Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. We're here every day bringing you the latest
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Speaker 1: listen to our radio show weekdays at two pm Eastern
Speaker 1: only on Bloomberg Radio. One of the major themes that
Speaker 1: has been coming up on the first day of coverage
Speaker 1: from the Commonwealth Financial Networks National Conference is the idea
Speaker 1: of looking at financial and retirement planning those golden years
Speaker 1: in a holistic and mindful way. Johnny young Worth is
Speaker 1: Managing Principal of Practice Management at Commonwealth Financial Network developed
Speaker 1: and now runs Commonwealth's Mindful Retirement programs. I love the
Speaker 1: name of it. She's with us on site here in Colorado. UM.
Speaker 1: You know what, I was curious if you went back
Speaker 1: five or ten years and you went to like the
Speaker 1: heads of financial advisory firms and retirement planning firms and said, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: I want to do a mindful retirement program. They'd be like, wait,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about. Absolutely, to tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about how we've involved in terms of how
Speaker 1: we think about retirement. Well, you know, before it used
Speaker 1: to be all about money, and I'm the lottery perhaps well,
Speaker 1: or just your savings and getting into a position where
Speaker 1: you're ready financially for retirement. But about ten years ago,
Speaker 1: maybe seven years ago, I had an advisor colony said Joanie,
Speaker 1: I see all these clients and I've worked with them
Speaker 1: a decade of two and they're all ready for retirement. Financially.
Speaker 1: We've gotten there, They've got enough money. Then I watched
Speaker 1: them retire and they're not always happy. They've got all
Speaker 1: the money, they're all set financially, but they're not ready
Speaker 1: for retirement emotionally, they're not ready in terms of living
Speaker 1: fully in that last stage of life. And that last
Speaker 1: stage of life is so much longer than it used
Speaker 1: to be even ten years ago. So um, he said,
Speaker 1: what what do you have to help me? At the time,
Speaker 1: I had not a But since then it put us
Speaker 1: on a stage and a platform for building things that
Speaker 1: our advisors can use, and so what does the that
Speaker 1: look like? What are you arming them with? Then as
Speaker 1: you go into these workshops and whatnot? What what are
Speaker 1: you doing with folks? It depends. There's many things. In
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes, I have a presentation I'm giving and
Speaker 1: it's questions advisors need to think about in terms of
Speaker 1: their interaction with clients about retirement, including what do you
Speaker 1: call it? You know, the R word sets us a
Speaker 1: little bit on the wrong path. I love some of
Speaker 1: the work that M I T has done, the M
Speaker 1: I T. H Lab, and they talk about the last
Speaker 1: eight thousand days of life as being the phase of exploration.
Speaker 1: So you know, we have eight thousand days of learning
Speaker 1: and eight thousand days of growing, and eight thousand days
Speaker 1: of maturing and eight thousand days of and one might
Speaker 1: used to say retired, but no, no, it's exploration. And
Speaker 1: I love that because I think it puts us on
Speaker 1: the hook. You know, we don't just sit back there
Speaker 1: and say I'm gonna retire now and do it the
Speaker 1: way our parents did it or our grandparents. They we
Speaker 1: had this much time, we've got that's okay. We're just
Speaker 1: sometimes sometimes the headphones fall off it's happened to me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we all get excited and you get excited. But
Speaker 1: you know, I think that is such a good point.
Speaker 1: So many things are different from how our parents, certainly
Speaker 1: how our grandparents did it. Um So what's the conversation
Speaker 1: you sit down with somebody and said, Okay, financially, you
Speaker 1: guys are set. Emotionally, how do you walk them through them?
Speaker 1: What are the questions? What are the things that they
Speaker 1: need to think about so that they're emotionally prepared for retirement? Well,
Speaker 1: I think there's you know, we can go to many
Speaker 1: gurus in this area, but there are buckets of things
Speaker 1: you look at. What is the whole concept of working
Speaker 1: in retirement? So people used to think retirement meant you
Speaker 1: stop working. But but if we talk about this being
Speaker 1: the expiation face, working is part of it. I think
Speaker 1: the Department of Labor says that forty four per cent
Speaker 1: of people will continue to work past sixty five in
Speaker 1: the next ten years or so. So more and more
Speaker 1: and more of us are working way past six. I
Speaker 1: see it with But I'm from a large family and
Speaker 1: have older siblings and they are going into retirement, but
Speaker 1: they are working and not looking to you know they're
Speaker 1: financially said, but they're thinking about, Okay, maybe I'll now
Speaker 1: run my own little business or something like. They're thinking
Speaker 1: about kind of a soul second life. And it's really
Speaker 1: fascinating to see how that's working. Yeah, in a second
Speaker 1: life where you grow and develop and you have an
Speaker 1: explosion of learning. And I think about this for myself
Speaker 1: because I'm that age and I've loved my career, But
Speaker 1: where do I get one of those next explosions of
Speaker 1: learning and growth in my next decade and beyond. But
Speaker 1: I also think about how it impacts the labor force
Speaker 1: on a day where we're talking about the job market
Speaker 1: when you do have older individuals right there, not just
Speaker 1: going off to the golf course or what have you, UM,
Speaker 1: but they're staying in the workforce and whether that can
Speaker 1: be a positive or just how you know it affects
Speaker 1: it well. It also leads to this question of how
Speaker 1: many people are doing that by choice and how many
Speaker 1: people are doing it they have to well, a ton
Speaker 1: are doing it because they have to uh for sure
Speaker 1: that a group of folks are not necessarily the group
Speaker 1: that are financial advisors are working with working with UM.
Speaker 1: And I think it raises a whole. Another social issue
Speaker 1: for our country is that we have so many people
Speaker 1: that are unprepared here in this community, though you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about really a different set of people who
Speaker 1: who are prepared financially and are looking for more. They're
Speaker 1: looking beyond golf, beyond knitting, beyond bingo, beyond all that
Speaker 1: stuff that used to be enough. And there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with any of that, No, there isn't. And so as
Speaker 1: you talk to people, what are some things that have
Speaker 1: surprised you in terms of what they choose to do?
Speaker 1: Because if you're talking about a financially stable group of
Speaker 1: people the world's they're oyster in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: They're very healthy, they're taking good care of themselves. So
Speaker 1: they have both the physical ability and the fiscal ability
Speaker 1: to then make these choices. So what are they choosing
Speaker 1: to do? Oh, it's it's all over the place. But
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. I was doing one of
Speaker 1: these mindful retirement workshops for one of our advisor's clients
Speaker 1: and there were maybe people in the room. Um, and
Speaker 1: we had gone through things like work in retirement and
Speaker 1: health and wellness, and we've gone through family relations and
Speaker 1: leisure and social and personal devomenting. And we got to
Speaker 1: this point. I remember this man, he was an E.
