Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Brendon Murphy, CEO and President of Compass Financial Solutions Discussing Financial Teamwork

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

As the CEO and President of Compass Financial Solutions Inc., in Havertown, PA, I provide professional expertise in Long Term Care, Business Insurance, Life Insurance, and Personal Pension Fixed Annuities products. I’ve been helping families, individuals, and business owners secure financial peace of mind since 2013.At Compass Financial Solutions Inc., I currently service individuals, families, and businesses throughout the Greater Philadelphia Region, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Las Vegas, and Georgia.Learn more: http://www.mycfsi.com/ Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-brendon-murphy-ceo-and-president-of-compass-financial-solutions-discussing-financial-teamwork

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Brendan Murphy, who's the CEO and president of Compass Financial Solutions, and we'll be talking about financial teamwork. Brendan, welcome back to the program.

Well, thanks for having me again. Hey, so I think this is really a powerful concept because nowhere in the world is any one person, an expert in everything. And I think that if you have someone that positions themselves that way, you should be really, really wary because someone in your position that is in financial services, there are so many nuances that you personally don't know. So now we're going to talk about bringing that financial team together. So talk a little bit about your holistic approach to financial advising. Yeah, so Mike, so I do specifically, I do personal pensions, I do long-term care, and I do life insurance, right? Those are three areas I focus on. That's my niche or niche, however you like to say.

Well, everyone doesn't just need any type of, always need an annuity, life insurance, or long-term care, right? So they need a certified financial planner where someone who's going to help, you know, manage their money, right? I like to partner with certified financial planners that become part of their team. Because if you're in a 70-30 portfolio, 30% of that is fixed income. Well, that might not be what you need because that still bounces up and down with the market, right? That's risky. My products, I can say the word guaranteed. People can.

Other financial providers can. So when we start dealing with people who are getting ready to retire and they need some kind of guarantees in their portfolio because they're about to retire and need those distributions for income, that's where I come out. So I partner with financial advisors and certified financial planners that don't do what I do. I stay away. Like we use accountants as part of our team. We use estate lawyers as part of our team. We are a big, I'm a big fan of everyone plays a role. It's like working at a restaurant.

If you, you love your bartender, but the bartender has to put the order in, somebody has to cook it, somebody has to bring it to you, and somebody has to clear your plate, right? So I look at it as like that. We're a team, whether you have your own. team and we become part of it or we bring the team to you if you don't have. Yeah, I think that's a big point that you bring up there because sometimes people might be like, yeah, but I've got my guy. I've got my gal who, whatever, is the CPA.

I don't want to have to go to Brendan's whole team and start fresh. And what you are saying is wherever there's needs and opportunities and gaps, you fill it in because you've got your set of trusted advisors on the team. But if you got a CPA, wonderful. We'll integrate them right in with what we're doing so that they, know the plan and then everybody's on the same page. Listen, Mike, we want to say, excuse me, Mr. Mrs. Client, would you mind giving us the name of your CPA?

And would you let them know that we'd like to reach out? Because if we make recommendations for some type of Roth conversion or we're going to move some money over to do long-term care, we want to make sure that doesn't hit your tax bill. And then he's calling us and going, what did you do? So, yes, if you have an accountant and you have an estate docs, which is something we check off in the box, which we talked about before, hey, would you mind providing us those documents? And then two, would you provide us the name of your estate lawyer?

Because now if we become part of your team, we want to work with those people and make sure that we're handing all your points of how you want to retire and all of the conversations that need to be had. And making sure that your beneficiaries are set up exactly how the estate lawyer has them when we set up your new accounts if we do do that. You know, this to me sounds like everybody is staying in their lane. They can stay up to date on the latest trends. Like you've said, you're not a CFP. You focus on what you focus on private pensions and insurance and annuities. Well, you don't need to know all of the intricacies of what a certified financial planner does. Well, that keeps you focused and being an expert in your lane.

