Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Owen Edwards, with Edwards Investments -Building a Reliable Retirement Income Plan

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Owen Edwards was born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania, where he continues to live and serve his community through his financial advisory practice. With nearly 30 years of experience, he is dedicated to empowering individuals and families to achieve financial freedom through education—bringing clarity to complex choices and guiding them toward confident, informed decisions. Owen is a Certified Financial Fiduciary® and holds a Certificate in Financial Planning from Boston University.Ready for clarity and confidence in your retirement plan? Schedule a complimentary consultation today.Learn more: https://edwardsinvestments.com/Advisory services are offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC,  Royal Fund Management LLC is registered as an investment adviser with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability.  Insurance products offered through Edwards investments LLC.  Insurance guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing company. The adviser is paid commissions on the sale of insurance products.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-owen-edwards-with-edwards-investments-building-a-reliable-retirement-income-plan

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 Owen Edwards with Edwards investments and we'll be talking about building a reliable retirement income plan. Oh, and welcome to the program. Hi, Mike.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Hey, you're welcome. I'm looking forward to talking with you because always like when you see the topics, it's like, okay, do someone want a retirement plan or do you want a reliable retirement plan? And do you want an income plan? So I know there's some nuances there that we really want to dive into to clarify. But before we do that, give us a little bit of your story and background.

And how did you get into the financial services industry? Well, a little background on me. I've been a financial advisor since I left college about 29 years ago. I hold a certificate in financial planning from Boston University. I'm the senior investment advisor here, and I hold a certificate in, I'm a certified financial fiduciary, which means I'm legally and ethically obligated to put my client's interests first, and it happens to be our firm's motto is client first. And my SEC registered investment advisory firm,

We manage about $1.4 billion in assets, and we serve clients across the country. I got into the business as a college student. I was at first an intern in a brokerage firm, and then I was promoted to a sales assistant to the two larger brokers in the office, and that led to my getting hired as a financial advisor in training. That was in 1996, and I've been in the business ever since. So I enjoy what I do. And it's great to be here.

Yeah, you know, it's really interesting that you just came up in the business and started off at the bottom and learned. It became the trainee and then a little bit more, a little bit more in confidence. And so it's neat that now you're able to, you know, bring those, you know, many years of experience. And, you know, today we're talking about that reliable retirement income plan. What are some of those foundational elements that you've come up with over the decades of working with, clients that really formulate and make that reliable retirement income plan? Sure. Well, a reliable retirement income plan has three main pillars.

Number one would be guaranteed income sources, things like social security, pensions, annuities. They provide predictable foundational income. Then pillar number two would be investment income, accounts like IRAs and 401Ks or brokerage portfolios that can structure to generate growth. along with withdrawals in a sustainable way. And then pillar number three would be flexibility and liquidity, which would be your safety net access to cash in the short term assets, not so much to focus on what it earns, but that it's safe and reliable. And that's for emergencies and

opportunities and unexpected expenses. Yeah, you know, it's really interesting that I think a lot of times people just think about, oh, in retirement, I need X number of dollars, but it needs to come from that broad mix, safe mix, reliable mix, and then that income side of things is really powerful. How do you clarify when you're focusing on talking about the income plan? How do you clarify that to clients? Well, the three structures or the three pillars are crucial because when you know their basic retirement or your basic retirement income is covered by a steady income, then you can enjoy retirement instead of worrying about the fluctuations, et cetera. And it replaces fear with peace of mind.

Yeah. You know, I think it's, I've heard it said in other instances that it's like when you sit down and you write out, you know, your goals for a certain project, it's like, okay, I can see myself getting to this next point at this next point. And it's kind of like you take that deep breath of relief. Well, when you've got this, you know, really reliable plan with good income put into place and you see there's no gaps, it really would give you that peace of mind. So you mentioned Social Security. How does understanding that Social Security piece of the puzzle fit into this broader picture of the retirement income strategy? Sure, that's critical because Social Security, it's often the largest guaranteed income stream people will ever have. So the timing when you claim these benefits can mean the difference of tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime.

