Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Dan Saccal, President of Vision Wealth Management Discussing Peace of Mind in Retirement

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Dan graduated in 1988 with Honors from the University of Florida with a degree in Finance and has served clients as an independent financial advisor since 1994 providing peace of mind through guarantees so that they can enjoy their best years worry-free.Learn More: https://vwminc.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-dan-saccal-president-of-vision-wealth-management-discussing-peace-of-mind-in-retirement

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. And today we have back with us Dan Sackal, who's the president of Vision Wealth Management and we'll be talking about peace of mind in retirement. Dan, welcome back to the program. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate you having me.

Hey, you're welcome. I really like this topic because it's like, who doesn't want peace of mind ever, but especially in retirement? Because, you know, it's like the fruit of your labor. It's the cherry on top of a long, successful career. I now want to throttle back and do different things that I want to do. And I want to do them while I have peace of mind. So what is that approach that you're taking with your clients?

What does that look like when you start talking to that? them about, yes, retirement, but having peace of mind in the process. Yeah, you know, Mike, you make a great point because, you know, these are the years that you're really not supposed to be worried about that. But unfortunately, because really how volatile things are, I mean, everybody sees it. The swings in the market are dramatic. Heck, our world is just dramatic and crazy. So we're in an environment where people want that peace of mind, but it is harder and harder to attain. Just think, just things. if you're not retired yet or you're just recently retired, you know, you're working,

you have that paycheck, you know, that paycheck's coming in all the time and you're putting money in your 401k or your IRA or your 403B. It's like an old friend that's always been there, but it's a little bit abstract in that you're not really using it. But now it's retirement time and that big switch goes off because now that paycheck's not coming in, And now I have to live off of this thing. And that is a dramatic change because now you're subject to the whims of what happens with the market if you don't take some steps to, you know, put some safeguards in place. And with the volatility that we have right now in the markets, the old set it and forget it, 60% bonds, 60% stocks, 40% bonds or the way around portfolio, just doesn't cut it anymore. You know, because I mean, when things are great, everything's wonderful, you're making all kinds of money.

But when things go down, you get clobbered. Like, look at 07 and 08. Yeah. Every single asset category lost 30% or more. So how do you get peace of mind if you are subject to those kind of whims of the market? But to answer to a question, if you truly want peace of mind, you really need to take a a different approach. And the approach recognizes that you need safe income, that income needs to grow, and that income, if it grows properly, then you can also have money that grows for you safely

for future needs that might come up. Because, I mean, let's face it, if people are living long lives, your typical 65-year-old retired couple, typical age-wise, there's a overwhelming chance that at least one of them will live for 30 years. So, you know, without some safeguards in place, safe, peace of minds is a tough task to achieve. But, you know, that's the space that we work in and that we help people create those safeguards so they can have that peace of mind. and wanted to wait you know it makes me think about like when you start working with a client there's plenty of runway ahead of retirement and you start almost becoming like a life coach of sorts to say you know what does retirement look like to you know oh well we just want to you know sit around

and play golf all day okay well that's one way but i think that once you kind of find out what people are looking for um that gives them that dream and now your your task is to help them get there. And if you can give them that path forward, that creates a peace of mind even ahead of retirement. But then it needs to be dialed in with that, you know, like you were saying, you know, low volatility and some good guarantees to make sure that every year when you're doing your checkups on your financial portfolio, that we're getting one step closer and that that plan is in place. So talk a little bit about what you do to help your clients articulate and clarify what that retirement vision looks like for them.

You make a great point, Mike, because it's listening is the first key to it. I mean, everybody's the same a little bit, but most of everybody's different. They have all different goals, you know, things they want to, you know, accomplish. You know, like you said, we got the golfers, we got the travelers, we've got everything out there. You know, everybody's a little bit different on what's important to them. And you really have to listen. You know, it's kind of funny. I was, you know, I've been in this business since 1990, so I haven't had it for a while.

