Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Michael Ross, Financial Advisor with Lattice Wealth Management Group

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Michael Ross spent 34 years with one of the largest banks on Wall Street and then became an independent Financial Advisor in 2021. He is the author of the Amazon Best Seller: The False Hope of Global Diversification: Confessions of a Portfolio Management Maverick, as well as multiple Webinars and talks around portfolio management and financial advice. He co-founded the Academy of Certified Portfolio Managers and was instrumental in the creation of the Certified Portfolio Manager certification. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and has multiple other educational credentials.Learn more:https://mylatticewealth.com/ or https://justbuildwealth.co/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-michael-ross-financial-advisor-with-lattice-wealth-management-group

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 with us Michael Ross, who's a financial advisor with Ladis Wealth Management Group. Michael, welcome to the program. Thanks, Mike. I appreciate being here. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm looking forward to learning from you. And just before we started recording, found out that you're about 60 miles from me. So it's always neat to talk to people

in the Colorado area. So that's awesome. I want to learn all about what you do and how you do it, but get us started with your story. What's your background? And how did you get into financial services to begin with? Well, that's an odd one. I went to school here in Colorado, spent five years in the Air Force. I had a lot of pressure to go back to my hometown. So I went back there. A family friend had promised me a job in a different industry. And that job just evaporated.

So a call to one of the big banks said, what's a financial advisor do? And Mike, I could make it very, very long, but let's just suffice to say the rest is history. That was 36 years ago. Wow.

Yeah. And I'm sure you've seen a lot of, lot of things in the industry from, you know, compliance up and down and how to do things. And then, you know, the economy, you know, bobbing and weaving and what's inflation done. And this is a good year. Next year is a bad year and all of that. So what are some of the trends that you're seeing in financial advice and portfolio management in how you're serving your clients?

I would say that the key is as it always was. the most important thing is to spend a meaningful amount of time today and forever, making sure you have a good sense of what the client's trying to accomplish, which is an ever-changing thing, as we both know. It's ever-changing what they want to accomplish because as life goes by, their goals change, and then find the simplest solution that they can make it through good and bad markets trying to achieve those goals. Just look for the simplest solution. You know, have you ever read the book Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller? I know the book, yes.

It's one of my favorites. I would highly recommend reading it. One of the key points he talks about is what you just said. He says, when you confuse, you lose. So keep it simple. Even though you might have underneath the surface all kinds of wonderful things that you do and provide and solve for the client, what's the main thing? What's the one thing? What's the simple thing that would stick in someone's mind to go, oh, Michael does this? Okay, tell me more. And then as you get to know people, then you can, you know, bring in a little bit more complexity. But I think that we feel these days our lives are so busy. We don't have time to disseminate and, and, you know, take all of this information and make sure that we understand it. Just tell me in simple terms. I think that's a really key piece of advice that you're giving. Yeah. And to kind of compliment that, the heart of the thing is to get to finally get to what that actual goal is, knowing that it's going to change

as times evolve, but getting to that goal and then being able to work from there and communicate a solution to that goal or a way to achieve that goal. A hundred percent. I remember years ago going to a seminar and someone, I forget the person's name, but he wrote a book and he was talking about the laddering effect and questions to ask clients. And he was saying, you know, hey, well, tell me what's important about, let's say retirement to you. And the person would say, you know, whatever that is and like, oh, yeah, that really is important. So, hey, now what's really critical about that?

And you keep asking these deep, deep, deep questions. And you finally get to this final thing where it's like, yeah, retirement's fine and dandy. But in reality, it's this. And you've got to understand, like, to your point, you can't just cookie cutter and say, oh, you want to retire someday, here's my plan, follow this, have a nice day. you've got to get to know that person, develop a relationship, and figure out really what drives them. Because in reality, I'm seeing this a lot. People don't just retire and play golf the rest of the life. They are creating, you know, another career, maybe doing some consulting or maybe traveling or, you know, developing charities.

