Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Mark Turner (AIF) on Tax Planning

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Mark has been helping individuals retire with confidence for over two decades. He is a passionate professional with a rich history of providing safe growth and advanced income strategies to help make sure his clients have an income they can’t outlive. Working with top estate planning attorneys, Mark assists his clients with life insurance and long-term care planning alternatives to ensure legacy preservation for loved ones.Mark has been in the insurance business since 2000 and has held a Series 65 securities license since 1999. In 2018, Mark founded Wealth Management Strategies Financial Services LLC, an investment advisory and retirement solutions firm. Mark is also an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF), which he earned by demonstrating knowledge of ethical behaviors that follow a fiduciary duty to his clients.Mark attended California State University at Northridge with a major in business management and a minor in marketing.Learn more: https://www.wmsretirementsolutions.com/Investments offered through WMS Financial Services LLC, a California registered investment adviser. AKA “WMSFS”. CRD 291291 8820 E. Foxhollow Drive Anaheim, CA 92808. Insurance products and services are offered through Wealth Management Strategies, an affiliated company. Mark D. Turner, Insurance License #0759815 Wealth Management Strategies, 751 S. Weir Canyon Rd. Ste 157-610 Anaheim, CA 92808 [phone]. IRS CIRCULAR 230 DISCLOSURE. To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any US federal tax advice contained in this communication is not intended or written to be used and cannot be used for the purpose of (a) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (b) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-mark-turner-aif-on-tax-planning

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 Mark Turner, who's the president of wealth management strategies, and we'll be talking about tax planning and how it's critical to, preserve the wealthy built for retirement. Mark, welcome back to the program. Thank you for having me,

Mike. I look forward to our discussion. You know, again, I think we've said this before in a conversation, wow, tax planning or wow, this topic, that could be a four-day seminar in and of itself. And that is true. We just want to talk conceptually and talk broadstroke because I think that tax planning is such a powerful topic. And the way that I like to think of it is there's a difference between someone that fills in the blanks and files your taxes and someone that has a strategic approach to tax planning. So what is your approach that way? Well, first of all, I want to sit down with someone and I want to see what they've accumulated up to this point. I ask everybody, Do you feel taxes will go up in the future or do you think they're going to go down?

And let me tell you, the answer to that question, it better be taxes are going up. We have over a $30 trillion debt right now that it's going to come to roost one of these days. We're just kicking the can down the road. So if you have not thought about doing tax planning in your, retirement plan, you're missing a very, very important part of your plan because it's not how much you make. It's how much you keep after your uncle gets his share. And you know what? I love my uncle. I love my family. But it is my right to pay as low taxes as possible, as legally as possible. And tax planning is normally for those who have accumulated a certain amount of assets. And that is the kind of

that we work with. You know, I like how if we were to do air quotes, the uncle, it's like, you know, it's our silent business partner that tends not to be as silent as we would prefer, right? It's like just, you know, it's really interesting, but it really is a factor that many people don't fully prepare for. And it reminds me of like the bucket of water with, you know, representing your retirement income and your retirement accounts. Well, if you start punching holes in it, money's going to leak out.

and if money leaks out, then that's money you cannot use. Well, you can't ever eliminate taxes. We know that. But how can we mitigate taxes? So where do you start with the conversation with the client? Because I feel like, you know, if you were to ask 100 people on the street today, do you think taxes will go up in the next five to 10 years? You know, every single one of them would say, of course.

Well, that's actually a good point. And so thinking about this now, because it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep. And looking at the numbers, see, a lot of times, accountants, when you go to them, if you ask them about a strategy, a lot of times their answer is going to be no. You shouldn't do that because they're afraid of making the wrong decision and getting sued. And you know what? I don't think of that. I think what is my client's situation?

