Business Innovators Radio - Rick Miller, Founder of Miller Wealth Planning Discussing Financial Planning is Risk Management

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

At Miller Wealth Planning, we provide Doctors, business owners, and other high-net-worth individuals a comprehensive, bullet-proof financial plan. Rick has put together an exceptionally talented and experienced team to show you how to manage the numerous risks high-net-worth professionals face.These risks include: tax risk; market risk; longevity risk (running out of money); inflation risk; long-term care risk; lawsuit risk; and loss of income risk, among others. Your freedom from worry is our objective.Rick’s credentials include: Certificate in Financial Planning; IRMAA Certified Planner; Certified Dementia Practitioner, and Investment Advisor Representative.Rick has Master’s degree in English and Counseling, along with broad experience in business creation, real estate investing, and more.Learn more: http://millerwealthplanning.comThe opinions expressed on this show by the host and Fredric W. (Rick) Miller are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this radio or television station. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information believed to be reliable. Although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/rick-miller-founder-of-miller-wealth-planning-discussing-financial-planning-is-risk-management

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 Rick Miller, who's the founder of Miller Wealth Planning, and we'll be talking about the topic of financial planning is risk management. Rick, welcome back to the program. Thank you, Mike. It's a pleasure to be with you. You know, I know that if, you know, when you do that little psychological test, you know, hey, tell me the first thing that pops your mind when I say this word and you start going through that, boy, when you say the word risk, you know, that starts making people think, ooh, the pit in my stomach is growing. We don't like risk for the most part. Most people don't, especially when you get into the later years of really,

dialing in that retirement plan. Maybe we can deal with a little bit of risk in our 20s and 30s kind of a thing, 40s, but when you start getting to the point where, okay, we need to start circling the wagons, we need to have a good understanding of risk. So what do you mean with the phrase financial planning is risk management? Well, basically what I'm getting at is that you've got to understand that there are different categories or of risk that appear in different ways and different points of your life. Obviously, risk is something that, you know, I mean, as children, we learn not to do certain things because the risk is we get burned or we get hit by a car or we fall down

and hurt ourselves or, you know, whatever. That's the most basic element of risk. The older we get, now when we're in the workforce, now risk in terms of your financial life is how much market risk can you take in order to accumulate assets towards retirement? I mean, it's critical that people save, that people invest. And one of the great things, about the fact that we have employer plans, you know, IRAs, is it gives people discipline to save and to accumulate. But as we know, what does the market do over time? It goes up, it goes down.

There are all kinds of things you hear in the media about, oh, well, you know, you just need to be in the market for the long term. And there's a lot of truth to that. but also you need to have for your own emotional feeling of well-being is not taking more risk than you than you are willing to handle. I mean, I think back to the year 2008, for example,

when the stock markets and we had the mortgage crash, I mean, everything just went to crap and a very short amount of time, and the big stock market indexes lost 40 to 50 percent. And that was very, very difficult for many people to deal with. Now, if you were fully in the workforce, and yes, you would have time on your side. But if we look ahead a little bit towards retirement, now that whole issue of market risk creates a different problem. what people typically don't understand, Mike, is that when you're employed and you're contributing to an employer plan, TSP 401K, 43B, whatever it is, if you're self-employed CEP IRA, those contributions, which are going into your account every month, help to mitigate the impact of market declines. because you're continuing, you know, to prime the pump a little bit.

If you get what I'm saying. Now, if we fast forward to retirement, once you're out of the workforce, essentially your assets are naked to the market. You don't have any more contributions. For many people, it is important and frankly even necessary for them to take money out of their investment accounts to support the lifestyle they want in retirement. So what that does is it puts them in a precarious position where if you're taking money out of your assets and the market's declined,

that can essentially, if not properly understood and managed, result in running out of money. There's actually even a term for this risk in the financial business, business, it's called sequence of returns risk. And what it pretty much boils down to is that in the early years just prior or in, or the early first couple of years in retirement, you cannot afford to take 20, 30, 40 percent hit. Because, and again, keep in mind, this is, you're taking money out of your assets to support your lifestyle. because that's going to make it very, very difficult over a multi-decade period of life to make sure that you have the assets needed late in life.

