Business Innovators Radio - Interview With Melissa George Founder & CEO of InvestHER Fiduciary Solutions-Building Wealth That Lasts

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Melissa George is a seasoned financial expert, renowned for her mastery in financial planning, insurance, and investment strategies, specifically tailored for small business proprietors. With nearly thirty years of proven excellence in the field, Melissa has refined her ability to craft comprehensive plans that perfectly align with her client’s aspirations and objectives.As a trusted advisor, Melissa prioritizes protecting her client’s financial well-being. Notably, she is the first woman of color to achieve the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL FIDUCIARY® designation, operating under the utmost standards of integrity, confidentiality, and diligence. At the helm of InvestHER Fiduciary Solutions for the past 18 years, Melissa has guided her clients to financial prosperity, enabling them to RETIRE WITH CONFIDENCE.Melissa’s academic background includes a BBA from Georgia State University, complemented by a series of professional accreditations including ACCREDITED INVESTMENT FIDUCIARY®, CERTIFIED FUND SPECIALIST®, and FINRA® Arbitrator. Additionally, she is a Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Business Scholar.Beyond her professional achievements, Melissa is deeply engaged in various professional and community organizations, including AAAFA (Association of African American Financial Advisors), NAWOSB (National Association of Women-Owned Small Businesses), WEOP (Women’s Entrepreneurial Opportunity Project), United Way VIP Alumni Association, Girls Inc of Greater Atlanta Board, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, IncLearn More: https://www.investherfiduciarysolutions.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-melissa-george-founder-ceo-of-investher-fiduciary-solutions-building-wealth-that-lasts

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, Melissa George, who's the founder and CEO of Investor Fiduciary Solutions, and we'll be talking about building wealth that lasts. Melissa, welcome back to the program.

Thank you so much, Mike. I'm happy to be back. Hey, so I am excited to talk about this because I think everybody has certain words that trigger good or bad, but hey, I want to talk about wealth and I want to talk about wealth that lasts because you don't want your wealth to go up in smoke. So when you are talking with your clients and giving them the great advice that you give, what are some of those first steps that they should think? about and take to make sure that they're on the path to financial independence and security.

Yes. So some of the first steps would include obviously establishing a clear vision of what their financial goals are. You know, what do they want retirement to look like? You know, I always try to have them create a picture for me. If you were retiring today in today's dollars, how much money would you need? What are the kinds of things that you would be doing? You know, creating a realistic budget, you know, because, you know, we all can, can dream very, very big, but, you know, sometimes our dollars don't match, match the dream. So we want to be very realistic. You know, we want to focus on those foundational things about planning, you know, obviously making sure that we have an emergency reserve fund. We want to make sure that, you know, our debt is low or

maintain or non-existent, you know, and then we can start talking about all those other fun things, right? You know, the trips. And, you know, the, the trips. And, and. And, you know, you know, And the places that we go are bucket lists, all the things that we want to do in retirement, spend time with our grandkids, those kinds of things. So I like us to first get that clear vision and then we can start building out. Okay, let's look at the resources that you have now. You know, we spend a lot of time during our working years accumulating this bucket of money that we're going to live off of. And then, of course, once we start decumulating, that's when it really, really becomes important that we have to shift the way we're managing our money to make sure it's going to last. We don't want.

Well, you said a mouthful there. I think we can do a whole weekend seminar on that first, you know, opening statement you just made. But one thing that jumps out at me is that whole, the word debt, because I think, you know, where do you start? Well, for financial independence, oh, we want to make sure you're in the right growth sectors. No, let's start with the foundation and make sure that we don't have money leaking out through the cracks or the holes in the bucket with because, you know, we cannot control what the government does. with spending, which then could increase inflation, which could increase taxes, all those things. We can't control that, but we know that they impact us, but we can control what we spend. And debt is a passion of mind because it is so debt detrimental.

Ooh, that should be a fun word. Debtramental. But it really is. And I love for that you said that because once you get that under control, now more of every dollar that comes in from your income, now is going, less is going out to debt in bills and then now can be deployed as you accumulate so that when you start decumulating, it's doing the best for you. So I think that's such a spectacular mindset to take. I love that. I'm going to use that, Mike, and I'm going to.

