Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Clark Smith, President of Golden Years Financial Discussing Retirement Planning Process

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

Clark Smith boasts an impressive career spanning over three decades in the financial advisory realm. He embarked on his journey in 1990 as a financial advisor with Dean Witter Reynolds, quickly rising to prominence as the firm’s youngest Retirement Planning Specialist by 1993. Specializing in Retirement Financial Planning, Clark has dedicated his career to helping clients achieve their long-term financial goals.His career trajectory continued upward, becoming Vice President of Investments at Prudential Securities in 1995. From 2000 to 2006, Clark served as Vice President of Investments at UBS, further honing his expertise in investment strategies. In 2006, he took a significant leap by becoming a founding partner and portfolio manager at Woodridge Capital Portfolio Management, where his leadership extended to managing a hedge fund at Woodridge Partners from 2008 to 2016.After a brief retirement from 2017 to 2020, Clark re-entered the financial sector as a Senior Financial Advisor and Director of Retail Operations. His commitment to nurturing talent led him to become the Head of Training for Advisormax financial advisors from 2021 to 2024, where he played a pivotal role in shaping the next generation of financial advisors.Clark Smith’s career reflects a steadfast dedication to financial excellence and leadership, marked by his strategic vision and commitment to education and mentorship within the industry. His specialization in Retirement Financial Planning underscores his passion for guiding clients towards secure and fulfilling retirements.Learn more: https://goldenyearsria.com/Insurance products are offered through the insurance business Golden Years Financial. Golden Years Financial is also an Investment Advisory practice that offers products and services through AE Wealth Management, LLC (AEWM), a Registered Investment Adviser. AEWM does not offer insurance products. The insurance products offered by Golden Years Financial are not subject to Investment Adviser requirements. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Any references to protection, safety or lifetime income, generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying abilities of the issuing carrier. This podcast is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual’s situation. Golden Years Financial is not permitted to offer and no statement made during this show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Government or any governmental agency. The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Golden Years Financial.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-clark-smith-president-of-golden-years-financial-discussing-retirement-planning-process

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 Clark Smith, who's president of Golden Years Financial, and we'll be talking about the retirement planning process. Clark, welcome back to the program. Thank you, Mike. I'm pleased to be here. You know, I think a lot of times people would say, oh, yeah, yeah, I've got a retirement plan

because they have X number of dollars stashed away in their 401k or IRA. Well, that's a nice start and that's wonderful, but I think that you are going to teach us on really what does a fully built out retirement plan look like. So let's get started with how can a good retirement planning process make retirement retirement really, really golden. So, Mike, the beginning, and you hit the nail on the head when you said process. Yeah. Because a well-thought-out retirement plan can really transform our years into golden opportunities.

And this is where dreams aren't just preserved. They're realized. And it's all about crafting the life that people. want filled with as much joy, passion, and fulfillment as we can provide. And it starts in the beginning with the very first meeting. Very often when I meet with someone, they come to a class that I teach. And one of the first questions that I ask is, what surprised you about class? What did you already know that you're now thinking about differently?

and the answer that I get back is typically they're looking forward to figuring out how they can enjoy their retirement. And one of the next questions that I ask is, well, how closely does your current financial approach match the retirement lifestyle that you're now envisioning? And people typically have absolutely no clue. They know roughly how much money they have. They know roughly how much it takes to pay the bills, and they might have a handful of things planned out ahead of time that they want to do. But they don't know how the approach that they're taking matches the lifestyle, the retirement lifestyle that they envisioned.

