Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Eric Sebold, Federal Benefit Consultant with Institute for Financial Awareness-Building a Legacy: Beyond Wealth

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Eric Sebold is the Lead Workshop Educator for the Institute for Financial Awareness, one of the fastest growing 501(c)(3) nonprofits in the DC/Metro Area.Eric is a widely sought out speaker pertaining to the world of Federal Benefits and Retirement Planning. He is a Certified Educational Consultant (CEC) and a Federal Employee Benefits Consultant. He is a well-versed workshop veteran, teaching courses in many agencies across the D.C. metropolitan area.Eric’s career in financial services started as a Chartered Federal Employee Benefits Consultant (ChFEBC). Eric is best known for his workshop entitled Federal Benefits Best Kept Secrets. Through his years of experience consulting for federal employees, Eric has developed tax saving strategies as well as estate conservation plans for hundreds of individuals throughout dozens of different agencies. He has also guided many federal employees through the complex steps of the retirement process. Eric has generously donated his time and expertise to the Institute for Financial Awareness.Learn more: http://www.ifaonline.org/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/eric-sebold-federal-benefit-consultant-with-institute-for-financial-awareness-building-a-legacy-beyond-wealth

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 Eric Sebold, who's federal bed and fit consultant with the Institute for Financial Awareness. Eric, welcome back to the program. Thanks again. Always love being here.

Hey, yeah, we want to kind of build on our conversation. And today we want to talk about building a legacy beyond just wealth. And I love that concept because it's almost like a lot of times people think about going into retirement and grow, grow, grow, build, build. And then they go, okay, who, I wipe the sweat off my brow. I got to retirement. But the problem is they don't know how many years. in retirement they're going to have. So you've got to get to retirement, but then through retirement, but then they think they're

done. And nope, not quite yet. It would be wonderful if you had something left over to have as legacy planning to pass on to your family. So this is going to be really a great topic. Where do you start when you're talking to your clients about building a legacy and making sure that they realize that creating that legacy is really beyond just, air quotes, financial, wealth. Of course, of course. I mean, really legacy, in my opinion, and it's different for every

client because I meet with a lot of clients that would like to, their goal is to leave behind as much as possible. And then I've got a section of clients that say to me, you know what, Eric, I don't want to leave them anything. I'm going to do my best to spread this down over my lifetime. So I leave them as very little or a portion or whatever it may be. So finding kind of that niche for yourself, I think is a big question mark. And, where you want to lay. And I think, and in my experience, that's one of the first, if not, you know, very, very soon in the meeting someone where I approach them is just kind of creating a legacy is, you know, really beyond financial wealth. It's about what remains after you passed in the

minds and your children, your grandchildren. At its core, it's about impact and continuity, not just your accumulation of your accounts, you know, how much do you want to leave behind? You know, And also it's, you know, for a lot of my clients that I've come across, and I think on my own account, I think I feel a little bit more on this side as well as, you know, it's more about do you want to leave money as your legacy or do you want to leave, you know, memories. And in my experience or in my opinion at least, a lot of my clients find themselves wanting to, rather than leaving large chunks of money behind their kids or grandkids or whatever may be, find ways to spend it with them to create these memories. You know, going on vacations, going on trips, spending money down because I don't know about you, but my feeling, though, is always in the fact that I'd love to leave my son money, but I would also like to spend money with him while I'm alive in order to create these memories. Because in my opinion, the memories are far more valuable than the money. Yeah, for sure. You know, like, what's the quote that Maya Angelou said?

people will forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. Exactly. And so, yeah, money, yeah, cool. But memories, time, you know, how you pour into your family, that's a whole different ballgame. So that ties into the wealth because guess what? You see some of these people that have a large trust fund that they leave to the kids with a lot of stipulations because they know the kids. Well, the best way to do that is to have that amount of money, but to train them up in understanding how to handle that. So that's huge. And I would venture to say

that when you're working with your clients, teaching them on how to handle this legacy, it really brings a peace of mind to them as well as their family. Talk a little bit about how that factors in. Definitely. Well, first and foremost, as it pertains to a legacy plan, I mean, everyone should have a will. A will is a very basic legacy document that first and foremost allows the court to know how you pass your assets on. So the big part is first and foremost, just accomplishing that will. And you'd be surprised how hard that is for people just to accomplish. Because I think a lot of us have to kind of take a look in the mirror and think about our mortality when we do these wills, which is never a fun thing to do. But really, legacy planning can bring

you some peace in mind because it replaces uncertainty with clarity, both for you and for the people you care about or the people that you want to leave your assets or your legacy behind too. Knowing your planning has secured their financial future to the best of your ability or to the best or really to how you would like it to be left behind to them. Again, some people say, hey, look, I have a portion of money I want to leave behind to them, but I'd rather blow it and enjoy it with them while I'm alive. So it's really about where your goal is aligned or where you would like to leave these monies behind too.

And also, you'd be surprised how many people want to skip generations when it comes to this legacy planning. You know, I'd like to set up my grandkids for college or whatever may be. And to me, that, you know, you can have, I think the bottom line is I think you can have your cake and eat it too as it pertain to this legacy planning and really bring in peace of mind to the potential that you're not only setting up your kids for financial success, but also potentially your legacy beyond your children. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, playing the long game, I guess. That would be a great way to think about it as well. It's not just checking off the boxes. So some of the components of that legacy plan, the will, the trust, do you need a trust, question mark? You definitely need a will. But get with a professional that can help you with that. And let's think about this.