Detrimental. Go for it. And if you trademark it, I'll just smile one day and go, that just came out and I'm glad she ran with it. I finally give you credit. Also. Yeah, you know, a lot of clients, prospects, you know, or new clients when they come to me, you know, some of them are heavily laden with debt. And so even before we can start talking about, you know, putting together retirement plan or a legacy plan, a state plan, we have to get that debt down. And so, you know, we're often talking about, you know, creating a budget. Do you have a budget? Or you, you know, I always talk about how we live in the era of swipe and tap. You know, there used to be a time when people reconcile their checkbooks. People don't do that anymore. As long as there's still money in the account, we keep swiping. and tapping, but we need to have a budget. We need to get that debt down. Obviously, there's different methods to doing that.

There's snowball method. There's avalanche method. But it's important to get that down before and build out that foundation first. You know, everyone wants to jump in and start investing. It's sexy. But, man, if you don't have those other components in place, as soon as the hot water heater goes out, as soon as the transmission goes out in the car, as soon as you get it. The dominoes start tumbling.

Absolutely. And then you may have to pull money out of the investment at the wrong. time to cover, you know, this emergency that you have. So we got to build a foundation first. And, you know, that makes me think of another thing, too, which is just good advice, right? Like if someone goes, hey, I've heard that pay and people will take, you know, both sides of this comment, I should pay off my mortgage, whether you agree with that or not. If someone does decide to do that, if you start paying extra on your mortgage in large amounts and you don't have cash reserve sitting next in your savings account and one day you go, hey, I paid $25,000

on my mortgage extra. Yay, that could be a good decision. But, oh, I need that $20,000. It is in that loan and you can't just get it. So even when you're making financial moves, make sure that it keeps you in a good position. So that has nothing to do with putting money in the best financial instrument to get good rate of returns. This is just good, wise advice.

I so agree. And I would also say that, you know, I do think of financial planning as a creative process. I don't feel like it's cookie cutter for everyone. I think foundation is pretty much the same for everyone. But after you build a foundation, it can be very customized. But that bottom level, you know, having three to six months of emergency reserves, if you're an entrepreneur, you might want to have six to 12 or if you're a single household, single earning household. whole. So yeah, I think that that is critical before people get and start getting into investing and all the other sexy things that they want to do. Yeah, the fun things. So I know you work with a lot of women and you have mentioned that you are a woman of color. So when you work with women of color, what are some of the things that you are saying, okay, now all the basics we need to talk about, but here are some specifics to really overcome some limitations or to help achieve financial empowerment. Where do you kind of go? way. One of the things that I think is, it's obviously important for all women, but more specifically for women of color, women of color are at the very, very bottom of the wage gap. And this is a passion project of mine because obviously I'm a woman of color and I want us, I want all of us to level up. And so I find that a lot of it, the reasons why are because of lack of access to resources. You know, we've talked previously, Mike, about how women hold things very close to the vest or they fear, they have some type of fear or a fear of judgment of coming and speaking with an advisor. I often find that also a lot of them are just not even willing to go seek an advisor or a planner for a lot of reasons. Either they think they can't afford it. They don't, they're looking for someone that looks like them. And obviously we've already talked about there's, you know, there's a lot fewer black advisors.

or black women advisors in the industry. And it's important because, you know, sometimes men or people that are not of color don't have this same cultural sensitivity that is needed to have those conversations with women of color. And so that's one of the things that obviously I can bring to the table because I've experienced it. I continue to experience it.

But at the end of the day, I really want women and just people in general to understand that they can find an advisor or a planner that is going to be best suited for them. It may take a little bit of time, but it's time I think it's worth putting forth the effort when you can get that trusted advisor that can provide very, very good advice to help you and your family reach the financial goals that you're setting and build that legacy, build wealth that's going to the past. Because then your advice then resonates so much deeper. because they know that you get them.

They know that there is, you know, really resonance there and that you're not just treating them like another number and going, okay, next. So, yeah, you should have great advice and fiduciary and all of those things. But when you can say, look, Ben, they're done that, got the T-shirt, let me tell you how I would do it if I were you. And they can tell that you really, really care because it's been said, real is rare. Mike, I may have to snatch that, too. I think that's wonderful.

Two times in one conversation. I know, but, you know, I do think it's super important. I know for me, I think that, you know, my superpower in the industry is really my ability to connect, right? Yeah. You know, I always say that I was my first client. I didn't come from money. I didn't understand the industry. I didn't even know what a financial advisor or planner was until, like, you know, shortly before I came into the industry.