So it's not just about when to take it. It's about coordinating Social Security with other income sources. For example, delaying benefits may allow you to withdraw strategically from other investments in a more tax-efficient way or to maximize a survivor benefit for a spouse. And understanding this piece ensures that Social Security isn't just a government check, but a strategic quarterstone of your entire income plan. And it's highly important, major pillar. You know, and it's super important from what I've heard, too, because it's not just, I hit this age. I'm going to check this box and start by Social Security benefits. There's so many more things that go into that, like what you were just mentioning.

But what are some of the concerns that people have about Social Security related to? Should I claim it now? Should I wait a couple years? What about my spouse? Again, it's not just about the date. You know, I used to make a joke because I would teach a Social Security class at a local university for almost 10 years. And I would start the class by saying, everybody's here to find out. the day they should collect Social Security, their optimum age. And I would say to them,

here's the answer to that. You tell me when you're going to die, and I'll tell you what to collect Social Security classes. So it's not just about the date and the full retire. It's about understanding and make informed decisions about what full retirement age means, what taking an early benefit means, and that may be prudent, or what delaying might look like and why you would do that. Yeah. You know, what do you say to someone that says, you know, well, if I delay, I'm going to get that higher monthly amount, and I think it's maybe 8% more. But if you delay for one year or two years or three years, whatever that is, sure, you've got that higher amount, but you didn't get the lower amount for the whole 12 months.

So it's kind of like a balancing act to figure out when you should claim, right? It is. And it's all about the break-even point. And it's important to figure that out. And also to consider a spouse that if you delay it and your spouse has a lower income, that you will pass that benefit along to them upon your death. And you make educated guesses along the way. And basically, you do get that guaranteed raise every year if you wait.

But it's a balancing act between what you have and what you have guaranteed. And when to claim, it's complicated, but it's basically an educated guess. Yeah. And I think that the big thing that I've heard is, you know, like a lot of times, like even, even with things will order online, like you'll get on a subscription and you'll get an email that goes, okay, your next order's about ready to ship out in the next week. If you need to make any changes, just click this link. And sometimes you go there and go, oh, let me just delay it a week or let me just change this. And that's easy these days. But with Social Security, you need to know everything in place because when you claim it is set in stone unless

there's some dire emergency. So I think that that's a big piece that people need to keep in mind, right? Like to get everything figured out and then you make your decision because it's kind of irrevocable. Exactly right. There are short-term emergency fail-safes that are in place, but generally after the first 12 months when you first claim, it is what it is for the rest of your life. It's an important decision and it needs to be done with the information you need to make. and you don't make it lightly. Don't go to Google, go to someone that knows what to do. And for someone like yourself that taught a Social Security class for a decade, you know,

you know a thing or two. So I think that's super important. So let's think about taxes. And I know we could spend about four hours on that one word alone. But what are some of the approaches or thoughts retirees should be taking to make sure that their income plan is tax efficient? We know we can never get out, you know, get away from paying. taxes, but how can we make them tax-efficient?

That's a great question, Mike. Death and taxes, right? Yeah, really. So taxes, they're one of the biggest threats to retirement income, yet they're often ignored because people, they only focus on investments and returns. And to ignore taxes is to your own detriment. You need to make steps for a financial plan that's tax-efficient, and that would include coordinating withdrawals, the order of operations like we learned in school, knowing which

account to pull from first. Traditional IRAs versus Roth IRAs, taxable accounts, etc. Timing Roth conversions, taking advantage of maybe lower tax years to shift money into tax-free accounts, and then managing required minimum distributions and Social Security taxation, minimizing how much of your benefit gets taxed. And also using charitable tools like there's a very effective strategy called the Qualified Charitable Distribution. to give to charity but in a tax-advantaged way, so it's truly win-win. And it's overlooked often because taxes are complicated, or at least they feel complicated, and many advisors don't integrate tax strategies into income planning, which is a mistake.