So talk a little bit about how that approach is different than a more traditional approach that people tend to see on TV and online, you know, come to us. We'll help you plan for retirement. How to what is what you do different than what they see out there? Because I'm going to bring in the certified financial planner and he's going to, we're going to say, hey, you know, if you have a 7030 portfolio, but you're going to be short income when you retire. Some piece of that fixed income bucket could be used and say a fixed in ex annuity with a lifetime income rider, right? That'll help you, give you a guarantee pension payment for the rest of your life. just like your Social Security, you know, for the people that are the aides that are going to receive them.

And if, because the three-legged stool used to be pension, Social Security. And I just lost it. I just lost it. Social Security, pension and investments. Now we could say here's your, because no one has pensions anymore, not a lot of people, unless you're in the government or certain industries. Yeah. We can help turn that annuity into your pension stream on top of Social Security. And now your, your fixed bucket is truly fixed.

that income you can't outlive. So we do that where we'll talk to you and say, hey, you have a financial advisor. Has he brought this to your to the table? And then I'll go to that financial advisor. Say, hey, sir, they're asking me about this, you know, guaranteed income for life. How can I help you help that? Right. Because you're working for that client.

I want to work for that client too. But it's usually a struggle when you're going in between them. I just want to come right forward and say, sir. I can help you help your client. And you should never have all your eggs in one basket. You know, we've heard that before, you know, like don't have all of your money in the market. Don't have all of your money, you know, in different places. And there's definitely a time in place for having your money in the market, maybe in your 20s, 30s.

But all of a sudden now when you start seeing a little bit on the horizon, like let's plan for retirement, now you need to start, you know, getting safe and protected and guarantees. And I love how you said you can say the word guarantee and other advisors can't because, you know, they can't control the market, but when you put people in a certain product, now we can talk about streams of income and guarantee. Here's a big, big question that I feel like is important for people to understand. You're not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and go, everybody needs, boom, this, next. How do you go about understanding a client's entire financial and personal picture to make sure that the recommendations you're making are perfectly fit for

them? Well, what we do is we have conversations. Our first meeting is a conversation, right? You don't have to bring anything. We don't need your financial statements. We don't need anything. We just want to talk to you. We want to talk to you. We want to find out what's going on right now.

Where are your goals? Where are your dreams? What do you want to do? And then kind of get the big picture and say, okay, well, we think that this could help you or not help you, right? Hey, you have this already. Let's focus over here because this part is already done. Button up. You have a estate plate.

Great. Check. We just see the documents. So we make sure the beneficiaries. if we do decide to do something, we can line them up with what your state docks are. Are you using the accountant? Are you doing turbotax by yourself?

Hey, maybe in this bracket where you are, you should be having someone personally do it. And not you, even though you like doing it, but you can work with the accountant. Maybe it'll save you some money at the end of the day. So we'll look at that and have that conversation. Hey, this is what we think we can bring. Then our next meeting will say,

we're going to ask you to bring some stuff in for the conversation. and we'll go through the bits and pieces and put it all together, whether it's a budget, whether we're looking at the 401K, you have a pension plan that you can roll out a lump sum. If you're a teacher, sometimes those teachers, pensions are underfunded, so you roll that out. You have those conversations along the way. And then we'll come back to you and give you a one-page plan. Hey, this is what we saw. Here's what we think we're going to be helpful. Or, hey, guys, you guys are doing a great job.

You only really need these things. And that's not in our wheelhouse. We're going to send you over here. That's how we operate on a daily basis. That's great. And you've talked a lot about some of the benefits of working in this holistic approach. Can you think of an example of a client maybe you've worked with that was not used to that and came from like the traditional, you know, advisor with the blinders on going, here's this.

And then when you come on board and start showing them all of this, their eyes kind of opened up to go, wow, we've been missing out. Yeah, we just had a client come over. And they were in a situation where they didn't really have any, they didn't have any money in the beginning of life. They have money now. Okay. And the advisor wasn't listening to what they were asking for. And they really just needed income.

