Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Richard Hanson President of Generations Wealth Management Discussing Living Retirement to the Fullest

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Two generations of trusted Hanson financial professionals serve multiple generations of clients concerned with financial goals, wealth management, safety, security, and estate planning. Richard Hanson, President of Generations Financial & Insurance Services, began his career in 1983. He is currently an educational speaker on retirement and money management. Mr. Hanson is Designated as a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA). He Currently Holds a membership with the National Association of Life Underwriters. 2011 Insurmark Hall of Fame Inductee. Andrew Hanson, Vice President of Generations Financial began his career in January 2016. He is the Head of Case Design Team & Digital Outreach. He hosts numerous Seminars educating our community on such subjects as; Social Security, RMD’s, Asset Protection, Legacy Protection, College Funding and IRA / 401(k) Analysis.Learn more: https://www.generationswealthmgt.com/Registered Representative & Securities Offered Through Capital Synergy Partners, Member FINRA/SIPC , 2860 Michelle Dr. Suite 150 Irvine, CA 92606, Phone: [phone] Generations Wealth Management Group and Capital Synergy Partners are Unaffiliated Entities.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-richard-hanson-president-of-generations-wealth-management-discussing-living-retirement-to-the-fullest

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 Richard Hansen, who's president of Generations Wealth Management, and we'll be talking about living retirement to the fullest. Richard, welcome back to the program.

Hey, thanks for having me back. Hey, you are welcome, and I know that a lot of times people feel like getting to retirement, air quotes, is like crossing the finish line, you check the box, but in reality, that's just step one. You're going to live through retirement. You don't want to just get to retirement. You want to live through retirement, and you're proposing here that you want to help your clients live retirement to the fullest. What does it actually mean to live retirement to the fullest?

Well, I think it starts way before retirement. You know, it reminds me of one of the stories I tell numerous occasions. I had a brand new client referred to me by one of my really, really long-time clients. And this was in 2008, 2009. And he was getting ready to retire from a fairly big company. And he was managing his own 401K. And when he came in and we had chit-chatted and talked about, hey, here's what I would recommend. We did our diagnosis.

We had our full contingent of meetings. And I made a recommendation that at the time, for him, it was a little bit too conservative because he had seen what the markets were doing during that period of time. And he, you know, said, thank you for all the work you've done. You did a great job. I appreciate it. But I'm pretty good doing what I'm doing right. now and I think I can leave myself down there. And I thought, okay, well, that's, that's okay. And glad we were able to assist you. Well, lo and behold, two years later, I get a call,

and my assistant told me who it was, and I knew what that call meant. And what that call meant was, I can't retire now because I lost almost 25% of the assets I had because I didn't know when was the right time to change, when was the right time to buy, sell, et cetera. etc. I wish I would have done what we had talked about. And I said, hey, you've got time now. Let's go ahead and reconvene. Let's get it taken care of. And unfortunately for him, he had to stick around for another year and a half, two years, which was okay. And now we've led that charge since 2007, 2008, and they're still great clients. And they're living that lifestyle that they wanted to, except they had to wait two four years.

Now, it's not that we were brilliant. It's just our assumptions said when you get to that age, we want to do things more than just get up in the morning and pay our bills. We want to go on trips if we can. We want to do things for grandchildren and our children. We want to pass whatever's left of our state in full to our loved ones. So that was a lesson learned. and we don't have too many of those now because I think people are more educated to volatility too.

Yeah, I think that's a huge point. And it's almost like you become a life coach of sorts sitting down with a client going, well, what does retirement look like to you? And not just retirement, but a fulfilling retirement. And probably you guide them through a conversation to open up their thinking to go, well, yeah, that would be nice if we could do this. And, you know, we were only thinking, you know, this level of retirement and we'd be happy, but wow, you've brought up some things that would really, when we achieve them,

allow us to have that fulfilling retirement. What is that process like when you're helping your clients to really paint that picture? Well, it goes back to, again, some of the basic things that we talk about and the mantra that we use, which is for our clients, we can do the dollars and cents. if we are able to be in a position where we have as much control as we can over your income, expenses, inflation, and taxes, which is always the great unknown, then we're in a position where we can be healthy, we can connect with our friends more,

we can increase our calling, and maybe even volunteer. Other stories with clients is, once they've retired, they found out that they were able to do the things that they wanted to do and were able to travel. But they got bored a little bit. And I can remember going into one of our malls. And I walked into the mall and I saw one of my clients working there and he was 71 years old. I said, what are you doing here? He said, I got bored.