How do you recommend to your clients to back? balance the technical side of planning with like, oh, I need a will, I need a trust, with the emotional and the relational side of this legacy plan. That's a struggle in itself, honestly. I mean, honestly, in my experience with, I would say probably 70 or 80% of the clients that I work with on a day-to-day basis, not only the legacy planning aspect of things, but even just taking a step back from a retirement perspective, shifting from a working individual, to a retiree. I mean, just that step alone for a lot of people is a huge emotional and physical

leap because they're just maybe they're not mentally ready to be done. Financially they are and they've set themselves up properly. But just that leap into retirement can be a big emotional drain. And when we're looking at legacy planning and, you know, estate planning as a whole, it's another one of those leaps where we have to think about a mortality, make decisions on who gets what, how much they get all these different things. And, you know, I think as a human being, you internally think, oh, well, I'm, you know, I'm counting myself dead essentially by going through this stuff. But the reality of the situation is, and I think the goal of estate planning and legacy

planning as a whole is just to make it a lot easier for your family when you pass so that everything is laid out and there's nothing to dispute about or to consider. and I'll tell you, and I'm sure we all have had experience with this. I mean, people will do funny things even for a buck. Imagine what they'll do for $50 or $100,000 or $500,000. So having that set in place, set in stone through the utilization of a trust or a will or whatever it may be, so that there is no question mark. There is no complication.

I think that's almost equally as important. 100%. Yeah. So let's think about something. I think that too many times, you know, if you think, I'm going to word the question this way with an example. I play acoustic guitar and I know that at my skill level, I can make a song sound like this. But if I handed my same guitar to an expert guitar player, it would be like, holy moly, that's amazing. So you think about just the static fill in the blank.

I did this thing versus when you do it from the perspective of love and empathy and your personal values and vision, and how do you make sure that your legacy aligned with your personal values and vision? Well, I can tell you that if you hand in need your guitar, it wouldn't sound nearly as good as you or the expert, first and foremost. But ensuring that your legacy aligns with your personal values, your vision, and really your intentional alignment in terms of making sure that what you say matters and actually is reflected in what you plan, prioritize, and pass on. And really, for a lot of us, it's just focusing on, hey, first and foremost, how much are we going to leave behind?

And then also, I think a big piece of this is the impact on how we position those assets in terms of from a tax perspective or how someone can inherit these various products or instruments or 401Ks, TSPs, investments, real estate, whatever may be. how can we do that in the most tax-efficient manner, that kind of circles back into the tax-planning aspect of things as well. Yeah, yeah, 100%. So let's think about something. This sounds very broad and 30,000-foot view. If someone wants to be remembered, not just for what they built, but for the impact they made, what's some of the first steps that they should make today to start working toward that? Well, I think, I mean, I know for a lot of my clients, at least, it's not always just about passing money on to your kids or your grandkids or your nieces and nephews, whomever it is. There's a lot of individuals out there, and I say a lot, it's a very high percentage that not only want to leave money behind their kids and their grandkids,

but also want to create a strategy, potential to leave money behind the charities or places that have impacted them in their lives, whether it be, you know, maybe a school that they went to or elementary school or whatever it may be. It's not just about leaving money and assets behind the beneficiaries in terms of your bloodline. It's also about potentially making an impact within your community and leaving funds behind to take care of people that took care of you while you were, you know, growing these assets. Yeah, it's not about only the money or whatnot. It's kind of like what I said at the top of our conversation. Look way beyond the horizon of the day you retire or way beyond the,

horizon of will I have enough money to make it through to the end of my days after retirement? And then do I want to leave money to legacy, which could be family, could be charity, could be all of those. And it really actually could be, and this could be a whole other conversation, but a foundation, you know, like a charity slash foundation. Yeah, it's great to contribute money, but do you have enough resources that maybe you want to start your own foundation and have the legacy to have your name involved with that. And that could be another aspect. So it just has.

So this is not something that someone could hear this and go, okay, I'm going to go out to chat GPT and figure out my, nope, you need to have someone that takes you by the hand, sits down with you, asks you some great questions, and helps you build that legacy beyond just wealth. So if someone is hearing this thinking, Eric, show me the way, what's the best way that they can learn a little bit more and also reach out and connect with you.

And obviously we're continually doing these podcasts, and Mike does a great job of hosting these and being a part of these. But in addition to that, you can reach out to me at my email address or online at our nonprofit's email address. Our nonprofit address is IFAonline.org. That's indigo-Frank Alpha online.org. You can see I work with a lot of military individuals as well. But my personal email address is E, my first initial, followed by my last name, S-E-B-O-D-O-D-A-O-D at I-A-O-L-A-O-N-L-A-O-W. And you can contact me directly there.

And we can certainly start a dialogue in order to identify ways to help, you know, create a legacy or position your legacy in the best way, shape, or form. Perfect. Well, Eric, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. You as well. Thank you as always. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders.

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