Speaker 1: N T. He was sixty two year result and we're
Speaker 1: talking about working in retirement. And I asked the question,
Speaker 1: what did you want to be when you were in
Speaker 1: high school? And I saw this transformation as he was
Speaker 1: sitting there in the audience, and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I always wanted to do theater, and I let all
Speaker 1: that go because as a physician, no time even to
Speaker 1: go to theater, much less to participate in. He said,
Speaker 1: I can start a theater of my own, I can
Speaker 1: be the theater director, I can put on local performances.
Speaker 1: And that was a really fun example. And all all
Speaker 1: it was was that question, well what did you want
Speaker 1: to be? And he just exploded into I forgot about this.
Speaker 1: This is a huge opportunity. So you find your ways
Speaker 1: of helping people envision something other than what they've done
Speaker 1: for the past fifty years. Well, in technology and travel
Speaker 1: and all of that I would imagine just really opens
Speaker 1: up the world even more for everyone. Yeah, travel is
Speaker 1: really an interesting one because it's one of the number
Speaker 1: one things people say they're going to do in retirement.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the data. They don't do it.
Speaker 1: They don't do it as much. They don't do it
Speaker 1: as much. But but as for projectable reasons, it can
Speaker 1: be for money or it can be for health. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave it on that note. Really interesting. Love
Speaker 1: your energy, Joanie young Worth. She's managing Principle of Practice
Speaker 1: Management at Commonwealth Financial Network on site here at Commonwealth
Speaker 1: Financial Networks National Conference. Yes we are. We're all talking
Speaker 1: about the labor market today, and of course we are
Speaker 1: talking about the weekend, so we are that too. We
Speaker 1: got to talk about today's at jobs report. Lindsay Piegsa
Speaker 1: certainly a known guest friend of the show. Chief economist
Speaker 1: Stephile Financial on the phone from Chicago. Lindsay, it was
Speaker 1: interesting to watch as everybody weighed in on the jobs
Speaker 1: report this morning, because I feel like some are all right,
Speaker 1: another sign of economic slowdown in the US. Others were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: not so bad. Um, how do you see it? Oh?
Speaker 1: I think it was pretty disappointing. It fell short of
Speaker 1: even the lower bar of expectations and reaching a four
Speaker 1: month low, pulling that three month average now closer to
Speaker 1: just a hundred and fifty thousand and the most disappointing
Speaker 1: component that I saw was efforts hourly earning flat in September,
Speaker 1: pulling that annual growth right now below three for the
Speaker 1: first time since mid So I do think there's a
Speaker 1: number of red flags here that suggests the labor market
Speaker 1: is slowing, and I think coupled with the very disappointing
Speaker 1: I s M manufacturing and non manufacturing numbers we saw
Speaker 1: earlier this week, this really puts a lot of press.
Speaker 1: You're on the FED to take action at the upcoming
Speaker 1: October at l MC meeting. And so, given what you
Speaker 1: just said and your analysis I think is shared by many, lindsay,
Speaker 1: then you look at the stock market today and investors
Speaker 1: seem to be saying, no, it's cool, we're good. We're
Speaker 1: going to drive all the major industries up more than
Speaker 1: one percent at this point in the trade. So why
Speaker 1: that reaction do you think? Well, I think that because
Speaker 1: there was because there wasn't just one data point that
Speaker 1: was weak. There wasn't just two, there was three. So
Speaker 1: the market is saying, now there's enough evidence that the
Speaker 1: FED is going to be four. So it's almost as
Speaker 1: if the initial I s M number, the market was
Speaker 1: very negative about that reaction because they didn't know if
Speaker 1: it was enough to really tip the hand for the
Speaker 1: FED to step in and give us an additional twenty
Speaker 1: five basis points. Then we saw the service sector of
Speaker 1: the market said well, maybe this is enough. Then we
Speaker 1: saw a moderate jobs number, and the investors seemed convinced
Speaker 1: that the FED will be forced to provide that third
Speaker 1: round raid cut in October. The unemployment out of the badness. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: the unemployment rate, though, did dip, right, So three point
Speaker 1: five three point seven percent was the survey that we
Speaker 1: had here at Bloomberg. Unemployment rate also, which we closely
Speaker 1: watch UM, came in lower than the month before. How
Speaker 1: do you read that? Is that a positive or is
Speaker 1: it people just kind of giving up? Well, I think
Speaker 1: it's both. On the one hand, we have seen the
Speaker 1: unemployment rate stubbornly low, not only within what the FED
Speaker 1: considers the full employment range, but breaking through that lower bound,
Speaker 1: and we've been there for quite some time. So I
Speaker 1: don't know if the unemployment rate is really capturing the
Speaker 1: level of joblessness out in the market, because when we
Speaker 1: look at the millions of Americans that are still sitting
Speaker 1: on the periphery of the labor market not participating. That's
Speaker 1: a lingering structural disconnect that I don't know that it's
Speaker 1: being accurately captured in these calculations. In fact, if we
Speaker 1: add it back in all those discouraged workers, all those
Speaker 1: marginally attached workers, all of those workers struggling with temporary,
Speaker 1: low wage part time labor, I think at the unemployment
Speaker 1: rate jumps closer to seven. So that sinks a much
Speaker 1: different picture than this record thow of three point five percent.
Speaker 1: And so you know, you did a nice job laying
Speaker 1: out all the data that investors and clearly the FED
Speaker 1: have been looking at. Anything else on the horizon that
Speaker 1: could either cement this decision as as you as it
Speaker 1: sounds like you're saying the FED is getting closer to
Speaker 1: or could introduce some doubt for the market. Anything else
Speaker 1: you're looking at, well, I think the consumer is the
Speaker 1: big question mark because as we saw in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: the consumer was the sole organic support to growth, and
Speaker 1: if the consumer numbers begin to falter, I think the
Speaker 1: question will not be whether or not we see an
Speaker 1: October rate cut, but how big of an October rate
Speaker 1: cut We could start hearing the market price in a
Speaker 1: fifty based point or even seventy based point cut, depending
Speaker 1: on whether or not we do see pronounced weakness on
Speaker 1: the consumer side. Now we're not necessarily looking for extreme weakness,
Speaker 1: but we do expect to continue to see waning momentum again,
Speaker 1: keeping the FED on track for an October cut, but
Speaker 1: likely more a modest cut around twenty five basis point.