And I said, no, you didn't. I said your wife kicked you out because you were in her hair. And he goes, yeah, I think that's. right. But he enjoyed doing what he was doing. And, you know, if, and he didn't need the dollars, it was, I need to get out and have some kind of passion. And after he did that for a while, then he volunteered at the animal shelter to walk dogs. But to be in the position where you've got that ability to pick and choose some of the great things you're going to do, you've got to start earlier and you've got to prepare for it and you've got to prepare as much as we can for that volatility

for unknown taxes, inflation, those kind of things. And also, I think, peace of mind for the folks we work with, we don't start anything until we find out what does your life look like when you're no longer here? Do you have life insurance? Do you have long-term care? We call these things, the bad things to talk about because no one wants to talk about that. But we also need to talk about wills and trust, powers of attorney, DNRs, things of that nature before we even move on. Because I can come up with the greatest plan that fits you specifically for who you are. But if I've neglected the building blocks, which is what happens if someone dies?

What happens if someone gets sick? What happens if we don't properly title things? Well, that's never going to put us into living retirement to the fullest because we've not done our work ahead of time. So kind of the back-end answer to some of the things about fulfilling retirement is to do the dirty work ahead of time. And once you've done that, that gives you the peace of mind. and if you're confident is succinct with your advisor, it certainly opens up a lot of those really great doors that we all want to do. Yeah.

And I think some of that dirty work or the roll up your sleeves, let's do a little bit of planning ahead of time because sometimes that's not fun. But one of the factors that would come into that is like the surprise of opening up, you know, the news and seeing something changed, whether like to your point, taxes or inflation. What are some of the things retirees can do to plan for some of these surprises from market changes? What is the guidance you're giving them in that respect regarding being prepared and adapting to that change? Well, I think that the biggest thing, again, and I sound real redundant and boring, but it all comes down to your income, your expenses.

and if we're in a position where we need investment dollars to supplement our income, that's great. But we plan for not a significant amount of withdrawals from those, number one, because it affects our taxes. So if we've brought it down to a sustainable level, any blip in the market, either up or down over a short period or even a longer period, or even a longer period of time should be inconsequential because we've done our planning ahead of time. And we're prepared for those. So it's not a reaction that needs to happen quickly because we plan for those. That's best we can. I mean, we certainly can't plan for what happened in 2020 with COVID.

That was unpredictable. But we can plan for what we see that happens a daily, a weekly, a monthly, a quarterly level. If we did the hard work way ahead of time, we're not going to be jumping and bobbing and weaving because we've done this ahead of time and we're prepared for it. But maybe there are situations where we need to get out of equity positioned products that are susceptible to those market changes. If something happens outside in the financial marketplaces, maybe we take a backseat, move out of those equity positions into money market positions,

wait it out until we believe the markets will resume in an upward fashion, and then we'll do a dollar cost averaging. We'll put in not a whole chunk of money at one time. we'll slowly get back in like dipping your foot in the pool rather than just jumping in fully. And so some of those strategies simply are we can back off for a little bit. And other strategies are if we have done our job properly, we're in a position where we've got guaranteed positions. So if the market drops, some of the products we work with, again, are fixed indexed annuity products that provide for that protection. in a down market, but also are there for you in an up market.

So there are some proactive things we can do, but it goes back to as if we have done our planning ahead of time and are prepared for as much as we can prepare for and have the ability to move as quickly as we need to into safe harbors, that gives the peace of mind to those clients knowing they can go forward. 100% and you got to do the hard work in order to enjoy that hard work down the road and kind of, you know, coast as it as it were. But sometimes you got to do that planning well ahead of retirement and put that hard work in and making those harder decisions. You know, when we think about lifestyle planning, you know, we're talking about living retirement to the fullest. Lifestyle planning really comes into it.

