Good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Gene Dickison in your host.

You've got Megan Smale your financial correspondent.

You've got an entire team here at PBS bringing you the next half an hour of more than money.

If you're a loyal viewer, you know how this works.

We set it up, we kind of get you going, give you a couple ideas before we answer some questions, and then we turn directly to the questions that you have sent us.

If you've just joined us for the very first time.

Where exactly have you been?

And do you have a doctor's note?

Because that is required.

No, it isn't.

We're just teasing.

Bottom line is you've missed the bit.

We've been doing this show for a long time.

You've got a lot of great information out there, and you still have access.

Direct access to us for the asking.

We are the most relevant show financial show on television today on any station, on any network.

Coast to coast and border to border.

Because and I say this quite boldly, but very, very accurately, because of you.

Because you send us questions, you send us email questions.

Gene at ask MTM dot com.

You send us your email questions, you create the agenda.

You determine what are the priorities.

You tell us what's most important to you, what is most relevant in your life?

What information would have the biggest impact?

The most, answer the most important and pressing questions.

You set the agenda and your lives are far more interesting than anything I might conjure up by sitting and, pontificating.

And if I knew what that meant, that'd be even more impressive.

So I hopefully over the next half an hour, you'll be a convert.

You'll start from this is our first and you're going to want to be with us every single week.

As so many of you have again, coast to coast and border to border.

And we've had the pleasure of speaking with you, emailing you, conversing with you.

We are a meeting.

You guys.

So many of you have had the opportunity to introduce yourselves to us.

What a blessing you've been.

To us and to so many other folks.

When you ask a question, lots of other folks are are listening in as well.

And, as we say often, we answer every single question back to you.

They can't all be on a future show, but every single question gets answered back.

So let's start the show and give you a good demo of how this works.

Megan, where do we start?

Well, our first question tonight is a little contradict of of your opening, but I'm sure you have some thoughts and maybe even some snark.

So let's dive in.

This one says I watch your show and you encourage the viewers to submit their questions.

I have done that numerous times and do not get any answers.

I did what you said and reached out to your advisor via email and did not receive a response, hence the fraud accusation.

You never did answer any of my questions, so I know you weren't going to start now.

Own up to your negligence instead of turning on me.

What are your thoughts, Gene?

Oh, I have a thought or two.

Just, in passing.

This is, I, I selected this email to be aired for two reasons.

Number one, unlike many folks in the media who lose their minds when they get a negative comment of any kind, for me, however my character is constructed, I find them very entertaining and and in many ways very amusing.

So, number one, it does not it doesn't not only not bother me, it adds to my sheer enjoyment of life.

So thank you so much.

Number two, there is a dual responsibility that we have to each other.

My responsibility is to give you the very best information that I have available at whatever moment I'm answering your question.

And for our entire team of advisors who are answering emails directly back, to those folks in the audience who have sent this to us, it's exactly the same thing.

Our responsibility is to give you the very best information we have.

At that moment in time, your responsibility is to not be a goof, not be a goof.

The back story here.

And one of the reasons I was very willing to air this particular comment, was because this young lady has emailed us many times taking advantage of our offer to answer any questions.

We have responded often, including, an opportunity or an invitation for her, to call and have a conversation to discuss the details of a particular, complex question.

And, gosh, to her chagrin, she found out that we keep remarkably good records.

And when she finally said, you never answer any of my questions, we had copies of all the emails, all the answers.

And in spite of that, in spite of that, her response was, well, it still doesn't make me happy, I get that.

Bless you.

And I say that sincerely.

Bless you.

Some folks there just ain't no pleasing.

And I'm okay with that.

And hopefully so are you.

So, we have a little bit of fun.

I I my my heart is compassionate for her.

As, as she has, slightly different approach to life than 99.9% of you, but fun to explore.

And by the way, for some of you who are not, active with your email, you'll send the email.

And when we respond, it might go into your spam folder, might it might be caught up in, in some of your, your, your, my broad protections, Norton or what?

Antivirus, that kind of thing.

So make sure be if you go a day or two and you're saying, hey, I don't think I got an answer, make sure you check your spam filter.

In about nine out of ten cases of folks who have followed up and said, hey, not really sure you got my email.

That's where it was.

Meg.

Where is it next?

Okay.

Well, our next question.

We're definitely flipping back to the the positive side of things.

This one says we are fans of your excellent show.

We watch every week.

And it's an important service to the viewing listening community.

So thank you.

Our son and his wife live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

They're in their mid 40s and are getting around to thinking about a financial advisor, wondering, can you please recommend a reputable advisor in their area after trying to influence them?

To see an advisor, I would like to make sure they have a positive experience.

So thank you.

Outstanding.

Thank you so much.

Yes, much more positive indeed.

So the headline we've created, how far would you go to protect your financial future?

I will start with an analogy.

A very good friend of mine, a young gentleman who's been a client for many, many years, married to a wonderful woman.

As, as most men aspire to.

He married way over his head.

Woman.

Far too good for him.

But, a number of years back, she was challenged by a very serious heart condition.

And he did his research on that type of condition, and, was, located, the, group, the medical group that in, and everyone's recommendation was the best at treating that specific, condition happened to be in Cleveland.

Cleveland?

So not exactly, you know, down the block from, where they live, here in Pennsylvania.

And, of course, he said, I don't care.

We're we're going for the best.

We're going for the best.

So using that as an analogy, do you want advice that happens to be down the block, or do you want advice that's the best that you can get?

And if we agree that you want advice, that's the best you can get.

In times past, with the technology that existed even ten years ago, that meant getting your car and drive.

Our offices are not that far away.

And.

Suck it up, buttercup.

That's no longer the answer that needs to be, given, technology is such today, that virtually everything, that a financial advisor needs to, connect with their clients, concerning can be done.

Phone calls, zoom emails, gosh, there's almost no limitations.

There are firms such as ours that are in dozens of states.

They have clients in dozens of states.

They don't have offices in dozens of states.

Folks, perhaps they started locally and then they moved away, and they've state, as in that relationship, perhaps it started gosh, they've they've never stepped foot in, a particular advisor's office.

Now, I use us as an example.

Dozens of states, hundreds of clients, of of all types and needs and sizes and challenges and and I'm perfectly comfortable dealing with it.

There are lots of advisors who can do exactly the same thing.

The that's that's not surprising should not be surprising.

I am surprised by the advisors who can't do that or won't do that.

The technology is so simple, so inexpensive, so easy to take care of.

Gosh, even document transportation or transmission back and forth in Secure Vault.

It is fabulous.

So when somebody who's got 780 years of experience wrote his first financial plan using a quill pen and some parchment to have that kind of evolution of technology to serve clients, the the geography means nothing the client needs to pick.

In this case, the children need to pick children.

They're in their 40s.

These young adults, these adults need to pick the advisor that they connect with, that they trust, that has the experience and the skill set and the services, to take them over the next 40 or 50, maybe 60 years of their lives.

So very, very good positive experience indeed.

Good for you.

Sadly, we occasionally bump into folks who are interviewing with us who say, hey, we had one.

It didn't work out well, left a bad taste in our mouth, and we've kind of been on our own ever since.

That's a shame.

Not necessary.

Yes, there are some, flies in the ointment.

Not a great analogy, but you get the point.

But there are so many wonderful advisors, so many skilled advisors.

We hope we pray these, these children will avoid that and get exactly the right person, exactly in the right terms.

And, and, and benefit from that.

Excellent question.

Megs, I'm sure the next question is excellent as well.

Where does it take us?

Let's find out.

Our next question says Gene mentioned on his show several ways to convert stock market gains into more secure investments.

My 401 and retail stock investments are over $1 million.

I am 77 years old and still working.

At my age.

I cannot withstand another 2008 meltdown.

So I'm wondering what did Gene recommend that I would do?

Thanks.

Gene is very careful not to recommend without knowing exactly what the best recommendation might be.

And of course, a four sentence email doesn't give me nearly enough information I would need to know.

For example, what is his goal?

He's 77 years old.

Is the goal to create income so he can spend more money, has a goal to grow the million dollars so that his his estate is larger and he can be more, beneficial to his family.

So that's where I start.

I would want to know what his cash flow is.

What?

What, income does he need on a monthly basis?

So his bills are paid.

He's happy.

Healthy.

What income streams?

He has social security, quite obviously.

And, any pensions or annuities?

Those types of things.

Now, having said all of that, as my disclaimer, I am not answering this gentleman's questions specifically, but I can give all of you a little bit of a framework that you can, evaluate to see if any pieces of this structure, would support your financial goals.

Because his observation I cannot withstand another meltdown like 2008.

Very appropriate, very appropriate for some of you.

You didn't go through it.

So you're not really sure what he's talking about.

Let me, educate you for those of you who went through it and you have tried hard to forget about it, let me refresh your memories about how unpleasant it was.

Because from top to bottom, in the drop in the stock market, using the S&P 500 as our barometer, it dropped 54%.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Let's use dollars 54%.

That sounds not good.

How about I had $1 million and now I have 460,000 and 540,000 of it is in the wind.

That's the fear this gentleman has about what would happen if if that has a repeat.

History does tend to repeat itself, although there's nothing on the horizon that we currently see that would replicate that kind of damage to an economy and to an investment portfolio.

History does too, and go in cycles.

And he's very concerned that now, all these years later, at his age, if that happens, that could be devastating.

Excellent.

So now how might someone invest if their goal was to make a reasonable return but be protected along the way?

Let's start with something very basic CDS certificates of deposit.

Currently, as of this recording, a three month CD is paying about 4.5% ten year treasuries.

About 4%, you say?

It's not a great number, but depending on what this gentleman's goals are, it might be enough.

And it certainly provides him with the protection that he's looking for because CDS, FDIC insured, properly done getting, making sure the million dollars is completely covered, multiple banks, etc., etc.

all of a sudden the stock market drops 30%.

He loses zero.

It's an interesting start.

Does that answer the problem?

Perhaps not.

If we go to a second alternative, that might be the use of an annuity.

Annuities come in lots of flavors, but the one I'm particularly interested in is what's referred to as a fixed annuity, an annuity where you know exactly what your interest rate is and it will stay exactly that for the term of the annuity.

As of this recording annuities of this type with a five year term are currently paying right at five, perhaps even 5.25% return guaranteed guaranteed by the annuity companies, subject to their ability to pay that out or making sure they don't get into financial trouble themselves.

But this gentleman could absolutely, over a five year term, know exactly the rate of return that he's getting with no risk to his portfolio.

Interesting.

But you say again for four and a quarter, five, five and a quarter, not very much.

Is there a way to invest for higher returns and have some protection?

The answer is absolutely yes.

There are annuity types called fixed indexed annuities that connect the investment returns.

There's no guaranteed return.

The investment return is connected to an index.

Let's use the S&P 500 as an example.

The typical structure format of these types of annuities says you put money in, you're committed for six years.

You have a protection device in there.

It could be as much as a 20% protection.

You're in the S&P 500.

If over the six years it goes down up to 20%, you lose zero.

If it goes up, you get all of the gains.

So if the S&P 500 over six years goes up 60%, you go up 60%.

If over six years it goes down 12, you go down zero.

Interesting.

Interesting indeed.

Six years.

That's a long time.

There are other alternatives that are not annuities.

Some are called buffered ETFs, exchange traded funds.

Some are done in structured notes, and some even come in a flavor sometimes referred to as dual directional, where you invest in a, an index.

S&P 500 as an example.

There are many.

And if it goes up, you turn a profit.

And if it goes down, you turn a profit.

Fascinating, fascinating.

And just in the ultimate, if this gentleman is saying, hey, these all sound fairly interesting to me, including perhaps the use of a buffered ETF that is 100% protective of the capital.

The gain might be relatively modest six and a half or seven on the high side, but no risk whatsoever to the capital if, as all these kinds of things, wow, these these are pretty fascinating.

And they all have different things that make me interested with $1 million, could you slice up that portfolio into blocks and use certain combinations of these, to, to craft, an end result that precisely fits, his needs?

And the answer is, of course, of course.

So hopefully a little bit of a primer around protective investments, a little bit of of backstory, a little context in terms of ways that you might be able to invest and get reasonable returns with lots of protection.

Not a bad idea, megs.

Do we have any good ideas to share next.

Let's find out.

Our next question is asking about beneficiaries.

But there's a couple questions in this one, so bear with me.

It says I always enjoy your show.

I learned something new each week.

My question is about beneficiaries.

Our son and daughter are married and both have children.

We made a will years ago and plan to change it to provide some money for our grandchildren.

However, in the meantime, everything we have is to be divided equally between my son and daughter.

Our daughter is POA, but I know that upon our death that disappears.

Wondering should we list them as beneficiaries on all our accounts?

Would that prevent probate and would they be able to access the money right away?

I know there are taxes to be paid, so is it only federal and state?

We don't reach the limit for inheritance taxes, so that should not be a problem.

But what is the difference between TOD and having them as a cosigner?

Thank you for your time and answers to my questions.

Well, you're very welcome.

And you're very kind.

These are, more common questions than you might expect.

And the term beneficiaries, around forever.

And lots of folks are pretty, pretty conversant.

They know there's a beneficiary on a life insurance contract.

IRA, they may not be aware of some of the other options.

We'll talk about this momentarily.

But the probate monster is certainly one, that has been hyped for decades.

I've been doing this for, nearly a thousand years, but it's the last 40 or so that I focus on.

And many law firms, many financial advisors, would like to portray going through probate as a dreadful process that needs to be avoided at all costs.

That is simply not necessarily true.

There are, in some cases, very good reasons that you might want to go through probate, but let's address this young lady's questions.

You are, currently set up so that your estates are split 5050.

Son and daughter.

Of course, nothing will happen until the second spouse dies, because when your husband passes, it goes to you and vice versa.

It's at the second passing that this would actually occur.

So currently 5050 son and daughter, if you wish to have, the least amount of forgive the phrase fuss and muss in settling your estate, then you are absolutely on the right track by having, the beneficiaries on as many accounts as you possibly can.

And beneficiaries again, life insurance IRAs, they are also, part of 401 K plans, 403 B plans.

Annuities are all governed by should be governed by the beneficiary designations.

In addition to that, you mentioned TODm for some of you not familiar transfer on death, it is a form that allows you to, in essence, in practical terms, to name a beneficiary.

For accounts that don't normally have beneficiaries, a checking account can have a Tod transfer on death savings account, investment account.

Many different types of assets that are not normally thought of as having beneficiaries could be set up exactly the same way, and this reality is correct if all of those accounts are set up in beneficiary form.

Currently 5050 son and daughter.

At the passing of the second of their parents, the estate assets would pass to them very quickly, very simply, without going through probate.

It still will be included in their taxable estate.

She is quite right.

Unless they are over $28 million, which is the current federal.

Well, for 2025 will be the current, will then the be the then federal exclusion.

He tried to say fruitlessly, 25 million.

Apparently it is not.

There's no federal tax.

Depending on the state, there may not be state tax.

In the state of Pennsylvania, it would be 4.5%.

So that would still be due.

But the simplicity and the ease is impressive.

Likely they own a home that should not be passed this way.

TOD does not apply to real estate, but it also should not be passed, in this way anyway, for other tax reasons that will expire on a different show.

Now, one of the questions that she wraps up with, very appropriate, very important, TOD says at my death, here's how I want my my money distributed.

A cosigner says, if I name you as my cosigner, I just gave you half my account and I gave you control over the entire account.

Excuse me.

So let's say it's 100,000, or, can I put Todd on that?

What rights do you currently have?

The answer is none.

You can't access it.

You have no information.

You have no account statements.

You have no legal authority.

Nothing happens until I'm gone.

But if I name you as a cosigner, people do it because it'll be easier to pay the bills.

I can write checks, all those kinds of things.

I understand so and in some cases appropriate.

But $100,000 if I name you as cosigner.

I just gave you 50 grand.

Interesting.

I also gave you control.

I don't get the sense that these folks are in that position where they need to give up control.

If you don't need to give up control, I would not assign a cosigner.

I would not give someone else control over that money and expose yourself to all the risks.

Sadly, I'm very negative and well-meaning, unintentional risks that might occur by giving someone else control over your money.

Beneficiaries tods make perfect sense.

Make sure that you're working with a trusted, experienced estate planning attorney.

Someone who understands exactly what you're trying to do, understands the big picture of your assets in your family, and gives you that guidance of where to add beneficiaries, where to add TODs, and where not to.

You'll do great, you'll do great, and if you don't, circle back will help.

Speaking of helping you help us every single week, be the most relevant financial show on television because it's all about you.

You set the priorities.

You set the agenda as you send us your questions.

And they're always interesting.

They always have a combination of it's an investment question.

It's a tax question.

It's a family question.

Let's be honest.

Most of the questions are far more than money.

Hence the title you might have noticed.

So send us your emails Gene at ask mtm dot com.

We'll answer your questions back to you.

Every single one and we're happy to help.

Hopefully we've helped enough that you're going to want to return next week for our next edition right here of More Than Money.

Tonight.