Speaker 1: Is there some though, you know, something positive to be
Speaker 1: made though that the service industry subcategories which are vulnerable
Speaker 1: to weak factory data or factory conditions. Um, they did
Speaker 1: post net hiring gains. I'm looking at some analysis BIA
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence Team. Is that not a positive? Oh? I
Speaker 1: think there are some pockets of positive. Absolutely, And I
Speaker 1: think it's also tempting to look at that non manufacturing
Speaker 1: number and say, well, it was still above fifty, so
Speaker 1: we're still seeing an expansion in the service sector. But
Speaker 1: we have to be careful because looking at that from
Speaker 1: a nominal perspective, we're actually seeing suddenly that non manufacturing
Speaker 1: activity fell below that that troughs that we've reached in
Speaker 1: two thousands sixteen, But we're now well below the pre
Speaker 1: recessionary levels that we saw on the service sector going
Speaker 1: into the Oh. One recession and going into the oh
Speaker 1: seven crisis. So we are seeing very clear recessionary red
Speaker 1: flags being posted in the service actor even though we're
Speaker 1: still seeing modest growth. All right, Well, we're always happy
Speaker 1: to get your analysis. Lindsay Piegza, chief economists at St.
Speaker 1: Full Financial, joining us on the phone from Chicago, breaking
Speaker 1: down the jobs report, which the market likes because it
Speaker 1: provides maybe a little bit more certainty as to what
Speaker 1: we may see from J. Powe and friends. Right that
Speaker 1: easy monetary environment continues. We are definitely in Colorado Mountains
Speaker 1: all around to the Rocky Mountains practically from where we're
Speaker 1: sitting just right. So coming on Financial Network, they began
Speaker 1: working with independent financial advisors back in nine. So here
Speaker 1: we are, I think forty years right, forty years later,
Speaker 1: A lot has changed and continues to do so in
Speaker 1: the investment arena. Let's get some perspective. Trapped Cleman is
Speaker 1: with us. He's president and chief operating officer at Commonwealth
Speaker 1: Financial Network. Of course on site with us our host.
Speaker 1: He is our host, and you know, we're kind of marveling,
Speaker 1: like go back to kind of when it started and
Speaker 1: kind of where we are today in terms of what
Speaker 1: really consumes, uh, the work of financial advisors. Sure, it's
Speaker 1: it's been a tremendous journey, and having been in the
Speaker 1: industry about fifteen years, I've seen a good chunk of it.
Speaker 1: But it goes back so much farther than that, and
Speaker 1: just some hugely influential visionary people. UM really back in
Speaker 1: uh you know, in our case, nineteen seventy nine, but
Speaker 1: really took off in the late eighties and into the nineties.
Speaker 1: I really had a vision for what financial advice could become. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's much more than just asset allocation, investment selection. UH.
Speaker 1: And to watch the evolution of the industry UH, and
Speaker 1: it's only accelerating right now. As I think what financial
Speaker 1: advisors can do for retailers, investors, it's almost like healthcare
Speaker 1: at this point. You really need a trusted person who
Speaker 1: understands everything about you UM and all the skills that
Speaker 1: come into that. As a financial advisor. UM, it's more
Speaker 1: than just finance and understanding the markets. It's being a psychologist.
Speaker 1: It's being a friend. UM, It's it's being a visionary
Speaker 1: looking forward uh and really helping people on very complex things. Right.
Speaker 1: And that that sort of human element has come through
Speaker 1: you know, sort of loud and clear here, and we're
Speaker 1: sitting sort of in the midst of all of it.
Speaker 1: You can sort of hear a lot of it in
Speaker 1: the background. Is people move from session to session, and
Speaker 1: you know, even as people walk by. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got a lot of slices of life here represented. It
Speaker 1: feels like different ages. You know, folks, who are you know,
Speaker 1: needing to really connect with people? How do you arm
Speaker 1: people to do that? Because it's one thing to sort
Speaker 1: of teach them how to use the software program and
Speaker 1: input numbers and things like that, but you know those
Speaker 1: sort of dare i say, softer skills of being able
Speaker 1: to connect with human beings? How do you arm them
Speaker 1: to do that? Yeah, it's that in and out of
Speaker 1: itself has changed. It's a great time in terms of
Speaker 1: the tools and resources that we have available to really
Speaker 1: help and connect with people. But the reality is, for
Speaker 1: you know, the majority of the first forty years in
Speaker 1: Commonwealth case is we have about a two and a
Speaker 1: half advisors to one home office staff ratio um, which
Speaker 1: is pretty much the lowest or best however you to
Speaker 1: freeze it in the industry. It was really making those
Speaker 1: personal connections and us understanding the individual advisors in their
Speaker 1: needs instead of giving them a cookie cutter playbook. Uh.
Speaker 1: But we're growing to a size and scale where that's
Speaker 1: you know, becoming more challenging. At the same time, there's
Speaker 1: so much more out there and ways to reach people,
Speaker 1: uh through a learning, training and development and utilizing gamification.
Speaker 1: And so we're investing more in a learning and development
Speaker 1: team and using marketing to help deliver that too. Advisors
Speaker 1: while still frankly maintain that same ratio of employees which
Speaker 1: I trap Cloman, President and Chief operating Officer a Commonwealth
Speaker 1: Financial Network. Trapp, What do you guys, because you you
Speaker 1: have to think ahead to about what your members, your
Speaker 1: the financial advisors that you work with guide what will
Speaker 1: be the trends of the future. So I'm curious, who
Speaker 1: do you look at? Is it Facebook? Is it Google?
Speaker 1: Is it I don't know what are you looking at?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's something else in terms of trying to figure out, okay,
Speaker 1: what these financial advisors have to know about for the
Speaker 1: fewer for their clients. Yeah, I think it's important to
Speaker 1: look around both for inspiration but also um, how to
Speaker 1: differentiate yourself. I think Joe uh, Peter Wheeler and the
Speaker 1: rest of the team that's really led this company for
Speaker 1: the past thirty years have done an unbelievable job of
Speaker 1: uh sticking to what they do best while surveying the environment.
Speaker 1: And I think a great example is on the technology side.
