Good evening.

You've got more than money.

You've got Gene Dickerson, your host, your personal financial advisor serving you this evening.

An absolute pleasure to do so.

If you are, as I am, experiencing the beauty of fall, the, the invigoration of a really chilly, fall morning as you head out to do your chores, perhaps before heading off to work or heading off to school.

It's fantastic.

It adds energy and in many cases, in many ways, the kinds of information that we try to share on our show every week is about adding energy.

Certainly adding ideas, adding strategies and tactics, adding the thought process to how to get from point A to point B, but it's also adding energy, and I did.

People used to say knowledge is power.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

If that were true, you would pick up this device that has access to all the knowledge, almost dropped it, all the knowledge that, is available to humanity at your fingertips.

You would be the most powerful person on earth.

No, it doesn't work that way.

Knowledge is only useful if you had energy to it, if you had action to it.

If you bring a little something to the table that says, I got to do something.

Action planning is the key result.

Financial planning.

It's lovely.

It's interesting.

It may raise some questions, and it may even make you, Hey, I on a someday.

No.

In the old days, financial planners produced books two inches thick.

I was fantastic.

Everybody's excited.

Look how important I am.

I have a two inch thick book, but unless you did something with that plan was worthless.

Absolutely worthless.

So hopefully.

Hopefully.

I am bringing energy to you.

I am not only bringing the idea of what you should do.

I am bringing the inspiration that you should do it and move from wherever you find yourself right now to where you wish to be.

Those those goals as dreams, those aspirations getting you there.

That's the good part.

That's the fun part.

Not the discussion part.

Not the monologue part.

It's the part where you go, that's fantastic.

I got to do that.

That's something important.

I've got to do that.

So, for loyal viewers, you know how this works.

Momentarily, we're going to start answering your questions for folks who are just joining us.

Welcome.

I think you're going to find a number of things.

Number one.

We here at PBS, we're here to serve.

So we're going to serve you at a very, very high level that allows us to stay the most relevant financial show on television today, bar none.

It's a bold claim, I get it, but I stand behind it 100% because you set the agenda.

And what could be more relevant than what's important to you?

So you set the agenda.

I add my 780 years of experience, and that adds up to a pretty darn good result.

Number two, the half hour that you thought you had, we're already minutes into it.

It goes very quickly.

So don't find yourself being drawn away.

That that could be a real issue.

Because you're going to miss a lot.

And number three, if at any point during the course of our show th mildly entertained, you have my most sincerest apologies.

Yeah.

Goodness.

Let's get to it.

What's our first question?

Yeah.

Who is really in charge of your investment?

That's that's an outstanding question.

Gentlemen.

Right.

So I'm 55.

I invest my money through a large financial firm.

He mentions the name.

If I mention it, you would recognize it.

It's not necessary.

Just know that it's a very large financial firm.

In November, my investment accounts were up to 2.7 million.

I sent him an urgent request to prepare a plan to withdraw my money, from the market.

I believe that our new president would do what he said and impose tariffs, which I thought would crash the market.

I didn't want to ride the chaos.

They didn't respond.

I sent several follow ups with no response.

After the first round of tariffs went into effect on, my finances started to tumble.

I sent another urgent email.

No response.

When they finally called me, they warned me against timing the market, but my response was that Trump had already timed the market against us.

At that point, I decided it was too late.

Here I am, staring down the barrel of a huge loss.

I was furious, didn't know how to channel my anger.

And what should I do?

Should I sue?

Should I just let it go?

Is it time to move to a new company?

Well, you're going to find, I think the answer to this very unsettling question has two issues that seem to be contradictory.

Two recommendations on my part.

Two to this individual that may seem, to not really fit together, but if you give me just a little leeway, I think I can can convince you that they do.

First, your advisor, in terms of, sharing with you.

Don't try to time the market was correct.

Was correct.

If we look back now, gosh, it's almost a year later.

Since, the big tumble back when not, certainly almost a year later from the election, when you got very, very nervous.

The market's dropped about 21%, top to bottom.

The markets have fully recovered all of that and have a very, very healthy profit.

At this moment in time, almost a year after the election.

Obviously based on that simple sample, that's short sample, small sample.

They were right.

You should not have exited.

You should not have panicked.

You should not have had your emotions ruing your investment decisions, and you should not have exited the market back when you were down 10%.

It got worse.

I understand that.

But if you did what they told you to do, you would be far better off today than if you had followed your own instincts.

Excellent.

Having said that, they are dreadful financial advisors.

You must leave them.

You must go to a financial advisor who is responsive.

The number one objective, folks who come to me and say I'm looking for a financial advisor.

What's your number one requirement of that financial advisor?

Instantaneously.