And I remember I went to this, there was a conference, I think it was in Chicago. And it was, you know, a conference on investing. And a gentleman giving the talk, he said something that stuck with me to this day. And he said, you know, your clients, they really don't want to know all the details. they just want to know that they've got something they can trust, and more importantly, that everything's going to be okay. And I'm like, I hit myself in hand. It's like, you dunderhead.

Why didn't you realize that you've been doing this for 10 years? And something so simple is people, they just want to know everything's okay. But that opens up, but that's a big box. And for them to truly know everything's okay, there's little boxes inside that big box that have to put in place properly to create that so that they can go travel, play golf, enjoy their families, and truly not worry about it because they've built those safeguards

and we've helped them build those safeguards so that they can truly have that peace of mind. And that's... Yeah, and some of that comes with educating them enough that they understand, but not enough that they're confused. and then that generates that trust in that financial professional because anybody can throw numbers on a piece of paper and go here, look, but if they don't feel like you've got their best interest at heart and they really feel like they're like being pushed into this or that or the other, but when you teach them and you bring them alongside and have them understand the

process, boy, that trust and credibility really escalates, doesn't it? Absolutely. listening to them, building safeguards, teaching them how to separate their funds for different purposes, all part of the ultimate product, which is creating peace of mind because you've done on work in advance. Yeah, then it's just follow the plan because we did the hard work up front. So what do you mean by separate or segregate their money? What does that look like? Well, you know, we try to teach our clients that there's really, there's a few categories.

You know, everybody needs some cash. You know, the rule of thumb is you need at least six months worth of bills. And it starts there because everybody's situation is a little unique. They need, you know, everybody needs at least that. But because of their situation, they may need a little more. And, you know, by its nature, in our cash, that money has to be very liquid. So we want to try to get as higher return as possible, but still keep it very liquid, because that's the main criteria. But then we have income needs.

You know, that's different than cash because our income money, you know, we want to segregate some money that says, hey, this is the income, this is the funds that I'm going to choose income from. And I'm going to orient that in such a way that I can pull off a safe income from those funds and have that income keep pace of inflation. so that I can take my other chunk of money, which is my growth money, you know, because things are going to go wrong in the future, things might change. So I might need some additional funds. So we need to grow that money safely. But that's a separate chunk of money that we just want to grow. So different criteria for each one, but all with the same thing in mind, which is the word safe. So you've got to keep your cash safely.

Of course, your income money, we need to generate income, but we need to do it safely. And we need to grow money for future needs that might occur that are unforeseen by their nature, that we still need to keep it safe and have it grow. And that's what we bring to the table for our clients. That sort of segregation, all with safety in mind, all with peace of mind, you know, backing it all up. So what's an example, what that looked like? Can you think of like a example, client example without giving details or names, but, you know, like, hey, this client came in, they needed to do this and we were able to segregate and create some of these buckets and they then accomplished, you know, the following.

So what is, what kind of thing does that, because when I hear growth and that's great and income, but that kind of creates a little fuzziness there for me. So what would that look like exactly? Okay. That's a very good question. Well, we start out with, you know, in getting to know our client. part of that is budget. Okay, what does lifestyle cost? Because, you know, if you're not retired yet, you'll find that it doesn't cost a lot less when you are retired.

Just, you know, the categories change a little bit. Yep. So we start out with budget. And just as an example of somebody I just worked with recently, this person is a widowed female. She's 69. She's actually still working for another four or five years. years and we sat down and we she she had her her income needs so we you know she has a certain amount of cash that she's a little heavy in cash but she likes it that way you know she likes

having a little extra cash around and that's you hey it's her money she gets to do what she wants with it so of course we work around that and so here's how much i'm going to be getting she's holding off on her social security check until 70 here's how much my social security check is going to be, this is what my lifestyle costs. So we were able to take a chunk of what she had. She had IRA money and non-IRA money. And we were able to take some of that money and say, okay, here's how much we need. And because we use products that have guarantees on them, we were able to say exactly, hey, here's how much you need to, you know, to take the income that you're going to need in a few years when you stop working. This will generate this income.

and every time that the market goes up, you're going to get an increase in your pay. Because remember, we use contracts that have guarantees, some of the best contracts that are out there because we search far and wide. And so now she knows that when she finally decides to pack it in and say, okay, now I just want to retire. Her income is going to be there for her.