Speaker 1: Technology has been so much applied to help with service,
Speaker 1: but it's really discerned intermediating the customer experience. And so
Speaker 1: technology is being used to drive down cost and uh
Speaker 1: really frustrate people. But as soon as the technology is
Speaker 1: aware that the customer is about to leave or quit altogether,
Speaker 1: walk away from your cable provider, walk away from your
Speaker 1: phone company, all of a sudden, the live person pops
Speaker 1: on and offers you what you've been wanting for the
Speaker 1: past hour on the phone. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: replicate that experience. Uh it might be more cost effective,
Speaker 1: but that's a horrible relationship. And so as we think
Speaker 1: about what we do, I'm really looking around the world
Speaker 1: for firms that are doing a good job with a
Speaker 1: human element, because that's what we need our advisors to
Speaker 1: do with their clients. That's going to differentiate them um,
Speaker 1: and so we want to do the same with our advisors,
Speaker 1: and so gathering like this obviously, you know cool seminars,
Speaker 1: cool speeches, all that, but we all know the most
Speaker 1: fun conversations happened at the bar, over a dinner or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, as all these people get together. We yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of great conversations last night. What
Speaker 1: are you hearing is you as you sort of work
Speaker 1: your way around and interact with folks, Because there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people we were talking about this before
Speaker 1: we came on a or who know each other and
Speaker 1: they sort of get together every year. What are you
Speaker 1: hearing from people that's striking you as the most interesting? Frankly,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm thrilled and I've loved We came to this
Speaker 1: week and the markets are very volatile right now, especially
Speaker 1: in the financial services space, and when everyone's here on
Speaker 1: site together, you worry a little bit about the distraction
Speaker 1: and you know, people being pulled away from this experience.
Speaker 1: It's a very personal experience. And I think if our
Speaker 1: advisors were focused on solely performance in the market um
Speaker 1: and chasing that return and that's their value proposition to
Speaker 1: their clients, they'd all be running back home or on
Speaker 1: their phone. But they're all here, they're present, they're working
Speaker 1: with each other because I think they've done a fantastic
Speaker 1: job providing such more value and service to their clients
Speaker 1: than just promising the market. And they really educate them.
Speaker 1: So the more educate your client are, um, they're prepared
Speaker 1: for things like this and it doesn't create panic or chaos.
Speaker 1: And so that I think that's been the number one
Speaker 1: thing that's really thrilled me this week. It's really comes
Speaker 1: through well. I think what's also interesting as you hear
Speaker 1: more individuals book who are running their own UM advisory firms,
Speaker 1: you know, bringing in their kids. Thinking about the next generation,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a big thing when we look about
Speaker 1: you know, here we are in job's day. UM. Maybe
Speaker 1: the data came in weaker than expected, but it is
Speaker 1: very tight, and we constantly hear about companies and employers
Speaker 1: having a hard time finding workers. And I do think
Speaker 1: thinking about training that next generation financial advisors, that's a
Speaker 1: big topic. It is, and it gets a lot of
Speaker 1: coverage in the news about the average age of the
Speaker 1: advisors is getting older every year, fifty and where's the
Speaker 1: next generation going to come from? And frankly, I'm not
Speaker 1: that worried, uh, primarily from the viewpoint of our advisors
Speaker 1: are doing a fantastic job of identifying wonderful people and
Speaker 1: oftentimes it is a center daughter uh to bring into
Speaker 1: their practices. What we need to do is help them
Speaker 1: train those people. But the advisors are really finding the
Speaker 1: answers for themselves because they're small business owners, they're entrepreneurs um.
Speaker 1: They have a lot at stake here both in terms
Speaker 1: of the business they created but making sure their clients
Speaker 1: are taken care of. So they're solving that for us,
Speaker 1: and we we can help them with the training to
Speaker 1: make sure the next generations are ready. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: it's great to catch up with you. We really appreciate
Speaker 1: your hospitality here at this level event. Trap Cloman is
Speaker 1: President and Chief operating Officer of Commonwealth Financial Network. He's
Speaker 1: here with us at Commonwealth Financial Networks twenty nineteen national Conferences.
Speaker 1: It's blue skys just you class as far as the
Speaker 1: I can see here on the front range. Let's see,
Speaker 1: let's see people. All right, Well, let's stick into the
Speaker 1: world of venture capital. Jeff Grabo back with us. He
Speaker 1: is US venture capital leader for Ernston young E Y
Speaker 1: as it's known. He joins us on the phone from
Speaker 1: New York. He's usually based out on the West coast
Speaker 1: in San Jose. So we've heard everything that's going on
Speaker 1: in the VC world, but now we've got some fresh
Speaker 1: data from the third quarter. Jeff, great to have you
Speaker 1: back with us. Thanks for having me. Great to be here.
Speaker 1: All right, So what's the takeaway here? What do we
Speaker 1: know coming out of the third quarter about the state
Speaker 1: of venture capital because the public markets have been a
Speaker 1: little skeptical about some of the venture backed companies that
Speaker 1: are coming public. Well, I mean, we finished the third
Speaker 1: quarter with point nine billion dollars going into the you know,
Speaker 1: into venture back companies. It's the third straight decline, it's
Speaker 1: down fifteen sent quarter on quarter, but it's still really strong.
Speaker 1: And you know, we are on pace exactly where we
Speaker 1: were a year ago today, and we will have our
Speaker 1: second successive hundred billion dollar a year of venture backed
Speaker 1: investment into companies. So which is which is We're so
Speaker 1: we continue to be in record territory, record territory. You're
Speaker 1: talking us, correct, These are US numbers. These are US numbers.
Speaker 1: Just so there's no chill or chilling effect in Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley as a result of you know how Uber has
Speaker 1: played out this year, how lift has played out this year. Um,
Speaker 1: you know obviously slack, uh, we work, we work right,
Speaker 1: not happening, peloton No one kind of slowing down in
Speaker 1: terms of where they're investing. Well, I think right now
Speaker 1: where we are is you know, we've nothing stays up forever,
Speaker 1: you know, and then especially in the you know, in
Speaker 1: the near micro terms. So what we're hearing is companies
Speaker 1: are being told to get out and make sure that
Speaker 1: they're fully funded because if you look out across the
Speaker 1: macro environment, there's a lot of certainties you know, Brexit,
Speaker 1: trade wars, potential recession, you know, globally, you know, instability,
Speaker 1: We keep getting data points that bounce around. So they're
Speaker 1: being encouraged to get out and make sure that they're
Speaker 1: fully funded to stay, you know, out of the tail
Speaker 1: winds or the head winds of anything that's outside of
Speaker 1: their control. And so you know, one of the issues, Jeff,
Speaker 1: that we've been talking a lot about when it comes
Speaker 1: to Silicon Valley and the venture world is, for lack
Speaker 1: of better term, the sort of tech clash that we're seeing.