And when I came in, I came in with people that knew a lot more than me, had more resources than I did. So I had to become my own client first. So yes, when I'm talking with other individuals, people, people of color, I can honestly say, yes, I have been there and done that. I did start from scratch. And I think that is appealing to some people because they don't want to feel like they're just working with someone who, you know, you came out the womb, you had a silver spoon in your mouth and you don't know the slight struggle. I want to show them that, yes, you can struggle, but you can come out of that struggle with proper planning, with some discipline, with, you know, some guided advice and monitoring. some accountability. I've done it for myself. I've done it with many, many other clients, and I want to help others do that as well. I just love it. So here's something that I want to kind of merge into. I feel like when you look at the concept we're talking about building wealth that lasts, that infers that wealth sometimes cannot last. So let's talk a little bit about the actual aspect of building wealth that last. And I think that anytime you use the word guarantee,

all of a sudden it's like, oh, well, you can't guarantee anything. Well, you might not be able to guarantee all results. But talk a little bit about how you're able to work with your clients to help them build wealth at last and kind of provide the peace of mind that some of these guaranteed income may be recommendations or solutions can bring them. Yes. So, yeah, there are, as you mentioned, there are some places where we can provide some guarantees. And this becomes really important as people transition from their working to retirement. because we can't, we don't have so many decades in front of us, as I often say, I have more days behind me than I have in front of me.

But I need to make sure that I can't withstand, you know, a major market fluctuation or correction in front of me, especially when I'm no longer contributing to my pot of money. Right now, I'm spending it. So it's important that I use products and services that are going to really help me. And there are some equity index products. There are some certain types of annuities, certain types of life products that can really serve us very well. I call them hybrid products because they're not fixed where you have very, very low rates of return. And on the flip side, they're not variable where you can have high returns and high losses.

They're kind of right there in the middle where we can actually guarantee that the client is never going to lose value in their portfolio. So they're not going to get 100% side, but they're not going to get any of the downside. That is huge when people are talking about trying to make sure that the wealth that they've created, the assets that they've amassed over their working years will last as long as they do. You know, I feel like there's people that every time they turn on the news and they see, oh, the markets are down, they're like, oh, no. Or they open up their portfolio statement quarterly or however often they come out and they're like, tentatively tearing it up and going, what's this going to show?

And they see a drop and now their heart sinks. And it's like at some point, maybe in your 30s, 40s, you can deal with kind of fluctuations because you've got plenty of time. You're adding to it or whatever, like you just said. But at some point, you got to circle the wagons. And we don't need to get into what specific product in this. It doesn't matter. The fact that you said that they are there and you can maybe make some recommendations

for people to consider, I want to focus on the peace of mind that brings. because if you know, if you're a, you know, pre or close to being retired and you know that the bulk of your retirement portfolio is locked up and safe and secure and your friends are coming to you going, oh, my word, can you imagine the market just dropped in my portfolio? And you're like, mine didn't move an inch. And they're like, what? Yeah, yeah. If you could imagine the market dropping and you are not concerned, not in the least, because you know that you've positioned your money where you're not losing anything. You're not beholden to looking at the S&P and the Dow and the NASDAQ every single day. You're not beholding to looking at, you know, those major companies, Amazon, Tesla, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, etc. Nvidia, you know, what they're doing every single day. I think it's important, at least for a portion of a person's retirement. portfolio that we place it, basically they can create their own pension. We can put it in a place where they're never going to have to worry about the market dropping. They can have a beneficiary assigned to it. So if they die prematurely, you know, their family members or whomever can benefit from it. But we and we can still have some money that is still growing for the long term, right? Because when I retire, if I retire at 60 or 65, I'm still planning to live more than 10 years, right? So,

So, you know, I think it's about putting together that optimal customized mix for that particular client that's going to serve them well because there's nothing worse than retiring in the very couple of first couple of years, the market is down and you're pulling money out of your portfolio. That is a recipe for disaster. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. I mean, it's just nuts.

And if you hear about a certain thing or a bucket of products, you don't put all your money in that. You keep a nice balance of everything. So that's, you know, when you hear it. hear, you know, oh, there are certain types of this or that that provide guarantee. It doesn't mean let's divert and now suck everything out of what I've got and put it into that thing. No, it just means this is a nice bucket to have a nice percentage of your portfolio in so that you've got to secure well-rounded. So that's the point that we're making here.