They had money because they got a lump sum, but they needed income to live their daily life. They just put it like, they just put it all into the market. And every once in a while, they'd be like, yeah, can I get 30 grand? Can I get 40 grand? Well, I'm like, hey, guys, what if we just get you income and stabilize it? let that money run with your advisor over there.

And then we'll start checking boxes along the way. And we did that. We moved some of the money into some fixed income, which they're getting monthly, which they love. We got the wife a long-term care plan because the husband was unable to do it, but we provided him with an annuity with ADL benefits on top of that. So now they're all protected and the money is grown. And they've been part of the ride along. So most of the money that we moved to protect them has already been made back with the interest

that's going on. So for us, can you remember what what percentage of their overall portfolio that was in the market? What percent is still in the market versus what percent you have in some of those solutions? So they were in a 90-10 and we ended up moving about 30 percent over to protect it. And the reason I ask that is a lot of times people are like, oh, well, now I've got to, you know, turn my back on what I've been doing for decades. Well, no, you're not saying to stop all of that.

You just reposition. Yeah, you're repositioning. So if you look at an overall portfolio, right, if we're talking to somebody and say they have a million dollars, right, let's just say they have a million dollars. We'll look. If you're in an 80-20 portfolio, and that's what you're comfortable in, right? We can roll over your fixed income at the 20% to the fixed annuity, guarantee that you can't lose any principle.

You gain when the market's up. but your your equities can stay in an 80-20 portfolio or you can go to 100% equities because you're still, we have the 20% guaranteed, right? So you can fluctuate between that if you wanted to. Yeah. Have you ever had a client that did that and that they come back to, because I'm just hearing that thinking out loud that here comes a client that goes, wait a minute, I'm two years into this new plan you put me in.

And we are so tired of kind of. holding our breath, watching the news and see what the market's doing, opening our portfolio statements going, oops, the market took a little bit of a dip. And we love, love, love this guarantee, this, have you ever had them come back and go, why don't we kind of adjust the percentages a little bit more and put a little bit more into the, you know, protected guarantee side? Yeah, we just had somebody to this. It was a client we picked up two years ago. They were kind of like that, you know, 65, 35. And then after this year, he came back and goes, listen, he's like, I think I got to put another 10% in the He's like, I'm worried about, you know, what's going to happen in the next little while.

Yeah. You know, so we just adjust it, right? Because it's still in the market. We can move some of that money, you know, right over and protect it. And then we just go to a shorter time frame, which stays in their horizon. Maybe we're not doing a seven-year contract. We're only doing a five, right, in the annuity space. So it kind of still aligns with where we are lateral lines, right?

Because you're on the income ladder. When are we going to start taking distributions from everything to make sure that we can live in our own world? right when you retire and you're not making recommendations to weird investments and hoping for the best you're making recommendations to things that have been out there for hundreds of years and you're not making them do 180 degree turn you're just going let's just kind of reposition a little here and a little bit there and I would venture to say that that approach builds tremendous trust with your clients over time right it has yes and people like the fact that maybe you get you get two different people working so they can bounce ideas off two different people. Because what if one person

doesn't like long-term care? They're just going to say you can afford to pay for it, right? Yeah. We'll just take the distributions from your account. Well, what if the market drops 40, 50% like it did in 08? And you're taking $40,000 from that million dollar account, right? It doesn't work. Like, you just lost 90 grand. You just took 90 grand out in a year. And it took you six years to get back to where it was. So you're continuing to take that 40 grand. But what have we guaranteed it? What if we guaranteed you that $40,000 per year for life? And even if the market goes down, you can wait for it to go back up because you have your income. Right?