And so you've got to figure that out so that you can then say, okay, Mr. or Ms. client, you're here. You want to be there. Let's close the gap and figure out how to get you there. Well, and to add on, one of the things we all learned during the pandemic is what it's like to spend days and days, weeks and months at home. And many of us say, you know what, that's not my ideal life. I got to build something else instead of. And technology enables this. But the pandemic taught us a lot about what this perception of reality might be in terms of retirement. You got it.

So let's talk a little bit about what you're seeing trend-wise. What are some of the economic indicators you're seeing out there right now triggering? And what kind of are some of the best indicators that people need to key in on? So we're going to go back to that simplicity thing, Mike. I would say that one of the key metrics out there remains what short, intermediate, and long-term interest rates are. They were behaving like they did when we were kids back in the 80s and the 70s in terms of very high short-term rates and actually declining as you go out in time in terms of interest rates. At some point here, that changes.

And when that changes, markets are going to respond to that. The other thing I've discovered, and this really goes back to the Fed governors and their evolution. to a more transparent world, you can learn a lot from the speeches that Fed governors make and get a sense of what's going on in the economy far better than listening to a handful of prognosticators on TV or on the Internet, because in most cases, those folks might have an agenda beyond just giving you the facts. So keep it simple. Use interest rates, use credible sources and recognize that, you know, from a linear perspective, markets go up over time. Yeah. And, you know, I think that one thing that I would even add to that is know your risk tolerance

and appetite for volatility given your age compared to how soon you want to retire. Like at the age 30, you might have a lot of runway before retirement so you can handle volatility and risk, whereas at age 55 and you want to retire at whatever. age, you might need to tighten up the hatches and go, you know, we need to, you know, take that volatility out of the equation as much as possible. I would agree with that. And there's, there are multiple different elegant solutions to that problem. You just got to work through it. Yeah, 100%. So talk a little bit about how you serve your clients. I know that there's, it's such a broad approach to say, I help people retire well. But what are some of the approaches

that lattice takes in bringing to your client's awareness what they should be considering to make sure that they are experiencing a good retirement? So we aren't really fond of doing risk questionnaires and things like that. What we really spent a lot of time doing, you know, we have just under 100 clients, those with the most complex situations we talk to no less than once a month, just kind of making sure we're making the progress the way we need to. Those with a little less complex situation, we pretty much talk to once a quarter. And it's more about them than it is about markets and performance.

I want to find out what's changed. You know, people get older, they choose or not choose to retire. They deal with tax situations. They deal with the state situation. They deal with their kids and others. I want to make sure we are very contact heavy in terms of of our conversations. In terms of the investment side, we have discovered over time, you know, we've been managing

common stock and bond portfolios for 25 years. We've discovered that to address the tax issues primarily, we're far better off doing that ourselves because there are ways that we can kind of customize the circumstances. And, you know, you mentioned the volatility thing. There's really some elegant ways to address. dealing with the stocks and bonds and cash in people's accounts and volatility, especially when you can manage the portfolios yourself. So I would say contact and customizing kind of the investment profile are two strengths.

Yeah, that's huge because it cannot be cookie cutter. It can't be a template. Everyone is different. Everyone has different needs and desires and goals. So I love when I hear that for people like, hey, we sit down and, and treat you like a human and we develop a relationship and you're not just another number. And I know that that sounds like lip service, but why is it that the public many times has such a hard time choosing a financial advisor? Because they hear that from a lot of people. What are some things

that they can really look for and make sure of when they're looking for a financial advisor? Oh, this is a very, very good subject. This subject could take an hour by itself. So one thing we've learned is there are hundreds and hundreds of financial advisors with different interests and different strengths, hundreds of them. The public has an enormous job and it takes a lot of interviewing. And it also makes sure that they know, the public knows that if the financial advisor's interests and the client's interest diverge, they can always change financial advisors. get an idea of what kind of continuing education they take. Get an idea of how many clients they have. Give it an idea of their contact approach.