What vehicles are available to put together so they can. keep as much of what they've earned while they're alive and leave something to their children when they die. But tax planning, we need to look at everything you're doing is the money inside of an IRA, a 401k, inside of a pension that you might be able to move out, and what kind of things can we do to make sure that maybe five years, ten years down the road, you start having some vehicles with less taxation. Let me give you some examples. I have individuals that come to me,

and they say, you know what? I want to make sure that my spouse is taken care of when I die, and I want to make sure that it is as tax-free as possible. I have enough income for the majority of my assets that I don't need all of the money that I've saved for retirement. What can you do to make sure that either for me or for my spouse and for my children that I have as tax-free future as possible? And so that is when we start doing the planning. We'll look at the vehicles. there are some vehicles available to, if you can qualify, to help you create tax-free retirement,

that you could take an IRA, maybe that's $250,000, that let's say you have a million, but you don't need $250,000. We might be able to turn that $250,000 of taxable money into $500,000 or $500,000 for either your spouse or your children if you qualify. There are also vehicles that we could do to roll over some of your money from a taxable position to a tax-free position. Wow. Now, that's interesting because tax-free means, you know, more money for you and less money for your relative, the Uncle Sam. So talk a little bit more about the benefit of that. because I think that that's a whole lot of focus that people don't really realize is in their control.

I think that people think, well, if taxes go up in the next five to ten years, what can I do about it? Well, you can't do anything about the tax increase. What you can do is what you're just mentioning there. Well, I'm going to talk to you about one concept called a Roth IRA conversion. And a Roth IRA conversion is basically taking taxable. money that's inside of an IRA of 401k and rolling it into a position that down the road, they will receive all the growth and the income from it tax-free. It will go to their spouse tax-free, and then it will go to their children or others tax-free, but they will have to take it

out over 10 years. So we've gotten into the weeds a little bit, but there are things that you need to think about if you're going to do a Roth hour conversion. That is where a professional like myself will use our sophisticated software to determine, is this the right thing to do? We now have some of the lowest tax rates that we've had in a very long time for those in the higher income brackets. So you need somebody that's going to take it right up to a certain level without going over it. And you want to look at there's something called Irma, which is another tax that is created if you make too much money and you're trying to roll things over into the Roth IRA status. So it is important to look at every single aspect of what you're doing.

Just go a lot of, oh, I just want to do a Roth IRA. I heard it's great. it may or may not be great for your situation. That is why you need a professional to look at all the numbers, explain to you how it works, when you can access it, who it's going to go to. We might even do some trusts.

There are things that you can do to also create tax avoidance called generation skipping trust. So like you said, we could talk a week about this subject. But the most important thing is ask the questions. Don't just say, I have clients that say, oh, I don't care about it. I made all the money. And just let them pay the taxes with when I die. The thing is, you have to love your children or your family just a little bit more than you love the IRS and not to say.

Yep, that's funny. that's hilarious. You know, I think one thing that people also don't really digest is what you just said there with, oh, just let them take the taxes. Well, if you do things right on the front end and prepare your estate so that when it passes to your heirs and your family for that legacy, they'll get as much as possible. That actually is a good economical decision because they're paying less taxes. but also isn't it kind of like a gift, meaning they're going to get the money anyway,

but you're gifting them your knowledge and expertise and time ahead of that transfer so that you're working with some professionals. And when that money comes to them, they don't need to start from ground zero and learn how to do all of this stuff. It's already done for them. So I think that's a really neat perspective that people need to think about too. I have a client that I currently just put a plan together. He was that exact person.

He was not very technically knowledgeable about how to manage money, didn't know anything about taxes. He had just inherited money. And so he had lived a very few frugal life. And now he's even afraid to spend money. And so I had to sit down and I said, let me ask. We looked at what he's got. He has way more money than he needs. and income. He had some extra money sitting in a very large IRA account that he inherited. And he had

after-tax money, too, that we had. And so we sat down and figured out a plan. He said, look, I want to leave something. My 40-year-old children are not saving any money for retirement. What can I do to help them have money for retirement? I said, not only can I help put together a plan for them. So you're now going to help another generation. And in this plan, I helped him put together a plan where their children would have, they started now. So he's putting the money in and we're getting it out of his state through what's called gifting. And now we're putting that money into a program where the money is going to grow. They're 40 and we're going to take money out right around 63, 64. And the way that I've structured it, all the money is going to come out in this program tax-free for his children.