So every dollar you save in taxes is the dollar you keep for your retirement. Yeah. So why do you think, like, when you mentioned just that and we hear, you know, the only thing, you know, that we can count on life is death and taxes. know that. Why do you think this aspect is overlooked in many of these plans that people would get from maybe the, you know, 800 numbers out there? It's like, okay, here's your plan next. Why don't they go deeper to make sure that you're going to wring out every bit of tax efficiency? Very good question. And because they feel complicated to the advisor in a lot of cases and to the

client, advisors are not typically accountants. Some are, some aren't. So they sort of try away from that and they just focus on the products and returns and not tax-efficient strategies, which are a lot are just common sense. And when people see a written plan in place and they get the order of operations, it brings true to them and they get it. And it's not as complicated as it seems on the surface. It's the uncertainty of it. Yeah. Well, I think it's almost like cliche to go, oh, well, keep your money in that IRA or 401K because it's,

tax deferred. And when you get in retirement, you're going to be in a lower tax bracket. And that may or may not be the case. We don't know. But one thing we do know is most probably, no one can guarantee this. But if you were to ask 100 people off the street, do you think in the next 10 years taxes will be going up? Probably most would say yes. Because in my uneducated opinion, this is where you can step in and clarify this for us. But the deficit is a gazillion bazillion dollars growing every second. The only way to tame that is to raise taxes or to cut government spending. And we know where both of those angles go. So taxes probably are going up. Exactly right. Politics aside, our national debt is $35 trillion and counting. And government's income is

taxes. So we know how they are with spending. Again, either side of the aisle. Yeah. We are relatively, The people think taxes are high right now, relatively speaking, they're not, they're actually on the lower side. So we could not guarantee or expect, but in my opinion, taxes will be going higher in the future. And we got a break for that for sure. And I heard someone years ago say something like, there's two things that stick in my mind. And I love little quotes or I love word pictures, but someone said an IRA is an IOU to the IRS, meaning your money sitting in the IRA. It's growing.

Cool. But you've never paid one dime of taxes because it went in to that account, you know, from the 401k or an IRA pre-tax. And so the government is kind of like that fox sitting on top of a groundhog hole waiting for it to come out and throwing pounce on it. So it's the government's kind of tap of their fingers going, we need to get some of this income here. It's not been taxed yet.

So we know that it's coming. Yeah. That's actually exactly the way I put it. that I'll say that these IRAs are tax deferred. They're not tax-free. And that's why Roth IRA stepping in is tax-free and to do conversions in a strategic tax-efficient way is important. And I put it this way, that Uncle Sam is tapping his foot.

And when you reach a certain age, you have to take a required minimum distribution. You have to start taking money out because Uncle Sam has a vested interest in that. And Roth IRAs do not have required minimum distributions because Uncle Sam has no tax money coming in. could hold those forever and they're tax-free. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think that so many times, and I've got four kids and they're all age of 21 to 27 and when they started getting jobs and they would ask, you know, hey, I should, there's all this paperwork for HR and should, what about 401K? I think that most people are just programmed to sign the papers at HR and they don't even know what the 401k set up was. I know I get it, but they set it up. And then they don't know anything about

allocations and all of these things. I just think that it's such a big question mark to people. But then when you start getting into this stage of your life where you're going, hey, I've got X number of dollars in that old 401k or an IRA, it's going to get tax. So how are we going to make sure

we maximize this? So I think that that point you're making here is there's never ever one solution that fits every single person. We know that. But deal with the taxes. Make sure that you've got some plans in place. So I think that's a really huge piece. We can leave it there because like I said, we can spend four hours on just that one topic

alone and this is never, ever ending. So what are some of the things like misconceptions or pitfalls that people tend to encounter when planning for retirement from the income standpoint? Because again, like I briefly mentioned as I was talking a minute ago, I think a lot of times people think I'm going to retire. I need this amount of money. But that amount of money does that translate to in cash flow income, guaranteed income? And I know that's a big piece of the puzzle for you. For sure. And some of the common pitfalls, there's a few relying too heavily on the market,

assuming that the stock market will always deliver what they need. The fix for that is a balanced growth with protection. Another major pitfalls ignoring inflation and health care costs, underestimating rising expenses, which is inflation. can erode purchasing power. And the fix to that is to include inflation-adjusted income streams of a health and a health care strategy. Claiming Social Security too early can be a mistake that you can't undo, locking in reduced benefits for life without considering the long-term impact. And you have to coordinate that with your overall plan.

And probably another one would be failing to address taxes, as we just talked about, and treating taxes as an afterthought. The fix for that is you build a tax-efficient strategy into the plan from the start in writing, a blueprint of a map of what you should do, and it gives people the confidence of that. And avoiding these pitfalls comes down to a written, integrated plan, not just a collection of accounts. Yeah. It's a true income plan that takes into account cash flow, taxes, risk, and your legacy goals and all working together from the start. And I would venture to say that that written plan that I don't know what percentage of people have or don't have it, but it's probably pretty low. Not enough.

But if you do. Right, not enough. Definitely. What are your thoughts around taking that written plan and going, okay, cool, take that deep breath, good job. Here we go. Do we just let that sit for 20 years? Or how often are you recommending to double check and retweak because things can change?

You know, not like the plan was wrong. but maybe inflation has tweaked or maybe your needs changed. So how often are you recommending kind of re-looking at that? That's correct. It should be constantly monitored by a professional, but the sit down at least once a year, at least to say this is what we set up. Here's where we are. And life happens.

So things happen and with the markets and with your family that need to be adjusted and to sit down and review the plan and to make sure you're on track and maybe everything's fine or maybe we make, need to make a tweak here or there. And when major events happen, then we revisit them in the moment. And that may be three months into the plan. It may be nine months into the plan. If anything changes in the broader markets or with that individual in their situation, then we meet and adjust the plan as needed. Yeah. Yeah, that's really, really huge. Can you think of an example of working with a client who's come in and kind of was all over the place? And when you sat down and showed them

this reliable retirement income plan and got it in writing and just saw the look on the face for that peace of mind that it brought him. Yes, relief. And I've actually had clients just you could literally see the weight lifted from them. They would raise up in their chair. I mean, I've even had people that one lady came to tears literally and said, you know, I really lead because they were just about to retire and they just didn't know if they were ready and they saw this plan and they saw that they were more than ready and that they could take more than they thought and they were more than safe. And she was just so thankful to finally have the uncertainty answered. You know, you doing this for so many years, the way that you've done it, you probably just think it's

commonplace. But when you start seeing those reactions, you need to realize that, boy, out there in the wild, wild west of getting financial advice, maybe people are getting a lot of different perspective. So it's got to be so rewarding. And I'll ask you this last question before we wrap up, but regarding that kind of peace of mind aspect, I think I've heard of or seen research out there that when someone retires and they've got a little bit less stress in their life because they've got a good plan put in place and they know they've got some guarantees and whatnot. Doesn't that help out with length of their life because they're going to live longer because they've got a good plan in place? Yes, quality of life and peace of mind.

it just makes them happier all around. And that's a good thing, that they have the comfort of that. And they can live and enjoy their retirement like they've imagined, and they don't have to worry about these things, which is a huge weight that's lifted from them. And I very much enjoyed doing it. Yeah, love it. Well, Owen, thank you so much for coming on. This has been really helpful just to see how you approach serving your clients.

And if someone is interested in learning a little bit more and reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can do that? Well, I do have a website, and it is Edwardsinvestments.com, one word, Edwardsinvestments.com, or they could just email me directly. And my email is very simply my first name, Owen, O-W-E-N at Edwardsinvestments.com. Excellent. Well, Owen, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you today.

Thanks for having me. Mike. Appreciate it. Anytime. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike's. Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www. Influential EntrepreneursRadio.com.