Speaker 1: You know, we hear a lot of questions coming from
Speaker 1: lawmakers and regulators, and I do wonder how that's playing
Speaker 1: through the funding landscape. Are the VC backers, are they
Speaker 1: worrying about this? Are they changing behavior at all? Yet? Well,
Speaker 1: I think the better way to look at it is
Speaker 1: what what does that mean from a M and A perspective,
Speaker 1: Because you know, if large corporations that are currently public
Speaker 1: are coming under scrutiny, they're not they may not be
Speaker 1: necessarily looking at making large acquisitions that may make them
Speaker 1: look even more monopolistic. So that could slow that level
Speaker 1: you know, that exit opportunity, uh and push you know,
Speaker 1: companies more towards the public market, so more going because
Speaker 1: they're they're not going to have that avenue toward being
Speaker 1: acquired by a big tech company just because the appetite
Speaker 1: is not going to be there because of some of
Speaker 1: the uncertainty. Potentially, Yeah, I mean it depends upon the
Speaker 1: size the transaction and you know, you know how closely
Speaker 1: aligned it is. But I just think that that's going
Speaker 1: to be something that you need to think about as
Speaker 1: you move forward, that that may not be you know,
Speaker 1: the option to have that may not be there as
Speaker 1: it has been in the past. Um. I am curious
Speaker 1: too about you know, if the uncertainty continues though in
Speaker 1: the overall market and economic environment. We got the jobs
Speaker 1: data today and there's you know, some are reading some
Speaker 1: of the positives out of it, some are seeing you know,
Speaker 1: more than negative or as more of a negative report.
Speaker 1: If we continue to see kind of this environment of
Speaker 1: uncertainty continued Jeff, what would you anticipate as the impact
Speaker 1: on venture capital. Well, at some point we're going to
Speaker 1: see a slowing of funding, and that's you know, we've
Speaker 1: been talking about that over a period of time. And
Speaker 1: you know, I guess a broken clock is right twice
Speaker 1: a day, you know, but if you know, if I
Speaker 1: knew exactly when it were, you know, if the clock
Speaker 1: was going to stop, I would, you know, things would
Speaker 1: be a lot easier. But you know, you don't, but
Speaker 1: things will not. You know, can't continue on this pace
Speaker 1: and uh, this is a marathon, not a sprint in
Speaker 1: the venture business, and so you can't keep sprinting forever.
Speaker 1: And I'd say we've been in a sprint for a
Speaker 1: few years, um picking up the pace, and at some
Speaker 1: point you need to kind of get down, you know,
Speaker 1: we've been sprinting. At some point you need to clock
Speaker 1: back to pace and trade war, any impacts you're seeing
Speaker 1: so far in specific sectors. Well, I think, um, some outlet,
Speaker 1: you know, some outlying tech frontier air. He's like agritech.
Speaker 1: You know, trade wars haven't been frontly to farmers, which
Speaker 1: is going to impact their ability to buy an invest right.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's kind of a direct and you know,
Speaker 1: an early direct investment. Depending upon how deep those uh,
Speaker 1: how deep and long this goes, that could be you know,
Speaker 1: branch out in other areas. Great to catch up with
Speaker 1: you as always. Jeff gray Bow, us venture capital leader
Speaker 1: for e Y, joined us on the phone from New
Speaker 1: York City on his way back to San Jose. Where
Speaker 1: his face you know what's interesting. While we're seeing venture
Speaker 1: deals in the US up second quarter from a year ago,
Speaker 1: European investments also up. China they plummeted seventies seven percent
Speaker 1: according to Frequent That was second quarter from a year ago.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing certainly um not so much activity and
Speaker 1: we know some of the questions about the outlook there
Speaker 1: and the investment outlook all right, So we have been
Speaker 1: thrilled to be here in Colorado. It's so beautiful. Carol
Speaker 1: Sauce Bison, I've gone for some nice runs. We have
Speaker 1: been we ate some bison circle of life here on
Speaker 1: the front range. Richard Watkin is an Associate dean for
Speaker 1: Business and Government Relations at University of Colorado at Boulder
Speaker 1: up the road. He's teaching downtown. He's nice enough to
Speaker 1: come and spend some time with us here in Aurora.
Speaker 1: Rich great to have you with us, My pleasure. He's
Speaker 1: also had to put up with us, like stealing each
Speaker 1: other's food. He's a little nervous about what's gonna happen next.
Speaker 1: You never know, you never know. Thank you for refereeing
Speaker 1: what's going on here. Um, but tell us about where
Speaker 1: we are, because we were just talking to before we
Speaker 1: came along the air I mean this where we're sitting
Speaker 1: as a fascinating place for about fifteen minutes from the airport,
Speaker 1: about half an hour or so from downtown. This was
Speaker 1: the planes not too long ago. It was the plans
Speaker 1: not too long ago. They bought fifty square miles of
Speaker 1: property to put the airport in back in the ninety nineties,
Speaker 1: with the long run plan of developing around it way
Speaker 1: out from the city. Can add more runways when they
Speaker 1: need to, add more concourses when they need to. And
Speaker 1: now seventh busiest airport in the world I think at
Speaker 1: this point, but top five in the US in terms
Speaker 1: of flights in and out and the most connected airport
Speaker 1: in the entire United States in terms of direct flights
Speaker 1: to other cities. So this is an ideal location for
Speaker 1: this particular facility in terms of doing conferences and quick
Speaker 1: in and out well, and that airport and places like
Speaker 1: this have contributed to Denver being one of the fastest
Speaker 1: growing economies too. It's a boottown right now. It is
Speaker 1: a bootown. I think there's a variety of answers to
Speaker 1: that question. We've since the airport in the nineties and
Speaker 1: ever since, we've really diversified the economy a lot. We've
Speaker 1: had a very strong uh telecoms sector, and that connects
Speaker 1: started out. Now it's kind of laughable, but it started
Speaker 1: out because we had one bounced communications to Europe and
Speaker 1: to Japan during the workday, so we were kind of
Speaker 1: time zone. We were ideally located, and we our telecom
Speaker 1: sector has been very strong, but we also have very
Speaker 1: strong tourism. We have an ad sector or top ten
Speaker 1: energy producing state. So it's a combination of factors. What
Speaker 1: I love about what's going on here is that what
Speaker 1: we kind of takes off in a big picture and
Speaker 1: look at the national unemployment rate, what's going on the
Speaker 1: jobs picture. It's a reminder that city states are moving along,
Speaker 1: you know, moving forward with infrastructure investments, thinking about what
Speaker 1: they're cities or what their state needs to be in
Speaker 1: the future. I mean, I this is pretty interesting. This
Speaker 1: is long term planning and you're seeing it. I have
Speaker 1: an impact. Well, at the time the airport was built,
Speaker 1: or hadn't been another one new airport built in the
Speaker 1: US in like twenty years, and it really was an
Speaker 1: aim at moving forward. And then we've had political leader
Speaker 1: since the mayor who later became the governor, who really
Speaker 1: invested in the downtown Denver infrastructure. PICKN. Looper your aragument, right, right,
Speaker 1: John heck and Looper creative class kind of attraction of
Speaker 1: art museums and bike paths and jogging. And if you
Speaker 1: thought the jogging was nice out here, you should see
Speaker 1: what the jogging is in downtown. I know, it's so incredulous.
