Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Steven Michael England, President of Capstone Estate Planning Discussing Navigating Retirement

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Financial advisor and Retirement Planner since 1982, Best Selling Author of “The Wealth Lifestyle”, honored with numerous industry awards and honors of achievement. I value close business relationships with clients and treat them the way I would want to be treated.Learn more: http://www.thewealthlifestyle.com/This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, health, investment, tax, profession advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional investment, tax, or legal advice. The views expressed in this podcast may not be the views of the host or the management.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-steven-michael-england-president-of-capstone-estate-planning-discussing-navigating-retirement

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 the Stephen Michael England, who's the president of Capstone Estate Planning, and we'll be talking about adapting your lifestyle to retirement. planning. Stephen, welcome to the program. Well, thank you for having me, Mike.

Hey, I'm excited to talk with you because I know that it's so interesting to hear different people's perspectives and their business background and life background and how you arrived and how you advise your clients. And I want to dive into this because I know that, you know, people don't really love the idea of change, but we need to talk about sometimes life changes before, during, after retirement. Before we dive into that, though, give us a little bit of your story and your background and how did you get into the financial services industry? I started in 1982 and I was a young man and wanted to get into the financial services business and worked for started out with working for LPL financial services and then became an independent

an advisor had my own agency for many years, was on several boards of large financial groups, and then now I'm kind of, I've felt some of the things not only with my clients, but with myself, just because of my age. So I think I have a lot of experience, and I've seen a lot and done a lot. And, you know, the first thing we wanted to talk about was how things changed, but it's happened to me or it's happening to me, Mike. You know, and that's an interesting point you bring up because you've got a plenty, plenty of experience and you've noticed things, trends, of course, financial trends, but trends of change. And I think that when people can realize that life is not just a set them up, knock them down, here's what to expect and nothing will deviate, when we realize that the only thing constant in life is change, it helps us to be. be a little bit more resilient. So talk a little bit about some of those changes you have seen

over the decades of working with clients and how some of that change relates to before retirement and then during retirement. And then how do you adapt to that? Okay. Well, they say that people change the most from age 60 on. And I've, well, you change a lot because you think about it when you get to age 60 plus you're either some people are retired some people are planning their retirement but life changes you know people go from having hopefully you go from having your first home to a larger home to a bigger home for your children and then you you go the other way and start downsizing if you think about what you drove for a car i had plenty of sports cars but you know with my hips i don't get in not of a sports car as well anymore.

It's not that comfortable. So, you know, what I drive is different. How I look at things. You know, they say people get more set in their ways. You've always heard that as you get older. Well, I think it's just because you know, because you've been around longer and you just know what you like and you know what you're not that fond of.

And even hobbies or other things, maybe you did a lot of different things in life. But as you get older, you know what you really. like to spend your time doing, you know, which you really enjoy doing. For me, it's boating. And that's something that I really love. There's some things that you really, really like to do. When you're younger, maybe you did a lot of different things. But things certainly change. Changes your health can change. Your family, your family dynamic. And, you know, you go from younger children to them being an empty nester. So there's so much change. And so the question is with

your retirement goals is your plan, you know, fit you. Does it fit you in what you're trying to accomplish? Because you think about it. When people are younger, they take advantage of dollar cost averaging. You're just putting money away. You're getting matching maybe in your 401k. And through the ups and downs of the market, it works out because when the markets are down, you're buying cheap shares. You're just putting money in. But when you get close to the other end, you're thinking about maybe you don't want to lose what you've built up that's taken you 20, 30, 40 years to build that up. And you don't want to lose it because you're not getting any younger and you can't replace

that money. And maybe you want to do some things. Maybe you'd like to, you paid your dues, but you'd like to make some lifestyle changes and do some things that you'd like to do, whether it's travel or just do different things. Maybe you need income. Maybe you don't. Maybe your family need to.

Maybe you need to help a child. There's just so many different things. So the biggest thing is knowing that life does change. Nothing stays the same. And you have to adapt and change to that. And most people do not really like change. So what I find is a lot of people have things just because they've had it a long time. But it may not fit them in what they're trying to do at this point.

you know, it makes me think too of, of, I'm sure you've sat down with a client said, okay, let's talk about, you know, you're at age, let's just say 60, and we're looking at really dialing in your retirement plan. So what does retirement look like to you? And they might say, oh, well, whatever the case is, right? But I would venture to say that you will be able to shed some light to them to say, okay, but you're not factoring in this. And you're not really thinking of that because I would venture to say,

that some free retirees think, oh, I need X number of dollars to live in retirement, but then they don't realize that, oh, you have way more time on your hands than you do when you're working your nine to five. So you have more time to spend money to travel. You might want to start that charity. You might want to do a lot of things. And so my question is, do you ever find clients that say, here's what I think retirement looks like, but then once you start talking through it, it just really reveal so much more to them and they say that's exactly right now we need to compensate for that. Absolutely, Mike. That's why you need to talk to people and sometimes you'd be having a discussion, a planning discussion with a client and maybe at the end of it, they say one thing that changes

everything. Like for instance, they could say, well, you know, I took, you know, when I took my pension, I took life only just for me, but if something happens to me, my wife doesn't get any of that. I mean, that would change everything if you're trying to protect income for the wife. And then I have other people say, well, I haven't taken Social Security yet. I'm not sure what I should do. Should I take it now or later? And really, it just depends on the situation. There's no right or wrong all the time just because everyone's situation.

is different. And really, that's what I love about the business and why at 65 I have no time. You know, as long as, you know, health considered, I don't even really think about retiring myself only because I love what I do, and it doesn't seem that hard. Because every client, even though there's similarities, every client is unique and their situation is unique, and they need a customized plan. And it's really nice to go through this and help people. I don't work with everyone, but it just amazes me that some of these questions, their advisor, never even asked them. Yeah. They never even go down this road.

And I find that very interesting. But going back to what we were saying, you change, your life changes, and do you have a plan that fits those changes? So you have to look at something and have it evaluated based upon where you are today, not where you were, you know, five, ten, 20 years ago. And, you know, another aspect, too, I would suspect is that when you start thinking about, you know, maybe someone's circumstances are different. Maybe they worked a manual labor job and their idea of retirement is, I'm just going to sit down on the golf course and do nothing or on the beach and do nothing because they're so beat up over the years. But then there comes a time depending on someone's personality that that's just like, okay, that's not enough on board. or maybe they were in an intellectual, you know, like maybe we're a teacher and they don't really have the body beat up and they just feel like, hey, retirement gives me now more time to do what I want. I want to start another business or I want to start a charity.

So I think that when you articulate that, it allows you to go, okay, then let's make a plan for this. But now we start digging a little bit deeper, five years into that, let's just say, and they've been retired five years and it's going great. They come in and meet with your team and they go, hey, this is awesome. But now I think I want to do a little bit of this and that and change. And so getting back to your point about having a retirement plan or strategy that fits you, it's not a cookie cutter click click. You said this. So here it is next.

It's the retirement strategy that fits you for your goals today. But maybe in two to three to five years, we're going to need to tweak it just a little just because things now have opened up. You're so right because change will come. And it could be change because you want something different. You're trying to do something different. Or change could come because you have a bend in the road, so to speak, where your life changes and you didn't see it coming, but something changed dramatically. You think about it, health.

You're going along fine, and it's happened to me personally. And then your whole world changes because your health has changed. Or what if it's something with one of your children or something in your family that changes? So or maybe it's just something you'd like to do, you know, a desire or something you've never fulfilled. But what I really enjoyed about the business and Mike, you know, I think it's about five years ago. I wrote my first book, The Wealth Lifestyle. And in that book, there's a lot of stories that really all amount to the same thing, but they're all different. And what it was was most people, when they got into their 60s, this is just on average, they had been successful and they'd accumulated some money and they wanted a different lifestyle.

Meaning, I don't want this. I don't want to travel like I did. And I want to work this way. I want to be closer to kids and grandkids. I want to do this. I don't want to do that. And how could they position their employees? plan with their retirement assets and their investments to accomplish the lifestyle that they

wanted. And I think even myself, when you get to be my age, which is what I like, because I understand most of the clients that I work with, I only work and develop retirement plans for people age 60 to 75. That's it. And so in that age group, I know that very well. And so these people, what their goals are has a lot to do with how you set the plan up, what they're concerned about. Some people could care less if the markets go up or down. Other people, they can't sleep at night. So you have to look at their goals, their concerns, what they'd like to accomplish. And quite frankly, sometimes what they don't want.

Maybe, you know, they say, you know, my kids, they're doing well and I don't really care how much they get. they'll get whatever I have left. So it's not legacy planning. They're not spending money that way. But you definitely need a plan, any retirement plan with built-in flexibility because you will change and your plan will change. Not all the time and maybe sometimes not that much, but you will have changes and that's part of life. I still say nothing stays the same. And if you think that it does, just take a picture of yourself.

for anyone else. And look at a picture of yourself, you know, three years ago, five years ago, even if you look great. I mean, you know, what was it? Brad Pitt or someone said in a movie, you're never more beautiful than you are right now or we never. Yeah. But things do change.

That's, I guess, the part of life. But you need to have a plan that you can change with and that will fit you. And if you do that, you'll be a lot happier with it. And when you recognize that, I would also think that when you're meeting with your clients, do you meet annually or quarterly or whatever the frequency is, it's so important to have that third party outside look into the client's life because the client sometimes can't recognize what lifestyle changes that are happening that impact their retirement plan. So you get them talking and go, hey, well, what's been going on?

And they start telling you this and this. and you're listening to it for the purpose of, do we need to tweak this or update that? So having that is not set it and forget it. And it's also not something that the client can just go, oh, well, I can turn this knob when this happens in my life. So talk a little bit about the importance of that consistent checkup, annual review, and then having someone like yourself sitting there listening for those opportunities to make those recommendations. Well, you certainly need to have reviews at least annually and sometimes more. and things come up.

And, you know, for instance, when you're turning, now it's age 73 for required minimum distributions. But if you were turning age 73, then that's an extra review. If you're starting Social Security, that's a review. But you want annual reviews at least. And what's amazed me, Mike, is being in the business so long and serving hundreds of clients, I have commented to other advisors that I work with. And a client's changes in one year. Now, it doesn't always happen this way.

But sometimes it's amazing even in one year that there could be something just totally change within the family, within the client's dynamic. So that's why I'm saying you need flexibility. You have to have flexibility and you have to have a plan that fits you. And we have a holistic planning test. It consists of seven questions. And there's no right or wrong. It's just how you feel about things. And it's really what you want or what you don't want.

And this determines how well your current plan fits you. And what amazes me is that a lot of people, when you ask them what they want and what they don't, want and you've grade this plan and you compare it to what they have, their plan does not fit them very well. I would say possibly as high as 70% of the time that they need some changes with their current plan to fit what they want and what they're trying to. And so I've always wondered, so how did they end up with something that didn't fit them? And the answer, I think, is it's because it's something that they've just had and they

haven't changed with it or the plan hasn't changed what they want and need or it's just what someone told them to do and that's why they haven't. So can you think of an example of that? So for instance, you know, you sit down with couple A and they've got a need of X, Y, Z and you put together a plan. Would they come in for their annual review and you discover that some things change? What could some of those changes be that would then necessitate fine-tuning, their plan. Well, maybe one interesting thing is that every person I talk to that's especially in their 60s, they want a plan for a tax strategy to reduce taxes, you know, because most of their money is all pre-tax. That's most of the people who are so their money. Most of it is IRA or 401k

pension, you know, it's something with it's all pre-tax money. And they're, trying to get it over to, you know, a situation like Roth where it's tax-free. And when I ask them, do you currently have a plan in place and that you're contributing to or at the very minimum filling your tax bracket? They say no. So why? That's something they want, but they don't have one actually in place and working. or here they're planning to retire and they still have 100% of their money at risk.

So, I mean, in 2008, it took six years to get back to where things were. And can you imagine if that happened and you just plan to retire? I mean, how can you control what happens on the other side of the world or the big things? You can't control that. So you have to, it's interesting where you kind of, insure everything in your life. You insure your house. You wouldn't think of not having homeowners insurance or you have to insure your car to be on the road. You insure everything, your health, your life, everything. But then you have your biggest asset sometimes and what

you've worked for for 20, 30, 40 years. And you have no protection, no stop, no stop loss, no floor, no nothing. And so you're just hoping that the market, that you'll make enough from the market to maybe live on the way you want to live. And that could work out nicely and that could maybe not. So it just seems like when you go through these questions, a lot of people, their plan is not set up for what they really want. And that's because a lot of times they've never been asked these questions in the first place.

And potentially I would venture to say, too, that you would put together a strategy that might have, you know, money in this fund or that fund or stocks of bonds or mutual funds or annuities or whatever all that looks like. But probably the percentages may change based on their age. So maybe you set something up when someone is 62. But then a couple three, four, five years goes by and that needs to adjust just because of their age and their close. proximity to retirement in addition to some of the things that can change. Their age can change, right? But talk a little bit about how some of those percentages of what the plan could look like change as they get closer to and closer to and through retirement. Right. Well, that's certainly true. You know, the old rule of 100 is not too bad. You take 100 minus your age is the amount you should really have money at risk. And some people have a lot more than that. But that's That was a rule that was, you know, well established after the Great Depression.

And it's kind of a common thing. But you do make changes. And I think today you need to work with the team, not myself nor anyone else. You really need to be part of a team that can help you. I don't think there's one person. If you just have one advisor, that he can do everything. And because it's kind of complex to put the pieces together. and the plan needs to fit the person and you do need to adjust it because if you did some type of a blend,

you know, you've heard of 60, 40, 70, 30 or some kind of a blended program, you could, you possibly would change that depending on where you're at your age, but not only that, maybe what's happening in the world or the markets or the economy. So, you know, good plans, you have to give a good plan some time to do what it is designed to do. And you don't make huge drastic changes all the time like your market timing and all that. But you do make changes to fit the person's situation. And that goes back to why you need a review at least once a year. Yes.

Super, super important. So let's wrap this up, Stephen, because. this is so powerful to think about, we need to, number one, acknowledge that life changes, and then your needs change, and you just need to make sure that you've got a retirement strategy that fits you now as well as through these changes if and when they come. So if someone is interested in learning more about what this could mean for them and how you could help them out, what's the best way that they can reach out and connect with you? they can go to they can email me at steve at capstone estate planning.com.

Excellent. And then also I will make sure to post the link to your website in the show notes as well, but definitely reach out and be able to get some of those questions answered. And I think this is just such a great mindset for people to keep in mind. So I really appreciate you coming on and talking with this today. Well, thanks for having me, Mike. I appreciate it. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders.

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