But that's just one of the risks. Yeah. I think a lot of times people really don't conceptualize all of the risks and they just think, oh, well, the risk is losing my money. and that's a risk, but it's the time, you know, like you just mentioned, the timing of like, ooh, I have to take money out to live or to meet the RMDs and the market's on its way down. I don't want to do that, but I have to. So now you're, you know, accelerating and amplifying the losses. I know that there's other things like, you know, taxes inflation, but talk a little bit about the,

what I would, you know, my personal opinion is the volatility. Like when you are in your 30s and 40s, you can have all your money in the market and have the market go up down and all around and no, you got plenty of time. But at some certain age, do you recommend that your clients start moving their money out of the market into safer vehicles so that that volatility is not as big of a factor? Well, that's a great question, Mike. And the short answer to that is yes. In my personal and professional opinion, if you are within two years of retirement, you really should be in a much more conservative posture. And the same would be potentially in the first couple of years in retirement,

but there are other things that can be done there. But if we go back to prior to retirement, why do I say that? And, you know, I deal in my practice, you know, with people that by and large are considered high net wealth, high net worth individuals. They've got a million of more in assets, you know, plus home equity and various other kinds of things. So the biggest key is how much can you afford not to lose, which may be a strange way to put it. Think of it this way. if you take a 30% hit just prior to retirement,

let's say the balance in your employer plan was $700,000. 30% of that's $210,000. And here's where you can say, all right, well, if I'm going to work the rest of my life, okay, I can maybe make that back up. But if you were to retire on scale, or maybe you need to retire or maybe, you know, your job is at its end, you don't have time to make that much of a loss back up. So consequently, you would be better off having

even potentially the bulk of your money, 70, 80, 90 percent in a short-term money market, short-term bond, something like that, because you just can't afford to take such a big hit. And you can make also, let's say your contributions, you're continuing to contribute, well, on average, somewhere between, you know, for the typical person, 8,000 to maybe 10,000 a month, something like that into your plan, make that piece aggressive. So if you had a big market decline and the money then that would be at risk

would be that smaller portion, you know, that regular monthly contribution. To put another way, you can certainly survive losing 20 or 30,000, where losing 200 or 250,000 is a completely different kettle of fish. Yep. That's a good point. And time sometimes is on your side or not on your side. So that's a big consideration there, Rick. So what do you think are some of the common risk that people overlook? Meaning we've talked about a few risks already with volatility and sequence of returns. What's another common risk that people overlook and then when you say, oh, we need to address this.

They're like, yeah, it was right in front of me. Well, yeah, and there are a number. Tax risk, of course. Inflation risk. Definitely you've got to. And so many of these risks have got, you know, very certain implications. if you don't keep ahead of inflation, and again, you're taking money out of your assets, then, you know, it increases the possibility that you might have an income problem later in life.

So tax risk, inflation risk, the long-term care risk we talked about on another event. in addition to that, there are a couple of risks primarily during your working lives that people don't think about. And of course, one of those, everybody's heard of disability insurance, correct? Yes. Well, disability insurance is probably one of the least accessed ways to protect your family, during your working years. If you have an illness and it's not uncommon for serious illnesses

to require 30, 40, 90 days away from work, is your employer going to continue to pay you? No. Typically, you've got to be there. And even if they do, the additional costs and other, issues can be such that without some augmentation of your income, it can put people in a very

difficult position. So I would say that disability insurance, particularly again for people who are considered high earners, I mean, it's not out of the question to have a disability insurance policy that can pay you up to $25,000 a month, which can go even if you're a heavy hitter, if you have a great income, but yet you can't work for a period of time, you know, a significant portion of that can be replaced. And if it is an individually owned disability policy,

certainly if you have one through your employer, absolutely participate, but an individually owned disability policy, is one that those proceeds to you, those benefits to you are free of tax. Wow. So that is one. Yeah. Yeah.