Speaker 1: I mean, and it is such an outdoor vibe. And
Speaker 1: we spent so much of our time here talking about
Speaker 1: people taking a much more holistic view of their financial planning.
Speaker 1: Much less their lives. And that's the vibe here for sure.
Speaker 1: That is the vibe here for sure. How main quality
Speaker 1: of life. We've been able to attract very well educated
Speaker 1: workforce where in the top five to ten states for
Speaker 1: population growth every year, and it's because people want to
Speaker 1: live here. Well, that's a that's an important part, you know.
Speaker 1: Here we are on job's day, right, we got the
Speaker 1: monthly jobs report, and I do think about companies and
Speaker 1: institutions competing for workers. I mean, what you folks are
Speaker 1: doing to attract companies in and to also bring in workers. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and but it is a big issue. We have a
Speaker 1: very tight labor force. Are an employer rights under three
Speaker 1: percent and and even though UM top five kind of
Speaker 1: job generating state, it's keeping the labor force very tight.
Speaker 1: One thing of interest compared to the country as a
Speaker 1: whole is we've had a pretty big increase in labor
Speaker 1: force participation over the last couple of years. It's been
Speaker 1: kind of flat nationally, but a lot of people have
Speaker 1: come back into the workforce man older workers, older workers
Speaker 1: and UM dual income households and so on. We've seen
Speaker 1: a pretty big surge in that. And we're several percentage
Speaker 1: points higher in terms of labor force participation. Do you
Speaker 1: have a sense yet from a net economic effect of
Speaker 1: legalizing marijuana. You know, we don't have a total picture
Speaker 1: when when this um. Certainly we know it's generated tax
Speaker 1: revenue that's been a positive. UM. We we do feel
Speaker 1: that it's had a positive effect on certain aspects of tourism.
Speaker 1: People come have come to you know, get high whatever,
Speaker 1: Rocky mountain high in the ultimate sense, right, But there's
Speaker 1: a play. I'm just saying, T shirts are you know,
Speaker 1: can pick your pick up your shirt on the way out. Good.
Speaker 1: But you know it has both sides of it, the
Speaker 1: aspect of it younger people maybe spoken pop more and
Speaker 1: those types of things. So net net, I think most
Speaker 1: people think it's worked out much better than they had
Speaker 1: hoped for. Uh. But now with so many other states legalizing,
Speaker 1: it's probably run its course. So I gotta ask you
Speaker 1: from weed to economists. You've got a bunch descending this
Speaker 1: weekend right for big conference next week. You've been involved
Speaker 1: in the planning. I've been on the planning committee and
Speaker 1: past president of the National Association for Business Economics, and
Speaker 1: we have a great crowd coming in. What do you
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be the biggest topic. We know J
Speaker 1: Powell will be there. We've just got about forty seconds.
Speaker 1: What's the big question that you guys all want to Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a topic discussion of negative interest rates,
Speaker 1: but I think the biggest things are going to focus
Speaker 1: on the growth in the global economy at Europe and
Speaker 1: what that might be in terms of impact overall. Is
Speaker 1: there a drinking game like every time we hear the
Speaker 1: word recession, are data dependent dependent? Or maybe maybe it
Speaker 1: involved the marijuana? And yeah, we'll see, we'll see how
Speaker 1: it goes. We'll be checked in actually out here with
Speaker 1: our own Michael mckeblan work televisions. Michael McKee he'll be here.
Speaker 1: We'll be checking in with him. We're so delighted to
Speaker 1: spend some time. Richard Wabkin, he is Associate Dean for
Speaker 1: Business and Government Relations involved in the n a B
Speaker 1: which will be here next week. Is a really great context. Seriously,
Speaker 1: you can see some more bison eat some more bison,
Speaker 1: and you know, who knows what would happen to say, hey,
Speaker 1: he's on the bison, need me all right? So, as
Speaker 1: we come close to wrapping up our time, here at
Speaker 1: the Commonwealth Financial Networks twenty nineteen National Conference and nice
Speaker 1: forward looking conversation ahead with Jason Wheeler. He is CEO
Speaker 1: Wealth Advisor for Pathfinder Wealth Consulting. He's based back east
Speaker 1: in Wilmington, North Carolina. Good Southerner, also a surfer. I
Speaker 1: could talk to you about surfing and probably how jealous
Speaker 1: I am and how good you are, but we're not
Speaker 1: going to talk about that. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the next generation of financial advisors because it's important and
Speaker 1: I feel like that succession is something that maybe folks
Speaker 1: haven't spent as much time one How are people looking
Speaker 1: at it now? Yeah? I agree, Um, it's funny. I'm
Speaker 1: uh in my mid forties now and I had a
Speaker 1: lot of people approached me about their succession plan and
Speaker 1: thinking about that over the years. It's it's one of
Speaker 1: those things that inevitably somebody wants to get their value
Speaker 1: out of their firm right retire um, but they also
Speaker 1: want to control it right till the end. Well, seeing
Speaker 1: that it's it became very obviously how can a firm
Speaker 1: that grows be able to pass it down to one generation?
Speaker 1: So you really have to build out that next generation
Speaker 1: to be able to scale your business and that type
Speaker 1: of stuff, and UM, people were coming to me say,
Speaker 1: how have you been successful recruiting this next generation inside
Speaker 1: your firm when we can't do and we've got twenty
Speaker 1: more years of experience on you. So what's the secret,
Speaker 1: sauce Jason. So Um, you know, first of all, I
Speaker 1: stayed very actively involved in my alma mater, and so
Speaker 1: I stayed involved in the universe for my situated from
Speaker 1: my master's program, became the chair of the alumni association.
Speaker 1: I've stayed involved, but I actually went back and was
Speaker 1: teaching in the department as an adjunct, and so I
Speaker 1: just kind of stayed in touch, I would say, with
Speaker 1: the college kids of the day, and so um that helped.