If one of his children dies, it's going to leave money to take care of his grandchildren. And he will own this until he decides that it's time to allow his children to own this. So he absolutely loved it. There's a lot of people out there that haven't thought of this concept. The other situation might be just leaving money to your family tax-free versus taxable. There are programs, I call it estate insurance. And it's basically some people have enough money for themselves and for their spouse. When that comes in, first of all, you want to do this when you're younger, when you're healthier.

And if you qualify, we could take taxable money in your IRAs, like a lot. I said, and turn it into a tax-free legacy for your family, loved ones, churches, whatever people that you love or want to leave something to. And leaving something tax-free to someone is much better than leaving it taxable. Yes. You know, it's really interesting that it is so much more than just, I need to get to retirement at age, whatever. And then I need to make sure I have X number of dollars so that I can live to X age, it's well beyond that because when you start thinking about what you just described, it is 10 steps beyond what most people I feel would be doing. Most of the time people think their blinders are on and they stop thinking at I want to retire at age X

and I hope I've got enough money to live until whatever age. but now when you're thinking, I don't want to die with zero dollars, I want to die with plenty of money left over, so my family has that legacy. It's all a mindset, isn't it? 100% correct. Now, I will tell you that the most individuals that we do tax planning with are not the working poor. They have money. To really be worried about taxes, you actually have to have money that are going to actually go to taxes. So yes, but I, um, I don't care if you're a thousandaire or a millionaire doing tax planning, thinking about these things before you retire and write when you get ready to retire.

Don't wait until you're 85 years old and you're on oxygen and you don't know how many years you have left to start doing tax plan, to do start doing legacy planning. Start now, today. Sit down with a qualified planner. that will be us and ask these questions. Don't just throw your money in an IRA or let it grow. I have so many people that all they do is watch, they don't need their money,

but they just like watching it grow. You know what? That's phenomenal. Let it grow. Make all you want. But let's do planning with it so you pay the least amount of taxes as possible while you're watching your money grow. Yep.

You know, that's the best position that you can ever be in is I've got some money. I don't desperately need it right this second. I do want to watch it grow, but I want to kind of make sure that it's growing the right way. So what are some alternatives or you might have touched on a few of these, but let's kind of wrap up with this point. What are some of those alternatives for creating tax-free income while I'm still here and when you die so that people can just be kind of bookmarking that in their mind? and say, okay, Mark, I need to have you look at some of these things in my situation. Okay, it's going to depend on your family dynamics. And yes, there are things that we create for the wealthy individuals.

There are things that you might have heard something called an opportunity zone. Opportunity zones are areas that are underprivileged areas or areas that are going for redevelopment. where you can get tax benefits for investing these, and some of them are even called tax credits, which will offset your current income. We use some of these vehicles for people who want to do Roth IRA conversions. And so when you do a Roth IRA conversion, you have to pay taxes on all the money you took out of an IRA

to move to a Roth IRA. So you have to pay the taxes. So we have all types of tax planning vehicles to offset the taxes as you do a Roth IRA conversion. The other thing is, like I mentioned, if your children, I have clients whose children are doing great. They may have gone to college, and even they might be extremely financially well-to-do, but they want to make sure that their grandchildren, their grandchildren, maybe even another generation, will get money. And we use generation skipping trusts, utilizing some incredible attorneys that we work with. And so there are many ways to legally avoid taxes while you're alive. Now, with a Rothauer conversion,

you have to wait five years and one day and keep track of that money that you convert before you can take it out. So having someone that knows these rules, knowing your situation before we do in the planning. There are so many things you can do more than just accumulating assets. And the sooner you do it, the better off you'll be. And once again, I love how you frame that up with it. It all depends. There's not one answer. There's not one product that works for every single person. There's not one strategy. Let's see what benefits you. Let's see what you need in retirement. Let's see your current situation. And then we'll formulate some ideas to consider. So that is just so, authentic and transparent. I think that is so neat, Mark. If someone is interested in learning more

and then also reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way they can do that? Well, I suggest they go to our website and set up an appointment with us, and our website is WMSRetirement Solutions.com. Or you can call us at 714-912-4906. Excellent. Well, Mark, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you again today. Thank you for having me, Mike. 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.