You've touched on it with some of the things that you should be thinking about doing, like pursuing hobbies or passion and having that purpose. it reminds me of the research, and maybe you can speak to this, that when someone actually retires and kind of throttles back into retirement, and they find that they don't have that purpose or that goal or all of those things, it really impacts negatively lifestyle or no, life longevity. Talk a little bit about having those goals in place so that when you retire, you're just, you know, re-diverting those goals into pursuing your personal hobbies, maybe that passion and that gives you the purpose that you need to get that lifestyle into place. Yeah.

Well, and again, it all goes back to healthy living too. I mean, that's number one. And the mantra we use is be healthy. Well, what's your determination of being healthy? Does that mean you get up and you walk a mile every day? It's mean you go play pickleball three days a week? That's number one because you don't use it. You lose it.

That's most important. But again, the things that. we talk to clients about if I'm talking with my clients on that semi-annual review, and if any one of them who have been with me for a while says, God, I'm bored or I can or I'm doing this, I am associated with enough nonprofits across the country from California to Nevada. I'll certainly get them volunteered in the right place. So it's important to keep that mind fresh.

I mean, I'm 68 now, and I'm going to keep doing this for as long as a good Lord lets me do it. And I think that's important. And it keeps me active. Yeah. And again, the crazes pickleball. I have so many clients who have retired and put in that pickleball thing. And I've mentioned it many times. I don't play it.

A, I'm too competitive. And I don't want to go out there and tear every Achilles tendon that I have of the two that I have. But I think it's important, again, to do the dirty work up front. So when you get the confidence to know that even with market volatility, you've got someone who can advise you how to change things or move things, but also enjoy your retirement. And you will be enjoying your retirement if you do the hard work ahead of time. Yeah.

And some of those things to live retirement to the fullest might be staying. socially active, like you've mentioned, it might involve travel. It might involve just doing activities around the state that you have with the circle of friends that you now have, now that all of them are retired. And that takes cash. That takes money. And you've also mentioned prioritizing, you know, your physical health. Mental health is huge. But another piece to that is volunteering and giving back, which then ties that dotted line right back to purpose. And so when you kind of think about what does a fulfilling retirement mean to you. There could be a whole series of differences from one client to the next.

But talk a little bit about prioritizing that physical mental health and volunteering and giving back. But to the point you've been making, which is being prepared financially so that you can do it because the client that you saw at the mall, he didn't need the money, but there are a staggering amount of people these days that retire and find that they must go back and get that job at the mall to make ends meet. And that cannot be a fulfilling retirement. Well, yeah, correct. And again, without sounding redundant, it's what you do initially that put you in these kind of positions and the things that we talk about. I mean, there's not a time that goes

by. Again, 43 years in the business to be talking with my clients at least, twice a year and obviously they now have become real good friends over that period of time. I've had the luxury of being able to talk to them about the things that we're all doing, the negative things that happen in our life from health issues or diagnosis of cancer or whatever it may be and how we have to shift focus. But then that also brings them back to saying, and now I'm volunteering at such and such and such because of what I learned from this negative thing that happened in my life. Or I am now actively doing things differently than I did before.

And the reason I'm able to do it is because of the things we did before. I had a client, a great friend client that was with me for 40 plus years, passed away a year ago. and it was interesting because I was flying from Nevada to California and I was going to a memorial of an 82-year-old client, been with me for 30 years on a Saturday. I get a call on Thursday in this client of mine. I was going to go in early and meet with him and his wife and their family were going to have dinner Friday when I got in there at their house.

Then I was going to stay at a hotel, get up in the morning, go to the memorial and fly back home. Well, we arranged it Thursday night. I got a call Friday morning, and my client's daughter had called and said he passed. He had a heart attack. And I'm telling this story because I think it's important that after I recovered, again, a great friend.