And there's a very good chance because of the way we set it up, that that income is going to keep pace with inflation. So now she's going to be able to pay for inflation. So now she's got the rest of her money that, okay, things might go wrong in the future. You know, she might need some care. Taxes can go up. Who knows? But now we're able to, you know, have that other chunk of money that we're going to let

safely grow for her because, again, guarantees, safe growth, best contracts that are out there that we use. We search far and wide for our clients. So now she knows that, you know, she goes to bed every night. And she knows, okay, whenever I pack it in and decide to just, you know, enjoy the coffee and enjoy my life a little bit more, my income needs are going to be met. And I have money growing for me for anything else that arises that is unforeseen. And it's all safe with, you know, with guarantees attached to it. And that's what we do for our clients.

I love that. And you mentioned in that particular financial tool, if, you know, the markets or the movements or the industry, indexes go up, then you participate in that. But then am I correct? And thinking, too, that because you focus so much on guarantees, if things crashed, then that fund or that account or that tool doesn't, you know, lose principle. So now that guarantee is like, wow, I've got some upside, you know, positivity. But then if the whole world goes down, then I'm not losing anything. And that sure would give some peace of mind, right? That is exactly correct. Mike. That's, I mean, that's the kind of stuff that, you know, we live and breathe because we understand the importance of it.

I mean, what good are gains? What goods are 30% gains this year if I get 40% losses next year? You know, if I'm living through that, they're no good. If I don't have a mechanism, and there's a couple ways. Some of them, you know, there is annuity contracts out there that we use that, you know, again, we search far and wide. and we look for the best avenues possible for our clients out there to have the best guarantees. And sometimes we take products that by combining two different types of products and two different types of investments, we create the combination of a two creates guarantees for our clients that we can,

just by their nature, that money can grow safely, gains automatically lock in. And then when the market goes down, you protected your gain. and you've protected your principal. So the next time the market goes up, you're going to be right there getting gains again. And that's how we throw out. That's huge. We live and breathe it.

That's huge. And you know, because that is dialed in so well, I want to go back to the example about the lady you mentioned. She's 69 now wants to work a handful of years. But I know that statistically there's a lot of people that just wake up some days and they just are tired of going to work. So having this kind of plan in place for someone like her, like you're mentioning or any of your clients, I would venture to say give such peace of mind that, you know what, I could retire today. But I'm going to, you know, work a few more years.

But if it ever gets to the point where, you know what, management changed or the company, whatever the case is, I'm just going to go ahead and retire now. Whereas sometimes people who've not made good decisions, they feel forced to work five and six and seven years past when they wish. So I think that having that guarantee plan in place gives such peace of mind, yes, once you get into retirement. But what a huge lift that is even in the final period of working years that people are in. You know, Mike, it goes back to our original premise in this section here. It's all about peace of mind. And that's part of it. Yeah.

Just, hey, Dan, really, I'm tired of this, ready to pack it in. Let's just start the income a little bit earlier. And it's still going to be guaranteed to her. and it's still going to go up when the market goes up and walk in and not lose any money when the market goes down. Because she has that piece of mind now. Yeah, I love it. That's spectacular. Yeah, yeah, you're not selling a widget.

You're providing peace of mind. And I think that's a great business to be in. Well, Dan, it's just been so neat talking through these concepts with you. If someone is listening and wanting to reach out and learn more and then connect with you, what's the best way they can do that? All they can catch me directly on my phone, which is 561, 3106404, or arrange some time and meeting with me through my website, which is vwmink.com. That's VWM as in Vision Wealth Management, VWM Inc.com. Thanks for your time.

It's been a pleasure. Thank you, Dan. I really appreciate you coming back on. 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. influential entrepreneursradio.com.