And another question I asked pretty early in this process is, how prepared do you feel for the unexpected, financial challenges that could happen in retirement. That's a doozy. Almost never do I hear a good answer to this question. I was going to say it's probably got to be pretty low, huh? It's very low. And then we start talking about, well,

what might provide the extra layer of comfort and security that you want? And by this point, people are like, we've never talked about this. I talked to a financial planner, and we talked about asset allocation, and he talked about the 4% rule, and that was about it. And we don't even really know where to begin. And luckily, I've already begun the process at this point, and I do know where to take it. You know, when I ask people, how secure does your financial future feel today?

routinely I hear, well, you know, we're really nervous. When I ask people about their retirement income, and these are people relying on the stock market for their income. I'll say, well, do you want your retirement to be guaranteed? Do you want your income to be a maybe? Invariably, I hear guaranteed. Now, the reality is that we can generally create a combination of the two effectively. but when I ask people how much money it takes to pay the bills,

they'll be able to answer that question. And I'll, in talking to them, realize that they left out buying clothes. They've left out buying insurance. They've left out repairs on a vehicle. They've left out going to a vet. And so they dramatically underestimate how much money it actually takes to pay the bills. But then when I say, how much fun money do you want to have in retirement?

They're like, what? How much fun money? Say, okay, let's talk about what you want to do in retirement. And this is where we get very specific. And I don't let people say, you know, I want to travel. We need to go through the process of figuring out where you want to go, how often you want to go. I wrote a plan not long ago for a lady. She was from Chile.

And she wanted to go back to Chile every year. And she also wanted to have the ability to go somewhere in the United States twice a year. And every other year goes somewhere internationally in addition to Chile. She had no idea until we started talking that her main objective was to go to Chile every year. But she didn't want that to be it. She really wanted to go somewhere internationally every year, in addition to going to Chile every year. But when we were able to put together, you know, there were a lot of places she wanted to go in the United States as well. We were able to craft a good plan, giving her the ability to go to Chile every year, go to places in the United States or Canada every year,

and then go somewhere in Europe or Asia every year. And until we went through the process, it started with. How much fun made do you want in retirement? She had absolutely no clue. You know, another question I asked is, when I put your plan together, there are things a good plan must have. They're going to be nice to halves, and then a cherry on top. So what must-haves should the plan contain?

And typically this is enough money to pay the bills, which includes things like going to the vet, auto repairs, insurance, things like that. And a bit of travel. This is maybe going to see the grandkids. And then what are the nice to haves? Sometimes it would be nice to be able to go somewhere in Europe every year. Sometimes it turns out that, you know, the nice to haves could be that we're going to go somewhere in Europe every other year.

But the cherry on top would be going somewhere in Europe every year. with the understanding that our bodies do get to the point that we just physically can't make that trip anymore. And so we don't have to maintain that same level of income all the way through. But the point is having kind of that plan and some of those things articulated so that you've got a place to be headed. Having that North Star, and I think like you've said just now and before, sometimes people do. just don't know what they don't know. And once they realize, okay, we need to plan for some of these contingencies or, oh, what is the nice to have and got to have and should have, all of those things.

If you've got them down and articulated, boy, just makes them feel like they're, you know, walking a little bit lighter, right? They are walking a little bit lighter. And focusing solely on finances can leave a gap in the personal fulfillment and emotional well-being that people have in retirement. That's where those income guards. guardrails that we spoke about previously come into play. Those are frequently overlooked.

And when they're put into place, that gap, that personal fulfillment and emotional well-being gap gets covered. Yeah. So how much flexibility should you have in place? I know that let's use the word flexibility. And we've said guardrails and safeguards, but it's all the same thing. How many contingency should we have in place? How many, how much flexibility?

because if you have, you know, four, five, six, seven kind of things we're planning on the what-ifs is, could there be too much? So, you know, Mike, I think it was Yogi Bear that said predictions are difficult, especially if they're about the future. Yeah. The reality is that life is unpredictable and a rigid plan can easily crumble under unexpected pressures. A flexible plan can adapt, and all plans should be flexible, so they can adapt with life's twist and turns. Because that's really what allows people to embrace change with confidence instead of with fear. Yes. And like we've said before, if you have a plan in place and didn't need to have all those contingencies, that's fine.

At least you plan for it. But, you know, it's really a whole different story. If you didn't plan for it and now you needed it. And some of those things, you know, we've mentioned before, like taxes or inflation, things you can't control. But we're living a lot longer these days. Back in the 40s, 50, 60s, you know, they would say your life span is, whatever the age is. But these days, we've got better nutrition. We've got better supplementation.