And let's clarify something too. Previously we spoke about long-term care, but disability is different because disability tends to be a little shorter of a time frame that you need to, you know, take care of things than long-term care, but it's a still, it's a risk factor. Absolutely. It is. No question. And many, many people are really unaware that good solutions, very significantly financially beneficial solutions in the disability arena exist.

And kind of, you know, along with that, there's another category relating to health. And that is not long-term care, but there is such a thing called critical illness insurance. And this is pretty, it's a pretty amazing concept in that what it essentially will protect you up to or against are things like heart attacks, angioplasty, strokes, cancers, kidney failure, organ transplants. I mean, the list goes on. And people say, oh, well, that's not going to happen to me. Well, maybe not. But you'd be surprised what the statistics are.

And what I would say with this is kind of a niche product in that, If you have a family history, Mike, of diabetes, of heart disease, of dementia, things that are out there, that there's a very strong genetic connection from one generation to the next. Critical illness insurance could absolutely save your financial life to the sense that If an event like that occurs, you can be compensated as high as half a million dollars to cover lost income, to cover whatever might occur. And, you know, in some cases, your medical plan through your employer might not cover all the costs associated with some of these. So that's a little kind of risk management niche that I think is significantly overlooked by the public. Yeah, that's a really, really great point.

You just, if you don't know, you don't know all of the intricacies, and that's why you need someone to walk you through. talk a little bit about how people can not only identify but prioritize these risks, because we've heard you list out quite a few of them, but which ones do you tackle first? Do you hit them all at the same time? Is there a chance that one risk wouldn't apply to everyone? What is the recommendation there to both identify and prioritize? Boy, that's a great question. And that's a tough question. because as we all know, everybody's assets and income are limited.

So as a financial advisor and planner, what I have to do is I have to sit down, I have to learn where you are, all the numbers, what you're capable of, what's your family situation. And again, you know, with the critical insurance,

if you have family histories, this is potentially, one way to significantly protect yourself. But what it boils down to is that there's no easy pat answer to that question. For each individual family, it's going to boil down to what do they want and need above all. And then for someone like me, pardon me, to be able to say, okay, here's the risk. or here are the issues, here's what I feel you need to address most strongly or initially or first or line them up, you know, and get their feedback and kind of go from there. It's very definitely not a one-size-fits-all kind of problem, but it is, it's a, in my view, there's nothing more important than doing risk management for

for a family or an individual in risk in, as we've talked about, the broadest possible terms. Yeah. You know, that's what it's all about. And I think that just knowing what some risks are and having those in mind and then systematically addressing them to see which one applies most for you right now. And there might be like volatility is a risk, but it's not as prevalent if you're in your 40s as if you're in your 50s or 60s. So yes, it's a risk.

Do you dive in with both feet right now if you're 47? Maybe, maybe not. But know what they are. Address them in the proper sequence in time. And then sit down with someone like yourself, Rick, to have like the full picture. Because it's almost like the, you know, if you do everything that you think is right, but you left off one piece, that could just make the whole house of cards crumble. Well, that's true.

And it's unfortunate. So again, good financial advice, sound financial advice from someone who has your interests at heart and has the proper levels of training and expertise and compassion. That's what you're looking for. Well, Rick, if someone is interested in learning a little bit more and reaching out and connecting with you, what is the best way that they can do that? Well, there are three. I would say they might want to take a look at my website, MellerWealthplanning.com. They can also send me an email, and this will come direct to me, Rick Miller Advisor at gmail.com, or they can call me. My cell phone is 703, 401, 3672. Perfect. Well, Rick, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you.

Well, same here, and I appreciate talking about this particular topic because it's not discussed enough, in my view. 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.influential Entrepreneurs Radio.com.