Oh, somebody I trust, somebody I trust.

You certainly can't trust that they're going to be responsive to you.

Trust is built through a relationship.

Trust is built through communication.

Trust is built through responsiveness.

You emailed and emailed and called and emailed and they said nothing.

And you had to do that two cycles over before finally somebody called.

And while they gave you the right advice, they gave it far too late and they basically on a $2.7 million account said to you, shut up.

We're take care of it.

It's we're in charge.

You're not.

Well, in my world, that's insulting.

Any advisor on any subject anywhere says that to me.

I'm gone.

And you should be as well.

Not because they gave you bad Intel, but because they were disrespectful.

Because they were disrespectful of the fact that this is your money.

If you're not working with a financial advisor that respects you and your money, they don't have to agree with you to respect you.

If you said to me under these exact circumstances, I want to get out, I would have bent over backwards.

I would have done everything in my power to convince you not to do that.

And the end result would have been wonderful.

Would have been exactly as it should have been.

However, I would have done it respectfully, and I would have done it at the first email.

Most advisors, the highest quality advisors, the very best advisors, which, by the way, charge absolutely no more than you're currently paying for your advisor.

So it's not like a an advisor who pays no attention whatsoever is, is charging you as 1%.

Somebody else is going to charge you 10%.

That's ridiculous.

The fees are roughly the same.

Roughly plus or minus, but roughly the same for a advisor who doesn't return emails or calls.

And one that not only does, but does, it promptly respects you, respects it.

It's your money and respects it.

You have the ability at any moment to move the funds someplace else.

Perhaps this advisor has, gotten too big for his britches, as we used to say.

We might have been the only ones saying that, but maybe you remember that.

Too big for his britches.

Maybe 2.7 just isn't a big enough account for him to pay attention to, or her to pay attention to.

The reality is, it's a plenty big account.

It's your money, you're in charge.

And if you're working with the appropriate financial advisor, you should think of your advisor and you as a team.

As a team.

I have said very often on this very station, on this very channel, often you, you, you, none of you will ever, ever know as much about being a financial advisor as I do.

780 years of experience counts for something, so you will never know as much as I do about what I know about.

I will never know as much about you as you do.

You know your goals.

You know your fears.

You know your excitement.

You know your energy level.

You know your your aspirations, your desires.

You know all of that.

And you know the kinds of things that are over here in the corner that most folks don't pay attention to, that are really important.

Those kind of discussions bring together the two most critical pieces of information the financial knowledge, the personal knowledge, independent.

They're okay.

They will get you somewhere, maybe not where you want to go, but somewhere brought together.

They're fantastic.

Cannot be beat.

So an advisor who is arrogant, an advisor who does not respond, an advisor who does not communicate, can't be trusted, and has already cut him or herself off from an incredibly valuable source of information, which is everything you know, everything you know about you, all you were saying.

To be blunt, you have a reason.

It's not a good reason.

You have a reason.

All you're saying is I'm really worried.

I'm really scared.

I have a lot of money.

I don't want it to go away.

That's what you're really saying.

And you just need somebody to respect you.

And I get it.

So here are some answers.

Here are some answers, by the way.

There are a lot of answers.

And for folks who are hey, I'm really nervous.

Like all the time.

If you're working with an appropriate financial advisor that you can trust, they will give you solutions where you can still profit, even if the markets are going the opposite direction that you want them to go.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for sharing that.

That's an important question.

Next.

Next.

Next.

Oh, I remember this.

Tough enough when you lose a loved one to settle.

One to state.

How about one right after the other.

Young lady.

Right.

So I'm the executor of my mother's estate.

My older brother, who died nine months after my mother passed, was supposed to be the executor.

I was designated in my mother's will to be second choice.

Second choice sounds harsh.

The technical term is contingent.

Contingent?

So in most wills, an executor is named, and a second person is named as the contingent.

Just in case.

Well, in this case, it was necessary.

Nine months after his mom passed, so did her son.

Mother's will direct her estate to be distributed equally among her eight children.

Since my older brother past nine months after mother, he should have been part of the distribution.

The estate is in Pennsylvania.

My brother lived in Texas.

He had no wife or children.

The living seven siblings are his heirs.

He passed with no assets.

To our knowledge, in Pennsylvania.

Do we have to distribute to my brother and then open an estate in Texas to distribute his share back to his siblings?

I would love to tell you that you don't have to.

The reality is, if you're going to do this properly, the answer is yes.

You will likely need the assistance.

You should likely seek the assistance of an attorney that's licensed in Texas, or at the very least, understands Texas law.

The fact that there was nine months interval between your mom's passing and your brother's passing.

It's it's a long time.

It isn't.

But it wouldn't matter if it had been a day or two or 8 or 9 day.

If it was nine days.

Nine months.

Nine.

It doesn't matter.

His share of the estate is due to him.

That should be brought into his estate.

Yes.

You will need an estate account opened.

You mentioned he has no assets in Pennsylvania.

Doesn't matter.

His estate will need to address, all of his assets, wherever they may be.

Predominantly in Texas, we can assume, but wherever they may be, it also needs to address.

Even though he has no direct beneficiaries, wife or children, he may have, debts that need to be addressed.

So an estate is not just about taking money and sending it somewhere.

It's about taking money, assets of any kind.

Determining if there are debts that need to be paid.

Bills that need to be paid.

Final expenses that need to be paid.

And then after all of that has been addressed, distributing the assets to the appropriate heirs.

So in your brother's case, while it seems almost, like a cat chasing its tail, a dog chasing, it's an animal chasing its tail.

It almost seems silly to have to send the money out to bring it right back.

It may not come right back.

For all we know, your brother had debts.

He had, expenses in his estate.

We don't know exactly how much, your brother's inheritance from your mom might have been, but it might be up in smoke.

Just based on what he owed at his passing.

And we don't know that.

So, yes, it would be very tempting to just go home and send it all to the seven remaining siblings.

Please don't do that.

That's not the appropriate way to go.

Make sure that you're following kind of the path and, and make sure you get good, good, trusted, estate planning counsel.

Attorneys have to be licensed in individual states.

That makes it kind of a pain in the US.

Where if you're in Pennsylvania, as you are, it doesn't really help for Texas.

Getting somebody in Texas may not be the easiest thing.

If you have a struggle.

Let me know.

We have some connections that we may be able to help out.

Sam, thank you for your question.

And bless your goodness.

Two losses, nine months cannot be easy.

What's next?

What's next?

What would be a better investment?

Short question, but buckle in.

I'm 81, and I live in a condo that I've paid for.

I carry no debts.

I have $250,000, mostly in mutual funds.

That worries me in the event of a major downturn.

What would be a better investment?

Do I need to work with a financial advisor to give me options?

The answer is no.

Absolutely not.

Find a nine year old and, have them help you on the internet.

You can certainly do Google searches.

Educate yourself in some way, shape or form.

Do kind of a do it yourself, kind of an approach.

I wouldn't recommend it.

Certainly not with a quarter of $1 million and 81.

Your number one priority, it would seem.

Based on on just the simple question.

Would be not losing a lot of money.

So hanging on to your capital makes a great deal of sense.

You're mostly in mutual funds.

You say you're concerned about, downturns in the market.

It is extremely important that people understand.

Mutual fund is a generic term.

It doesn't tell us anything about the investments.

There are mutual funds that invest in the stock market.

Very aggressive stocks.

There are mutual funds that invest in very conservative stocks.

Funds that invest in bonds.

Very aggressive bonds.

We used to call them junk bonds now called high yield.

Very conservative treasuries for example, or munis.

There are mutual funds that invest in real estate gold, silver.

So we don't have a clue how this young lady is invested.

All we know is that she's worried.

She's worried about what might happen if the markets turn against her.

Even a short period of time ago, the only five years or so.

The only options that you might have that we might have to offer up to somebody in this situation is, well, you can put it in the bank.

FDIC insured have no risk.

Maybe not much in the way of return.

Maybe.

Gosh, for a longest time, almost no return whatsoever.

Currently a reasonable return.

Maybe three, 3.5%.

So bottom line is that was an option.

A second option would have been an annuity.

Annuities had a lot of guarantees built into them, depending on the, the company and their financial strength standing behind those guarantees, those assurances, that might have given her a lot of, of peace of mind.

But annuities come with some, some, there's pros and cons.

The cost of the annuities can be, a drag on the rate of return that she might see, and she might feel that she's.

She's in a bit of a straitjacket, kind of tied up.

Over the last 4 or 5 years, many, many new, opportunities, options, investment platforms have been developed that can provide someone just like this 81.

Pick on that is as kind of a, a a tipping point when we're in her 80s, far more interested in protection of our investments rather than return.

Well, these new platforms allow us, through structured notes, offered ETFs, registered, indexed, Riley's annuities, registered index linked annuities, to provide the opportunity to invest in the stock market of many types, many different types of investments, and gain an upside with protection against losses.

Powerful.

Very powerful indeed.

They come in various flavors, various levels of protection.

Some of the most basic, you can invest in the S&P 500.

For example, if it goes up, you'll get up to a limit, a cap.

But if it goes down 10% or so, you don't lose anything up to the first 10%.

Markets down seven, you lose zero, markets down 11, you lose one.

Well, pretty pretty nice.