But I think that when people can hear when there are some products that can provide protection, guarantee, what a huge piece of mind that that is. Yeah, I love it. you know, sometimes they get a bad rap. But when people actually get to the point of retiring, they want those guarantees. And there's, you know, there are products out there that can provide the guarantees that they're looking for and the protection that they're looking for. I mean, who wants to work all those years and amass, you know, all this money. Then all of a sudden, you know, put in some place. Exactly.

You know, who wants to do. Literally. You know, and when we talk about wealth at last, you know, most of us don't want to just spend it all in retirement. me, we want to leave something behind for the next generation or two, you know, two or two or three generations. So, you know, those are things. You know, that, that reminds me of a word you said a minute ago, legacy. And I think that, you know, we, you know, when we were in middle school, we're like, oh, look, I want to get to high school and they look so cool. And then you're like, oh, I want to get to college.

And then, oh, as soon as I get married, as soon as I have kids, you're always looking for the next thing. Well, guess what? I think that a lot of people think, okay, at retirement, I need to make sure. And then now from the day I retire to the day I might, you know, die. What age is that? I need to make sure I have enough money. But then you need to look forward. And I think a lot of people don't really fully embrace that word legacy.

So I think that if you were to say, or I guess if I would ask you, how can women, the people that you're working with create that legacy and really fully articulate that. So they fully understand that you got to keep on going because not. only do you want to build this to make sure you're taking care of in retirement, but then what about beyond? What does that look like? So we can actually look at that in a couple of different ways. Obviously, if I build a business, you know, I might be leaving that business behind for the next generation. That's legacy. If I have amassed a lot of wealth, a lot of assets, and I don't spend it all in retirement, obviously I can leave that behind. Actually, one of the easiest ways to create a legacy, obviously, is with life insurance. And man,

The thing about life insurance is that death benefit is tax-free to whomever the beneficiary is. So there's lots of different ways that we can do that. And it's important working with a planner to really understand, you know, what that looks like from a tax perspective, from, you know, how things are titled, you know, are we looking at creating a trust? I mean, there's so many different ways that that can be done. But again, we need to, but we got to get through retirement first. So it becomes part of that planning process. right, we want to make sure that we can retire. We're going to, you know, we're not going to outlive our money. And then what's going to happen with, you know, whatever is left over after that? How is that going to be distributed? And, you know, we can even decide how it's distributed, when it's distributed. So, you know, there's a lot of flexibility, but we got to put that planning in place. You know, we used the word debt earlier, you know, so you don't want to get to retirement or get to the end of your life and still have debt so that now you, that becomes a legacy for your family to deal with. Right. So that's something. you want to avoid and you don't necessarily want to end your life and get through retirement

with zero dollars because okay well at least i didn't carry dead over to my family but they didn't get anything so there's that so it's it's the whole thing like begin with the end in mind but really begin with the legacy in mind of okay in a perfect world i would love that be able to have this go to my family and when you can structure it in a way like you said with you know tax favored you know distribution to the family now they're not getting hit so what a you know in let's go back to that word I was saying, peace of mind. What a peace of mind that is for the retiree that is sitting there working with you going, okay, I know, I'm taking care of and look at what I put into place so that my family is.

That's a huge, huge gift that you're providing to your clients and that they're providing to their family. Yeah, I mean, I think at the end of the day, that's what everyone wants to do. We want to retire with confidence. We want to have peace of mind. You know, you can enjoy your retirement so much better when you already know that I've already put all the pieces in place. I've got the legal documents. I have my emergency reserve fund. I have my my monthly income that I'm pulling from these different buckets. I've got my social security, which some people may not have, but I've got my pension. I've got my 401k or my IRA. I've got all the things. And I've already started putting into place what's going to happen if I die prematurely or even if I live long. And I often say, you know, every single one of us, we're either going to live too long or we're going to die too soon. And all. of those cases in either case, we want to make sure that we put the planning in place for the best scenario, the worst scenario, and everything in between.

Love it. I tell you what, Melissa, once again, we've just wrapped up a just powerful thought that really should make people go, you know, this is solid. This is, this is deep. So I think it's just spectacular. If someone is listening to this wanting to learn a little bit more and reach out, connect with you, what's the best way that they can do that? They can go to my website at Invest Her, H-E-R, fiduciary solutions.

And once they're on my website, they can actually access my calendar. They can book a free 30-minute Zoom, and I would love to connect. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much, Mike. You have a wonderful day. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders.

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