How often do they talk to you? Do you need to call them? Will they call you? Get an idea of those kinds of things. The other thing that I'll say that's important, Mike, in the world that we live in today where it's easy to get on the phone. It's easy to do a Zoom call. Those questions with the financial advisor ought to be,

pleasant conversations, but they really ought to do it face to face. Because as you know, way better than I do, so much of our communications is nonverbal, have a conversation, ask about their interests, realize that there are so many different approaches to take in financial advice. And it's a hard, hard decision. But it ought to be something the public's looking at, you know, throughout their lives. because as lives change, specialists change in so many ways. Yeah.

You know, here's kind of a curveball question I would pitch to you, which is, what is a question that you had asked to an advisor? And depending on their answer, it would be a big red flag that you would be able to smile and kind of say, thanks for your time and then kind of go, this is not the one I need to work with. What are some of those things that the public need to be watching out for, listening for that an advisor would answer that would confirm for them, this is not a good fit? Well, I would start by looking at that advisor's background. I've discovered that advisors develop out of several different financial services subsector industries. And I would,

if I were the interviewer, I'd say, tell me why you're doing what you're doing now versus is what you were doing five or ten years ago. In so many cases, if they came out of just providing financial plans, they have one mindset. If they came out of insurance, they have another mindset. If they came from one of the big banks, they have a different mindset. And I would explore really how their thoughts have evolved based upon their background, based upon how they were developed. You know, I bet you would agree with this.

So much of our development as professionals came out of that first job out of college, out of that first career. And that's kind of where you built out your skill set and what you're interested in. Spend some time asking questions about their background and what caused them to evolve their practice and things like that. I like that approach because like you said, if someone could. comes out of a banking background, they might be myopic in what they promote or, or I used to be in the insurance industry. So all I can sell is annuities and insurance products. Nothing wrong with those. You need a balanced approach, but that really does give you a little bit of a glimpse into what they are thinking. And why have you changed or have you changed your approach in the last

five years? If someone has said, nope, we just kind of keep on plugging away, that could be a red flag right there because there's always things to change. Inflation rears its ugly head. so often and so do interest rates up and down. The bonds are better one day than the next year. So I think that you need to ask that question and be aware of their answer. And if they stumble and bumble, that could be a red flag for you. That's what I've discovered. People come from all kinds of industries and that creates, as you just said, a bit of a bias toward that industry or perhaps against that industry. But exploring those biases, those biases lend themselves to a part of the perspective they have in giving you advice. Now, that's no different in medicine.

That's no different in accounting or law. But in those other areas, the different tracks are very well presented. You go to specialists in those areas and few financial advisors say, this is my specialty because they're out there competing with everyone else looking for clients. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you give such tight. close service to your clients and build those relationships that you get referrals. What are the types of clients that are typically introduced to you? Do you have specific needs that you're meeting that you find trends in that they're coming to you for?

Well, I've been doing this for a long time. And as a consequence of that, I am dealing with estates and clients who are aging and need to make sure that things are taking care for their kids and grandkids a lot. but by the same token, I spent a meaningful amount of my time in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, whatever you want to call it. And I end up working in that case with younger employees that have equity compensation. Those are kind of two bookends on life. But I find myself in both areas just because I've been doing this for so long.

Yeah. And it's interesting because the ones that are on the younger side, you can be saying, hey look we need to be planning way down the road for legacy planning exit planning what are you doing for you know that kind of thing because i've got so many clients that i'm you know helping with the estates so it really gives you a nice balance that way i think that's a really good a good mix well and what you discover is the things that when you were young you recommended once you get older and you see how those things play out it changes your perspective on some of the things you're recommending to young people yeah a hundred percent there's a there's a there's a great life lesson right

there. We should take that sound bite and just make that put on a plaque. There you go. Well, Michael, it's been so great chatting with you. If someone is interested in reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can learn more? Well, I would say that if it's a client, if it's a person looking for an investment advice, go to the triple w.myswelfth.com. On the other hand, if it's a young financial advisor who's looking for some input on how to think about their careers, I wrote a book last year. And if you go to a different website, which is triplew.justbuildwealth.com, that website has the curriculum for young financial advisors on it. So either way, depending on someone's interest, they can go to either website. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Thank you for having me, Mike. I really appreciate it. 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.