Speaker 1: I think being a little bit immature at times helps.
Speaker 1: Um wanting to be younger all the time. Officially, that
Speaker 1: is my favorite moment. So um, you know what that said.
Speaker 1: And we were successful in bringing out a gentleman right
Speaker 1: out of school and he's been with us now in
Speaker 1: almost eleven years now. And so looking at the next generation, UM,
Speaker 1: we said, well, what are ways that we can sort
Speaker 1: of attractive So we've done things like internships, we go
Speaker 1: back to Business Week, and I have people, you know,
Speaker 1: we speak in front of people UM Career Center, we
Speaker 1: get on boards UM. But when we look for that
Speaker 1: next generation, when I found that really differentiated what people
Speaker 1: are getting from the independent financial advisors in particular, was
Speaker 1: a track like, this is the career ahead of you.
Speaker 1: And so what you get is you get the job
Speaker 1: description that they're looking for war instead of this is
Speaker 1: how your life will progress professionally if you wanted to
Speaker 1: down this. And so the people who came to us UM. Ironically,
Speaker 1: the last two hires were both career changers. We had
Speaker 1: a UM elementary school teacher who was finishing up her
Speaker 1: master's at U n c W and was volunteering at
Speaker 1: her church with people in their money and decided she
Speaker 1: wanted to do this professionally. Well, she saw that career
Speaker 1: path and the trajectory and so it really got her excited.
Speaker 1: In the same one, we had a gentleman of non
Speaker 1: traditional students. He was in the actual food service business,
Speaker 1: working as a manager in a country club and went
Speaker 1: back to school because the people at the club said
Speaker 1: you need to go back to school, and got a
Speaker 1: finance degree. And then again he saw the path ahead
Speaker 1: of them as far as laying out what are the
Speaker 1: steps in my career rather than just getting out there
Speaker 1: and you know, sort of the way I came up
Speaker 1: with sales had twenty seven to twenty nine. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not that you're not not necessarily right out of school. Um,
Speaker 1: it's very young and certainly new to our profession. Um.
Speaker 1: We were fortunate enough my business partners ten years older
Speaker 1: than me, and then it's me, and then our next
Speaker 1: one is about ten years younger than me. That we
Speaker 1: didn't plan it that way, but it's nice to have that.
Speaker 1: I think they see that, and so the cultures there
Speaker 1: and so what do you think it is that attracts uh,
Speaker 1: someone who's in their twenties to this business because it
Speaker 1: is a different business. We've certainly gotten that sense from
Speaker 1: talking to some of your colleagues and peers here that
Speaker 1: it's a different business than it was ten twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: For sure, what's different about it at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I think, you know, the whole idea of
Speaker 1: that we were becoming more planning focused and UM, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to go to the extent that we're someone's psychologist, UM,
Speaker 1: but to the degree times it probably feels that. I
Speaker 1: just feel like there's a little bit of a therapist
Speaker 1: as a part of this position. I call it getting uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you're getting financially naked. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: going to the doctor for the first time. Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week after Dark. But when we think about that, I
Speaker 1: think they see that as a way to actually have
Speaker 1: a career that gives back an impact moment um. You know.
Speaker 1: I see big, bigger firms m my friends. I've got
Speaker 1: a buddy who works for an insurance company. He works
Speaker 1: from his house. He does um underwriting for medical claims.
Speaker 1: He could care less about his company, right. He makes
Speaker 1: a lot of money, so his life is go to work,
Speaker 1: to get a check, to have your life. Where I
Speaker 1: think people in this profession going forward look at it
Speaker 1: is I'm going to be spending all this time. I
Speaker 1: want to make a difference with my life. And they
Speaker 1: can see that versus the sort of the mindset of
Speaker 1: all I'm doing is managing money. It's a difference with
Speaker 1: you work to They have lived to work, correct concept, right.
Speaker 1: I do think certainly the younger generation is thinking an
Speaker 1: awful lot about that too. Yeah, And I think they
Speaker 1: see the they see the impact directly in the lives
Speaker 1: of individuals. And speaker here that talked about how um
Speaker 1: emotional connection to the way you spend your money. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the same thing. It's emotional connection to the
Speaker 1: way you spend your time. Yeah, that's great, that's great,
Speaker 1: really smart. Jason Wheeler, CEO, Wealth advisor for Pathfinder Wealth Consulting.
Speaker 1: He's big based back east in Wilmington, North Carolina, on
Speaker 1: site with us here in Colorado's to Japan. Have not
Speaker 1: been surfing it yet. There's a great story in the magazine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we're going to tell you a little bit part
Speaker 1: of pat I'm grow turn on. Yeah, but you let
Speaker 1: me drive. No, no, no, no, dr home, honey, please,
Speaker 1: I'll do the right rivel. Lets me. I want to drive,
Speaker 1: just drive by the question drives the drive to the globe.
Speaker 1: Give me thanks. We'll drive us on Bluebird Radio. It
Speaker 1: is time for the drive to the close this last
Speaker 1: trading day of the week. In fact, stonks just taking
Speaker 1: another leg up. We are pretty much we are at
Speaker 1: our highs of the session, about one point four percent
Speaker 1: higher on each of those major equity averages with us
Speaker 1: is vance bars. He is well strategist at your dedicated
Speaker 1: fiduciary based in San Diego, California, on site with us
Speaker 1: at Coming Well Financial Networks twenty nine national conference. Were
Speaker 1: actually caught up with him last night talking a little
Speaker 1: bit about what's been going on market volatility, vents like
Speaker 1: we've seen this week. How does that help or hinder
Speaker 1: what you do when you're working with your clients. That's
Speaker 1: an excellent question. Short term market volatility is never of
Speaker 1: that much concerned because most of the families that I
Speaker 1: serve have a very long term view and have been
Speaker 1: investing long enough to feel comfortable with short term market fluctuations.
