not.

So federal estate tax, inheritance tax zero.

No matter what.

The state, however, may very well impose an inheritance tax.

State of Pennsylvania, for example, to go to children.

It's 4.5%.

So for every $10,000 that they give, they are saving the family $450 in inheritance tax in the state of Pennsylvania.

Please check with your local taxing authority to see what your state does or does not.

Assess Florida, for example.

Inheritance tax is zero, so this doesn't apply at all.

Makes it fantastic.

But in the state of Pennsylvania, they've given away this couple so far about 70,000.

They have ended up saving somewhere nearly $5,000 in inheritance taxes for the children.

That's lovely.

That's lovely.

Is it a good reason to be doing what you're doing?

I think it's an okay reason.

I don't think it's a good reason.

I think in many ways it's.

It's literally the cherry on the Sunday.

It has nothing to do with all the good stuff.

It's just a pleasant collateral impact.

What they're saying in terms of is it legal or not only is it legal, lots of folks have it in their mind that there's some annual amount you can't give more than, and the answer is not likely true.

There is certainly an annual amount, an annual gift amount that you can give away.

And you don't even have to file a piece of paper.

Currently 18 19,000 bucks a year per person, per donor, which means mom and dad can team up and let's call it 18,000.

They could give each kid up to $36,000 per year.

They could give their grand kids the same thing.

They can give as many different people as they wish.

So somebody who has millions could literally give away millions of dollars to lots and lots of people and not even have to file one piece of paper.

Fascinating.

Now look at it in the exact inverse of that.

What if they had one child?

And what if the child, they wish to give $1 million to.

Wow, that's way more than 18.

Are they in trouble?

The answer is not even close, because now they do have to file one piece of paper, and in their lifetimes, husband and wife are allowed to give away without paying any tax 25 million bucks, in addition to $18,000 a year.

So in this particular case, no worries, no fuss, no muss.

Well done.

You Javi, you have one more maybe.

Very good.

Our sons won't live in our home.

The gentleman writes.

I've been watching your show, enjoying it.

And, my question is, I want to know the best way to have my two boys deal with having our house.

After my wife and I pass away.

They would not need to live in it, and they would end up selling it.

Is there anything I can do now to make that easier?

It's paid off with just property taxes and insurance to deal with.

Thank you for all you do and you're valuable information when you're very, very kind.

This particular question is very clear.

Their sons will not live in the house.

That's an important issue relative to other options.

In this particular case, they will end up selling the house.

It will end up being the result will be.

It is very important for them, tax wise, to inherit the home versus having the home being given to them.

If the home, for example, is 400,000, mom and dad paid 100.

If they give the boys the home, they will have to pay capital gains when the home is sold on $300,000.

If they, bequeath the home in their wills, their estate plan, the 400,000 our house cost basis to the boys rises to that value on the date of the second death.

So 400 becomes a 400,000 on our cost basis.

The two boys could then end up selling the home and pay no capital gains tax at all.

Very straightforward.

Thank you for being clear about your objectives, and thank you for asking in advance.

So we don't have to fix it after the fact.

Speaking of after the fact, please don't, avoid the fact.

Ignore the fact.

Miss the fact that you should circle on your calendars March 6th, as we host live performances of More Than Money for a live studio audience, we are inviting you to join us.

Go to PBS 39.org slash events for details.

You're going to have a little bit of wine, a little bit of Hors d’Oeuvres, You get to meet yours truly, the production team.

You'll see behind the curtain.

It's not the wizard of Oz, but it's pretty darn close.

So, thank you for spending part of your evening with us.

Very, very kind of you.

Of course.

And indeed, we appreciate that very much.

You again, allow us to be the most relevant financial show on television.

If you'd like to have your question asked and answered Gene at ask mtm dot com works very, very well.

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

Maybe one of those will be yours again.

Thank you so very much.

We'll see you next week when we're back behind this podium for another edition of More Than Money.

Good night.