Doctors, we're walking more. We're exercising more. And we're living longer. So how do you factor that into your plan regarding that gap you mentioned? So, Mike, I'm going to, this can be a twofold answer, and I'm going to address the second thing you said first about living longer. So this is, these numbers are for people that have already reached the age of 65. And so these aren't life expectancy of somebody born today because these numbers cut out all the people that pass away before the age of 65. but if a man reaches the age of 65 today, he's got a 50% chance of making it to 87,

in a 27, I'm sorry, a 25% chance making it to the age of 93. And because women live longer than men, and I'm not going to speculate on why, but for a moment that's already reached age of 65, she's got a 50% chance to make at age 90 and a 25% chance of making it to 96. And because for a couple, because it takes longer for two people to die before, then it does just one because we don't know who's going to die first, a 65-year-old couple has a 50% chance of one partner making it to 94 and a 25% chance of one partner making it to 98.

I think I mentioned on a previous podcast that my grandmother was still living at home by herself when she was 102. And so we're living longer continuously. And one thing that good plans have got to have in place is, you know, we determine in the planning process, we determine where we are today and what we want to accomplish in retirement. And then we pick a way to get from here to there, if you will. But that plan has to have contingencies in place.

ahead of time so we know exactly what we're going to do when the stock market crashes or when inflation rears it's head or if income is higher or lower than expected or I'm sorry if interest rates are higher or lower than expected. What are we going to

do when there's a death of a spouse? A lot of people don't realize it but as far as taxes are concerned income may not necessarily go down a tremendous amount when there's a death of the spouse, the lower of the two social securities is going to go away.

But often that's the only income that goes away when there's a death of a spouse. But now you've got the remaining partner filing a single tax return instead of filing a joint tax return. So good plans have contingencies in place ahead of time so that we know exactly what we're going to do when these bad things happen. 100%. I think that just makes so much sense. And like you said, about women living longer, who knows why, but statistically,

that's the case. And if that's the case, okay. And statistically, a huge percentage of us will need some type of long-term care, whether it's full long-term care with mental dementia type care or just, you know, some extra help that way. But those are the kinds of things that can really punch a big hole in that bucket of financial, you know, your financial letting the financial water out. So having some of those guardrails in place to make sure that things are covered is super, super important.

What are some of the things that you're recommending your clients to consider to make sure that they've got some of those things covered? You mentioned long-term care specifically, so I'll address out specifically. You know, for prior generations, when most people think a long-term care, they think nursing home. But our generation's got more options. Our generation has assisted living facilities. We've got home health aid services. And there's also a concept now of adult daycare. So in the city of Mississippi, where I am, a private room in a nursing home,

average is $118,000 a year. Now, a semi-private room averages $115,000. Luckily assisted living and home health aid services are a lot less. Those are around $55,000 a year. And adult daycare is around $30,000 a year. There are really three good ways to cover these contingents. The first is a self-funded insurance plan. This is what we refer to as self-insuring. Now, it's not enough to just say I'm self-insuring. We've got to know exactly where the money's

coming from so that we can rely on it if we need long-term care. Everybody's familiar with traditional long-term care insurance. It's typically very expensive. And there's another type plan, there's a life long-term combo plan that falls under Internal Revenue Code 7702. And these plans are often much more affordable. But the good news is that if the plan's not needed or if only a portion of the money is used for long-term care and then the patient passes away, the life portion of that life-long-term combo plan pays the rest of the money, the unused money to the family. That's, you know, that's a huge point you're making. We don't want to get into the weeds.

But if you had, you know, auto insurance and you didn't get in the wreck last year, you're not going to get your premiums back. But if you had long-term care, some of those policies, if you didn't need the long-term care, those premiums are just gone. But like you're describing there, there are some of options available where it's there if you need it, but it's not lost on premium. So that's a really great point. Yes, and it's always good to give ourselves the most options possible. Yes. Yeah, that's huge. You know, it also makes me think of something, too.

I know that there's a lot of times that people go, oh, I just need to check the box. Do I have a will? Yes or no. Well, is it written the right way? Is it, you know, all of those things? Well, same with a retirement plan. Do I have a retirement plan?

Yes or no? Well, if it's yes, is it ever done? or is it an ongoing process and you're always tweaking and fine-tuning or, you know, things like that? Meaning, do you recommend that your clients come in and see you every quarter, every six months, every year, just to make sure that that plan is doing what it needs to be doing? So my recommendation and what I ask and reality are two different things. My ask is we get together every quarter. reality is that people are very good, usually in the very beginning of writing and implementing a plan for somebody,

they're good about coming in every quarter for six or nine months. And after that, they're like, yeah, we don't need to go over this anymore. And that's fine. What's imperative, though, in my opinion, is that I'm informed when changes are made. these are financial changes. It could be that they had to pay out a lot more money than expected. They got some type inheritance, some type windfall. They've had changes in their health situation, changes in their family situation.

Maybe a family member has moved back in with them. Maybe a family member has lost their job and they're having to support them. Any kind of changes that occur in their financial or health situation, or things that I need to know about so I can build it into their plan. Because, you know, the review process is kind of akin to regularly tuning an instrument to ensure that it plays in harmony. And for a plan to be followed through the rest of life, it's got to stay in harmony with the way life is going. and regular reviews ensure alignment with evolving goals, evolving circumstances, you know, in fact, the review process can actually turn

potential discord into a symphony of satisfaction in peace, because it lets the planner know when adjustments need to be made, and it gives the client a good working knowledge of any spending changes that need to be implemented. And very often it allows people to do a lot more than they would have otherwise. I mean, if I want to see people, you know, if I see people every six months, for instance, I may be able to recognize, you know, there's a decline in mobility that a spouse that surround them every day can't recognize or doesn't recognize or doesn't want to recognize.

And I might be able to say, and this is one of those conversations that, You know, it can feel a little uncomfortable, but you've got to have the fortitude to have these uncomfortable conversations sometimes and say, you know, Mary, John, it appears that your mobility is starting to slip. And we've got quite a number of things on your list left to do. What do you say we prioritize these things and start getting some of this stuff done? You know, I like that you framed it that way because it's not like when we need to make a change, oops, we set the plan up wrong to begin with. No, it just means that what we knew when we did this plan was exactly right for what you needed then. But because of some external things, maybe inflation change, maybe tax has changed, maybe your lifestyle change. All of those things can make it necessary to reevaluate specific nuances of the plan, not scrap it and start over.

there's always those things that need to be just checked on and make sure that we're, you know, going the right direction. I think that makes so much sense. A plan can be static if life is static. And we know that's not the case. That's not the case. That is for sure. Wow. Yeah, I really just think that this has been so powerful to be looking at this retirement planning process. It's not a fill in the blank template you download on the internet. It's not one and done and never look at it again.

It is taking a holistic look at everything that you want to accomplish and putting those safeguards and guardrails in place and having that plan and process in place. So this has been really powerful, Clark. Wrap us up with what's a final thought that you would like to make sure that listeners are understanding and then what's the best way they can reach out and connect with you. So I guess the main point is that the right plan for any individual is a very much an individualized plan that takes not only their financial situation into account, but takes who they are as a human into account. It takes their hopes, dreams, desires, fears into account. You know, what is it when somebody is laying there?

in bed at night going to sleep did they worry about. Yeah. And then they need to deal with a financial planner that's got enough experience and has been through enough market type situations

with enough people and understands other humans well enough to give them the plan that's truly the best plan for them. And then can monitor the plan, not just from a financial standpoint, but from a life standpoint, so that clients can enjoy retirement to the best of their ability and truly make their golden years golden.

And the easiest way to find us is online at golden years ria.com. Excellent. Well, Clark, thank you so much for coming back on. It's once again, just been a real pleasure here in your perspectives on how you serve your clients. Thank you, Mike. I've enjoyed it. It's been fun. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www.influentialentrepreneursradio.com.