Speaker 1: There is some concern over the recent inversion of the
Speaker 1: yield curve because some people are inclined towards propeller head
Speaker 1: thinking and they go, I remember the last time that
Speaker 1: yield curve inverted. It was two thousand seven, right, is
Speaker 1: it the same thing that funds you know, in May
Speaker 1: of two thousand seven was at five point to five
Speaker 1: per cent. Oh no, And that's when all of the
Speaker 1: behavioral coaching comes into play, and so as you sort
Speaker 1: of take a step back, you know, we've had a
Speaker 1: chance that Carol said to catch up with you here,
Speaker 1: you're sort of like a man about the conference. I
Speaker 1: feel like you know a lot of people here are
Speaker 1: you know, work in the work. It's great to see
Speaker 1: about the conference. Goes to the conference, You're welcome. But
Speaker 1: one of the things we were talking about, which I'm
Speaker 1: so intrigued by, is eusynthesis and analysis of some of
Speaker 1: the mega trends we see in sort of society and business,
Speaker 1: not the least of which sort of gig economy and
Speaker 1: airbnb and all these things, and how that placed through
Speaker 1: to retirement. Tell us about that. So one of the
Speaker 1: really unique things that I've seen as a recent trend
Speaker 1: in retirement planning is the emergence of what are called
Speaker 1: a d U S and a D use an acronym
Speaker 1: for an accessory dwelling unit. Many of us that know
Speaker 1: them as in law suites or in my house, we
Speaker 1: call them the grandmother suite, right, or the granny flat.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is people remember two thousand eight. They
Speaker 1: remember the market correction, and they also remember the Fed
Speaker 1: funds right being much higher back in two thousand seven.
Speaker 1: And with this near decade that we've had observed or
Speaker 1: zero interest rate policy, yield starved investors have had to
Speaker 1: find unique ways to make up for the difference in income.
Speaker 1: So for example, if you work for decades and decades
Speaker 1: and you saved up a million dollars in your nest egg,
Speaker 1: and you were to put that in the tenure treasury
Speaker 1: back in two thousand seven, you could earn say fifty
Speaker 1: plus thousand dollars. Right fast forward to today, the tenure
Speaker 1: is at one point six, so that income has all
Speaker 1: of a sudden sixteen thousand. So that's a big delta.
Speaker 1: So what's really fascinating is with the emergence of Airbnb
Speaker 1: and verbo or vr b o, we have seen this
Speaker 1: pretty profound interest in these success re dwelling units for
Speaker 1: two reasons. One owners want to use them for family
Speaker 1: members when they come and visit, but two, when they're
Speaker 1: not there, they like the additional income that they can
Speaker 1: get by renting them out. Yeah. I see that more
Speaker 1: and more with friends where my neighborhood. I even think about,
Speaker 1: like my home when I retire, not getting close, but
Speaker 1: I think about not selling it, but not selling, you know,
Speaker 1: not using it as like a rental property in terms
Speaker 1: of income or something like. I don't know, you really,
Speaker 1: I see a lot more people talking about it. I
Speaker 1: have nothing to tell you all right here for a while, alright, Um,
Speaker 1: But you know the other thing that I feel like
Speaker 1: we're one of the other things that we're talking a
Speaker 1: lot about, and we've talked with you about as well
Speaker 1: advance as this, you know, sort of holistic approach. I
Speaker 1: do feel like people are not sort of making these
Speaker 1: decisions in terms of who they work with, maybe as
Speaker 1: quickly anymore. It's like you got a guy, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: use them cool, Like they're gonna, you know, give me
Speaker 1: a model, and I'm gonna do these things with my
Speaker 1: stocks and bonds and I'm gonna quarter yes the next quarter.
Speaker 1: So but how does that change what you do? You've
Speaker 1: worked as a consultant in this business before, so you
Speaker 1: sort of see it holistically. Um, how should people be
Speaker 1: sort of choosing someone to work with? Excellent question, Jason,
Speaker 1: and thank you very much for that. So, prior to
Speaker 1: becoming a financial advisor, I spent roughly a decade as
Speaker 1: an investment consult to too many of this nation's leading
Speaker 1: private wealth and retail financial advisors at all different types
Speaker 1: of firms wire houses, independent broker dealers, are as family offices.
Speaker 1: So I have a pretty unusual perspective on how practitioners
Speaker 1: serve their clients. And I have an insider's knowledge, if
Speaker 1: you will, on the planning strategies that they offer, but
Speaker 1: many of the plantaging planning strategies excuse me that they
Speaker 1: don't offer, and that's where a lot of value can
Speaker 1: be brought. Many people select the financial advisor based on trust,
Speaker 1: and I propose that it's way more important than trust.
Speaker 1: It's about accountability, it's about transparency, it's about honesty, it's
Speaker 1: about integrity, and ultimately, what value will that practitioner bring
Speaker 1: to your overall planning life. How do you check that out? Though?
Speaker 1: That's a great question. It really has to start with
Speaker 1: an analysis and an understanding of the tax return profile.
Speaker 1: And financial advisors say, well, I don't do tax planning.
Speaker 1: Well that's okay, but you're tasked with serving someone in
Speaker 1: a pretty serious financial capacity. We you go to the
Speaker 1: doctor and it's a new doctor, or if you go
Speaker 1: to a specialist, they typically want your general health history.
Speaker 1: So a financial advisor, in an analogous way in serving
Speaker 1: as the doctor, should really get the general health history,
Speaker 1: which is comprised of the tax returns. You really have
Speaker 1: to understand the tax profile, and concurring with that, having
Speaker 1: a deep understanding of the estate planning documents that are
Speaker 1: in place, the business assets, the real estate assets. You
Speaker 1: take all of those holdings and you put them together
Speaker 1: in a very comprehensive way to get an understanding of
Speaker 1: what we call the fact pattern. And then you really
Speaker 1: get to know the client. What are their intentions with
Speaker 1: their estate, what are their fears, do they have charitable
Speaker 1: intent what are the family politics like? And that's an
Speaker 1: art form that really takes very specific navigation. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know we only have a minute left, but I also
Speaker 1: love the fact that, in addition to you know, the
Speaker 1: background that you describe, your undergraduate degree is in neurobiology.
Speaker 1: I think so, I mean you must be always thinking about,
Speaker 1: like literally how someone's brain is working around this stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was gifted, for better or for worse, with a
Speaker 1: very analytical brains. Anyway, it does serve me well with
Speaker 1: conducting analyzes on behalf of clients. Yeah, and by the way,
Speaker 1: this is my twelve year in attending Commonwealth conferences. So
Speaker 1: I used to attend as a consultant and used to
Speaker 1: see many of my clients here, and now it's wonderful
Speaker 1: to be here as a fellow colleague. Well, now we've
Speaker 1: solved that. We've solved the question like why he's the
Speaker 1: man about the conference because he already knows everybody. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: it's great to catch up in vance. Bars is well
Speaker 1: strategist at a firm called You're Dedicated Fiduciary Space in
Speaker 1: San Diego, California. He's here with us at Commonwealth Financial
Speaker 1: Networks twenty nineteen conference in Colorado. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: or Bloomberg dot com. You can also listen to our
Speaker 1: radio show every weekday at two pm Eastern only on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio