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

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

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-retirement-discussing-retirement-planning-guide

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 Retirement, and we'll be talking about retirement planning guide. Stephen, welcome to the program.

Thank you for having me, Mike. Hey, you're welcome. I can only imagine that a retirement planning guide is quite broad and quite lengthy. So I know we want to just hit the highlights. But where do you start when you're talking with a client about planning their retirement? Because the word guide gives me the impression that you've got a plan and a blueprint in place. We start with what we call retirement EKG, which is a baseline. and it's the most accurate software that grades your current retirement programs.

And so you get a grade like a grade point average like in school, but it also gives you a volatility option, which we've seen look extreme. So once you make money, do you keep it or do you slide back down the hill? And that's very important if you're close to retirement or in retirement. So we start with the EKG. similar to like in a medical environment you know the EKG kind of tells you what's going on there with that heartbeat and the internal systems what are some of the things that the EKG are going to bring out you mentioned volatility but what are some of the other indicators that the retirement EKG brings out well it gives you a grade point average like in school so you know what to score and the software looks at the risks that you're taking or the volatility that you're taking for the return that you're getting. So if you're, for instance, taking the same risk as the S&P 500, but you're only earning half, then why? And so you find out why. Or the fees too high,

or do you have some things in there that are holding you down? So it's very important to have a competitive plan. And many times, people don't really know how they stack up against the best of what's out there. And the best would be an A plus. But I see so many times people have an EKG done, and it's a C or C plus. It's really quite substandard over what they can get. And many times they know these things or they feel things, but the report, the EKG shows you why this is happening, or maybe it confirms what you already know and feel. But it's really important to have this test to determine if you're on track and if it's performing properly. Now, just like in school, when you get your report card and that GPA, you know, shows some lack in certain subjects with this retirement, EKG, if there is some lack in certain areas, are then those the areas that you start to focus on to bring up to speed, right?

Absolutely. So you can see what's holding you back, what you need to change as far as allocations or strategy, what you'd have to do to get it to an A plus and what that would look like. an A plus look like. And it's extremely important. The other thing we find is that retirement planning, a lot of it, how happy you are and how well it works with you is how well it fits you. And so part of that EKG is also a fit test. And that determines with what you want and what you like and what you want your plan to do,

how well does your current program fit that? And it is comprised of seven questions. That's, again, is quite enlightening because do you want something that doesn't fit what you're trying to do? Then that won't, the most likely outcome is it won't happen. And so if your plan fits what you're trying to do, what the risk, if the risk is in line with what you want to take, if you're getting the returns you need to live the lifestyle you'd like to live, but we find many times that that fit test is off as well. So again, that's something it needs to be checked.

Kind of reminds me of kind of like a stress test, you know, like the retirement EKG shows where some lack is. But then when we start diving in and we go through this fit test, what's that going to do to, you know, your expectations, your, you know, your own personal risk. risk tolerance. And so then it kind of gets down into the brass tax of, okay, Mr. and Ms. client, it looks like we need to address this. How would it make you feel if, and I think that fit test really kind of helps to solidify then next steps, right? It does. I had one retired client say to me, she had never, her advisor, current advisor, never asked her any of the questions on the fit test. And I was amazed. And, but,

But I guess that happens. Sometimes people may manage your money, but there's no volatility control, for instance, what the EKG would point out, and that the fit test has never even been performed and the question's never even asked. Well, it kind of makes you then think that other advisors that take that approach, they're just kind of going, here's this template that I do for everybody. Here's yours. Here's yours. And that's nothing personalized.

So the fit test really will help personalize it to what they're looking to accomplish. It's so true, Mike. There are some national groups that are controlled by the head of the company on what they offer for programs. And they may not have access to all the tools in the tool bag to help the client. And they very much are cookie cutter. I have seen the same company with different clients, different ages, in many different states, far apart, but they all end up with the same grade. And they're almost the same type of plan.

So that would be what we would call cookie cutter. And you definitely want to, you want a plan that fits you and that's customized to you. 100%. Yeah. You know, you've mentioned a couple times risk and volatility. And I know that the retirement volatility score is part of your. planning guide. Talk a little bit about that. Volatility is so important when you're close to retirement or in retirement. And having that volatility control or stop loss just makes you more money.

So you think about if you have a year where you make 20, 25%, but those gains aren't in any way locked in. And then the next year, things are down. You just slide right back down the hill. And so in retirement or close to retirement, unique consistency. And we've seen that on charts and graphs, it can be several hundred thousand dollars difference over a period of 10 years where you have this volatility control and have consistency versus just riding the ups and downs. And then the other danger is if you're closer in retirement, if you had a financial meltdown and like 2008 and it took six years to get back to where we were. That could destroy your retirement. So you not only avoid the big problems, but even in just the normal, I think one of the fiduciaries I work with told me that

history, 90-some years of the stock market, every three years on average, there's an adjustment of the markets. So we know that it's like an EKG, a roller coaster ride. You make money over time, but the ups and downs hurt you in your retirement. So what you try to do is have more consistent returns and avoid those and avoid those downturns as much as possible. You know, and I've heard some statistics where if you have a big year and then a really low year and you think, oh, the low year, and it's going to, it takes me this much time to catch up. And I know that the numbers would kind of support exactly what you're saying is closer

to retirement, you don't have the runway. But I would think that there's another aspect that is huge to factor into the volatility score, which is your peace of mind. I know for me, I wouldn't want to see the roller coaster. I don't want to see big downs and drops and hope it comes back. So talk a little bit about when you have addressed the risk and volatility the right way. How do that gives the peace of mind to a client to know that their retirement is on track? Well, when you think about your retirement money, and all the people, I talk to or either close to retirement or in retirement, but it really represents what they've

worked and saved for 20, 30, 40 years. So it represents a lifetime of work. And so you want to protect that. You want the way I describe is you want to put guardrails on it or some of it so that you minimize the downside. And so with the EKG, it shows what you're trying to do to get the the score higher is is to is to narrow that there's a range from how much it can go down to how much it will grow your returns and you want to narrow the down you want to minimize the downside but but make as much money on the upside as possible and so that's what the grading accomplishes and i don't think people realize especially in retirement if you're taking income and even if you're not taking income, you're forced to at 73 on retirement money to start taking money out.

And taking money out is volatility is much more of a factor because if markets are down and you're taking money out, then it hurts you in a more dramatic fashion. It's a double way. Right. The fact that people take income and are forced to take income on retirement money is, again, all the more reason to have volatility control built into your program. And it gives you, as you said, some peace of mind. Because can you imagine that you're trying to live off your life savings and you're trying to finally retire and have some peace of mind?

And you can't control the market. And what happens in the big picture in the world, if the war breaks out or building falls or something terrible happens, some terrible disease. So you think about not being able to sleep at night when it's your life savings at stake. So you have to have some common sense about this and put some guardrails on it and protect yourself. And of course, you want to make as much as you can make. But one way for people to many times make as much as they've been making with less risk is to have lower fees. Yeah. Because that's one thing that's really happened in our industry.

And it shows on the EKG a lot of times. people can cut their fees in half and they don't even realize it for the same or better planning. And I see it all the time almost every week where fees are too high. Yeah, that's huge. And you know, you mentioned also when it's time to start taking money out of the accounts because of the required minimum distributions when you hit that certain age. At that point, now there's another aspect to think about, which is taxes, right? So how do you help people address that? We have a tax savings report.

It's basically a one-pageer that takes the latest tax strategies that are legal and legitimate, like a backdoor Roth or whatever it might be. And it shows you how to maximize your tax savings. Because far too many people, Mike, they all talk about wanting a tax strategy and to save money on taxes, but they don't have a plan in place to do it. And ideally, if you're in your 60s, you'd like to get all that money over to a tax-free status by age 73. So you don't have those forced required minimum distributions. But I just really believe the tax strategy is one, the tax savings is one of the biggest thing because retirement money, most of it, what I see, most people have most of it in pre-tax and not. in Roth and all that pre-tax money is heavily taxed. I just spoke with a gentleman and said he had, I think, around $300,000 with a major firm,

a big name firm. And he said he took $30,000 out. And he said, you would not believe what I had to pay in taxes on that money. People don't think about it's ordinary income taxes at the highest rates, federal and state. Yeah, because the government's never gotten any taxes on that years past. and now when it triggers, it's time. Right. So what I see that people need to do is run the KG.

If you score an A or an A plus and it's all set, fine. But if it's off, you know what it scores and what you can do to improve it. And the fit test determines how well your plan is going to work out and it fits what you want. And then the tax strategy, of course, try to save all you're going to need to save all you can on taxes, even if it's filling your tax bracket, which is a little simple strategy that everyone should do if you're under age 73, fill your tax bracket at least to get some tax savings. But far too few people, they may have just talked about it in a broad way or read about it, but they have no idea what their numbers are. If you're age 73 and older, it's not going to help you. So you have to be under that age for it to help you.

But if you are, you certainly need to look at that and see what is it going to save you? How much? And will it really help you? And if you don't have a plan in place, get one in place and have it start working for you. I love it. Well, Stephen, you've been bringing up some really powerful things to keep in mind. I love how it's like if you just take that EKG and see where some opportunities are and then have that fit test and then we can polish things up. I think that just really gives people a clear direction of moving forward.

So if someone is interested in getting more information and having that EKG score created for them, what's the best way they can reach out and connect with you? They can email me, Stephen, with a V, Steven at capstoneretirement.com. It's probably the best way, Mike. Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today.

And thank you for having me today, Mike. 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.