And for me, someone at that age passing away was the first time that was close to my age. And so, you know, I kept my plans. I had my staff prepare everything I needed to talk with the spouse and the children. And they were grown children and went to their house. And we spent, you know, three hours and we cried a lot. And what I wanted to show them was, dad did everything. You never have to worry about a thing. Here's the trust.

Here's the will. Here's everything. Do you remember when we first sat down 20 years ago and each year, year we adapted our trust and our wills and powers of attorneys and we planned for these kind of things you're in great shape you don't ever have to worry and and they have told me to this day and they even come and visit us at least couple times a year and i was the first one there after he had passed and that's only number one because he was a friend but because of the confidence that we all had as a team, the wife, the grown children, and my deceased friend, that it made it easy.

And so, again, the hard work, ultimately it didn't end well where he passed, but at least the legacy that he wanted to establish and the simplicity of transference was perfect. And he was living the lifestyle. He was biking every day, taking his dogs out, surfing, doing everything. And unfortunately, he got called away too soon. But the continuity was there and the legacy was there. And his goals, his wishes, his aspirations were there to have that retirement lifestyle that he had. But we also protected his loved ones.

So I think I'm most proud of that. You mentioned the word, several times. And I think that ties so much in with living retirement to the fullest because if you are fully living retirement to the utmost, you must realize that you have put plans into place to take care of your family and your legacy so that you don't have that weighing on you. So talk a little bit about how some of those things may be, I think a lot of times people hear estate planning or legacy planning or transferring assets. When you have some of those things in place, it becomes the ultimate gift that you're giving to your family so that when this

event happens that you don't plan for, you know, obviously you plan for it, but when this event of death happens, things are just fall right together because of the work you put in ahead of time and the gift that you've done to make sure that legacy is preserved. Yes. And we actually have a system that we work with that we trademarked and it's our legacy outreach. And what that legacy outreach is for all our clients who are with us now is we make sure that we meet with them and it's you know spouses and we offer them the ability to allow us to share as much data about where their life is the husband wife to their children significant others beneficiaries whatever and if that means just saying, hey, here's our phone number, here's our address, here's our email, here's our

website, or if you want us to share additional data, here's your investment portfolio, we will meet with those folks. Now, why do we meet with them? Because we want the continuity. We want, when this last person passed away, the two daughters and the son knew me as Uncle Rich. And that's not anything on me. It's just that we spent the time to make sure our legacy outreach was there. And they understood. And I got calls from each one of the children that simply said, you know, you made mom feel comfortable. Because when someone dies, no matter what we talked about ahead of time, there still is insecurity. And obviously, there's pain. But to be in a position where you can go, you're going to be okay because he did all the hard work. And I,

I'm real proud of our legacy outreach. My son's the one who put that together when he started with me eight years ago. And it makes that transition simpler and easier. People aren't panicked. They know where to go to. And unfortunately, my clientele ages. And so we've dealt with that more times than I want. But at least we're proud enough to know that when it happens,

everyone who's affiliated with that lost parent knows who we are and knows that we're there helping them. But again, it takes some of that hard work to start with and talking about things we don't want to talk about. But it's such a must that you need to. So legacy in our name, Generations wealth management. This is a generational planning. And so we place a great deal of focus on that.

Well, I think that if someone has the goal of like the topic of what we've been discussing here, living retirement to the fullest, what does that look like? And we've talked about many of those things. Well, you need to do the work ahead of time well ahead of time so that you're prepared. But most importantly, you can't do it on your own because sometimes you just don't know what you don't know. You need to seek that professional advice. So I think this has just been so helpful, Richard, to be able to, go through some of these topics.

If someone is interested in learning more and then reaching out and connecting with you to take a look at see how they can live retirement to the fullest, what's the best way they can do that? Hey, the best thing they can do, I'm old school as you just feel free to give us a call. It's all free 833-948-2466 or drop us an email at www. Generationswealth, mgt.com. and we'll be sure to get in touch with you and answer any questions you may have. Wonderful. Richard, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Thank you very much. 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.com.