Or when the market's up, you take from your investment accounts and when the market's down, you pull from the annuity because the annuity's guaranteed, right? Yeah. So, yeah, you can take from, we use that system sometimes where if the market's up, you're going to pull from the market. Or if the market's down, you're going to pull from the annuity. So you have time to rebalance in the markets. Yeah, that's huge.

You have flexibility. Yeah, that's big. You know, when you were thinking about, you know, the team, the financial team that you're bringing to people's attention, is there a time that you have a client that goes, wow, I never thought about including this financial member part of the team. I never thought I could have access to someone like that. You know, so can you think of that example that you've had people go, wow, I kind of feel like a big shot because I've got.

all of these. And what's what's what's a person, a member of the financial team that sometimes people think, wow, I hadn't thought about adding that in and making sure that's part of my financial team. I think that a lot of times it's the estate plan. I think people think they're just going to, they're going to go in line and write a will and they're, and that's going to be the end of it. Well, they didn't really think about what happens when somebody passes away. I mean, more and more of these days, younger people are dying from heart attacks, stroke, cancer, right? It's, and they don't think about it. They don't think about protecting it. Like, they don't think about life insurance for those things. How the life insurance can go

to trust to take care of the kids later on in the life that you set up with the estate plan to make sure that God forbid something happens to them. Something's left to the kids. If something happened to both the adults, those plans like, God forbid, something happens to both of them. Where do the kids go? Who takes your kids? Yeah. Right? Because if your parents are in their 70s and 80s, should they really be watching a five and six year old, all the time. Maybe not, right? Yeah. So those plans, the estate, I think the estate plan is a thing where not a lot of people think about all the time. And to spend, you know, whatever, 500 for a will or, you know, something in that range, you're going to pay a couple dollars for it,

but at the end of the day of the day is protection. Protection on your assets, your family, and everyone else that's under you that you're responsible for, really. And I think, too, when you think about that estate planning professional part of the team, that it shifts from striving and grinding and building and growing into, you know, that part of the age before you get to retirement, into the next stage of, you know,

let's protect what I've got. And then really, I think a lot of times people might not think of the very next stage, which is the legacy planning, which is passing money onto your ears. They almost think about, I'm going to need every dime of, of X number of dollars so that I can get to retirement.

Well, why don't we think about how many millions we can have left over past what we need so I can give it to my kids, but mainly give it to my family in the right possible way so that it's in the best, you know, tax, you know, advantages. So talk a little bit about even just that mindset. Yeah. So we talk to clients a lot about gifting when that's available, when they have money, and maybe into life insurance policies for their kids, right? hey, you're going to put this money in for five to 10 years, and you're going to have a paid up life insurance policy for your kids that they can use that cash value to buy whatever they want or to pay for your grandkids college.

And we can do that as well, as long as they're gifting it up to their limits, right? We do that. Or, you know, they have life insurance so they can spend all the money they want, spend all their money and they're still leading something to the kids. You know, we just make sure that we hear that in the conversation, hey, you know what? I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but now I'm thinking about, you know, little Johnny and Janie, they have college coming up. How can we do something for them now? And what if they don't go to college? Is the 529 the best?

Yes, it's a great vehicle. But maybe that's not for you right now, right? Because you're a little bit older. It could be, but we use 529. We use life insurance. We can use different vehicles to make sure that all the parents are leaving legacies for their kids and for their grandkids. Yeah, huge. Well, I think this is just really eye-opening to think, you know what? I thought you had to have

$200 gazillion to have a team like this working for you, but you don't need anything like that. You just need to work with someone like yourself that brings a team together for you to make sure that every single decision is the right one for now, for the future, for how you pass money all along. So I think this has just been super helpful. Brendan, if someone is interested in learning more and reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way they can do that. You can reach us at 610-449-900. That's our office. We're on the Compass Wealth podcast on IHeart and Spotify. And then our website, my, my, mycfSI.com. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. You also, Mike. I really appreciate you having me on again.

You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders to learn more about the resources is mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www. www. influential entrepreneurs radio.com.