Maybe that's not enough to to make you comfortable.

How about -15.

So down to -15 you lose zero.

-16 you lose one.

How about -30?

How about -100?

There are now investment platforms that allow you to invest in the stock market.

And other types of investments.

But the stock market predominantly.

And if the market goes down to zero, but that would be literally Armageddon financial Armageddon, you lose zero.

Now, what's the give up?

The limits on how much you can make.

Get smaller and smaller with the greater protection.

So if you're only protecting down to minus ten, you might be able to, on an annual basis, have a upside limit of 14 or 15%.

If you're protecting 100% that upside limit, that that maximum gain that you could experience might be six, six and a half.

Now, there are folks out there listening right now that they go on six and a half, please.

Pittance.

Not interested.

Good.

That just means it's not appropriate for you.

There are other folks out there listening.

Perhaps somebody who's 81 years old, who's saying six, six and a half.

That's lovely.

That would be lovely.

Market goes up six and a half.

I get it all goes up.

Three, I get three.

Market goes up 22%.

I get six and a half.

But I'm okay with that because I know that if the following year the market goes down five, ten, 15, 20% go back to 2008, market goes down 35%, I lose zero.

I have no losses whatsoever.

It doesn't mean that that's what she should do.

It does mean that that's what she should be aware she could do.

Very, very important.

Lots of protection options these days that did not even exist four years ago.

Five years ago.

So if you're in a similar position, you don't have to be 81.

There are folks who are 61 are saying, wait a second, I'm going to retire shortly.

The only thing that would really crush me is if my the stock market went down dramatically right after I retired.

I saved $1 million.

Market goes down 25%.

I only have 750.

I was counting on a million.

You might want that similar kind of protection.

Mix and match.

Put them together in lots of different ways.

Your overall strategy.

Needs to be, protection oriented.

But your bottom line is you can get exactly what you need, custom tailored to you.

Not bad, not bad.

Let's shift gears.

Let's go to our last question for the evening.

Yes.

And not just for the government.

Well, transparency should be for the government.

Okay.

Does a fiduciary based firm normally report their annual management fees to the account holder?

Not in percentages per their contract, but an actual dollar amount.

Is this regulated by the SEC or anybody else?

Thanks very much.

You always have a great show.

Well, you compliment me.

Your your email gets on air.

It's that simple.

It isn't teasing.

Kind of.

Okay.

When dealing with a registered investment advisor whose compensation is a percentage of the investments that they manage, the agreement that you have with that advisor typically expresses that, that fee as a percentage.

That is absolutely what this email has said.

So, let's, I'll pick 1.25% as just an example.

I've seen advisors charge 3%, senior advisors charge one half of 1%.

And the difference is you might be surprised to find out very little.

Very little.

But let's put that aside for a moment.

In the contract, it says it's a percentage, 1.25%.

So if you had $100,000 invested, your annual fee would be $1,250.

Pretty straightforward.

The question becomes then, is it ever reported back to the client?

Not the 1.25%, but the dollar amount to $2,250?

The answer is yes.

It is regulated.

It is required.

SEC and Finra requires that registered investment advisors report to their clients, not just the dollar amount, but when it's withdrawn from the account.

So, for example, in our world, we do a quarterly withdrawals.

We do them in arrears, which means we earn our money for 90 days and then we get paid.

Many companies do it in advance.

They take the fee out at the beginning and then they work for 90 days, take the fee out.

So they're always working in advance.

That's their choice.

Not my choice, but that's their choice.

And in almost every case, certainly in our case, it's reported in two ways.

Number one on your account statement.

So in our case every 90 days, every quarter, every three months, the client sees exactly dollar amount, dollar and cents withdrawn from the account.

And it's reported on the review reports that we provide to our clients every 90 days, we talk to each of our clients and say, here's what's happened.

And, oh, by the way, here's the exact dollar amount in fees that have been withdrawn this quarter.

And here's the aggregate aggregate amount you have paid this year and overall.

So yes, the answer is yes.

A good fiduciary does exactly that.

And just as a corollary, if that's not happening to you, something's wrong.

And you got to look really, really closely and make sure everything is transparent.

Speaking of transparent, I transparently love to have you rejoin us.

I'd love to have you join us on every single edition of More Than Money.

And, it gives me the opportunity.

It gives us the opportunity to remain the most relevant show on television, financial show on television.

Because we're answering your questions directly back to you.

So please send me your questions, Jean.

And ask mtm.com.

Give our team a chance to give you all that great information.

And perhaps, maybe, just maybe, your question will appear on a future show.

So again, I thank you for your attention.

I pray that you will, wish to rejoin us next week when we're back behind this podium for another edition of More Than Money.